Josh and I really felt called to go on a Mission Trip this year. We had both never been on one before and we really wanted to be Christ's feet. We wanted to get out of our comfort zone, out of our American bubble, and go somewhere in the world where we could really see God at work. We learned, we grew, and we had more experiences than we imagined.
So on July 8 - 16 we left to go to Panama City, Panama. We are so extremely blessed to have two sets of parents who are incredible grandparents and were willing to help watch our boys. Cathy & Mike had them the first half, and then my mom & dad had them the second half! They needed a lot of prayer while we were gone because two boys under the age of 2 is not an easy task....but they were awesome and wore them out (the boys and them!:)
I made the boys a little chain that had notes from Mommy & Daddy for each day we were gone. Aidan thought it was cool, but I don't think they were really at the age where something like that mattered! Haha
We landed in Panama City late Friday night, got to our hotel (by hotel, it's more like a Super 8 motel in America, but we were EXTREMELY spoiled to have A/C!). Our incredible friends, Steve & Sarah, came on the Mission Trip too....which was so nice! Even though we didn't see them that much because we were all split up each day, it was nice to have some comic relief and encouragement with friends at the end of the day. We are so thankful to have friends like them.
View out of our window. Below was a little shack that housed old, broken down cars. We had our own wake up call every morning to an old man banging dents out of car doors :)
In our room! We got to have our room next to Steve & Sarah's since we were the only married couples on the trip. Our team consisted of 11 people (we had 12, but one of the guys didn't realize that your passport had to be renewed 6 months prior to when it expired, so the airline wouldn't let him board! So NOTE TO SELF everyone - when your passport says it expires, say July....that really means January!)
This is a picture of the front yard/outside area of the main house Josh worked out of everyday. Basically Saturday was our main meeting day where we each got split up into teams of 2. Josh and I were a team (Steve & Sarah were obviously a team), and each team got paired up with a local Pastor. Each Pastor had a different need. So our Pastor, Pastor Martinez, was the main Pastor of a local church in Panama City that was established and growing, but he really wanted to plant a sister church in the outskirts of Panama City. He had 2 home bases in 2 different neighborhoods where Josh and I would split up everyday and go out with our translators to do door-to-door evangelism.
Sunday, July 10, 2011 we went to Pastor Martiez's church.
Josh with Antonio. He was from Venezuela and was part of a program called AWANA. The program helps churches and parents work together to develop spiritually strong children and youth who faithfully follow Jesus Christ. He worked with a different Pastor each day. Our day with him was Thursday.
The front of Pastor Martinez's church: Primera Iglesia Bautista de Panama
Main entrance
The building across the street from the church. All the buildings in Panama are pretty poor and falling apart.
Before church they have Bible study, so I sat in with these nice ladies! I couldn't really understand everything they were saying, and they couldn't really understand me, but it worked out!! They were studying Ephesians. It's so amazing to me that people ALL over the world are studying and learning and memorizing scripture from the same book, but in their own language. God's word is extremely powerful and effective. It was so great to witness and sit in on their study.
I thought this was cool....the ceiling of the church had a cross on it.
It happened to be Children's Day on the Sunday that we were there, so they had a clown and a party in the back of the church for the kids!
Pastor Martinez preaching. Their church was about 3 hours long! At the end they asked Josh and I to go up to the front to explain why we were there and why we traveled from the USA. Then the whole church gathered around us and prayed for us. It was amazing.
On Monday-Thursday we did our door-to-door evangelism. Josh and I rode together in the van for the 30 minute ride to the outskirts, but then we were seperated for the day in different neighborhoods. They did this to reach more people because during those days we were training our translators and different members of the church that came out with us on how to talk to people about Jesus. I LOVED my neighborhood and my translators! They were a married couple, Cristina and Gustavo, and they were missionaries in Africa for 10 years prior to moving back to Panama a few months ago. They actually lived in the neighborhood that we were working in, so that was nice. This was their neighbor, who was the first person to accept Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior on our trip!! It was simply amazing. I cannot explain the pure joy and happiness you feel when talking to someone about Jesus Christ for the first time.
Another family that accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. The older lady on the couch (in the pink), is in bad health and has always worried about if there was a heaven and if she would go there. I showed her numerous scriptures, but in 1 John 5:13 it says, "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life." When I left, she had tears in her eyes and said that she would see me in Heaven one day.
