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

Our National Director's Crazy Truck!

So as Wes and I were moving into our new apartment a couple of week ago we made an honest, uninformed and just all out hilarious but unfortunate mistake. We used the National Director's truck. Our National Director over here in Panama is a great man. He's one of the most motivated men I've met (motivated to share the gospel with whomever he can) and was so kind to let us use his truck, but I don't think I could say the same about his truck. When we left with our stuff (that was stored at Lionzo's house by the way) from his house, we were left stranded halfway home in the middle of a busy one way street in front of a bus stop (The buses in Panama are a little scary and intimidating by the way). I couldn't believe what was happening as I tried to start the car over and over again to no avail. I was sweating like a mad man trying to figure out what was wrong with the National Director's truck! After a good ten minutes of blocking traffic and huge buses blowing their fog horns at me (there is no fog in Panama, yet the buses use fog horns, I guess it's to get a message across: get out of the way!) we pushed the truck to the side of the road and all was well in the world, the buses stopped honking and life continued on the street, I was no longer the international public disturbance wreaking havoc in Panama. At least that's how I felt at the time, I was even afraid the police would come after me and take me in for disturbing traffic like that, but no, they just drove by and didn't even take a second look at what was going on with us. So as you can see in the picture above, I'm smiling and having fun even though all this was happening. Below you can see the truck pushed over to the side of the road. We spent the day trying to figure out how to start it again, but we had to call in the mechanic. In the end, we left the truck there overnight, and the mechanic fixed it the next day, but it didn't stop there.

A week later, or maybe even the same week, Wes ran into trouble with the truck again. This time Lionzo was driving, but after a night of eating out with Panamanian students and staff, the truck ran into a hole. It took hours to sort out the situation, but Wes finally got home that night around 3am. It was all good and fun though. Both Wes and I are able to look back on these even and just laugh, but I think we also gained some valuable experience and lessons of: Patience.

Los MACHOS!!

I'm back from Los Machos! In case you don't about my recent whereabouts, I was out in the Province of Cocle in this little little town called Los Machos. I would actually consider it a mountain village. If you look on this little map that we have here, you'll notice a little place called El Cope, which is located at the mid top left of the map. From El Cope, we took a couple of pickup trucks up to Los Machos. And when I say up, I mean UP! We drove for a couple of hours through steep mountain trails to get to the little mountain village where we were to minister. We crossed some pretty deep rivers along the way, and we rode through the rain, all the way to the highest village of the mountain called Los Machos. Our truck couldn't actually make it all the way up to where we wanted to go because it was way too slippery for the truck to get there safely, so we unloaded all our cargo about a 20 minute hike fromo the village. The challenge we faced the very first day was getting all of our cargo to the place where we were to set our sleeping tents. We had to carry film equipment, fourteen water jugs, our backpacks and more belongings all the way up a very very steep hill. It was extremely difficult, but after of couple of hours of carrying stuff, we finally got settled into the small area where we were staying. The land in Los Machos is beautiful. We were literally living in the clouds. We were so high up that it would often get foggy because of the clouds that were passing through our camp. It also rained a lot, but I mean a lot. Everyday was a huge downpour for us, but that didn't stop the Lord from doing his work in the lives of the people there. We initially set out to do actual manual labor type work with the people there and at the same time share the gospel with them. We also planned a little soccer clinic for the kids of the village and in the evening we presented the Jesus film to all the people that wanted to come.

