I'm back from the Dominican

So I'm back from the Dominican Republic now. It was a greatly blessed trip, God definitely did a lot of amazing things during our time there and I'm now glad to be back home in my apartment. What can I share with you first, hmmm. We spent two weeks at the University of Santo Domingo, commonly known as the UASD. The University of Santo Domingo is way bigger than the university of Panama, about four times bigger from my judgment. There was also more of a diversity of student culture at the UASD. For example, when you walk into the arts faculty, you find that students dress differently than do the students of most other faculties. You'll also find that business students dress formally, I guess to get them used to the business world, but you can almost always guess which faculty a student is from by the way they dress or look. I the bigger student population may have something to do with the diverse student culture.

Our time there was mostly spent on the campus evangelizing and discipling students, which was great because that is why went there. This gave us a great opportunity to share alongside the Dominican students, who really really needed experience in sharing their faith. Always being on campus also made it easier to do important follow up with students there. Follow up is really hard to do if you don't have a very open schedule for all types of different students who have their own personalized schedules and lives that don't necessarily fit ours possibly tight schedules, so that was awesome. We were also able to plan some small scales meeting and events with them, like training meetings and our awesome picture scavenger hunt. It was really cool to see so many students show up to that scavenger hunt and it was especially cool to be a part of the winning team that day! We got points for creativity, which I am proud to say, pretty much won it for us.

Now let me just share with you a little story of what happened. Every day, we would eat under a certain tree on campus that was close to the business and arts faculties. As we were eating there, we ran into a group of students and just started talking to them. In our conversations, one of the girls in the group told us that she was married, but by sexual and a lot of other things that I can't remember, but I think she said all these things to see our reaction to them. Maybe she was all the things that she said, but that didn't matter, we shared the gospel with her and the rest of her friends, and I think that they could really see that we cared about them. I made four friends in the midst of all those conversations. Yael, Martha, Elizabeth and Pedro. They were all very loving people, but their confidence and toughness can be intimidating for others. Yael in particular, seemed to be the tough girl in the group. Yael also didn't accept Christ into her life, but she came to all the meeting we had and seemed really interested in what we were doing. By the end of the trip, Yael and all her friends were so happy with our friendship, that they left us gifts to take back home to Panama. The gifts were really nice too and it indicated to me that they really appreciated the time that we spent with them every lunch time. I think that even though Yael never accepted Christ those two weeks we were there, God was definitely working in her heart and making her think more about her own life.

Now that I'm back home, I've been dealing with some stomach issues right now and I just ask that you keep that in prayer for me. While I was down there, I was sick with a cold and stomach problems, and even though my cold has gone away, my stomach is still bothering me a lot. I'll be heading over to the doctor soon.

I hope that you have been blessed these past couple of weeks. Here are some photos for you to enjoy, to give you a little picture of Dominican Republic. Blessings :)

Heading out to the Dominican Republic and a Prank Video

So I'm heading out to the Dominican Republic on Saturday night. It's going to be an intense time of ministry down there as four Panamanian students and one staff member come to help change the world for Christ. Please be praying for our safety while we're there. Dominican Republic is a place that's so in need of God and please be praying that we would have the courage to spread the word to people down there.

So far, the students and staff member that are going aren't at 100% of their support, so be praying for that too.

I have a funny story for you guys: Over the weekend, I tried to prank Wes by posing as a Panamanian sending him love text message, but the Panamanian girl that was working on the prank with me turned against me and instead pulled the prank on me. You can see the video below or on facebook if you're friends with Wes. They were really having fun with this one.

I hope to that everyone is having an amazing February :)

Summer time and the living is packed full of exciting activity

After the holiday season, Wes and I went down to Costa Rica to renew our Visas. We have to leave the country every 90 days for a minimum of 48 hours to renew our Panamanian Visas and not stay in the country illegally. We met up with our boss, Brent Trickett and spent some good time in the volcano area of Irazu to look ahead to the rest of the year and have a good time of rest and refocus. We were also able to meet the staff of Campus Crusade for Christ in Costa Rica and we even met the director of the Latin American region. We were able to pray and share ideas together about the future of our partnerships with Latin America, which was to say the least, exciting.

Wes and I then took a bus back to Panama and that's where it happened. Unfortunately, since the bus was winding around so many roads through the mountains right after lunch time, a boy sitting behind me in the bus barfed on me. Thankfully, it wasn't very much, but I did have to change my shirt. It was a funny experience though, since Wes had to keep his nose under his shirt for virtually the rest of the trip while I, not being susceptible to strong odors, was able to "enjoy" the rest of the ride without reclining on my chair since it had gotten dirty. Now that I look back at it though, I am able to laugh even more at the small incident. I just sort of feel bad for the boy, since he must have been terribly embarrassed by the whole thing (or was he?).

Once we got back to Panama, we were able to host a small house party for the students so Brent could cast some vision to some of them and challenge them to get involved in the movement. I think that was really special. One of our students Evis, had formed a new friend with Brent, which was really cool.

Now that Brent has left, we're looking ahead to a few things, which you can actually be praying for. We have the Dominican Republic project coming up. This is going to be an intense project since we don't have as many people coming this year as we did last year. We only have about 5 students signed up for the project right now, and it doesn't look like we're going to have any more, but I'm confident that God can work in even bigger ways despite smaller numbers. Please be praying that the students would be able to raise the rest of their support for the project.
We also have frosh week coming up. Frosh week is going to be happening on the 22nd of March, but there is little time to prepare for since we will be in the Dominican Republic for two weeks in Febuary. Frosh week is the first week of school after summer. We are currently in the summer vacation period here in Panama. Frosh is so crucial to our time here on campus. It's the best time to reach out to first year students and get them interested in what's happening on the university. So please just be praying that God would guide us in our planning and preparation for frosh week, that we may be able to interact and guide many students to Christ during this crucial period of time.
After frosh week, the Canadian student project will be coming soon. They will be arriving at the beginning of May, and even though right now that seems a little ways off, it really isn't since our time before that is packed full of activity. So please be praying that our preparations and times of prayer for the Canadian project will be of excellence.
I hope that you all have an amazing month of January and may God bless you.

