Perserverance

Well, I'll just say it: the last month has been very difficult in more ways than one. This is not uncommon, all new missionaries go through the test called perserverance. When everything seems like it is falling apart, does your faith and your calling remain unchanged? So it was this month, setback after setback and challenge after challenge almost unrelenting. Yet one thing remained the same: our commitment to see the Kuna take hold of the Message of Hope in a personal and life changing way, while still being, well, Kuna! Someone told us that when things get tough, it is a sign that you are doing the right thing. It makes perfect sense because we are threatening the devil's domain. Why would he want make it easy on us? I know we serve a great God. He is our strength, our provider, and our ever present help! I'm glad He is on our side! We are thankful every day for the things he has done for us, we have a beautiful family and the privilege of serving Him in this beautiful country. Who are we that we should be so blessed to call these beautiful people our family and have a chance to introduce them to their Creator, Savior and Friend! We are honored, humbled, and so incredibly thankful that God has chosen us for this task.

Okay, now for some very exciting stuff!!! As you probably know by now, a medical outreach team is coming to Panama to conduct a health clinic in an indigenous village in July. We are excited to announce that it is officially going to happen from July 9th thru 19th. The original plan was for the medical outreach to be conducted in Suzy's home village of Pintupo, but God has even bigger plans for the outreach. About ten minutes by boat, up the lake from Pintupo, is another Kuna village called Icanti. This village is several times the size of Pintupo and is in a more central location with much better facilities for such a clinic. Also, there is another medical outreach team from Panama City coming at exactly the same time as the outreach from the U.S. to Icanti. By joining forces, we will have more doctors, more nurses, more medicine, and an opportunity for children's programs, plus a much larger population center to reach out to. All just a short ten minute boat ride from Pintupo. Perfect!!!! Just last week, we traveled to Icanti and got the necessary permissions for the clinic and with a few minor details to be worked out a little later, it is almost a done deal. We will be making another trip to Icanti in the next week or so to finalize everything and we will be posting a few pics from the village as well. This is exciting!! By serving a community in such a way, we have a key to open the door for the Gospel. Stay tuned for more details and pics. As always, thanks for visiting our blog, and to all our prayer warriors and supporters, we love you and appreciate all that you do!! Together we are partnering with God to work in the lives of His beloved Kuna. God bless!!

A very busy April!

Hello everyone, it's hard to believe that it is already May and we just had a very productive past month! Shortly after the Indigenous Worship Festival we had an opportunity to go out to Suzy's village of Pintupo for a few days with part of our School of Gospel Contextualization. Our intent was to conduct a worship songwriting workshop, but God had different plans. Instead we were able to talk at length with the chief of the village (who also is the leader of the entire reservation) to gain a better understanding of the spiritual health of the village. It was an eye opening experience as we understood the weight of what was said. There is a great divide between the church and the rest of the community. Leaders want the church for the benefits it brings, mainly in the form of money from foreign missionaries who must pay fees from boat rental, motor rental, village fees, etc. This is also the reason the chief and pastor in the village want to build a bigger and better looking church to attract more foreigners. However, church activities are restricted to the church, apart from the rest of the community. As a result, Christianity is viewed by most people in the community as a foreigner's religion and for that reason, most do not attend church or understand the true meaning of the Gospel. Further complicating the issue is the fact that most people in the community barely understand Spanish, which is the main language used by the foreign missionaries and the Pastor during his services. The higher ranking people of the village (pastor, chiefs, elders) speak and understand Spanish well enough to communicate with foreigners, but many of the laypeople of the community still have some difficulty. The result of all this, as we learned, is a Gospel that really does not have any relevance to the everyday lives of people in the village, and a church that is more interested in attracting foreigners and their own agendas than reaching the community. So "church" remains the "weird" thing that the pastor and his family do in their corner of the village along with the help of foreigners once in a while. In a way, we were glad that the trip turned out the way it did because it served to help us better understand the best way to approach evangelism in Pintupo. The trip was still a lot of fun, however. Not only were our classmates able to meet the family, we also got to dress up Marisol in her colorful molas and let her hang out with her cousins who are now able to run around with her. The entire family was very happy to see us!!


Back at YWAM, we are in the process of relocating to an apartment which will better serve us as a family. The three of us living in a small bedroom was becoming difficult and since we are planning on expanding our family, it will be better to have a space to call our own. The apartment will be finished (it is still under construction) in about three weeks, but in the meantime we are living with the Base Director so our old room back on base can be used for another staff member. We are also happy to announce that we are finally mobile!! We have been blessed with a car, so we no longer have to brave the hot crowded city buses for hours just to run simple errands in the city. God is good!!!!!!!! So what's next? We are planning to visit Pintupo again in the near future to prepare for the medical team coming in July, and we are hoping to have an idea of what we will be doing for our class field assignment which will likely be in Pintupo as well. Be sure to check out the slideshow of the latest pics!! Thanks for visiting and God bless!!!! (Note: if you double click on the small slideshow to the right of this post, it will take you to our Picasa web albums where you can view it full size)

Following the Jesus Way

It's hard to believe, but there are a great many people in the world today who do not know how to read. In fact, many cultures in the world are oral learners; that is, they learn by listening and repeating stories. You would also find that in these cultures, the people express themselves with dances, chants, storytelling, etc. So I suppose going into a village in an oral culture and handing out tracts and singing Hillsong probably wouldn't do much good. But many times, this is what missionaries do. Many go into a village, build a building give someone a guitar and say "here's your church." And the problem with doing this is that many tribes view Christianity as "the white man's religion." Further complicating matters is the fact that tribes in Latin America, like the Kuna, people will go along with just about anything you show them even if they do not understand it just because you are a foreigner, a guest in their land. So what is the solution to this problem which has been repeated for years in missions? We need to become one of them, learn from them, live out the Gospel without forcing it on them, and allowing them to develop methods of worship in the culture that God created them. Every human being on the face of the earth has a unique culture given to them by God, and every one has worth in the sight of God. Lets face it, the world would be a boring place if everyone looked, acted and did everything just like us. God is the God of variety, of diversity, and tribal dances and music that are used to worship Him is just as much a blessing to Him as the music and worship that touches our hearts.