Because of intense rain, we spent our first morning at the local elementary school teaching the kids stories from the bible and interacting with some of the adults that were gathered there for the national holiday. That went well, I really don't know what type of impact we made in the lives of those kids there, but I'm sure that they won't forget those times that we spent there with them. In the afternoon, we did a soccer clinic for the kids there. Only three showed up that day, but I could really tell that those kids were having just an awesome time learning from some of our really talented soccer playing university students. In the evening, we showed the Jesus film. Only one family came to the showing because of the intense rain and cold we were experiencing that night. It was a little discouraging to not see very many people show up to these events that we had, but we knew that despite our own plans not working out very well that day, God was working his own plans out, we just didn't know what they were exactly.
The second morning of our trip was not rainy! We actually set out that morning to work with different families around the area. Let me tell you, the people of Los Machos know how to work! The team I led set out to dig dirt out of a little hill and then carry buckets to another hill and we filled that hill with dirt. Pastor Todd Tillinghast and Pastor Correa, the pastors overseeing this project, strategically placed us with some recently converted families to encourage them in their faith. I really encouraged my team members to take the initiative to talk with the family members about the Lord and how good it was to be in his paths. One of the students on my team shared his own testimony with the parents of the house. Later that afternoon, we had the soccer clinic again, but this time, a lot more kids came because it wasn't raining so much. Our two student leaders shared the gospel with the kids in a way that was a little more understandable for them, and they all made decisions to follow Christ. Those kids won't ever be the same again. That night, God really cleared the skies so that people could come to watch the Jesus Film. Many more families came that night to watch the film and many of them made decisions to follow Christ too. It was an amazing night, the sky was beautiful and many of us were praying during the film that God would touch the hearts and lives of these people. At the end, I got to talk to a couple of guys who made a decision to follow Christ. I honestly couldn't get a very deep conversation going with these guys though, but they said that they really liked the message of the gospel and thought that it was good. What amazed me as I talked with some of the other villagers was the fact that some of them had never seen a movie before. It was really cool to know that the first film they had ever watched was about Jesus. Really cool, I'm sure they will never forget the message of the movie and the love of Christ for their lives.
The next morning, we set our for home. It was pouring rain like no other day. This did present us with a little bit of a problem. We had to carry all of our cargo down a long long hill, because the truck couldn't get very far up the hill. We had a lot of slips and falls walking down this hill because it was so slippery. We also got completely soaked! This was super fun for me though, I was having a blast, but the ride down the mountain was a little scary. We had to go down very steep and muddy hills with all of us in the back of a pickup truck on the face of some really high cliffs. The whole time in the back of the truck, I was praying that God would protect us from natural dangers, like mudslides and raging rivers. There was actually a river we had to cross with our truck, but the rain made the river too intense to cross. So we had to cross a small little bridge by foot which was actually another really scary part of the trip. The bridge was so narrow that it scared many of the Panamanian students to actually make it across. We prayed as we crossed the bridge two by two. Below the bridge was a raging river that would have definitely taken our lives had it the chance. But we made it through without problems and the Lord definitely kept us safe the whole way.

Los Machos was an amazing missions trip. It definitely was one of the hardest physically for me, but we also experienced a lot of changes in Plans. Despite our plans changing and things not going the way we wanted them to, we knew that God had his own plans and we learned that we had to trust completely in His will. When our plans would change, we learned not to ask God "why", but to ask Him how we should respond to His changes. I want to thank a lot of you that were praying for our team safety. Those prayers were definitely answered!

First Week on Campus

This week, the week of the 26th of October was our first week on campus doing ministry. We shared the gospel with many students and made some really good contacts with various students. I think the really cool thing about this week has been the response of the students and also that we've finally fully moved into our apartment. Let me tell you about the apartment first.

As I had written on my last post, the hunt for an apartment was a difficult one. We spent a lot of our effort trying to obtain a certain apartment only to find out in the end that the people we wanted to rent from were not totally trustworthy. After making many arrangements with them on how we were going to rent this apartment, they suddenly demanded three months of rent in advance plus a deposit and processing fee, which is not what we had agreed upon at the very beginning of our dealings and there was no way we were going to pay that kind of money, we didn't even have that kind of money! Something cool happened that same day though. Wes and I were both discouraged about the situation and we had a meeting at the office when all of a sudden, my landlord from last year called the office asking for me. I was a little surprised, but he almost begged me to come back to the apartment at $200 less of of the original price. We are now living there and so far it's been great to be back to what was home for me last year. Even the decision to move here was somewhat of a hard decision, since Wes and I didn't totally agree on the same choice, but after going through some more troubles with other apartments and one year minimum contracts, we finally came to decide on this apartment, since the landlord here doesn't care how long we stay, he just cares that we are responsible guys. In the end, it was really funny, because the apartment found us even though we were looking for the apartment. Glory to God

Our first week on campus was awesome. We were able to do a good amount of sharing with students in the faculties of Architecture and Business and today we have some follow up to do one with some of those students. There were some really receptive people and there were others that very closed off, but I know that God is working. This year, we've decided to focus our efforts on two faculties: Architecture and Business. We really want a movements to happen in these places and so far, we've seen a good response from the students.

