The final post of Panama... but other blogs still to come.

So its already Friday. Boy does time fly. I can't believe its been almost a week since I've been home from Panama. Let me fill you in on what's happened. Last Saturday in Panama was a day for free time and adventure. We had plans to go on a hike up a mountain through the jungle, but through a series of things that happened, our plans got changed around a bit. No biggie though! I was just thankful to do anything in Panama. First we went to the ruins. Its a city that Captain Morgan tore down 500 years ago. The buildings that remain are what they called "The ruins." We happened to visit on the 500th anniversary. 500 years! Isn't that crazy? Out of all the days we could have been there, we were there celebrating 500 years with Panama. Unfortunately all of their celebrations were canceled due to a tragic bus accident the night before that killed 24 people. It was interesting to see the great love that Panama has for its people. I mean a 500th anniversary celebration was entirely cancelled. The flag was at half mass. And people were in mourning. What a country. Although we were very sad about the tragedy, we were happy to find that the celebration was canceled because it would have been way too crowded to go. Instead, we went, no one was there, and we got in free because of the anniversary. This place was beautiful. Then Raul took us to some place that I never got the name of. It is all of my student's favorite place to be. Its the most beautiful place to take a walk. Many proposals happen at this place. Its right on the ocean and it was so awesome to see. After leaving there, we went back home to rest up for a bit before our dinner reservations at 8. We got to go to a dinner show! There was Panamanian dancing and music. It was so much fun! A perfect way to end the trip. I got home around midnight and thankfully was already packed. I was so tired, but really didn't want to go to bed. I wanted to soak in every last moment of Panama. I thought, "Oh I can just sleep on the plane tomorrow so its ok if I stay up." But I had no idea what God had in store for me the next day. We got to the airport around 5am and made it through all the normal airport procedures. We're on the plane, in the air, and on our way to Miami. I'm sleeping like a rock when the pilot comes on over the loud speaker and says, "We're turning around and heading back to Panama. We'll start our decent in 15 minutes." I laughed to myself thinking it was a joke and headed back to bed. He came on shortly after with a more serious tone telling us to pull our seatbacks up and make sure that we were buckled. I turned to the girl next to me, that looked and talked no different than my cousin Jenny, and I asked her, "Is this a joke?" She said, "No, don't you smell that?" I took a deep breath in and whoa! I smelt smoke... like something was burning. I couldn't believe that this was happening. You hear of stuff like this happening every once in a while, but you never think that it will actually happen to you. Well this was real. We landed and had firetrucks surrounding our plane when we landed. Pilot said that this was just procedure. We sat on the plane for awhile wondering what we needed to do next when they finally let us off the plane and onto buses that would take us back to the terminal. Here we wanted for 9 more hours for the crew to fix the plane. It was too expensive to fly a plane out to the Panama airport, so we had to wait until this plane was fixed. It was a miracle that we got on by 5. If any later, we would not have been able to fly, because the crew could not work overtime. Unfortunately everyone had missed their connecting flight, so everything was chaos. We made it to Miami around 10pm and ended up having to stay overnight in a hotel there. Culture shock. This hotel had walls that changed colors. It had vaulted ceilings and beautiful architecture. I did not know how to react. It was hard to stay there, knowing that people were living in poverty all across Panama that night. I still don't think I've coped with how to live life here in the states again. Its awfully hard to explain, but I haven't quite figured out where that line of unselfish living is. From not having any toilet paper to being a 5-star hotel. Terry and I finally made it home on Monday afternoon. Even though the both of us were hungry, we didn't care to stop for food. We just wanted to get home. Looking back at my experience in the airport, I wouldn't trade it for anything. Panama taught me how to see every moment as a God-given opportunity rather than a detriment to my schedule. I surprised myself with the way I reacted in the airport. I never cried, never got frustrated or impatient, never got worried or upset. Why? Because I knew that my God was in control and had a plan in mind. Terry and I were able to be a light that day in the airport. Having conversations with people. Sharing about our experiences in Panama. We even gave a little girl one of our Luke books to help her with her English. She was beyond excited. Even better, her parents would have to help her read it, meaning that in some way, they would get a taste of the Bible. I remember a lady standing behind me in line as we waited to get a new connecting flight. She was panicking. She was very unhappy and could not understand how the airport people could do this to us. I began a conversation with her and somehow, by the grace of God, I assured her that everything was going to be ok. I reminded her that this is not the airport's fault. They did not know that the plane would malfunction. They were doing the best they possibly could. Everything that came out of my mouth that day was gentle words. Everytime I wanted to feel upset, a Bible verse popped in my head. That same one that I used for morning devotionals. Philippians 4... For I have learned to be content with whatever circumstance I am in. Let me tell you, that its easier to give a Bible verse in a morning devotional than to actually live it out in your life. But when you do find the strength to live it out in your life, you truly are blessed. That time in the airport was filled with opportunity from God. And I thank him everyday for his hand in my life. I thank him for watching over me. His rod and staff comfort me. Yes... even his rod.

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Just a notice

There will be one final blog from Panama coming hopefully tomorrow. I fly home today. Its now 4:30am Panama time. We got in late last night so I didn't have time to blog. I guess that gives me something to do on the flight! Things are great. My homecoming is bittersweet for me :) It is hard to leave Panama, but I will be back someday to finish the Lord's work. I'm SO excited to see my family!!!!!! After this Panama blog, I haven't decided if I'm going to continue blogging. I will most likely be like Lindsay who blogs every so often with fun updates for the everyone. So keep posted because there may be more after my Panama shenanigans! Buenas dias from Panama.

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Day thirteen... hold on for this one...

With each blog, I feel that my thoughts and emotions have been censored to an audience, such as you who read this. My first blog I wrote as a journal, uncensored with my total thought and feelings poured out on the page without thought. And I just decided to put it online for people to follow my heart. But then I got used to blogging for an audience rather than only for myself. This blog entry will be a pure journal of my thoughts and emotions. As I write this journal, I will write as if no one will read. I will write without thinking. I will put my heart on this paper as much as I can because many emotions need to be let out.

I never thought that coming to Panama would affect me so much. I did not know that it would greatly change my view on life and how to live it. I thought I would come to Panama to say a few words about God... but I has turned that God has been the one to say many words to me. As I sit here in tears, I can’t seem to piece together all that has gone on in my heart today and in the days past. I didn’t expect to be a changed woman of God when I returned. But I can truly say now that I was wrong. God has shown me new breath. God has taught me many lessons that needed to be taught. He has made me confident in my faith and characteristics. He has taught me to confront and talk about things going on in my heart (such as these feelings of both joy and sorrow) rather than keeping them inside thinking I can deal with things on my own. I will miss the loud music, talking, and honking that goes o outside my window in the wee hours of the night. I will miss how the people of Panama let God’s spirit move freely. I will miss the peace and patience that comes along with Panama... of how you can be sitting in stopped traffic for hours, and rather than seeing it as a detriment to your schedule as we would in the US, here it is an opportunity. It was an opportunity to invest in young precious Inka. Today I celebrate God’s great work. Today I reflect on the power of God and the hold that He now has on me. I love who Panama makes me. I love who I am here. Here I am completely and utterly selfless. Here I slow down to let God move. Here I am willing. Here I am a sacrifice.

