Missions Blog

Good morning from Panama Word of Life camp. How blessed we are to be alive and to be able to serve the Lord. With many prayers lastnight to finish strong, we needed to work hard for everything to get done today before the family picnic day. Over 1300 are registered for family day tomorrow. Today had some very special moments including the best part of the trip so far, but first we started off with a great breakfast at 7am and Jim shared his testimony about his life. We where all hands on deck after, with help from everyone at the camp. The roof needed to be finished,  the water fountain installed and the AC unit installed and running. Along with painting.

It's another extremely hot day out here and all the work and heat is starting to wear us down, but God is giving us the strength to keep going. We stopped for lunch and  Keith gave his testimony which was a reminder to the younger guys the importance of a faithful Christ centered dad to anyone with kids. Then right back to working for the final push. 

The fountain and AC unit are done and working and the roof is almost finished and as the evening is closing the best part of this entire trip is about to happen. The night before, Mike who was giving his testimony talked about being baptized after he realized what it meant and then another guy from our group, John Laboon, asked Mike about what it meant to him. Then after that, John challenged everyone from our group who had never been baptized yet to take that first act of obedience of what Christ commanded all to do once you have confessed Him as your Lord and Savior. It shows you have truly  surrendered your life to Jesus as Lord and Savior and a profession of your faith. You are proclaiming Him as master of your life to all the world, wanting to be obedient out of love and gratitude for His finished work on the cross. It stirred 5 guys from our teams hearts to take that act of obedience, truly wanting to live a life surrendered to Christ. Brothers Ryan and Adam, Luke, Brendan, and Stephen. So before dinner John and the rest of our team, along with everyone from Word of Life went to the pool and we got to witness all 5 of those men get baptized by John in the pool with Daniel helping and as they came out of the water the first thing they all seen was the cross on the mountain behind camp which Stephen suggested. It was truly a special moment and hugs and joy and tears followed shortly after in celebrating Christ as King. 

Left to Right ( Ryan, Luke, John, Daniel, Stephen, Adam, and Brendan) 

We then went to Dinner and headed back to Casa Grande and Stephen shared his powerful testimony  about forgiveness and we all joined in prayer in a circle after. Jon Fowler then talked about family day tomorrow and we all shared in prayer in smaller groups after for the gospel message to be received tomorrow by all who are still unbelievers and for hearts to be prepared to hear about God's love for us and His amazing gift of grace for our salvation. A few guys went back in the dark to finish the last few panels on the roof while others made bracelets for kids tomorrow to hand out. What an amazing day to be a Christian and serve our Lord. Please pray for family day tomorrow and for God's will to be done. Time for bed, ready for an exciting day tomorrow! Thank you Jesus for today! Great experiences are happening here in Panama!

It's Day 5 here in Panama, we are so thankful for God's provision here at camp and providing all of us with the strength and energy needed to serve Him. As we take in His beauty we have a reminder every morning that He is above all with a cross at the top of Mt. Chame right behind camp. 

After a great breakfast back to the biggest project of this trip. Installing an entire new roof over the pool before the family day arrives 2 days from now. Please pray we will be finished before that day comes. Over 1,100 people are expected and the gospel will be preached to everyone along with the kids.

After a very productive morning we headed to lunch and Daniel shared his powerful testimony and we all prayed over him after. We all got right back at it and there are many moving parts to get done the projects that remain. Some are cutting the roof sheets, some are grinding and painting all the beams, some are cutting rebar and grinding the ends for welding braces, some are handing up the beams to guys on ladders while the other couple guys are welding. There is alot that is going on with many moving pieces but there is a good flow and we are all in a groove and moving along well. 

With the evening drawing to a end and a few last welds for the day, a few guys who finished up with what they was working on jumped into the pool because we talked about it everyday with how hot i was but never got a chance to and finally was able to, which caused a group chain reaction and almost all of us jumped in after changing out of work clothes. It was so refreshing and worth the wait. We then had an amazing dinner and walked back to the Casa Grande and like every night this trip we gathered for worship with those from the Word of Life camp and then 3 Power testimonies finished out the night by Mike, Yindi, and Russell. Tomorrow is our last day to get everything finished,  prayers for God to make it all possible and to have everything ready for family day. Praise God in all He is doing here at camp.