This next week coming up will be a Panamanian holiday filled week and that means no school for student, but it doesn't mean we won't be working with students. The Crusade ministry over here has organized a missions trip to the interior of Panama to a place called Los Machos. We will work alongside students in sharing their faith with people who live in what we would consider in Canada to be poverty. We will also be sharing in their work too! We will probably do things such as crop harvesting, washing clothes, cutting weed with machetes and a lot of hiking to get around places. We'll also be sleeping on dusty grounds and sleeping bags. It's going to be an adventure for sure! Please be praying for our safety while we're out there. Hope that you guys all have a great week, Blessings to all of you :)

Your brother in Christ,

The Hunt of the Year

I'm now halfway through my second week of STINT in Panama! This should be exciting right? Well yes, it is exciting! But it hasn't only been exciting, it's also been a bit frustrating amongst other things. I titled this entry "The Hunt of the Year" precisely because since our arrival in Panama we've been on the hunt for a place to live in. Today it is day thirteen of our STINT year and we are still homeless; game-less so to speak in this game of point and shoot where we trudge through the wild jungle of Panamanian cyberspace in our pursuit of rare apartment prices and locations. Timing is everything though, and if you don't get that right you lose the scent of the trail you were following or worse; that scent you followed led you to sick and diseased game, the type you can't take home with you. The clock is ticking for us now and as more time passes by without a hit, the louder the ticking gets in my head. Wes and I both know that we have to bring this one home soon so we can focus on the main task, but we ultimately know that God will bring us home on this one. Rest assured, we are trying our best and we're not flaking out on this strenuous search, but we've unfortunately run into people promising an apartment with uncompromising demands (such as three months pay in advance!). I definitely feel that we're close to finding an apartment, so please pray alongside us as we continue our search for a place where we can rest our minds, our bodies and find time to spend with God in private. The greatest hunt of the year, has turned out to be the greatest times of trusting in the Lord!

Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.
Proverbs 3.5-6


Blessings

We Made it to Panama

We landed in Panama on Sunday the fourth of October and since then, my teammate Wes and I have been on the apartment hunt around Panama city. We've actually signed up for one already in an awesome location very close to the University and we ask that you pray alongside us for this apartment to be ours without any big problems. The location we're looking at right now is called Cangrejo and the cost of rent is very reasonable considering the location we are in. At the moment, we are waiting to hear back from the Realtor so that we can get accepted to be tenants for the apartment. It's a very exciting time since we are eager to get settled in so that we can start our ministry on campus as soon as possible.

Our flight over to Panama was a bit of an adventure. We were actually forced to stay an extra night in Toronto because our flight got delayed and our connecting flight was not going to connect on time, so we stayed at the Airport Sheraton Hotel courtesy of Continental Airlines. If you would like to see a video of our wait at the Airport, check it out at: http://juanwherethelightisvideo.blogspot.com/
We are in good health and both Wes and I feel totally blessed to be here. I will keep you updated on how the apartment hunting is going.

Blessings

I fly to Panama tomorrow
the country, the people I know
I'll be flying amongst stars
forgetting long gone scars
I feel great

Two times now I'll be gone
two times now too long
and I'm taking time, I'm learning life
streets and paths undiscovered, no less strife
but I'm coming back to see them unfold

I'll kiss the ground once I'm here
knowing my loved ones are near
but I'll kiss the earth when I'm there
knowing that God is everywhere
even with things familiar, but untold

And now I'm going back to the country of my dreams
where I left my mind and broke apart the seams
to dream dreams untold to any
that will be lived out by many
I feel great

Things Are Happening in Panama

My team partner from last year, Karina Campbell, got an encouraging message from Panama's campus director Secundina a couple of days ago. It was all in Spanish but I've translated it for all you lovely people. This is what Secundina said:

