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

What I Do On My Free Time in Panama

As I mentioned in my previous post, there are many things to do in Panama. At times I feel that I am being pulled in many directions all at once and the problem is that I want to be in all these places at once, but there is only one of me!
As a saxophonist, I've had the privilege of getting calls to play with many talented musicians over here in Panama. I really like this because the musicians I am playing with want to spread the word of God to people through music. Sometimes we play at the Universities in Panama and at other times we play at churches or big conferences. Popular music in Panama is different than the popular music in Canada and because of this, I get many more opportunties to play my saxophone with groups here, because popular music over here can incorporate the saxophone, unlike the majority of popular music played in Canada which is mostly guitar and keyboard driven. Now I do want to say that I am only speaking of popular music within the christian circles in Canada and Panama. In other words, popular praise and worship music, whether it be christian "artist" music or christian "worship" music for those who like to make that distinction. I did also bring my guitar, to Panama, but I haven't had too many opportunities to play it outside of campus ministry time. I was really hoping I would get more time to play my guitar on my free time, but that just hasn't been the case. The saxophone has taken it's prominent place in my musical endeavors. A big highlight for me this past month was the Coicom conference. I got to play in the opening show with some great musicians here in Panama including David Choy, a great Composer/Pianist who has shared the stage with the likes of Miami Sound Machine, Juan Luis Guerra and many more. This was an amazing opportunity for me because I do not often have the chance to play with such an amazing musician as David. You can check out David's story and see the way God has changed his life at: http://www.cbn.com/700club/features/Amazing/David_Choy051206.aspx

When I'm not playing my saxophone, I like to connect with my new Panamanian friends. I've made many great friends here in Panama. Abraham, shown in the picture, is one of my good buddies. He plays the electric guitar and performs whenever he can with his screamo band. There is never a dull moment when Abraham is around. He is a super duper high energy guy and he never stops acting in a way that is out of the ordinary. He is one of the students going to the Dominican Republic next week with us on the short term missions project. He has raised all of his support now, so I give thanks to God for that. I know that God will use him and the other students to reach out to other lost students who are in desperate need of a Lord and savior.

One more thing that I do on my free time is Youth Ministry. I am volunteering with a youth group at a church called Crossroads. The youth ministry is called Crossfire and so far it's been an amazing time of building into youth in Panama. There are many Panamanian and American youth at Crossfire, so it's all bilingual teaching, which is something I find to be very awesome, because they are all united there to learn and worship God, despite differences in language and culture. I can definitely see the hand of God moving in the lives of these youths.

If you want to know more about what I am doing on my free time, don't hesitate to ask and just email me at juanqui_dtj@hotmail.com

Blessings

Busy Living

Life in Panama has been surprisingly busy. There are so many opportunities to do things. Music, meetings, events, talks, sharing, evangelizing, making friends and studying are things that you can do here, but there is so much to pick and choose from. At times, it is tough to choose between things and to prioritize them, because help is always needed everywhere.
The last couple of weeks have been really tough because I had to take a systematic theology class. It was required of all the Campus for Christ Panama staff to take this two week intensive course. Lots of people were very tired and stressed out from it all, but the course was awesome. Our Professor's name was Eric Schlottman and he did an amazing job. He is an American, but he taught the whole course in Spanish, and his Spanish was excellent. The course is over now, but I still have to do a lot of assigned reading.
Life with my roommates has been alright. This is really my first time living away from home, so having the opportunity to share a house with other guys has been a very good and helpful experience. It's not always easy living with people you don't know that much, but I thank God for my roommates, who are also my teammates. They are great guys and Christ centered. Living with them hasn't been a problem for me at all so far, so I am grateful for that.
Now that I have more time, I will be writing in my blog more regularly, so if you are reading this, you can check up on this blog at least once a week, and you'll find something new. If you have any questions about anything, don't hesitate to ask me. :)

Blessings

A little bit about my life in Panama

I asked a good friend of mine "hey what do you wonder about my life here in Panama?" and she responded by saying "i wonder how you spend your hours...the things that are hard ...the things that you praise God for...friends you've made...cool experiences that are random and out of the ordinary...what a normal day would look like for you". When she said this, I thought haha, this is a pretty cool list of things to write on my blog about, haha. I guess a whole book could be written on all this stuff, who knows if it would be any interesting to people outside of my circle of interest, but, yea, I guess that's what I'll write about and here is a little bit about what it's like for me in Panama. If I write about something unrelated to Panama, I'll leave the word Panama out of the title for you. Here is a little something I wrote. It's short, has bad grammar, but maybe a little interesting.

Well, last night, and right now as we are speaking, my neighbor keeps on watching these movies with like people like screaming and fighting with swords, lol, because you keep on hearing this like dramatic symphonic music with like peoples swords clanging, haha, it's hilarious and it's like almost 12 am right now they must be watching some type of epic movie lol i give thanks to God for the place we are living in, it's pretty sweet and quiet, but, compared to canada , I guess this would be considered an outage "outrage", lol, but yea, it's nice a peaceful where we are living at so that's awesome, I get to play guitar anytime I want and nobody is going to come up to my apartment and start complaining about the noise that's sweeet thank you Lord but yea, and I guess, I am beginning to see the clash of culture here in Panama with my teammates and the way things work here, it's different than Canada.

Oh yea, the guy on the pic up there is a student I met at the National University Campus here in Panama. His name is Hernan and he's from Nicaragua.

Blessings

Panama

So I'm going to be here in Panama for one year. I've been here for nearly a month and I am now in the process of settling in. This will also be my first time away from home for an extended period of time so I am getting used to calling my apartment home. I want to thank so many people for their prayers and support for my mission here in Panama. I feel blessed.