These two little girls accepted Jesus. Their mom was asleep and didn't want to come out, but she didn't care if her girls talked to us, so we shared the story of Jesus to them through the gate. I'm holding what is called the e3 cube. It's the tool e3 Ministries (the organization we went to Panama with), gives us to give a visual to people about the story of Jesus. It's really neat because it folds out and the folds back into a cube when you are finished. It goes through different steps:
1. That because we are human and we sin, we are seperated from God
Romans 3:23 "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
2. That God sent His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for our sins. To take our place, because the wages of sin are death, so that we may have life through Him.
John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."
Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
3.That Jesus was killed and buried, but rose on the 3rd day
1 Corinthians 15: 3-4 "that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures"
Luke 24: 7 "The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again."
4. Now that Jesus has died on the cross and has taken your place for your sins, you can have eternal life by believing in His name. Jesus bridged the gap between sinners and God by taking our place and paying our debt. By believing in His name you can have life on this earth, and eternal life after you die.
John 20:31 "But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name."
Romans 10:17 "faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ."
Ephesians 2:8 "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast."
Basically, "if you confesss with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved." Romans 10: 9-10
We went over this everytime we spoke with people that either had never heard of Jesus, or that knew of Jesus but didn't believe. Between Josh and I, we had over 100 people accept Jesus Christ as their Savior!
A mom and daughter who accepted Christ
Taking a break from walking miles in the 100 degree heat! It is HOT in Panama and the crazy thing is that no one has air conditioning, so when you walk into someone's house, it's almost hotter in there than outside. The craziest part is that this is their W.I.N.T.E.R. Are you kidding me? Yes, it's incredibly hot there. I would die of the heat if I were there during their summer!
Fact: People are insane drivers in Panama. There are no enforced laws, no rules, no lanes (as you can see), barely any stop lights, no one stops at stop signs, and you can basically do what you want...which makes the driving experience very...ummm...unique. It was an answered prayer that we made it alive to the outskirts and back everyday! The pro: our van had AC!! It was a manual (stick), so it was a bumpy ride, but I'll take that any day to be in a cool car. A lot of the teams rode in cars with no AC. The funny part - my translators have traveled to the USA a few times and they laugh because they say Americans can drive while sleeping compared to other countries! Haha :)
Part of the city...
The canal on the Pacific side. This was near the mouth of the ocean, which is why it's so wide. There was always a bunch of boats there waiting for their turn through the canal.
A grandmother, a mother and her daughter all accepted Jesus. The lady in red is my translator Cristina. She was amazing!
Cristina and I telling Bible stories to children in a local daycare.
Praying with them.
This little boy has a fire for Jesus! He knows more than I do! It was awesome!
My friend Ismael. He helped translate one of the days. He was so great!
Josh and his translator Juan Carlos! He really was hilarious.
Our whole group and Cristina and Gustavo's house! This was at the end of the day when we'd all unite and talk about our day.
One of the streets in Josh's neighborhood. We actually worked in some of the nicer neighborhoods in the outskirts. This would be their middle class.
Juan Carlos and another lady helping from the church. Those bins are their trash cans. Because they don't have AC, they put their trash outside so it doesn't smell in their homes.
Haha! This was our last day, Thursday. We all packed into the van (seriously, there were about 20 of us plus balloons and everything for the AWANA program!). The older man doesn't look as happy about the tight space :)
After people would accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior, we would go back to their houses and "follow up" with them. This was basically a work sheet with a whole bunch of questions and scriptures so that we could go through all of the basic questions that you have as a new believer. It is VERY important to follow up with everyone so they can grow in God's word and really understand what it means to live a life for Jesus.
At the end of Thursday we had a party for all the kids in each neighborhood at the playgrounds there. A bunch of kids would come and we would read Bible Stories, talk about Jesus, play games, and then at the end they would talk about the AWANA program and how it was going to be launched at their church. The parents and the kids loved it!
Josh and I are reading a Bible story for the teenagers on the top of the bleachers.
They had wigs to make it more fun, so Josh has a black curly hair wig on and mine is yellow!
Juan Carlos against all the boys in tug-a-war!
Josh giving out Jesus bracelets. Black represents sin, red represents Jesus' blood for our sins, white represents being clean and God looking at us as His children, green represents growth in His word, and yellow represents Heaven.
Playing games! The kids LOVED it!
They were so cute :)
Gustavo talking to everyone about Jesus.