You know what, today I was at the business faculty talking to a class of first year students, and in that group was Jose Maria (A student involved with Campus for Christ). After I finished sharing about about Christ, Jose Maria asked me to let him speak to the class and he began to share his brief testimony about how his life has been changed and he encouraged his classmates to put their trust in God. The truth is, I was very impressed by his valor to stand up in front of his class and share his testimony and now he is very eager to follow up with his classmates. There were 29 students in this class and 18 of them received Christ, many of them confessing it verbally. The same prof asked me to speak to her first year students in social communication and out of the 20 that heard the message, 13 of them received Christ. Pray that many of them will get involved in bible studies, Vida Estudiantil (Campus for Christ) and that God will grant Jose Maria wisdom and grace to follow up on the guys from his class. On Thursday, I will also be giving a talk to a group of first year education students from the very same professor. Now I'm just taking advantage of the opportunities that God has been granting me to share about Christ. Tomorrow I'm going to be getting together with the business students. Thank you so much for your work here and for your prayers. God bless you.

Our STINT team was so encouraged by this message that Secundina sent us. There are only two full time campus staff in Panama at the moment and Secundina is one of them, so to hear stories about students taking the initiative to share about Christ is always great news. I'm sharing this with you guys because it's an answered prayer for me. I know that I can't be in Panama right now, so I've been asking the Lord that he would move the hearts of students in a powerful way and that he would use the campus staff of Panama in powerful ways too. I know that I'm not indispensable when it comes down to it and I know that I'm not the answer to all of Panama's problems. I realize that I'm simply an instrument that God will be using when he decides to use it, so stories like these really put things into perspective. I'll be sending an update soon on my status. If you're reading this, and would like to receive my updates, please just let me know. Blessings

This is Secundina

VIDEO!! A Peak At What It's Like To Be On Stint

Here is a link to a video I made for UBC on what it's like to be a STINTer. My hope is to give you a little peak at the life of a STINTer. It really is just a small peak into my life in Panama. Hours and hours of footage can be shot to capture the hard moments and the great moments of everyday life. Just copy and paste this link into your browser and you should be able to see it:

http://juanwherethelightisvideo.blogspot.com/

Enjoy

Thank You

I'm back in Vancouver now! I just arrived back home on Sunday night from my trip to Toronto. I was over in Toronto for some training and a wedding. I felt that it was a great time of connecting with new brothers and sisters and spending time with loved ones.

To keep you updated on my status, I'm currently at 50% of my needed support to get to Panama. I realize that there is still a lot of money to raise at this point, so I ask that you all keep on praying that the funds will come in by the end of this week. I was really encouraged by all the brothers and sisters that I met up with in Toronto. Some people I met for the first time and some others I met with for the first time in a long time. I felt so welcome and at home there, so I just want to express my gratitude to you all for your encouragement and support. The stories, experiences and advice that you all had to share will not be forgotten. I've also received emails and words of encouragement from people back home and people that I haven't even had the pleasure of meeting yet, so I thank you all too, for your love and support means so much to me during a time of preparation for the field.

At the moment, I do feel there is still quite a long way to go before I am able to go to Panama, but I was reminded the other day that what is impossible for man, is possible for God. Wes and I are hoping to leave soon for Panama and we are confident that this is possible in the Lord, even though it seems impossible for man. So I encourage you to pray alongside us for the impossible. It's an exciting time of trusting in God for big things and getting prepared to trust in God for even bigger things. Here is a list of things you can be praying for:

1.Panamanian students and staff. That the Lord may continue to use them in extraordinary ways to reach their country.
2.Wes and I to reach full support soon so we can leave to Panama.
3.More monthly support for both Wes and I


I do realize that God hasn't stopped working in Panama just because we aren't there. He is using staff and students there at this very moment to change Panama and the world for his glory. That really puts my heart at peace and gives me hope. I know that God is still working there. I know that I am not indispensable and that God will be working in the hearts of people in Panama whether I'm there or not. Friends, I want to encourage you to keep on praying for great things to happen. There is power in prayer and God will move.