So check out some new pics in the slideshow! We spent a Saturday with YWAM and the current Discipleship Training School putting on an Indigenous Worship Festival, allowing the different tribes in Panama to come together and worship the Lord using their own dances and music. It was the most beautiful thing I have ever had the privelige of witnessing. We had such a positive response, that a decision was made to do the same thing next year and make it even bigger and better than ever. Along with the Indigenous Worship Festival, we have also been spending a lot of time in the classroom learning how to do such things as encouraging a culture to use their own God given talents and expressions to worship. It has been truly amazing! Stay tuned for more updates in the coming weeks!!! Also, be sure to check out the video below!

Back in Panama, back to work!!!!

Well, we made it safely back to Panama and now its time to get back to work. Suzy is going to be a teacher at the Doulos Christian Academy which is a Christian school run by YWAM Panama. She and another teacher will have about twenty Pre-Kindergarten children in their classroom. This is an awesome ministry opportuntiy since teaching the Gospel in schools is perfectly legal and acceptable in Panama! This school starts on the 15th of March and right now part of the school is under construction! We spent our first few days back in Panama gathering supplies for the classrooms and helping with construction. It is expected to be up and running by the 15th. Tomorrow, (the 13th) we will have an open house at the school so the parents and students can meet their teachers and see the classrooms. We are so excited about what God is doing with the school.

Also starting the 15th of March, we will be attending the school of Ethno-Arts (formerly called the school of Gospel Contextualization) which will help us to reach the Kuna and other indigenous people in a way that they can understand and relate to. Suzy teaches at the academy in the mornings and we will attend the Ethno Arts class in the afternoons. All this and plans for a visit to Pintupo (Suzy's village) will keep us pretty busy for a while!

We are so excited to be back home in Panama!! Stay tuned for more updates and photos as classes start at the Academy plus a look at the Ethno-Arts class and how it will enhance our ministry with the Kunas!!

Thank you Oasis Church!!!!

Two words that just don't seem adequate enough to describe how awesome it is to be a part of your family! Thank you!

We had a great time visiting with our Oasis Church family in St Francis AR. We got to hang out with some great folks, and had the honor of speaking on Sunday morning about the great things that God is doing in Panama. It was such a blessing to us to see so many people so eager to reach a nation for Christ!

After a blessed stay with a very special family in Nashville, TN, we are heading back to Michigan. Family, friends, memories: these are the things that we look forward to every time we come home! Thanks to everyone who let us invade their homes, cooked our meals, prayed for us, donated to our ministry, fellowshipped with us, made us feel at home, gave us some awesome "toys" to take with us down to Panama, etc.... You know who you are! We love you all!!!!

One more month to go!!!

Well, with only one more month to go before we go back to Panama, we have been busy visiting with friends and speaking at churches. We are getting closer to reaching our goal of 40 people giving $40 per month to reach our operating budget. We would like to thank everyone who has made a commitment to help us with our vision. Last week we spoke at South Bend First Church of the Nazarene. We really had a great time talking about the awesome things that God has done during the last five months in Panama. We are currently in Arkansas preparing to share with Oasis Church. Here we had an awesome opportunity to say thank you to our church family here by serving at the Valentine's Day Thank You dinner. What a great way to tell everyone just how much we appreciate them. We are having a great time seeing everyone again and are looking forward to sharing our experience in Panama with them on Sunday.

On January 30th I surprised Suzy with tickets to see her favorite singer Jaci Velasquez in concert! It was an absolutely amazing evening and we even got an autograph and picture as well. It was also exciting for me because I even got to meet Nic Gonzales, the lead singer for one of my favorite bands Salvador. (Jaci's husband and guitar player for the evening).

Be sure to keep checking back with us as we will be posting more pics from Oasis Church!!! Thanks for visiting!!

In the States for a visit!!

Hello everyone! We are currently in the States for a visit before returning to Panama in March. It was nice to spend Christmas with the family and absolutely hilarious watching Marisol play in the snow for the first time! We are excited to announce that we will be speaking at South Bend First Church of the Nazarene on February 7th. We will be sharing what God has done in Panama for the past 6 months, and what will be happening when we return in March, including our plans for a ministry operating location in Suzy's village. The following week, we will be traveling to Oasis Church in St. Francis, Arkansas to serve and also to share about Panama! (Oasis Kids, you guys rock!!!) Please be praying for safe travel and for connections to be made as we continue sharing our vision for Panama with everyone! Another thing worthy of mention is the possibility of having a medical mission in Suzy's village this summer. We are not sure when, if ever, was the last time something like this has been done there before. Please be praying for everything to come together so we can give some much needed medical assistance to the folks in Pintupo!

Important!!! We are currently in the process of working with YWAM Tyler, TX to make supporting our ministry easier than ever!! Please check back in the coming weeks to find out how you can be a part of our vision for Panama! May God richly bless you!!