Vistitors

So I thought I would share with you guys some of the time I spent here with my sister Karla and my girlfriend Tricia, who came down here to visit me for Christmas and New Years. I was really happy to be able to spend time with them, I was really missing them a lot since I got here, and so seeing them was really really good and I wish they were still here. Tricia has already been to Panama since she already went on STINT here in Panama the year before I came on STINT, but this was my sisters first time in Panama, and I think she really enjoyed it. I couldn't show her everything Panama had to offer, since she was only here for about two weeks and long days of traveling require long days of rest too. But my sister really enjoyed her time here. She especially liked the Casco Viejo, which is the old cobble stone streets part of Panama and the valley town of El Valle, which sits about and hour and a half away from Panama city. Down there, you'll see a picture of a whole turkey dinner that Wes and I prepared for Christmas. We had actually lost a game of cranium against the girls, and the prize was that we would cook a turkey Christmas dinner for them for the new years. It was actually an awesome experience and we had a lot of fun cooking it all ourselves (with the exception of the salad, which Tricia offered to help with). Here are some pictures :)

Here's Tricia helping a student out with one of his paint project.




My Sister Karla, Me and Wes at a Christmas production put on by a church in Panama




Here is our Christmas Turkey which we affectionately named Bertha!



Some friends and family we had over to share the Turkey with.



Here I am peeling potatoes.



Wes and I cooking

Students Protest

Today I didn't go to the University because it was closed for the day. Classes were canceled and the gates were closed. The annual University protests have started up again and it was looking pretty crazy. But all of this started yesterday at noon when all students all over the university were dismissed early because of the protests. The student groups involved were Fer-29, Pensamiento y Acción Transformadora and Movimiento Juventud Patria. These groups started out chanting and waving flags but it soon became a rock throwing frenzy. Well, I guess it was more like a throw whatever you can find at the police, objects ranging from classroom chairs to Molotov Cocktails. Fortunately, we had made our way out of the university way before any of that occurred, in time for the Panamanian Police force to launch a clear cut response to all of it using their objects of choice that included super powered water hoses, rubber bullets and tear gas. The front entrance of the university looked like a war zone, something considered rare back home in Canada, but for Panamanian University students this wasn't considered abnormal. Just another day of classes cut short. Yesterday as we left the University, I could really feel the normality in all of what was happening. There was no fear in the eyes of the students and there was no urgency to leave the grounds, it was just another one of those days which Fer-29 started protesting again. I didn't fear for my life or anything like that, but I did realize that I was in a foreign country where certain events and experiences are foreign to my own experience and memory. I realized that I wasn't in my own country and that at any moment, if these protesters mistake me for being an American (These guys really don't like the USA) it could create problems for me. I pretty much realized that I had to be careful with where I go and what I do. Panama isn't an innocent playground, nor is any part of the world an innocent playground. Two nights ago, I was talking to my girlfriend on the phone, and seven gun shots went off outside my apartment building. One of my neighbors got his new car stolen at gunpoint, but as the guys were taking off with his car, he responded with his own gun! Those seven shots I heard two nights ago were from the robbery victim's gun. I thank God that my neighbor was ok and that nobody died, but while I'm here in Panama, I can never forget that I'm not in my own country playing by my country's rules or anything like that. This is a foreign place that I love, but I'll always be considered a foriegner and unless I spent the rest of my life here, I won't know all the rules of the road. These are days where I'm reminded that I ultimately need to rely on God for protection and I need to use the brain he's given me to play it smart here and not get into any unnecessary situations. Don't get me wrong, I'm not fearing for my life right now or anything, the neighborhood and area I live in are safe, but I'm just acknowledging the fact that I don't know how the street works here in Panama and that I must ultimately make smart decisions of how I live my life here. Here are some photos of what's been going on. I hope you enjoy them :)

You Just Never Know

You just never know. It's a phrase that Mike Woodard, our national director for Campus for Christ Canada, coined and made hundreds of orange rubber bracelets out of. It's something that has sort of been resounding with me ever since Mike came down to Panama in May to lead our project. "You Just Never Know" is just so true. I apply this phrase to ministry here in Panama. Every time I go out to share the gospel with students, I remind myself; Juan you just never know what's going to happen right now, it's not in vain! On my second week of campus, I ran into a student named Rudiard that I had been following up last year in the faculty of science. He told me that he wasn't going to church and that he had been cold spiritually and we really didn't get too far into our followups, but when I saw him a couple of weeks ago, something really cool happened. He came up to me and told me that he was now connected into his church and following God! He doesn't really have time to be involved in our ministry with Campus for Christ here in Panama, but his testimony is evidence that our work on campus is not in vain. People's lives are changing and things are happening under the radar and we've got to trust that God is working in people's hearts even though we can't see it on the surface.

Cooking Now That Mama Aint Around

So I have something to confess to you all. I cooked rice for the first time last week. In these last twenty-four years of my life, I'd never actually cooked rice myself out of my own desire...because Mom always cooked it and I never had to. So last night, I decided to step it up a bit from my usual Campbell's Tomato can of soup or Kraft KD dinner and made myself a spaghetti casserole. I've also got the pictures to prove it! I know this is not a food blog or anything like that, but it tasted good, even though the presentation could use a lot of work. Blessings