Today Sarah woke me up at 5 to say another goodbye. She has always been my alarm because I don’t have one, so I had to come up with a way to wake myself up. I could set an alarm on my computer, but my computer falls asleep and the alarm fails to do its job. I woke up on time. I put on my authentic Panamanian shirt and made lunches for the crew. God even works in our lunch meat and cheese. Today was the last day we needed to make sandwiches and today we used up the last pieces of the meat and cheese perfectly. I can’t explain the feeling of losing a team member that you have spent everyday with for the past 2 weeks. It’s... difficult. It’s different. It’s a lonely feeling at first, for example knowing that when I cry, Sarah’s hand won’t be there to grab mine in comfort. She won’t be there to talk to when I have just said goodbye to students. While at once we had a team of 4, now only stands Terry and I. So how do I explain Terry...? Terry is my dad of this trip. If pauses in words could be shown on paper by holding down the space bar, there may have been several blank pages of reflection and tears. Terry was specifically placed by God to be partnered here with me in the last couple of days. His personality and his character could not have been a better fir for my comfort as I go through these last beautiful days here. Today, Libby came to the school with us in place of Sarah. It was her first time teaching the students, so she was nervous at first, which is nothing out of the ordinary. But God was at work to make her feel more comfortable because I had a 10am student, but she did not. This meant that she was able to sit in on my lesson and get a feel for what it was going to be like. I’m sure it didn’t take away all of the anxiety, but I know that it helped a little. Libby did an amazing job for the work of the Lord today. At 4, the rest of the team showed up (Mike and the Richardson’s) so that Lynne could talk with some of the teachers. Long story very short, Mike laid a job offer on me to take a year off from school this year and teach kindergarten/first grade here. Meaning I would come back in 2 weeks with my bags packed for a year long stay here in Panama as an elementary teacher. I looked at Terry thinking, what is going on. I thought for sure that someone was going to walk into the room with a video camera. I said I cannot make this decision right now. It surprised me that I didn’t say no right away. There are many things that go along with this. I would be paid monthly and staying for free at Delores’. I would be here for Delores in her time of grieving from losing her husband. The timing seems perfect. I would get to be a part of a vision for this school. A time of growth that I may not be able to experience if I were to come back after I graduate. I would also be apart of Iglesia de Cristo church planting progress. How amazing to be a part of planting a church at 20 years old. Yet at the same time, I have tuition paid for this coming year at college. I’ve expected and have planned to attend next year since day one of attending that school. My ultimate dream is to graduate and then travel, so why is this opportunity so picking at my skin. I have my Jr. High girls’ small group to invest in back in Washington. I became overwhelmed with thoughts. I hopped in the car with Terry to head home and simply said, “How does a 19 year old make a decision like this?” We talked about it the entire way home. And this is why I said earlier that I could not even speak when trying to explain Terry’s comfort to me. His tone of voice and the things he said helped me to sort out my emotions. He gave realistic scenarios and viewpoints from a parent. He gave me words of wisdom of how to go about deciding with God. I got back to the house with different feelings from the morning. This morning I was extremely excited about the party that we had tonight. I was looking forward to it because of the amazing time we had at last Friday’s party. But now, I seemed to have forgotten about the party and feelings of confusion and worry came over me. I said I need to see this school. I need to meet Edwin (the man who started the school and offered the job). So Mike ran me to the school quickly to catch Edwin while he was still there. On the way I made myself talk out my feelings. God uses scenarios such as these to build me. To show me that I need to confront my feelings and not just push them under a rug. God has strengthened me and I talked it out. We got to the school and I saw Edwin. I saw the school. I met the children and my heart was hanging on. My heart was excited. But still everything in me was confused. The timing of situations is so perfect here as I explained earlier, so then why do I still feel convicted to stay at school? To go with the original plan. I love Panama; I would love to stay here. Am I still confused? Sure I am. Have I talked to my parents yet? No because I haven’t had time to call. (So... sorry mom and dad if you’re freaking out right now.) I toyed with the idea of staying, where as most people would have said no way. Maybe I’m still toying with it, but the more I think and pray about it... the more I talk to God... the more he leads me back to school in Washington to wait for a different time for me to travel. Tonight has been emotional. Today has been emotional. At 19, I’m experiencing more than I ever thought I would. I put my emotions and thoughts on the backburner so that I could fully enjoy the party. And that is exactly what I did. We had a blast!! Pictionary, nachos, and ice cream with brownie batter poured on top. The company was needed. My time tonight at the party was a true incredible blessing. As everyone left, Terry gave me a tap on the shoulder and said, “Don’t stay up all night thinking.” When he said that, I remembered... my eyes started to tear up, but I had to hold it together as I was saying by to these amazing people (Christian, Christopher, and their family). Who knows when I will see them again. I pray that God brings me back here.

And for those who are still listening... do not worry about me feeling sad. For most of my tears are of joy from God’s amazing work. Tonight some may say that I am alone, but I am not because God is here with me and I would have it no other way. I am filled with so much joy and gratitude for this experience here in Panama. The Lord is worthy to be praised.

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Mas fotos!

The first picture is of the group of us that were over at Christian and Christopher's house! What an amazing time of fellowship that was. The next picture is of one of my students Kimberly Quintero... I'm really going to miss her. The next is just a picture of what one of their classrooms looks like. And the rest of the pictures were from an adventure we made to the gym on campus. They had a very competitive game going on. It was a cross between soccer and basketball. It was so fun to watch! We got pictures with the students that were all dressed up. This was a big deal... everyone was so into it! It was so fun to get to experience this in the gym!

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Day twelve in Panama

Today was a very emotional day. It was our first day doing a morning devotional with all 8 people. They wanted to hear stories. So Terry started telling the story of the 3 boys and Inka all in the van singing and clapping to songs. He was telling of how we were able to invest in the children’s lives while sitting in extreme traffic where most of us normally would have been frustrated if we were in the U.S. Terry didn’t get very far in the story before he started to cry. He looked over at us, cuing us to finish the story, but I looked over at Sarah and she too was crying. So I began to tell the story… it wasn’t long before it hit me too. I’m going to miss Panama. I’m going to miss the people and their ways of life. I didn’t realize that by coming to bless people, I would be blessed just as much in return. As we closed up our morning devotional, Terry, Sarah, and I hopped in the car to head to the school for Sarah’s last day. I tried not to think about the many things that I would miss here in Panama. But it was inevitable. As I looked out the window and saw the colorful houses sitting in and on the hilltops, my eyes began to water and my lips began to quiver. Sarah grabbed my hand to comfort me. Terry looked in the rear view mirror to catch our eyes and said I want to give you a piece of advice. “This feeling you are feeling right now, will only be worse when you get home.” This was his 3rd time in Panama and he says that everytime he leaves… everytime anyone leaves this place… its hard for them not to want to pick up their things and move here. He told us that when we feel these emotions that we were feeling in the car, to not keep them inside. He said you need to let them out. Find someone to talk to, just don’t let it build up. Today was a hard day. Today was the second day I had to say goodbyes. Yesterday, I had to say goodbye to my Mon/Wed students. Today, I had to say goodbye to my Tues/Thurs students. Joy wrote me a poem in Spanish and gave me the translation. It was a beautiful poem wishing that God’s blessing will be on me and thanking me for the time I invested in him. Joy prayed for me in Spanish before we dismissed our class. We took lots of pictures and he insisted that if I come back, I must meet up with him to say hello again. I had to say goodbye to Kimberly. She said in the middle of the lesson, “I’m really going to miss you.” I responded with the same and she said, “Really… I’m going to miss you.” When we ended the class she said, “We should make this quick so that I don’t cry.” We gave a long hug, both our eyes all watery, and she waved her final goodbye. 2 weeks of classes… just 2 weeks is all it takes to create a deep friendship. The Lord is good. Joshua couldn’t come today… maybe because of the bus system problems. I was sad to not get to say goodbye, but I know that God will reunite us again. I have his correo electronico (his email), so we will keep in contact that way. Each blog gets harder and harder to write. Each blog is filled with more and more emotion. Goodbyes are just too hard. When we left the school, we headed to Alberto and Manuel’s school to pick them up and take them home again because the bus system, like I said, is still having issues. We finally made it home holding back emotion still. We decided to relax for awhile to just reflect and enjoy Panama’s beauty. It was a peaceful time to praise God for all his miraculous works. When time came for dinner, Sarah, Terry, and I went out and grabbed a pizza for dinner. It was sooo yummy! We all talked and greatly enjoyed each others company around the dinner table. Then Christopher came for his lesson… another great lesson. We spent a lot of time reflecting on all we had talked about and learned. Christopher has come a long way and he realizes that whether he admits to it or not. Christian could not come because he was doing work for his church, but we planned to go over to their house anyway, so we were able to see him there when he got home. He said that he REALLY wanted to come, but had an obligation. He was so sad. Maritza and Angel, their parents made us delicious Panamanian food. Oh my word… this food was absolutely incredible. We had tamales, which are different here than in Mexico or the US. We had some corn cooked bread thing with sausage slices. We had fish with lemon and other Panamanian things mixed in on a Panamanian cracker. These foods were delicious. There was pan (bread) and it was such an amazing experience. My stomach was more than satisfied. This family is like family to me. We stayed around and laughed and laughed and laughed. The boys are my brothers. We pick on them, but also share in their joy. Tonight was a night that I hope not to forget. If I come back to Panama, they can count on me being back to their house to visit for awhile. They spent quite some time showing us Polleras, the Panamanian dresses that are hand made. It takes a full year to make one dress if many are working on it and they cost $4,000. The dresses take 4 hours to put on, when you add the head piece and all the jewelry and everything. She said that many Panamanian women have these dresses. They wear them to carnivals, dances, and on days like Independence Day. These dresses were beautiful. It was so neat to see and hear all about Panamanian tradition. We just got back to Delores’ and it is late. Sarah leaves the house at 5am to catch her flight. Pray for her, that she may have safe, quick, and comfortable travels. Here is another goodbye… this one will be hard. I will miss Sarah very much. We laughed together, cried together, prayed together, and shared deep thoughts with each other. One cannot do this work alone. It is a team that works together to make each other strong, with God as the leader. And Sarah was a part of this team, so it will be hard to see her go. I do not have much more strength to write anymore about today’s day in Panama, so I will end with this… All glory, honor, and praise be to the Lord our God who gives us strength. Buenas noches mi familia de Dios. (Goodnight my family of the Lord.)