Ryan, one of the members on our team who works with the AWANA program, with some of the boys
Me and Josh with my translators, Cristina & Gustavo
These girls helped me translate some of the time. They were awesome!
Playing soccer
Outside Cristina & Gustavo's house at the end of Thursday. That was our last day with them :( But we accomplished our mission. We helped witness to a bunch of people to come to Christ and we taught our translators and a ton of people that go to the church to go do door-to-door evangelism and follow up with new believers. The neighborhoods are more than ready for a sister church in that area! It was amazing to see God work through everyone and I cannot wait to hear all of the amazing things that are happening there!
The outside patio/front yard of Cristina & Gustavo's house
David! He was the guy that helped coordinate everything. He was so awesome.
Steve & Sarah with David.
David's amazing family! From left to right: Ruthie, his younger sister, his brother's wife, his older brother Moises, his mom Talsy, his dad Moises and then David. His dad is recovering from cancer and is going through chemotherapy. Their faith and devotion to ministry and spreading Jesus's name in the country of Panama is amazing and encouraging. Now that his dad is still a little sick (prayers are needed, but he's doing much better), his brothers and sisters have started to take over and they're doing a great job!
Friday was our free day. We went to the Panama Canal, which was really neat.
We learned that it costs on average $250,000 to come through the canal and there is a year wait so you have to make your payment and reservation a year in advance. It's amazing how tight of a squeeze it is for these boats! It's also amazing how they fill up the water and then let it out. The Pacific is higher than the Atlantic, so they have to adjust the water height through the locks. This boat was coming in from the Pacific and going to the Atlantic, so the water gets filled really high when the boat comes into the locks, then they shut the gates and drain the water level until it is even with the next body of water. I think there are 3 main locks, and few lakes and man made channels the boats go through the reach one ocean to the other (not 100% so no freaking out if that is wrong! :)
Those little train things pull the boat into the lock. Pretty neat.
These barges are huge!
A little tow car
We were at the Miraflores Locks. I think this one is the first lock a boat gets to if they are coming from the Pacific side.
You can see that the lock is drained of water...
And now it's full again for the next boat coming from the Pacific. Again, they do that because the water level is higher on the Pacific. If a boat was coming from the Atlantic, the lock would start off drained (or even with the water level), and then they would fill it up to reach the water level of the Pacific. This is a gradual incline or decline of water levels through the different locks. It's pretty amazing they figured this all out!
The boat leaving the locks and going into one of the lakes, where it will have to pass through 2 more locks.
Me and my hubby on our first and only tourist meal on the "touristy" side of Panama City! This was on Friday night
Our group!! Minus 2 people who stayed at the hotel....they totally missed out :)
It was SO nice to have a nice meal! We couldn't eat or drink much in Panama because the water was contaminated, so anything that could have been washed with the water was off limits. That meant no fruit unless you could peel it (basically we had no fruits), no veggies unless cooked (basically no veggies), no juice unless it came from a manufactured place (bascially no juice)....so we lived off of fried chicken and fritas (fries) all week! Our Pastor would bring us lunch everyday, but that was a total toss up...one day it was fish heads (I ate Fiber One bars), but one day it was spagetti and bread, which was amazing! Overall, it was SO NICE to come back home and drink water, eat fruit and not worry!
Steve & Sarah!
This could be your view if you came to Panama as a tourist....but for us it was a 2 hour view :)
Group dinner. It was nice to relax knowing we did our job, learned a lot and became closer to Christ, and we were leaving the next morning to go home.
Overall our trip was nothing short of amazing. It was not a walk in the park and it was definitely not easy. It was more challenging in areas I least expected and I did have one day where I just broke down, but I can speak for both Josh and I when I say that it was worth every moment there. We grew so much in God's word and in our walk with Jesus Christ. It was amazing to witness a new believer crying because they are so thankful to give their life to Christ after you explain in detail how amazing His love for us really is...there is no earthly high that can bring you that joy in your heart. To let them know that salvation is a GIFT, and that you cannot EARN it no matter how hard you try. To explain that it is by GRACE, through FAITH in JESUS CHRIST that you have been saved and not by works or deeds (summary of Ephesians 2:8-9). To see the brokeness of the world in Panama was heartbreaking, but to see the light of Jesus in so many lives was an experience I am thankful for. This is definitely not our last Mission Trip...we want to do more!! We are excited for the day that we can bring our kids on one so they can experience,
"How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, 'Your God reigns!" Isaiah 52:7
