Missions Blog

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.