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Mas Fotos!

The first picture is of Abraham. The second is the gym of the school we work at. It is huge! And the floor is made of concrete. I can't imagine playing on a concrete floor for sports. Ouch! The rest of the pictures are from Castle Kids School. The school that I talk about in my blog. And also in these pictues are the bright shining kids that have been brought into my life!

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Day eleven in Panama... I can't believe it!

Each day I spend here in Panama makes it harder to leave. Everyday I am falling more and more in love with the people that God has brought me to. My team and I especially have gotten extremely close. We laugh together, cry together, sing together, pray together, share our thoughts and feels together, and praise God together. We are a family. And the people I have been teaching in Panama are now like family to me. Each day I get more and more sad to leave the people here. There are many lessons to be learned from them. Last night when the Richardson’s and Mike arrived, we sat on the couch talking, catching up, and laughing together. We shared some of our experiences and worked out plans for the week. It is more chaotic when there are 8 people rather than 4. Terry, Sarah, and I just got into our routine, but we have to remember to be flexible now that newcomers have arrived. Last night when they left, Sarah and I said… “Ok we’re going straight to bed tonight since we stayed up so late last night.” Ya, that didn’t happen. Sarah was trying to put together a word for the devo tomorrow and it just wasn’t coming to her. So we put our heads together. She talked out what she wanted to say and eventually found the perfect verse. Her thoughts were very refreshing. The verse she focused her message on was Psalm 92:4 “I sing for joy at the work of you hands.” It was a great reminder. Because all throughout the week, we have seen God do miraculous things in the hearts of these people, but we need to remember to take the time to praise Him for it. She said, we forget sometimes to just sit and praise Him. Well when she found the verse last night, I said, “Hey that’s in a song… Shout to the Lord!” So we started singing it and Sarah began to tell me that her husband says she could have a beautiful voice if she learned to sing the correct way. I saw that too. She just needed a little training. We stayed up until 2 in the morning again. But this time we were singing all night long. I gave Sarah a private voice lesson and we were having the time of our lives singing worship songs to the Lord as she learned. We were almost brought to tears a few times from laughing so hard at things that we said or things that happened when we sang. You know, when it gets late, you start to do silly things. We were singing while plugging our noses and all sorts of funny things. Sarah and I really clicked last night. We finally made it to bed, and once again that alarm came quick and early. We pulled ourselves out of bed, had a bowl of Zucaritas and spent a morning in awe of the Lord. This was the perfect way to start off the day. Then we headed to the school. We walked on campus remembering that today was jeans day again, instead of uniforms! The students always get so excited when this day comes. We also saw the voting tables out when we walked in. Meaning that their dance team was going to perform again on TV. Last week was the semifinals and since they won, they move on to the finals which shows tonight at 9 on channel 2 again. We made it to our room, but it was all locked up and all the lights were off. Terry finally used sign language to get someone to come open the door for us with their key. But oddly, no students showed up for the first hour, other than one of my students (Abraham) that showed up 2 hours early. We all heard the school’s band playing, so we adventured around the school to find them, but by the time we got there, the practice was over. Sarah and I were surprised that her student Gabriela and my 2 students Rachelle and Ana didn’t show. Out of all our students, they would be the ones to show up, no question. They are always there and always excited. They would never miss a class. Something may have happened… we’re not sure. All we knew was that we were sad that we could not see them one last time. Maybe tomorrow they will come in to say adios. Since no one showed, we all really got to know Abraham! He was my student that knew little to no English, and starts to speak Spanish as if we are fluent. I kept up with him pretty well and we were all learning quite a bit about our second language. It was a blast!! Abraham decided to come back on Friday, even though he was not scheduled for a lesson because he had so much fun learning today. Since we will have Lynne and possibly Libby working with us at the school, I’m sure we will have an open spot for Abraham to slip in. Now for our adventure. Alberto and Manuel’s uncle had to get up at 3 this morning because their school bus was not working again and they needed to get to school. So his dad road with them 3 hours on the city bus to take them to school. He was going to have to do the same thing to pick them up after school, but we said, we’re not doing anything after 2 o clock, its not a problem if we pick him up! He thought that was such an amazing blessing. Terry found the school first try. Phew… its so easy to get lost in Panama. So easy. This is the school that Raul and Betty started up and they have been talking to me about coming back to teach here in the future. I’ve always wanted to try for a period of time teaching overseas. This could be my opportunity. So when we got to the school, my heart melted. Thinking that someday, I could work in this school. Whether God leads me to work there for 2 weeks or 2 months or 2 years, I don’t know. But seeing this beautiful place filled with God’s children. I took tons of pictures and oh wow. This school was incredible to me. God built and designed me to be a teacher. Everytime I step into a school, its like I get a little taste of Heaven’s joy. I can only thank God for the passion he stirred up inside of me to teach and mold young minds. On our way out, Alberto and Manuel asked if we could take there sister home. She goes to the school, but lives at a different house than her brothers. We said, “Of course, as long as you can direct us.” Alberto did a fine job of directing us, but with traffic, we were on the road for 2 whole hours. We put the car in park several times. We thought we would never make it back for our night sessions and in time to eat our Panamanian cocunut rice specialty from Delores. This was the second day in a row that I gave up my lunch. Yesterday, I gave my lunch to Joshua. He had a test and was so tired from getting no sleep. He had no energy to take his test. So I offered up my lunch to him. Today also, I gave up my lunch. The kids were so hungry in the car and they were more important to me than my own satisfaction. Even though the car ride was long, let me tell you, we had the most amazing time on that car ride. Me, Sarah, Inka (7 years old), Alberto (13 years old), and Manuel (10 years old). We were teaching the little girl English. Oooo Ooo! She is a fireball! Oh yes she is. This loved to be in front of the camera. I pulled out my camera to take a picture and she was working it! What a doll. We were singing songs and playing hand-clap games. Reminded me of elementary school. I’ve fallen in love with this little girl Inka. It is children like her that give me the passion to teach. She inspires me. She is so full of life. Sometimes our excitement for life and our excitement for Jesus needs to be more like hers. When we reached her house… it was something that I’d never seen before. We dropped her off in the dumps. She walked down an alley way to get to her small house and we carefully watched her. The boys said she would be fine, but we just couldn’t leave her. A 7 year old girl, with an adorable Barbie backpack on was walking through a crowd of men and teenage boys down an alley that looked up to no good. Then she walked into the most run-down house. My heart broke. How do people live like that? And Inka… when she reached the door turned back with a joyful smile on her face and waved goodbye as proudly as she could. Inka is a child of God. We finally reached home after we dropped off the boys, with just enough time to eat and prepare for our night sessions. In walks Christopher. Yesterday we decided to start another lesson at the end of our time, so we did not really get to finish the story. I could tell that Christopher wasn’t really grasping the concept of the story. I was tempted to say, “Let’s just skip it and go on,” because this was a difficult lesson to understand. But I knew that if we worked hard at it, this could be the lesson that gets his wheels turning inside his head. I resisted temptation found out what it means to be selfless for God. For it is when we are selfless that God can truly work. And this is exactly what happened… God worked in Christopher as we read through lesson 11. I shared my testimony to help Christopher open up about his struggles. He did. Christopher explained that he is like the seed that falls among the thorny weeds. I asked him, “Well what does Jesus say happens to the plant that falls among the thorny weeds.” He looked and paused, then answered… it dies. I said, “Then what can you do to keep it alive?” He said, “I need to get rid of my weeds.” But he explained to me that it was hard to do. This was the turning point… when we talked about prayer. I explained to him how when I talk to Jesus, he makes me stronger and it helps me to weed things out of my life. He said, “well I only pray when I go to church when the priest tells me to.” I said, Jesus prayed to God for strength. I explained to him that we can’t do this on our own and we don’t have to. I showed him examples of when Jesus talked to God and was strengthened. He still was stuck on only praying while at church. So I gave him personal examples from my prayer life and how God gives me strength. He looked at me and said, “I’d like to try talking to God more often. I think it would help.” Don’t tell me God isn’t at work. God is moving like the wind through a grassy meadow. Tomorrow, Sarah and I get to go to Christian and Christopher’s house to hang out for awhile and I am so excited for it! They have many things that they want to show us. After they left, Sarah, Terry, and I talked for awhile about all that God has been doing. It was encouraging as we looked up passages in the Bible to know that God has been with us throughout this whole trip. When you give yourself to God, disappointment is never an option. I could not be more satisfied. Then, it was time to turn on the TV to watch our school’s dance team. At the school, they decorated the gym and were broadcasting the dance show live for the students to see. We were going to go, but ended up not having enough time to get there once our sessions were over. They showed the big party going on in the gym after Instituto America’s dance team gave an awesome performance and we were kind of glad we weren’t there. Oh my goodness… it looked outrageous in that gym. I’m not sure we would have made it out there alive. Panama people know how to party and have fun. Now it is time for bed. Hopefully an early night than the others. It is Sarah’s last day tomorrow because she leaves Friday at 7am for home. I’ll be missing her company a lot and I know she is sad to go as well. She has been such a blessing to me on this trip. We’re both ready for a new and exciting day from the Lord tomorrow. We will make every moment a memory here as we prepare to come back home. Buenas noches.

