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 :)