Missions Blog

Today we invited Fede, Lucia and their kids over for lunch and to swim! Because it is SO hot here, most rentals come with a pool. We were able to bless the Alvarez family today, as their kids played in the pool and we cooked them lunch on the grill. Because they live in a small apartment, they do not have the luxury of a grill or pool! We were also able to sit down with them and talk about future teams coming to help them, and what that would look like. It was a very profitable time!

All the kids came back for Day #2, and were excited and full of energy! Fede gave a great talk on "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life"

Because a huge storm came through, we had to change our plans for Flag Football, and move inside. The kids had fun on their different teams, and after some explanations and reminders, were able to understand the rules and have fun!

Lots of team spirit!!

We are happy to report that this year, unlike last year, we had smooth flights and arrived in Spain, with ALL of our luggage. PTL!

After landing on the morning of July 4th, we made our way to our house, dropped our suitcases and quickly went to the grocery store to buy food for the first few days. Even though many Spaniards still like to take the daily afternoon "siesta," there was no time for that. We needed to get ready for our English Conversation Outreach that night. 

Our team would be celebrating American's 250th birthday with a group of Spaniards wanting to improve their English. It was a wonderful time of conversation and fellowship.

All of us were sufficiently tired after the event but even after a day and a half of travel, it was difficult to get sleep. We closed out the day being extremely thankful for all of God's provision and protection during our travel and for the opportunity to come along side our partners and help in their ministry here in Spain.

Sunday morning we headed off to worship with Fede and Lucia and the church here in Cabanillas. You can see from the picture above just how small the church building is. Please be praying that their new building that was purchased two years ago will be fully renovated and ready to be used by Christmas. PTL a contractor has been hired and is supposed to start the work in two days!

Even though the weather here was close to 100 degrees, several of the church families met us at a local park for a picnic. We huddled in the shade and enjoyed getting to know each other using a lot of Spanglish to communicate.

The rest of the day was spent settling in and getting organized for the coming week. 

Thank you all for your prayers!

Family day here in Panama, and we realized this is our last breakfast together with everyone, so we walked down from Casa Grande at 7am to eat, and after an amazing breakfast, we got some instructions for how they needed us to help out for the family day when they started to arrive around 10am. 

There was still some cleanup to do by the pool roof from the night before, so we grabbed a few guys and the work truck, loaded up the last roof panels, scaffolding, and a large ladder, and hauled them over to the workshop. The buses of groups of people were starting to pull into the camp, and the camp started filling up quickly.

We all gathered into the basketball court area, and everyone started to come in and sit on the bleachers and chairs that were set up. Our team got to sit up front to take in the different groups celebrating each time they were announced, and the energy and joy from everyone was amazing. A lot of different church groups from the area were there, and most people had some type of faith-related shirt on. 

Joel from Word of Life presented the gospel message to all the adults, and they also had a puppet show, and the gospel was presented to all the children. Then activities and competitions started happening everywhere throughout the camp, and those went on for several hours, and then it was time for lunch. It was extremely hot out, and after helping carry the large heavy pots of rice from the kitchen area to the office, we got to eat first and had about 30 mins before we started to serve lunch to everyone else. Most of the guys took advantage of that little break and got a good little short nap.

It was now time for lunch, and we formed lines in the office and kitchen area, helping out, serving, and handing out foam containers of rice, chicken or pork, and sweet plantains. It was like our own Chick-fil-A line. There were roughly around 1,300 people who showed up today. 

After lunch, the majority of us went to the pool and helped as lifeguards because there were a ton of people swimming and a lot of help was needed. I don't think that pool could hold much more people; it was packed. We stayed there lifeguarding for about 3 hours, and then they started one last race around the entire camp, and everyone- men, women, kids, and older folks were all running. After the race was over, everyone gathered back in the basketball court area, and they announced the group who won the overall day. Shortly after everyone began to leave and head back to the buses, and right as that was going on it started to downpour. God blessed the day by keeping the weather sunny and hot without rain until the end, and we are thankful for that. 

Clean up began, and we all headed back to Casa Grande. We got changed and sat and relaxed for a little while, chatting together and talking about the day. Around 7pm we headed back down to the office area with our last dinner and meal with everyone from camp for the last time. 

A lot of the Word of Life team stood up, thanked us, spoke about this year's experience, and prayed for us. Several of our team members also stood up to share their experiences and thank everyone from the camp. We ended with lots of hugs and not goodbyes, but until next time. We headed back up the Casa Grande and off to bed. Thank the Lord for a very successful and amazing day to be apart of. 

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!