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Joshua and Joy!

The first 2 pictures are of Joy Ariza. The very first one is when I tried on his glasses and he was laughing. The last picture is dear Joshua. Can you see what I am saying when I talk about his smile?

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Day ten in Panama

Today was the first day that went by very quickly. Looking back, I think “Wow, tomorrow is already Wednesday.” I get to see Ana and Rachelle again. I get to see Abraham again, Dayanis again. Last week seemed to drag on. The days were so long. But this week is different for some reason. This morning we pressed snooze a few times because Sarah and I had stayed up late talking again about all the God has taught us in Panama. When we were talking, I was telling her how I needed this step for my faith. It is hard to explain, but this trip has taught me that when I give up control and make myself vulnerable, God will be there to be my support. My eyes teared up last night as I was talking about the transformation that has happened in my heart on this trip. If students do not show, we should not get mad or angry at them. We are here to do God’s will. We are here to be patient with God. We are here to give our hearts. I said, just the step of me coming here has taught me so much. It has taught me how to trust God in ways that I have not known. This morning I led the devotional. I found a passage last night before bed that seemed to line up perfectly with our journey and obstacles we have faced on this trip. The passage is Philippians 4:10-20 from Paul’s writings in prison to the church of Philippi. He says, “For I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me…” I continued on through verse 20. We reflected on how that passage related to our experiences at the school. Whether we have many students or one student, we have now learned to be content. Last week, we were not content if there was a problem or a no show. We would get frustrated because we wanted to see as many people as we could. But God had a different plan to teach us more about ourselves and the transformation that happens when we give control to Him. Today, we had every one of our students show. Some students even came 30 minutes early (including Joshua). My first of the students was Kimberly Quintero. What a sweetheart she is! I just love Kimberly. She works so hard to understand. She loves when I relate the story to an example in her life. When I do that, everything seems to click and she gets so excited. Kimberly is the perfect student to start off the day. She began my day at the school with a wide smile. Next came dear Joshua. He came half way through Kimberly’s lesson, so unfortunately I could not take him early. He had to wait until his scheduled time. When Joshua walked in, he again had a wonderfully huge smile on his face that is so very contagious. Immediately he starts digging in his back. He pulls out pictures that were printed off a computer. He was so excited to show me his baby nephew of only 4 months old. His nephew is in Southern California. He has never met him, but hopes to someday. I gave out a little squeal when I saw these pictures for 2 reasons. The first was because the baby so precious. Oh my goodness, these pictures were absolutely adorable. And second was because I was so excited that Joshua decided to share another piece of his life with me. Something that brought Joshua joy. Even when we got started and Joshua was reading the lesson out loud to me, I was still smiling. I just could not stop. This was pure joy from my Heavenly Father. Joshua asked me if he could work on his workbook at home, too. He said, “I just can’t stop reading these stories about Jesus” and wanted to know if he could read more while he is at home. He said that he read the lesson we were working on many times at home because he was not sure if he could move on. And let me tell you, his pronunciation and understanding of that story was phenomenal because of it. I could tell that Joshua was eager to know more about this Jesus. Joshua and I got to talk a little more about his family situation. I found out that they do not have very much money. Joshua rides the bus to and from school. If the bus breaks down, Joshua doesn’t go to school. They do not even have a telephone in their home. He said things are hard sometimes, but you learn to be thankful for the things that you have. I asked Joshua what he wants to do when he graduates high school in 4 years. Joshua has a lot of ambition. He said his number one choice would be to be a veterinarian. He wants to go to a university, but he told me that they will most likely not be able to afford that. Joshua is smart. If Joshua had the money, he would be able to get through all the schooling. He could do it. But when he told me that his family could not afford it, my heart broke inside. Everything in me wanted to go home, sell everything I have and give all the money to him. He means so much to me and he deserves an opportunity just like you and I. I want to do what I can to raise some money for him or at least save up some money of my own to give to him in 4 years. I will do my best to stay in contact with him, and to keep updated on his life when I go back to the states. I must see Joshua again. I must always be a prayer support for my friend Joshua. Joshua will be in my prayers. Thursday is my last time to see Joshua this year. He has truly touched my heart. Next came in Leonel. Leonel’s English is very broken, but it just amazes me how much you can get to know about someone with very few words. Leonel was such a joy to work with. He is very eager to learn, and he really tested my teaching skills. I had to explain almost every word in the story to get him to understand what Jesus was trying to say. And all glory be to God, he understood and was amazed at Jesus’ teachings. I am excited to work with Leonel again on Thursday. Finally came my last students for the day… Joy! I learned that all of Joy’s friends call him Ariza (his last name) because in his classes, there are many people named Joy or Joyce. So to be less confusing, they call him Ariza. Joy today was making me laugh so hard. He could not get the pronunciation of one word. I would tell him how to pronounce it, but then when the word would show up again, he would forget! Everytime this happened, he would hit his forehead and say, “Ariza! Que pasa?” I laughed so hard. That means “Ariza what’s happening?” Today I taught Joy a song with his name in it. I don’t know why… just because I’m silly. “I got the joy joy joy joy down in my heart. Where? Down in my heart. Where? Down in my heart….” And so on. He loved it! During my English sessions with Joy, I learn much Spanish. Today, he told me why it is so difficult to pronounce things in English and it made perfect sense to me. He said that in English you speak using the throat, but in Spanish, it is more of a musical pronunciation. You use only the tongue, teeth, and lips. We practiced with a few words and I understood. It was so true and so interesting! We also had fun during this lesson. I tried on Ariza’s glasses and he was laughing at how I looked with them on. When Joy was leaving, (he did not want to leave) he said, “I write poems! I will write you one in Spanish like I do for my friends!” On Thursday he is going to give it to me. I’m so excited! Now, only being 2pm in the afternoon, we were able to go home! An early day! This was because, for this week, we do not have any teachers scheduled in the afternoon like we normally do. So every day this week, we get to leave the school at 2 rather than 5. So we got home and I got to take a nap! I woke up at 5, ate some lasagna, and was ready for Christopher, Cassandra, and Christian. At the end of the lesson, his mom was talking to Sarah and she said, “The boys never want to leave when they come here. They love hanging out with you all.” So she invited Sarah and I over to their house on Thursday! We are so excited! We’ll play the piano, guitar, video games, and just have fun together like normal friends would. It’s amazing how quickly relationships can be formed. It’s only been a week here and this family feels like family to me. I’m so excited to go hang out at their house! Tonight, the second team flies into Panama. Terry is on his way back from the airport right now! Mike and the Richardsons… sounds like a band from the 70’s or something. Haha. When they get here, we will visit for awhile and then head off to bed to recharge for another God-given day! I’m getting feelings of sadness that tomorrow will be my last day with my Mon/Wed. students, but maybe I will be blessed to see them again one day. Duerma bien mi familia. (Sleep well my family) Until tomorrow…

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Picturas con mi estudiantes!