Fearing the Task

Support raising has definitely been a greater challenge for me this year. I'll give you a list of reasons why it's so much harder to support raise this year: There's the recession! It's made it a little difficult for people to donate. There's the larger amount that we have to raise this year compared to last (an almost $6000 difference), there's the short amount of time we have to raise the funds (less than two months), there are so many things to do outside of support raising that it almost seems implausible to get this done in the time frame we have set, we're in summer time and everyone is out of the country, and there is the enemy too, who is at work himself to oppose what we're doing. I admit, at times I've looked at these challenges and quivered and I worry about these things from the very moment I wake up in the morning and start out my day. Have you ever gotten that feeling? You're faced with a challenge in a season of your life, but you wake up in the morning with worry or sadness and you'd rather just go back to sleep to get your mind off things. It's not a good feeling and technically you shouldn't have feelings of worry, sadness or fear like that, but I can't lie to you, I've had those types of feelings more often than I'd like to admit.

The other day, I was talking to a good friend. We were just catching up and talking about life. As we conversed, she spoke so positively about what she would be doing in the future and she would tell me about this and that and how great this and that was going to be and how God was providing for her in amazing ways. As she was talking, I felt a strange bitterness. All I had on my mind were the problems that I mentioned above and I just felt like telling her; hey can we change the subject. When we finally did change the subject, I was relieved, but we soon hung up. As I put the phone down and lay in my little Ikea twin sized navy blue bed, I started to feel convicted about my attitude. I knew these feelings weren't right and I knew that they definitely weren't from God. I stared at my ceiling and asked myself; why am I having these negative thoughts? I could feel something wasn't right, so I closed my eyes and prayed.

Have you ever heard that analogy about problems in life and riding a bike for the first time? You know how it goes. When you're learning to ride, you keep your eyes and attention focused on where you want to go and not on where you don't want to end up. Have any of you ever crashed into a garbage can because you focused on the garbage can instead of the road. Then you look back and you think; how could I have been so clumsy, it was so simple. Yup, it happened to me when I was five, and now it's happened to me again at twenty three as you've probably figured by now. I'm faced with a challenge right now, but I focused on "my problems" instead of the goal. So as I lay on my bed praying, I began to think, why am I thinking like such a dummy? Why am I focusing on the recession, the summer time, the amount of money and everything else that is bothering me. This ain't good Juan, these ain't things to focus on.
I figured, why not focus on God. Focus on the mission and the people that are in desperate need of a loving God. There are people out there that need you to focus your attention on them, instead of harmless garbage cans labeled "Recession".

I've come to realize that there is nothing to fear. God doesn't want us to live in fear because he's in control and there is nothing to fear, not even death. Now I do realize that it's hard not to fear. It's hard because a lot of the time, we don't even realize fear, it's just some reaction to our surroundings. But fear doesn't always have to be our reaction. Instead, we can choose to love, as God commanded us to love. I know a lot of people say that the opposite of love is apathy, but I'm not sure that's all true. I think fear can be. I'm not talking about "the fear of the Lord" but I'm talking about the fear that causes us humans to act in obscene ways. If you give it some thought, it might make sense to you. Just to give you a simple example; people kill because they fear, not just because they hate. Lots of times fear causes us to hate. Why do gay people get beat up? It's because there is something called homophobia that many people, but not all, experience to some degree, and unfortunatley many Christians do too. Now before I get off topic, I just want to challenge you to think about this. Are you ever living in fear? I admit I have. I've feared that I won't be able to raise funds to do ministry in Panama and it's made me react in negative ways. But I realize that number one: God hasn't created me to live in fear. Number two: There is nothing to fear. Take a look at the bible and I'm sure that it will tell you the same thing. Now to tell you the truth, I'm still struggling with this, but we Christians have a powerful weapon called prayer. I'm going to use it :)

I'm delayed in my blog!! Sorry, but I'm back in Vancouver :)