Day 4 here in Panama feeling blessed to have breath in our lungs. The sun was out early and bright this morning. We started out the day going to breakfast and one of the guys on our team, Ernie, was a cook in the navy and wanted to do breakfast for everyone and he got to use the kitchen and make some amazing sausage and gravy over biscuits. 

We then all went to the different projects and split into groups working on different stuff. Some guys where hauling all the old roof stuff away and bringing back new roofing stuff. A few of us where welding braces on the roof beams. A group of other guys where digging holes and cementing in benches and tables. One other group was working on ceiling in the small gym area and installing a AC unit. And some guys where grinding stuff for painting along with another guy cutting away a layer of cement that needed to be lowered for the new roof to fit properly. 

We hit a little setback today though around 9am with a power outage and had to stop doing stuff that involved power tools because the generator we had was not powerful enough to handle them all. So guys gathered together and worked on the projects that didn't need power tools. We went to lunch early and after a great lunch, we heard testimonies from the brothers on the team, Ryan and Adam, and prayed over them both after. God provided for us in a great way, because the power came back on around 3pm and we was able to finish the evening strong getting most of the welds done on 2 sections and the cementing of the benches and tables got finished. 

Everyone was pretty exhausted today after finishing working on the hottest day here yet, with a realfeel temperature of 102° and after another great meal for dinner we all headed back to Casa Grande and worshiped with everyone singing 3 songs. Then Brendan and Vince shared their testimonials which was translated in Spanish for those from the Word of Life camp and then everyone gathered in a circle around them individually after their testimony to lay hands on them and pray over them as well. This has been truly a special time each night we all get to be apart of, all for telling what our Lord and Savior has done to transform our lives!

On our third day in Panama (second full day), we had another delicious breakfast from our gracious brothers and sisters, In Christ, that included eggs, toast, sausage, pear, and pineapple. Once done we were eager to get started.

Before lunch our team including help from our Panamanians were able to remove all the roof panels and structure. This included beginning on grinding the main support beams and start a primer coat of paint. Some of the old electric wiring was taken down as well.

It was a busy morning and time for a break from the heat we headed to lunch. There was some fun interactions with the kids after eating.

We headed back to work and started to weld some new perlons in place. The weather was beautiful but also started to get sunny and really hot. After several hours of work we were blessed to be treated by our Panamanian friends to sit under a tree in the shade and have coconut water straight from the coconut. Which was quite amazing.

After break we continued work. One group started preparing an area for concrete work. This will be done to make existing tables and chairs safe to use. By the end of todays work the team finished installing two large sections of roof support structure.

We finished up the work day and headed to dinner, it was amazing. Rice with beans, meat, and everyones new favorite yuka fries. After dinner we ended the night with worship led by Daniel and Testimonies from a few of the full time Word Of Life Missionaries, Roberto and Juan and their wives. Roberto Reyes is being called to discipleship in the provinces of Herrera and Los Santos. Juan Perez is being called to discipleship by establishing a connection point in Veraguas. They are asking for prayers and support. Their mission can be found on the Word of Life - Panama. Thankful to God for another blessed work day with many memories made.

On our second day in Panama (first full day), we had a delicious breakfast with blueberry pancakes, eggs, and pineapple. We got to hear from Ernie about his testimony and about how Jesus transformed his life.

We then went to a church called Coronado Bible Church. We heard a message on Romans 6 about sin and how anything that we do that is against God’s will or his design for us is sin. But sanctification is the process of replacing the lies of the world with the truth of His Word. We are sanctified by the word of God. Sanctification is preparing us to be used by God. The message reminds us that no matter how deep sin goes, grace goes deeper.

After a great lunch, we got to work. Our main task this week will be replacing the roof by the pool so that new solar panels can be placed on it. Today, we focused on starting to take down the roof. We made a lot of progress in just a few hours.

After a delicious dinner, we ended the night with a devotion led by John, worship led by Daniel, and we celebrated the birthday of one of our new Panamanian friends, Juan with some cake! Then it was time to get some sleep for another day of work tomorrow.