These are pictures of me and some of my mon/wed students! I love them all. My last time seeing them this year will be on Wednesday. It will be a sad day. I am so happy to have met and been apart of all of there lives, even if only for a short time.

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Day nine in Panama

Let me try to explain more in detail what exactly is happening at the school each day. The students are in finals this week. So last week was dead week and they were studying very hard and were very busy. Next week, when we leave, is their short “winter break.” Imagine being a student, having to study and take finals, and at the same time go to a Spanish class. The students are all very stressed. Ana, one of my students today told me that she needs a massage because she is so tense. Putting myself in their shoes, I would not want to go to a Spanish class in the middle of finals. There simply just isn’t enough time. This is one reason that explains some of the no shows we’ve had. I cannot blame the students for not coming because I can relate completely. Also, many students ride the bus and for some, it takes them over 3 hours to get to school and 3 hours to get home. Today, Alberto and his brother Manuel (friends from church and the sons of the host parents that Terry and Mike will be staying with) were sitting outside on the porch when Terry woke up. He said, “Why aren’t you guys at school?” The boys explained to him that the bus broke down and there was no way of getting to school. So they just weren’t going to go. You see, students here rely on the buses to get them to and from home. For many of the students, they wake up at 5am just to get to school on time. By the time school is out and the bus comes, they do not make it home until 8pm. This is another reason why we have no shows. The students do not have time out of their day for an English class. Maybe an hour long session of English means getting home 2 hours later because of the bus schedules. We are the first missionary group to Panama to work in the schools. It has been very unorganized because the students decide to come in when a time is convenient for them, rather than the actual time that they were scheduled. Sometimes we can take them, but sometimes we can’t because we already have another student that we are working with. We have had many that can not make it for several reasons. Today was the first day that I had a no show. However, Sarah’s next student came in 30 minutes early, so I decided to take him with my free time. Next Wednesday, however, he will be back with Sarah as the schedule says, since I have a student normally scheduled during that time. So I had a no show, but someone was there to fill the spot. The fill-in’s name was Abraham. This was by far the student that made me smile the most, yet we could not communicate at all. He had never had any English before. Not one ounce of English. I mean we started from square one. Learning the alphabet and numbers. All of my other students are advanced in English or at least know enough to communicate. But Abraham was very much so a beginner. It was very rewarding to see him fill out his family tree. He learned a ton of new words. It took me at least 15 full minutes to explain what nephew and niece were. But we figured it out eventually! When his lesson was over, Abraham wanted more! “One more word!” He said. He was loving it. We were laughing so hard and having so much fun and neither of us new what each other was saying. Somehow, with drawings and hand motions, we were able to become great friends very fast. He would speak a full sentence to me in Spanish, expecting me to no what he was saying. I am getting better, yikes, I had no idea what he was saying. He looked over at my camera laying on the table and asked if he could see pictures of my family. He was so interested in finding out more about my life, even though we could not understand each other. He wanted to know more. So I pulled out the photo album of pictures that I collaborated of important things and people in my life. He absolutely loved it! Lindsay, he though you were muy bonita! Also today, I had Ana Raquel Velasquez and Rachelle Curry. These 2 girls I taught at the same time because, somehow they got double booked on my schedule. Ana I love! She is a young girl that is so full of life. Ana and her friend Gabriela walked in right after a final that they took today and they were talking to us like they would with their friends. They were telling us how frustrated they were with their 2 tests that they had taken: Math and History. They joked and said, “The teachers must not like us.” I laughed, remembering how it felt to take tests. I sat down with Ana for her English lesson and shortly after, Rachelle walked in. They were both at very different levels of English so it was difficult to work with at first. But we figured out a system and God was working. Next, it was time for an adventure. We have teachers that come in for lessons from 4-5. We wanted to find the teachers to ask if they were going to come today, because if not, we could all go home early. Problem is, Taylor, our Spanish speaker, had gone home to the United States, so Sarah and I were on our own for an adventure. We walked into the teacher’s lounge first and they were speaking to us in quick-paced Spanish and we had no idea what they were saying. We took note from their hand motions, nodded our heads, and headed in the direction we thought we should be going. We found a few more groups of people, some that spoke a little bit of English, and eventually found the teachers that we needed. All said that they were going to show. We were happy that they were going to make it! I had Roberto. He is a biology teacher for 10th, 11th, and 12th grade. He’s been married for 27 years and has 2 kids. It was neat to talk with Roberto, being that he was my first adult to teach to. All others that I’ve had have been students of 18 or younger. I can definitely relate better to the younger ones in conversation, but it was just as neat to converse with someone older than me. He took 6 years of English awhile back, but says that living in Panama, there is no one to practice English with. So he said that he needed to brush up again. He spends 3 hours every other day studying English through textbooks, but says that its not enough. Pronunciation, as I’ve learned is key to understanding. We jetted out of the school at 5pm hoping to get gas, get dinner, and eat it all before 6 oclock when our students are expected to arrive. We got home with our food at 5:56 and I was shoveling down my food. Christopher and Cassandra came while I was still eating, but he didn’t care because I was sharing my food with him. Cassandra will be coming again and I am so excited for that. She’s such a doll! Every time I see her, her personality comes out a bit more and she becomes less shy. Those two kids are a kick to work with. I love relating the message to things that really interest them. The concept of the story seems to click when they can relate to it. Go figure! When they were done, I found out that Christian was not going to be able to make it because he had practice at the church. But Manuel was over, so I decided to work with him on his English. He was almost finished with the Luke book that we use to teach English with, so the concepts were getting harder. It was difficult to get him to understand at first, but once we got it, we were on a roll! I’m saving my drawings that I use to help explain concepts and words in English so that I can show many of you when I get home. I really think it’s an art. Communication through drawing. I love it. When Manuel and I were finished, we went into the living room to hang out with Christopher and Cassandra. Oh boy… this is a story to remember. I wanted to know how to say slang terms in Spanish. For example, in English, we say What’s up? Or Wazzup! They said ok we have something like that to! You say Que Sopa? So I repeated it back to them and they all started laughing so hard. I thought they were all going to pee their pants. So the first thing that came to my mind was, “Oh no. It must not mean what’s up… it must mean something else…” I found out that all they were laughing at was my pronunciation of the phrase. So I said ok ok I’m going to get this. They would say Que Sopa and I would repeat it. This happened back and forth at least 15 times. And each time, they would laugh harder and harder. They said, “You have such a strong accent!” They got a kick out of it, but I don’t want an accent when I speak in Spanish! I guess there is nothing I can do about it. I thought I was sounding just like them. But nope! Apparently not. It was such a great time for all of us. We were laughing so hard and began saying many different things with many different accents in hopes to get the pronunciation right. The house got louder and louder as people were yelling Que Sopa! And laughing so hard. It was, like a said, a definitely moment to rememeber. Finally it was time for everyone to leave. Sarah, Terry, Delores, and I sat around talking for awhile about the day and ended the night in prayer thanking God for another successful day in Him. I was able to call Lindsay tonight finally and got to hear all of the amazing things she is doing at work! Then I was able to get ahold of Papa to wish him a happy birthday (even though it was yesterday, I wasn’t able to call then) and I got to talk to Grandma as well. They are such an encouragement to me, its indescribable. Now I’m going to grab a snack before bed and hit the hay. Its been a wonderful day! And getting a full night’s rest really does make a difference. So I’m shooting for that again tonight.

