God's blessing in Panama

Greetings to family and to friends. 

We continue to praise God for truly His mercies are new every day.  Things have gone pretty fast this summer, but here are some of the updates from the past two months.

From June 23 to June 30, David had the privilege of working with a great group from Olathe Westside Church from Olathe, KS.  They brought down a set of Jesus Film equipment and funds to help with a new mission in Rio Alejandro, Panama.  This is a very depressed area near Colón (unemployment is over 40%) with a great spiritual need as well.  

                                     Church planter Guillermo helping us with the VBS at the school

God opened one door after another.  We were able to do VBS’s in a local public school where the church planter, Brother Guillermo, teaches.  We also did VBS’s in the community, painted and cleaned the park area, and had 2 presentations with the brand new Jesus Film equipment.   

                                               Cleaning, painting and clowning with the kids

Through the presentations, we saw over 60 people come to Christ, praise God!  Through it all, the Olathe Westside team ministered side by side our Panamanian brothers and sisters and were a very bright light in an area oppressed by much darkness.  

                                           The Olathe Westside Team---Thanks for your hard work!

Following this trip, David arrived in Costa Rica to work with a group of 8 church planters that are working in missional zones of Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. This time was followed by a two different trips in July to Nicaragua to meet with other missional zone planters, do an evangelism workshop at a youth camp and to meet with our district leaders there.

David then headed back to Panama with another great US team from Marysville, WA.  We worked close to the city of David (gotta love that nameJ) in the community of Algarrobos.  The Marysville team also brought a set of Jesus Film equipment for the new missional zone here.   

Church planter Carlos talking to the students with the Marysville team

We again, praise the Lord, received an open door at the local elementary school where we painted, made new concrete ramps for disabled students, and cleaned.  We also did VBS’s, did crafts and received a warm welcome from teachers and students alike.  This may be the warmest reception yet for a school David has worked with as the teachers decided they wanted to provide lunch for the team on Friday and had a community farewell service for the group Saturday evening where the director of the school spoke.  

 

We give God much praise as we saw over 40 people make decisions for Christ after two Jesus Film presentations.   For some cool videos of this trip, you can check out this link to youtube where the Marysville church put together 3 different videos on this trip.
Check it out at:
www.youtube.com/user/MarysvilleNaz (once on youtube, click See All--they did one video on ministry, one on the work project and one on the tourism activities)

The Marysville Church doing a special song on Sunday


 Kids at the school showing their new bracelets from one of our craft times which teach about salvation with colored beads--black for sin, red for Christ's blood, white for purity, green for growth in Christ, and yellow for the gold in the streets of heaven.



Although every trip with a US team has been special, David had an extra special blessing as Joshua was able to accompany him on both of his Panama trips.

Joshua did a great job and actually translated his first sermon (from English to Spanish--this is a lot of pressure:) on this trip.  This was a great blessing as the Marysville team brought 2 pastors so we divided the team so the pastors could preach simultaneously at two new cell groups that started in July.  Joshua and Kayley are both real blessings and great missionaries.  

Much love in our Lord Jesus Christ--el Rey de Reyes (The King of Kings)