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!