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La picturas por Domingo

Pictures of us with La Pipas, the streets of 2nd Town Panama, and of the festival.

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Day eight in Panama

The morning came quick. I was not ready to wake up when the alarm told me to. I got up at 8:20 to get ready for church today. I was excited to be able to meet people at church that I had been hearing about! I knew it would be interesting being that I’m not yet bilingual, but I wasn’t worried about the language barrier. On our way to church, we picked up Norberto, Alberto, and Manuel. They are the host family that now Terry and Mike will stay at when Mike arrives in Panama on Tuesday. Manuel and Alberto are Norberto’s sons. They are turning into such respectful men of God at such a young age. They were so fun to be around. The boys new English, so we got to know them quickly and were playing around with them like brothers and sisters would. In the car, Terry asked Delores, “Are we going to be on time?” Delores answered, “Whenever we get there is on time. Its Panama.” We all laughed at that. When we arrived, we were early and so we sat in on a Bible class that Raul was leading. It was a bilingual message so we were very blessed. When church started, we sang songs both in English and Spanish. It was neat to participate in the Spanish worship. I absolutely loved it. I knew what they were saying for the most part, because I knew the same song in English. I love that God is bigger than language barriers. God knows all languages and all hearts. Worship this morning was an experience to remember and something that I hope to be a part of again. Next it was time for the sermon. Usually Elio speaks, but today we had a guest speaker. Raul’s son, Raul Jr.! This was a blessing because Elio does not share a bilingual message, but Raul Jr. did. Raul Jr. is attending his last semester at Harding University where he will graduate with a degree in youth ministry and move on to get his masters. His message today was really wonderful. I was thinking how hard it must have been to put the sermon together. First its difficult to come up with an organized message and second its hard to come up with a message that will relate to both cultures. When I was talking with some of the Spanish speakers, they were saying that some ideas just cannot be translated into English and so it is very hard to give a bilingual message. I don’t quite understand this yet, but when I learn Spanish I’m sure I will. So good job Raul Jr. for preparing a great message. He spoke on piercing your ear. There is a song that says, “Pierce my ear, Oh Lord. Lead me to your door…” and so on. He explained the meaning behind this song. It is found in Deuteronomy 15. When a servant has served for 6 years, on the 7th year, he is able to choose whether or not he wants to stay with the family. If he does, the family then pierces his ear to the door, meaning that he will serve in their house forever. So when we tell God to pierce our ear, we are choosing to serve him forever. That was the sermon in short. There were many verses that went along with it from John 8 and Hebrews and Psalm. It was neat to understand the Hebrew background of the text in Deuteronomy. I loved the message. I loved the visual. When church was over, we fellowshipped for awhile. I met many people from the church. I told them, next time I visit, I will have a conversation with you in Spanish. Finally everyone cleared out of the church, except for us. We had to wait for a church meeting to let out that Norberto was in. Mmhmm, you know how church meetings go. We didn’t even leave the church until 2pm. Aye Aye Aye. We sat around for 2 hours just waiting. The saying of the week from Terry was “Eat while you can, because you never know when then next meal will be.” Something always seems to come up during the time of lunch meals, so we need to eat whenever there is a free moment. This was true for today as well, so Sarah and I were glad we made time for breakfast this morning. When we finally made it out to the car I was antsy to get home because I had made plans with Lindsay to call her and then I wanted to get the last part of my final done and over with. But with a large group, our plans changed. It was hard for me to enjoy the day because I was so worried about my test and the phone call, but I eventually put it aside, knowing there was nothing I could do about it. Also, I realized that tonight at midnight is the last moment when I can turn my final in. Not tomorrow night. The final online closes on the 10th at midnight, which is tonight. I’m glad I figured that out because I probably would have waited until tomorrow night to take it from having such a long day. But phew! Glad I realized that, otherwise I would not have been allowed to take my final. After church we dropped off a family at a bus stop so that they could get home. Then our group decided to go to Niko’s café. An authentic Panamanian cafeteria-like restaurant. The food was amazing. I had plantain again and loved it! When I was going down the lunch line, I had a full plate of food and asked the lady if she could put un poquito lasagna on my plate. Ya… she didn’t understand and gave me an entire plate piled full with lasagna. So I had 2 full meals that could have easily been split between 3 people and possibly 4. But! I ate the whole thing by myself. I couldn’t see the food go to waste. I even finished Sarah’s cheesecake because I love cheesecake. I had a definite food baby from eating so much. Its now 5 hours later and I still feel full. Of course I’ll eat more though tonight before bed because that’s just me. We bought frosty flakes (zucaritas) at the store tonight and those are sounding good. Anyway! After Niko’s, I thought again that we would be going home, but I was wrong. We headed out to see a church. Way back a long time ago, when Panamanians knew that pirates were coming, they hid their gold in a church building and painted the gold to look like clay. But when we got to the church building, it was locked. Since we had already driven out there, we decided to park the car and walk around. This little town, called the Second Town of Panama reminded me of the streets and building I saw in Prague. Very cute colonial buildings that were colorful and had flowers growing out of them. Then, Deborah, Delores’ daughter who was with us remembered that the white house of Panama was right down the street. So we walked to it! While walking, I was practicing my Spanish with Deborah. I know many words, but have trouble creating sentences. She gave me Spanish 101 lesson and it really helped! I love learning Spanish. Also on the way to the White House, a lady was selling Pipas. I said, why not! I’ll try one. It’s a coconut that they cut a whole into, you put a straw in it and slurp out the coconut water. Terry said it tasted like bath water, and I thought it tasted like very watered down milk. I thought it was very good, but I wasn’t able to drink the whole thing. It was fun to try! Then we made it to the White House. I had to ask which building it was. I pointed out 3 different buildings that I thought were the white house and none of them were right. It was really neat to see, but it seemed to resemble all the buildings around it. There was a beautiful view of the ocean from the White House as long as you don’t look down at all the trash floating in the water. The White House had a black gate at the entrance and there were huge, funny looking birds standing there! They were really cute. I walked up to them and said, “Hola!” Finally it was time to head back. But on the way, we drove by what looked like a huge festival and we had to check it out. There were churro stands and cotton candy stands. Hot dog stands and candy apples for sale. There were about 5 different groups from a high school band performing all around the park. There were 2 groups of drummers, like a drum line. There were a couple groups of trumpet players. There were a couple different types of dancers. It was so fun to see and I was so glad that we stopped. Then we dropped everyone else off and headed to the grocery store to get food for the week. We are great bargain shoppers! Then when we got home, I went straight to the computer to take my final. It felt so good to get it done. I was having trouble wording some of my essays, but I got them done with plenty of time to spare and I feel very confident with my answers. I can now kiss that class goodbye!! Well, its time for a bowl of cereal and then straight to bed. Tomorrow is another day at the school from 10-5, as well as night sessions from 6-8. I’m so excited to see my Mon/Wed students again!

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Pictures from Saturday's adventures!

I took probably around 50 pictures today, and obviously I'm not going to post all of them, so I chose pictures that best represent today's fun! These pictures are from the restaurant, the zoo, and the canal.

