Painting in Panama

Our leaders Anne and Layne have given our team a job. Two together have to come up with an outreach idea. This is for the days that nothing has been scheduled, we get to fill in this time with and idea. Example: Sunday we went down town to paint!!!! Painting is awesome, I am better with photography but it gives us a new way to minister. We had a theme verse which was Isaiah 62, and From that verse we prayed and asked God to use us and our painting and what did he want to say thru these paintings. I like to paint and see what flows and that's what I did. I titled my painting the City not Forsaken from Isaiah, which I thought was pretty slick.

Most all of us seemed to put Panama city somewhere in our painting. We had a great time and it was great to see the people walk by and check out what we were doing!! Great job to Lindsay and Stacey who came up with outreach Idea... Today we go and hand out water bottles..stay tuned for more outreach news!!!!!

Speaking

The other day all of us gals from every team, had an opportunity to speak at a woman's prayer meeting at the Church of Christian prayer. I got to speak on human trafficking. It was awesome to have this opportunity and a "open door". I believe with the next four weeks or so left, that God is starting to open doors and opportunities for us. The first month has been a slower one for us, bt now contacts are forming and opportunities are rising. Yay God....his timing is perfect and I am getting excited to see all that God is going to do. It feels like you can sit back and watch but with out sitting back, but going everyday with a new "huh I wonder what today holds"!

Then another door of speaking opened up on Sunday to speak at Genertion No Limits. It was a church that meets in the evenin down town. Its age group is more for the young adults. It is so cool how God brings people together. Some of these friends will be joining us today as we go and hand out water bottles. These friends will help us interpret. Since most of us don't speak spanish that well. I keep telling people, since we have a month left, that we are headed down hill and I think that is true, God seems to be speading things up at least thats what I think!

IgUaNa

There is this big ole Iguana that lives in the drain pipe, right under the sidewalk, in front of the church. You see hime come out to sun himself everyday. He lifts his head up like a very proud and important fellow. One day he even tried to come into the church, but he scares away very easily so its hard to get a real close picture. A few people have tried to name him but nobody can agree on a name. I call him Tony, "why " you might say and the answer is, I don't know why it was the first name that popped into my head! But, hey, it works for now. Technically I just "hey theres the Iguana!!!!

So I walked to the little corner store today with my teammate Charrisa. It started to down pour rain on us and we decided to wait it out under a tree. We waited for a few minutes and then decided to go back to the church to get ourselves better prepared. I borrowed a rain jacket from a friend in the group Jo and then Charrisa and I started again. Come to find out Jo's Jacket is not rain proof and I am really wet under my arm pits...go figure that one:) But thankfully I am sitting by a fan and drying off quite nicley. Thank the Lord for electricity and fans. One thing I thought about taking a shower but now..well.... I feel clean!(that sentence was for my mother)

This last week was a busy one for my team and I. Its hard to stay busy when everyday you don't know what you are going to do, nor do my leaders. They do a good job at being creative in finding ways for us to keep focused on human trafficking and prostitution. My teams goal are to get the word out to Panama and the Panamanian church. This is just the beginning! A man named Chris is our contact here, his heart's cry is for the church to help in these area's of injustice.

That gives you a small idea of what my team of twelve are doing. You can go visit twelvehearts.wordpress.com to check out weekly what my team is up to. My friend Lindsay is a great writer and keeps it updated.

So I got on a bunny trail and now back to my first statement. We had a busy week. My team and I got to go to a village called Cameron. This was a central location amongst the Ngobe Tribe. There was a school there and that is where we stayed for 4 nights and 5 days. We were with a medical team from Connetticut. There also was a dentist and I got to help out and be his assistant. It was fun to be able to help out and to use some skills for the Lord, that I didn't know I would get to use!! We all came back with some chigger bites or flea bites. We all have been itching for a while now. We have some lotion and medicine to help the itch and the spread of these little bugs. It was a good time and to meet the people of the Ngobe tribe was awesome. To see the way each tribe is different. Some of the other teams in my group have visited other tribes and its fun to see how they are all different, but all Panamanian.

Our next adventure in the week was our Una Voz or one voice, arts festival. There were people selling items they had made from carvings, to paintings, from feed to clothes. Also there was drama's, musicians, runnway models, tribal dances and our Leader Susi Childers spoke about her travels. Voice for the Voiceless is Susi and her husband Pauls ministry. This ministry is to tell others about the injustices in the world, like Human trafficking, Aids, Orphans, Prostitution and so on. Susi encouraged and challenged all of us in the room to help and take a stand against these issues. It was a good night and we were all tired and so I write all of this down on a great day. Its my day off!

Big huge Moth in My room

So far its been bats and a moth that have flown into and around our room. Two flying critters that are around the same size. Thats right this moth was huge. I have no clue what it is called but I leave that up to my nephew to find out what the name of this huge moth is............

Gamboa Union Church

The whole lot of us are staying at the Gamboa Union Church in Gamboa Panama. Some other girls and I are staying at another building just down the street a little ways. Right now we have free time and we are checking out where people live on Google Earth. Its kind of fun but makes you a little homesick. Well for now Panama and Gamboa is my home for the next two months!

6.0 Earthquake

So around 1:40am on July 4th we experienced the ripple effect of a 6.0 earthquake about 90miles from us! Most of us woke up to it, it shook the ground fairly good for about 2 seconds or so. Its the first earthquake I have ever felt, so I'll admit it was kind of cool. It did no damage to my knowledge which is great! Some of the people in my team slept right through it, those heavy sleepers!

Well being in Panama has its adventures for sure. The room that I am staying in is a big room and it has two bathrooms and a kitchen. Well in this Kitchen is another room that we have nicknamed the bat cave! You can guess why, we can hear the bats thru the door. Well it took me three days to realize to close all the doors.
The second day we were here we found a dead bat on the floor. We had been leaving the door open for more cooler air to come in and thought maybe they were coming from outside or the bat cave. Well the next night I had a sheet covering me and around 5 ish in the morning I felt a thud in between my legs and I knew instantly that a bat had hit the fan and landed on my sheet. I woke up fast and I thank the Lord for reflexes for I immediately flipped the bat off of my sheet and onto the floor.
The Bat wasn't dead yet and he started to crawl back towards my bed and I could tell his wing was busted so he wasn't going to fly around on me. So I nudged him away from my bed, with my saline solution bottle, he ended up crawling underneath my friends suitcase and their he stayed for the rest of the morning till we went to sweep him up and found him dead later in the morning. We ended up having two more bats the next night. Now every noock and craney is shut so that no more bats injure themselves from the fans and land on anyone of us!!!!

Panama!!!!!!

So my team and I made it to Panama! It is very green and lush here. Lots of loud sounding bugs and birds. Panama is a very diverse country. At least around Panama City. Since we have been here we have had two really big rain storms, one took out three buildings in a near by village. We got to help clean up the palm leaves that were once a roof of a home. It was tough work,dirty and I was on the lookout for bugs that sting like centipedes and scorpians. Yay! We all came away safe and sound.
Also we got to go and check out the famous Panamal canal locks. We also live right across the street from the canal and see all these big boats go by... So at the locks, its kind of funny, to literally watch the boats go by. Its a pretty popular tourist place to be.

Leaving Kona

Well the adventure in Kona has come to an end. It was a great time, full of rock and sandy beaches, Vog and maybe a clear blue day every now and then. Class room learning and ohana (family) gatherings. Once you get used to a place then its time to leave......... But the packing was the journey, for all of my roomies!!! Our room was a wreck!