So as many of you know, I'm a bad blogger, so I'm sorry for any of you who may be checking up now and then on my blog to see if it's been updated and see no activity, but with that said, I'm going to make an effort to keep this blog up. Many of you also know that I'm going back to Panama for another year of STINT (Short Term International Internship). I've got to be honest with you, it wasn't the easiest decision of my life. A big part of me wants to stay in Vancouver with my friends and family, great sushi, great mountains and weather, great BUBBLE TEA! Now that I'm back, I'm beginning to realize what a wonderful place Vancouver is ("The Best Place On Earth") and how much I'm going to be missing it the second time around. I know though, that my time in Panama will not be wasted and that there is much need in this country and I know that God will use us to impact this place, even though we're just a couple of Canadian foreigners that don't totally understand the culture, but God will work through us if he chooses to do so. There are so many stories that I would like to share with you about what's going on in Panama. So many lives have been changed and so many things occurred during out time there. I'm sure we, the STINT team, don't fully realize the extent of God's impact in Panama while we were there. One of the reasons I'm going back to Panama is to see and be a part of the great things that God is doing in that country. I know that our work there is not in vain and I know that one day we will see the result of our work there and that result will be a positive and dramatic result.
Right now I'm support raising for my STINT year. So far I'm at about 20% of where I need to be. I need to raise $37,000. It seems like a lot huh? That's a huge sum of money, but I know that we also have a huge God who pretty much looks at that figure as if it were nickles and dimes. So I ask and challenge you to pray for those funds to come in before I head off to Panama. Please pray for my friend Wesley Hynd, who will also be going on this journey with me to Panama. He's almost at 60% of his support! For now that is my most pressing prayer, but I will keep updating this blog for those of you who read it :) And please, leave some comments...It'll motivate me to write more, because it show that people are reading it. Until next time.

You brother in Christ,
Juan Carlos Herrera

Our time in the village of Icandi, Panama continued...

We woke up at 5:30 the next morning to do our morning devotionals and eat breakfast. Our breakfast was not the most appealing. We brought our own food to cook, but most of it consisted of oatmeal style breakfast cream, mac and cheese, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and the like. After breakfast, we discussed some topics about our time there in Icandi and what we were doing there. Then came the interactive part. Our team split off into partners and headed off to different huts to see what life what like for a Kuna. I partnered up with Lindsey and we took off with a Kuna missionary to speak with some of the families that lived int he village. We first entered a hut where a woman was smoking fish in preparation of a coming out party for her daughter. We interacted with the woman and her daughter and talked the things that she was doing. We then got non-permanent tattoos from the woman of a Kuna symbol and the name Jesus on our arms. I was awesome. We did this again and again, going from house to house and helping the Kuna women with their daily chores and work. I cut a lawn full of weeds with a machete, lindsey peeled plantains and different foods, we gutted fish, swept floors, ground corn and other things that we never thought we would ever have to do. It all felt very cool and primitive for me because I got to do all these jobs that I would never have to do back in the city. The next day we went out to do more of the same thing, except we had the chance to speak with the villagers this time. We started a spiritual conversation with a Kuna woman in her hut while Pastor Lazarus translated for us. It was so interesting to see this woman's perspective on life. We started out with some simple questions about her life, but soon I asked her the question: What is your purpose in life? Her answer was "Nothing". This shocked me, I thought maybe she would mention her kids or her family or gathering food or something like that, but her answer was that she did not have a purpose in life. That was it and there was no explanation as to why she felt that way, but just decided that she didn't have a purpose in life. This worried me a little bit about the people in the village. I'm sure this lady was not the only one who felt this way about life. I'm worried though, because a life without purpose will result in a life with bad consequences. After speaking with this woman for a little while, her husband showed up and we started speaking to him. We shared the gospel with him and his wife! It was good and even though I couldn't really tell whether they were very receptive to the message, I know that the seed has been planted there. The Kuna missionaries that we were working with also had their own project in hand while we were there. They held a few meetings with the chiefs of the village and got permission to build a church in the village. This was definitely a victory because they had previously gotten denied to start building a church, but it was approved. While we were there, we also showed the Magdalene film, which is basically the Jesus film from the perspective of Mary Magdalene. It was wonderful and attracted a lot of attention from the people in the village, especially the women and children, which the film was geared towards. All in all, as we finished up our three day stay at the village, things were looking good. One of the things that hit me the most were the kids. There were so many kids jumping on us and hugging us and following us everywhere. Pastor Todd who was accompanying us and leading us in this project told us that most of these kids are so hungry for affection, and that is why they were around us all the time. It broke my heart, to see so many kids, hungry for love and as my teammate Raquel put it one day in tears: "All I could really do was just love these children with Christ's love and transmit that to them". The kids touched our hearts and it was awesome just to be there in their lives those three days and bring joy to their faces with just our presence there. We left on that third day with a big group of Kuna kids waving goodbye while we went off in our canoe back to the highway that leads to the city. Looking back now, I realize that there are so many things that happened there that I didn't expect to happen as a result of God using us there. I'm sure that peoples lives were touched there too, and I just never have come to realize that.