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Day seven in Panama

This morning was just what I needed to get me ready for another week. It seems as if I have been here for an entire month. The weeks and days go by so slow, but I could not be more grateful for the experiences I’ve had here in Panama. Today was a day of fun and play! Weekends are our time to adventure through Panama and get a taste of culture. So this morning, our tour guide picked us up. (Leaha and Ramon, Terry and Taylor’s host family). Along with them were 2 of their grandchildren that we had met at the birthday party on Wednesday night. They are SO cute! A little girl at about 8 years old and a little boy around the age of 4. They were invited to a birthday party today, but instead chose to spend the day with us. They came to pick us up at 9, just like they said, but Sarah and I weren’t expecting them to be on time! It’s Panama! We slept in a little later because we expected them to be here at 9am Panama time, meaning 9:30. But for once, they were on time, so Sarah and I didn’t have time to eat breakfast. We got ready in record time though! So we’re off and away, knowing that we’re going to the Panama Canal, but not sure what else our ‘tour guides’ have in store for us. During the drive, I had more of an urgency to learn Spanish. The little boy next to me was shy, as most kids are when sitting next to almost strangers. But I could not communicate with him as I would with a child that spoke English. I tried a little, but it was hard to get a response from him because there were only so many Spanish words and phrases that I could piece together. This is one reason why I want to learn Spanish. I want to be able to relate to the children here in Panama as I do at home with the children. Finally we arrived at our first stop. The zoo!! I was so excited because there are animals in Panama that we do not have in the United States. It was so neat to see new animals. It was like God opened up a whole new world for me. My favorite were the monkeys. Those monkey’s love love love attention. They followed us as we walked around their cage, and were talking to us. One of the monkeys had a baby strapped to its back and it was so cute! The mother monkey went about swinging, eating, and playing as if the baby wasn’t there. This baby was hanging on for dear life and it was the cutest thing I’ve ever seen an animal do. Maybe, just maybe I have a new favorite animal. I think these monkeys took the place of the Penguins in my book. We saw many more animals: colorful vultures (not like the gray-ish ones in the US), alligators, talking parrots (but they are not bilingual), beautiful Jaguars, and anteaters. But the one that was most peculiar was an animal that looked like a cross between a hippo, a pig, and an anteater. Picture that! I can’t remember exactly what it was called, but it was uuugly. Then Sarah and I saw a beautiful teal bridge and she wanted her picture by it. So I stayed back with the camera and waited for her to walk over to the bridge. She gets about half way there and I hear her scream. She looked to her left, and there was an alligator! Staring her dead in the eyes. She came running back and said, “I don’t need my picture on that bridge.” Well me, being the adventurous one that I am, wanted to see this alligator close up, behind no cage, and walk past it to get to the bridge. Just after I walked by it, it tucked its head under that brown, very murky water and we could not see it! Even scarier! So I ran up onto the bridge. Phew! That was close. Just as I stood on the bridge, I looked down into the water, and there he was again. Staring up at me, looking me dead on in the eyes. We took a few pictures and were back on the path. As we were walking, I was looking down at the ground because there were HUGE ant carrying around huge leaves. They had little freeways running all across the zoo. As I was walking and looking down at these ants, a lizard decided to jump right in front of me. Not even an inch from me. I thought for sure he was aiming to stick on my jeans. So what was my first reaction? Of course... I screamed and jumped back! Then went to go look at it. I love the little lizards, I just don’t like how unpredictable they are. Terry came over and tried to pick it up, but it was just too fast. So he laid his hand down on the ground and eventually it crawled onto his hand. We were passing the lizard around from hand to hand, but we could not get Ramon’s grandson to hold it. He was just too scared. All of a sudden, the lizard jumps off of Taylor’s hand and lands right on that little guy’s shirt! We were all laughing so hard. Oh... there were these big rats, that had the body of a small pig that ran around the zoo. Gross! We thought they had escaped from a cage but the worker said that they are everywhere, like the rats in the US and they won’t hurt you if you stay away. I had no problem staying away. By the time we were leaving the zoo, Sarah’s and mine’s stomachs were growling because we had not gotten to eat breakfast. So we used what little Spanish we could and ordered some snacks from their snack bar. Most of our communication was with pointing and facial expressions. Praise God for universal hand motions that everyone understands. Can you imagine if all of that was different too, just like languages? Communication would be much more difficult. On our way out, I saw a cow made out of fiber glass. I said there’s no sign, I’m going to go try to get on top of that cow. And that’s exactly what I did. I jumped on it and the cow almost tipped over into the mud! Oh can you imagine... Haha. Everyone around me was staring and laughing, but I was having the time of my life. Eventually Sarah got up the guts to join me on the cow. Finally, it was time to head to the Panama Canal. Wow is all I have to say. What an experience. I wouldn’t necessarily say that this place was beautiful because it was filled with so much machinery and operation. But being able to see history. Knowing that almost 100 years ago over 75,000 people from all around the world came to work on this project. People of all backgrounds, cultures, and languages came together. They found ways to communicate and share their life stories with each other. It was neat to be standing on a place of sweat, tears, and happiness where many had given their lives to this project. And here I was, seeing the outcome of it all. What an amazing sight. We paid for the complete tour. We were thinking it was going to be about $40 and all of us were willing to pay. But when we showed up... $8 for a complete tour. Woo!!! So we walked in and hallelujah, they had the video screening in English! We walked through the museum and also into the gift shop. I know you’re wondering Seth, and yes I got you something. Then we went out to the Mira Flores locks. Which is only one of the many locks that they have. We got to see a ship that was about 75 feet tall be lowered down 27 feet to the next lock. The man came on the speaker and said “I would like to give a warm welcome to our friend from San Francisco, or at least the man who is a Giant’s fan. We look around and Terry is the only one wearing a SF Giant’s hat! So he got a special shout out and it was great. When the ship passed through... oh what an experience. There was a count down... 3, 2, 1... and everyone began to cheer and wave at the crew members on the ship! I was so happy to be a part of all the excitement of the Panama Canal. By the time we left, it was almost 3oclock and Sarah and I still had no food. We were so hungry! So we went out to a nice supper on the cosway. I had salmon fettuccine alfredo. Mm Mm! It was so good. I have had shrimp alfredo before, but never salmon and let me tell you, it was so yummy. We had an outside we to the water, but a storm came through and we were starting to get soaked! So we moved toward the center to keep dry. There was lighting and thunder, like I’ve never heard before in my life. It was so so loud! I video taped the rain coming down because I was so amazed by it. The rain on the roof sounded just like those rain sticks. It was absolutely incredible. This restaurant we were at was called Buceneros, meaning the Buccaneers. The waiter told us that the Buccaneers football team from the US actually came there not too long ago! I thought that was really neat. By the time we had left the restaurant, the rain had stopped, so we decided to go to some authentic shops. This is when I learned that I could spend all of my money in one place. Luckily, I didn’t have all of my cash on me, so I wasn’t tempted. The best part is, is that you can bargain with them! And that is how I bought a beautiful authentic Panamanian shirt that I cannot wait to wear when I come home! There were so many beautiful things there. I just wanted to buy everything! Next time I come, I want to buy Panamanian sandals and a Panamanian bag. I say next time, because I WILL return here. I have fallen in love with Panama and its people. Finally, we were on our way home. The second we got back in the car, both kids were asleep. Completely out. The little girl was sitting next to me. She fell asleep sitting up and her head was rolling back and forth. So I took my head and gently laid her head on my shoulder. It was so sweet. She slept soundly the entire way home. She looked like an angel. When we got back to Delores’ house, to of our friends, Alberto y Manuel from Iglesia de Cristo were sitting on the porch. They were bored, so the 2 young boys decided to drop by and hang out for a bit. We all watched the movie E.T. But it was in Spanish, so I didn’t understand much. It’s ok though! It’s a good way to learn more Spanish. I studied a bit more for Part B of my final which I will take tomorrow. Soon after, I fell completely asleep. I didn’t wake up until 8pm. This day was just what I needed. I had some left over pizza that I popped in the microwave to eat for dinner. I played some cards with Sarah, Manuel, and Alberto for awhile. Then, Taylor said her goodbyes. Taylor could only get a week off from work, so she has to leave tomorrow. We are all going to miss her so much. I feel so blessed to have been able to get to know her. Her testimony is one of strength and encouragement. She is such a woman of God. I thank the Lord for this day because I was able to recharge for the week to come. Gracias para escuchar. Buenas noches amigos. (Thanks for listening. Goodnight friends).

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Some pictures from day 6!

These are all pictures from us having fun at the party! There is a picture of Christian playing the guitar. There are 2 pictures of the teams: the boys team and the girls team. Enjoy!

