Chiriqui, Panama November 12th, 2019
Hey friends and family! Welcome to the beautiful country of Panama. Sorry it’s been so long I have a lot to catch everyone up on!
The last blog I wrote I spoke on the ministry work we were doing in Nicaragua and the trials I was facing during that time. We ended Nicaragua on a very happy note by celebrating our time there with the people we had grown to love so much. It was so sweet being able to get together with everyone and say our “see you laters.”
I had the best time loving on our ministry host’s family and getting to know them. This is Osman, he turned fourteen (catorce) while we were in Nicaragua and got to share some ice cream together. The relationship I formed with Osman and his sister, Anna Sophia, will be something I hold close to my heart forever.
After leaving Nicaragua both teams met up on the bus that would take us to the town that we were doing ministry in and for four days we had mid-debrief. During debrief both teams stayed at a hostel about 10-15 minutes away from our ministry site. Someone from Adventures in Missions flew out to Costa Rica and mentored us through our first month of Nicaragua and for our months ahead. During this time we had mentor groups, team times with our individual teams and as a squad, free time (beach time), and enjoyed some sabbath.
Jaco, Costa Rica – Month 2 – Ocean’s Edge
Our main ministry in Jaco was a beautification project called “Artify Jaco.” During most of the day we would clean, prime, and paint light posts all through town. Jaco is a very touristy town and we would get people from all over the world stop and ask us what we were up to. “Wellllllllll… if you really wanna know, I have this friend named Jesus AND…” You get the point.
We did other small projects like help clean the Spanish speaking church, fold baby clothes for the pregnancy center at the English speaking church, clean our ministry home, and paint over old canvases for the fundraiser Ocean’s Edge will be doing in December.
Costa Rica was a harder than expected month for me. But there is so much beauty in the hard times. I could easily describe my time in Central America with the simple “ABC” example, picture A as a very high point, B as a trench, and C as another high point leaving the trench.
A – during your first month of ministry everything is new and exciting. You get to see where you are living for a month, meet the people you will be getting to work with, and get a taste of the different types of ministry. You aren’t home sick because you just left! Everything is fresh and fun.
B – your second month things start getting a little harder. You may be feeling more home sick or tired than normal and you still have a good bit to go. Maybe you aren’t doing your favorite ministry or feel out of place during that time.
C – your last month, your last ministry home. Only one month until you’re home! You’ve started to actually feel like you know these people you’ve been surrounded with for 2 months and you want to finish out strong. It’s a change in place, ministry, and people. Maybe you are introduced to more ministry options or the country you’re in is just beautiful and you’re trying to soak up every moment before you’re back home.
That’s a pretty simple description of my three months so far. The people I’ve met on this adventure I’m on have all been so amazing. Strangers, ministry hosts, teammates, and leaders. The entire squad and I have all grown so much since training camp and it’s amazing seeing how we’ve all worked together to further the Kingdom.
Side note: in Nicaragua the set up was team 1 on an Island working in an orphanage and team 2 (the team I was assigned to) working in Palacaguina doing construction, teaching English, and loving on kiddos. Then, in Costa Rica, the entire Central America squad was together (teams 1 and 2) and now, in Panama, the mentors leading our group from the Adventures in Mission base back in Georgia split us into two new teams (that we refer to as teams 3 and 4).
Chiriqui, Panama – Month 3 – YWAM base
Pictured above is team 3, the team I will be on for the remainder of the trip. Going from being on an all girls team to being mushed into a coed group has been an adventure itself that I have enjoyed. It was sad saying goodbye to the girls I was on team 2 with but I know God has big plans for both new teams.
We are staying on a YWAM base (Youth With A Mission) and have had so many different ministry opportunities already. YWAM is actually a huge organization with 1,100 ministry locations in over 180 countries and it’s been amazing getting to partner with the one here in Chiriqui.
Our ministry here involves a 30+ minute drive which is a change itself being most of our ministry sites in Nicaragua and Costa Rica were within walking distance. Pictures above are from our first day in which we drove to this little church about 45 minutes away where we were able to teach them about the story of Lazarus, dance, play soccer, and color with them before serving lunch to over 50 kids and a handful of adults.
It was so fun getting to laugh and play with little ones again and I definitely missed the joy of being surrounded by them.
We’ve had other kids ministries too!
We’ve been to an organization that houses and helps with the needs of kids with cancer and we’re going back there tomorrow! They’re the sweetest kids with the biggest smiles and absolutely love sitting and coloring with us.
Above is the sweet moment one of the girls from the Indigenous tribe’s fell asleep on me. We are getting to go back to Soloy (2 hours away up a beautiful mountain) on Tuesday and I am so excited to see everyone again. There were about 100 kids, all wide eyed and excited to see everyone. We did a couple bible skits for them and they sang a couple songs for us in return. It was so sweet being shown around their little town and getting to see the river they bathed, washed clothes, played, were baptized, and grew up in.
This beautiful lady in the middle is Luisa! She lives in the nursing home we get the pleasure of going to every Monday. She is full of spunk, joy, and a whole lotta Jesus. She is the biggest prankster I know and will definitely steal your nose if you let her. I’m so excited to hug her again and although saying goodbye will be hard, I can’t wait to see her in Heaven one day.
Some of our other ministries have included a boys home where I played goalie in a floor length skirt and honestly was more proud of myself than I expected because I haven’t played soccer since the eighth grade and could have done way worse. We’ve gone to a home for babies from three months to a year old and I had the sweetest moment with a little boy who fell asleep laying on me for about thirty minutes.
There’s so much more! SO much love it’s so easy to see Jesus in everything. I see Him in the beautiful mountains driving to ministry, I see Him in the loving hearts of my teammates, I see Him in the laughter of the kids we get to love on, I see Him in the people working with YWAM who are so graciously housing, pouring into, and leading us in more ways than you could imagine. It’s so overwhelming and so beautiful I couldn’t be any more thankful for all that He is teaching me.
It’s crazy to think I’ll be home in thirteen days. I can’t wait to hug each and every one of you reading this (grandma and grandpa you guys should totally surprise me and come see us for Thanksgiving). And if you happen to be too far away to hug, know that I am sending you all the love possible.
That’s it for today! Thank you so much for having grace with me and my lack of blogging. If you happened to get this far in my 1,400+ word blog (whoopsies), I so appreciate all of the support and prayers everyone has been sending my way.
Thank you for believing in me, praying for me, and loving me through this time.
Sincerely,
Stef