Our time in the village of Icandi, Panama

On the 22nd of February, our STINT team went out to the village of Icandi which is situated in a comarca or reserve called Kuna de Madugandí. The reason for our trip was to get us better aware and acquainted with missions into remote or less developed places. To get to Icandi, we took a bus ride that lasted a few hours to a bridge in Vallano. Near the base of that bridge, we got into motor powered canoes and traveled to the island village of Icando. It took us about an hour to get there, but it was a beautiful sunset ride, despite being soaked by the waves :) Once we got there at twilight, we were greeted by mostly Kuna women and children, but some men too. They quietly and quickly helped unload our equipment into the huts that they had arranged for us to stay in. We weren't sure what to expect, so we mostly observed and we never took pictures for some Kuna believe it bad to get their picture taken. As darkness came over the village, we made our way into the huts and got our hammocks quickly set up by the men and women. They were pretty much expert at tying knots and getting hammocks set up. All this had seemed strange to me so far. I was expecting to meet more people that speak Spanish but most of the parents and older people didn't speak Spanish. I almost felt like a stranger intruding into this place for the people didn't try to communicate with us or even break a smile. Everything was set up so fast for us, but it seemed very business like and straight forward. I would eventually come realize that the Kuna people were in fact very welcoming. On Monday, we woke up early at 5:30 am. I was so tired by that time from the rush of preparation and set up the day before, but the trip had just begun and I Knew that we had a long journey ahead of us.

To be continued...

The Power of Prayer

For some reason, I've been noticing that there has been a greater response to the gospel message on the University campus in Panama. More and more students have been accepting Christ into their lives and others have been asking for the Holy Spirit to fill them. Last term, people were not as responsive to the gospel message and I think it was partly due to a lack of prayer on our team's part. Back in December, our team as a whole could feel that prayer was lacking on all our parts and the Lord convicted us of this. There was pretty much an overall group feeling that we needed to pray more, and we expressed this to each other one night. So guess what! We started praying more. Then guess what! We started seeing more results on campus. Right now it's summer semester, so the skeptic in me says "oh yea, students are just more relaxed right now and they have more time to talk to us and make these types of decisions and that's why we are seeing a greater response from the students". I don't think it's the summer though and I don't think that it's all the free time they have. The students that are there right now don't even have free time, because they are taking classes. I think it's God's hand at work and his response to our prayers. There is something more going on here. So I hope that if you are reading this, you can experiment for yourself the power of prayer. Go ahead and try it and see results!

And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 1 John 5:14

Last night my old elementary school classmate died.

I was doing a lot of support raising last night, when something happened. I was a little stressed out dealing with student loans and raising financial support for my ministry in Panama when I found out that one of my elementary school classmates was murdered on my street back home in Canada. I didn't know him very well, but I do have memories of him way back in elementary school. He was a tough type of guy, one who would never back out of a fight...He was just fearless, but that made him prone to trouble. I can't figure out why it had hit me so hard last night. I started to think about how short life is and I realized that I'm not invincible. I began to realize that people around me are dying without Christ in their lives. I then began to think what if I had shared with my classmate. I began to have that "what if" type of thinking, which isn't always a good way of thinking, but I did. I remember seeing him on the bus a year or two ago with his girlfriend. He was a dad when he died. My point about all of this though is that last night, I realized that life is a blink of an eye. I don't have time to hesitate about sharing God's word with people around me because the worst that can happen to me in our peaceful country of Canada is be rejected. What an honor it would be anyways to be rejected for the glory of God. I want to make it clear though, that I need to share! I don't need to force it upon anyone or just shout it at them, but present it to them as a gift that God is offering to them. As I was reading my classmate's story on the web last night, I took a long look at his picture. I could still see the little innocent boy in him. That hit me too, but this became a wake up call for me. We all get wake up calls at times, we need them. Life is a blink of an eye and let's not waste one moment. :)

But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

2Peter 3:8