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Day six in Panama

Today was bittersweet. It was filled with feelings of homesickness, but also feelings of great great joy. But before I talk about today, I forgot to mention something amazing about yesterday. On our short break in between students, Terry and Taylor thought that it would be fun to walk across the street to get a snack. They came into where Sarah and I were sitting and asked if we wanted to go. Sarah and I hesitated only because we just wanted to sit and relax, but I said, um let’s go. Why not… its an opportunity in Panama and it will help to kill time. So we all went. When we crossed the street, Taylor looked down the sidewalk and saw a little authentic fruit stand and wanted to see what they had. So instead, we decided to walk over there. This man walks up to us at the stand and starts speaking to me in Spanish. I said “no hablo espanol” and looked at Taylor, cueing her to speak in Spanish to this man. Come to find out, this is the father of one of my students, Joy! He said that Joy brings his book home everyday, excited about what he learned from me. He says that all he can talk about are the discussions that we have about Jesus. We also found out that this family is of the Assemblies of God denomination, just like my college. His father was telling about all of the street ministries that they do here in Panama, and it was really neat to hear. I communicated to the father that Joy was a very good student and he loves to learn more about becoming like Jesus. His father was very pleased. When we walked away, I felt the biggest encouragement from God. It was like he was showing me the fruits of my efforts. I can not believe that Joy goes home and shares about our time together with his parents. If I decided not to go get a snack with Terry and Taylor, I would have missed this encouragement from God’s messenger. If Taylor had not wanted to walk down to the fruit stand, we would have missed Joy’s father. God is good. Si? Si! That encouragement gave me enough energy to get through the rest of the day. Yesterday was filled with what Mike Crowley would call, Divine Appointments. Now on to my day. We woke up this morning and heard a great devotional from Terry from John 7:14 that talked about Jesus’ teachings. He related it to our teachings and our purpose here. It helped to refocus our hearts and minds to our mission here in Panama. On our way to the school, it was pouring down rain like the rain in Mississippi. Even though we were in the car, I did not stay dry. How? Because the window on my side was broken and would not stay rolled up all the way. Once we would get it up, it would slip right back down again and water would spray me in the face. It was quite comical. We made it to the school, and Terry was so nice to have dropped us girls off in front of the school so that we wouldn’t have to walk in the rain. I only had 4 students scheduled for today, all of which showed up. Friday’s are set aside in our schedule for the advanced students of the school that are already taking English classes. Most students come either mon/wed or tues/thurs, but these students come only on Fridays. This means that I will only see these 4 students twice, this Friday and the next. My second student came in, and she really stood out to me. Her name was Keren Tejada. She came in the door with an adult. It could have been her mom, or maybe just one of her teachers I’m not sure. But when the teacher began to leave, Keren felt very nervous. She tucked her head into the shoulder of the adult and began to say in Spanish, “I don’t want to go. I don’t want to go.” She was very quiet and shy when I took her into the room. I asked her if this was her first time and if she was nervous or scared. She confirmed to me that she was. I took some time to comfort her and tell her that it was ok. From then on, Keren was a chatter box and giggled after many things that we talked about. When our time was up, she said, “Is it ok if I stay longer?” I decided to say yes, even though it was time for my lunch break and my stomach was growling. We worked for about 30 minutes more. I said, “Ok I will see you next Friday, yes?” She said, “Is there any way that I can come to work with you more often?” This amazed me, because this was the shy girl that was so scared and not wanting to attend her English lesson. I thanked God for her refreshing spirit. During one of my lessons with the students, Joy walked in. I was confused because Joy comes only on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Joy took aside special time out of his day to bring me a website that would help me learn Spanish. He said, “I wanted to bring this just for you!” He had a huge smile and my face, as did I. I felt so special knowing that Joy thought of me and showed me his care today. I turned back to my student when Joy left, and found that I could not stop smiling. As the day went on questions started filling up my mind. None of Sarah’s students had showed. Only one of Taylor’s showed up, and only 2 of Terry’s showed up. This seemed to be reoccurring. Their students have not been showing up, but all of mine have. Its not like I can say that I’m better with the students, because the ‘no shows’ are students coming for the first time. It is not Sarah’s fault, Terry’s fault, or Taylor’s fault that their students are not showing up. They have discussions daily of how discouraging it is having no students to teach. Yet I have so many, that everyday I am exhausted. For me its always go go go. Right when one student leaves, the next student walks in. So why is this? Why is God giving me experiences like the ones I have with Joshua and Joy, but not giving experiences like this with the others? Maybe he is. I don’t know. I’m still working through that thought. I know God has a plan. I know that God needed to show me His power through Joshua. God wanted to strengthen my faith and understanding, as I knew it was lacking. When the day was done, I felt homesick. I was so very exhausted and my brain was no longer working. I was mumbling all my words. I held back feelings of impatience from wanting to be home quicker. It helps to look to God. He truly does renew strength. We stopped by the store on the way home because tonight was Party night! Every Friday night, we throw a party for all of our readers. We play pictionary, have fellowship, and eat food. Sounds perfect to me! So we went to the grocery store to buy some brownie mix, ice cream, and soda. We decided that pizza for the meal would be easiest, so we decided to order it, which is a whole different story. Anyway, when we got to the house it was 5pm and the party did not start until 7. So we had some down time. I decided to take Part A of my final for geography. Its all essay questions and I had an hour to take it. I spent time over preparing for the exam while I was on the airplane so that I would not have to waste time here in Panama to study. All of the essay questions that appeared on the test, I had already written. Thank goodness because the moment I started the exam, a very very VERY loud group of people went into the street and started bumping their music. My heart was rattling with everybeat, as were the windows. I couldn’t even hear myself think. That’s Panama for you. So I typed up my essays and submitted them. Piece of cake! I think that I did really really well on it and it feels so great to be done! Maybe on Sunday afternoon I will take Part B of my exam. When I finished, the door bell rang. It was the pizza guy. But here’s the problem. We didn’t ask for delivery and Terry and Taylor were already on their way to pick up the pizza with the money. I went and got Delores because the pizza man obviously did not speak any English. I tried calling Terry, but for some reason the call did not go through. The pizza man ended up dropping off the pizzas without us paying and said that he would come back after he delivered his others. When he left Terry and Taylor walked in the door already laughing at the situation. The pizza guy came back and we eventually paid. Unfortunately we ended up having to pay for the delivery, which is what we wanted to avoid. But that’s ok! It all worked out. It got to be 7:30 and still no one had showed up. We were starting to get bummed, but reminded ourselves that people were on “Panama time.” Meaning everything is an hour later than you say it is. We were right. Everyone showed up just before 8. We SO enjoyed each other’s company. This was a moment that I wish all of you could have experienced with me. This party brought me the most joy and I truly wish that all of you could have joined. Words cannot describe the amount of healthy laughter that came from this party. We played pictionary, but made a rule that everyone had to guess the word in English. You can just imagine! And oh the drawings… these were so funny. We played boys against girls and let me just tell you that the girls won by 10 points. The boys came up with a theory that we could all read each other’s minds because we would draw something so terribly and so unrelated to the word, and somehow we would happen to guess it. Some of the funniest moments were when our readers were drawing. The word was veterenarian, but Raul’s daughter, who was drawing thought that the word said vegetarian. So both teams were yelling out completely different things and we could not figure out what was going on. We decided to do a rematch when we found out that the girl misunderstood the word. But the same thing happened. She thought the word meant caffeine, when really the word was coffin. She was drawing coffee cups and soda and the other team was drawing a coffin. I will never forget Raul calling out, “That’s my daughter!” He is always so proud of her. Everytime she would guess a word correctly, Raul again would say, “That’s my daughter.” Also during the game, Raul’s wife, who is a first grade teacher turned to me and said, “I can tell you’re going to be a teacher. And a great one, too. Its in your blood. I can see it.” That was so encouraging to me. Then Christian, my student brought his guitar to sing and play for us. Wow, this guy really has talent. I recorded him playing and was so proud of him. When he started playing the guitar, he could hear the room go completely silent because of the music’s beauty. It was almost as if not only the room went silent, but people’s thoughts went quiet as well. But when Christian was done, the noise came rushing back just as loud as it was. This party was soooo loud. Everyone was talking at the same time. Everyone repeated themselves, while shouting, at least 5 times in order for someone to hear them. It was a fun night. As Christopher, my other reader, Christian’s brother, was leaving he stopped to give me a hug goodbye. He squeezed me so tight that I though my bones were going to break. This was the bored, stubborn, closed-minded Christopher from the first day of reading lessons. Now, Christopher is my brother. It was neat to see Christopher give me a hug like that. I felt like family, and again felt from God the signs of His approval. When everyone had left, we cleaned up the house, hand washed all of the dishes, and are now getting ready for a weekend that is so needed. Tomorrow morning we will wake up and get to go see the Panama Canal. One of the 7 wonders of the world! Now it is time for bed so that I can rest up for all the excitement tomorrow. Buenas noches.

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