The end has come

Short version: We made it back safely.

Long version:

Alarm clocks went off particularly early (and particularly annoyingly in the case of Pete’s, which literally sounds like an atomic bomb) as we prepared to leave for the airport. In our zomebie-like state, we managed to successfully stumble ourselves and our luggage into the bus. When we arrived at the airport and got our luggage unloaded, we were greeted with the best news that a traveler can hear: your flight has been delayed! What was an 8:15am flight is now leaving at 11am. Did I say ‘best news’? I meant ‘worst’…still getting used to using English again. 

​Anyways, everyone took it like a champ, and we proceeded to cat around in the terminal for the next 3 hours. A conveniently located Cinnabon boosted the morale of many, and granola bars of varying expiration dates were consumed. We even made some friends during our wait. An old Spanish man mistook us for a marching band (weird) and told us he was going to Dallas to see where Kennedy was assassinated (cool?) This translation was provided byour Spanish-speaker Benji who, to be honest, doesn’t do his best work in the morning, so who knows. There wasactually a group of students with instruments nearby, which explains the marching band mix-up, and Clip (pronounced ‘Cleek’) found himself being serenaded by a girl with a ukelele…or was it the other way around? Keep an eye out for Clip’s hit-single, inspired by the life of Pete Cradduck(known for his work in the Minnemingo) and available for purchase on iTunes next month.

​Long story short, we made it on the plane without much more excitement. Unless you count Lindsay, obviously the most intimidating, suspicious-looking member of our party, getting pulled aside and interrogated.Thankfully, they let her go, and we all breathed a sigh of relief knowing that she wasn’t a terrorist. We enjoyed some scrumptious airplane food en route, before touching down in Atlanta around 4:15pm. We hustled through customs and security to make our connecting flight at 5:25pm, which brought us into Baltimore. After grabbing a quick bite and getting a free cup of Auntie Anne’s pretzel bites (best day of our lives), we grabbed our luggage and hopped on our Messiah vans. 

​So, after a long day of travel, we made it back to Messiah at 10pm.  Excited to be home but sad to part ways, we said our goodbyes. It really is astounding how such close relationships can be formed in a short time span. We left 8 days ago as acquaintances and strangers, but wereturned as a family. It is amazing how God handpicked each and every one of us for this trip, knowing beforehand that we would come together in a special way. Althoughindividual memories may fade with time, the relationships that were born in Panama will remain forever. We may not be able to see the effects of our short stay in Panama, but we pray that God will grow and cultivate the seeds thatwere planted in His name. 

Continue to pray for God’s workers in Panama: David and Marianella Bueno, Dan and Jess Cotton, Pastor Ruben and Maria, Santiago and Juliana, Manuel, Freddie, and others that I am forgetting. 

Thank you to everyone who supported us financially and through prayer, and thank you to Sawyer for sponsoring the trip. You made this incredible journey a reality.

Dios les bendiga,

-Panamaniacs

The last day has come; last day to perfect our broken Spanish, last day to play sports with Panamanians and most importantly it is the last day to share Jesus's love with the people of Panama. After a late night sharing stories of college experiences, we woke and had breakfast then broke into groups for devotions. Following devotions we packed into the bus and headed off for a group of villages along a river in a National Park in southern Panama.
When we arrived at our destination we were greeted by four indigenous people dressed in what we could only describe at the time as "Butt-Flaps". The indigenous people handed out life jackets (which seemed to be the only sign of civilization) as we filed down the hill to the river. We all climbed into a shoddy carved out tree trunk that floated on top of the river as we thought about what God had planned for us that day. As we cruised up the river, we got occasional sprays from the alligator infested water, and sporadically we saw villagers along the river performing daily tasks. Some were washing their laundry in the river, some were simply sitting on the bank preparing for the day. After our boat got stuck in the sand three times, we arrived and followed Mr. "butt-flap" to our first event of the day. We hiked for 20 minutes and arrived at a waterfall where everyone didn't hesitate to jump in to the cool water and take in God's creation. We jumped off some cliffs into a deep pool of water. After we enjoyed the Panamanian outdoors, we ventured to the village where we were greeted by a flute and an orchestra of percussion. The band was made up of indigenous people and were surprisingly talented with their "home-made" instruments. We congregated in the village center where families met together to introduce themselves. They brought us fish and fruit while they shared with us how they live (with great help from our translator Marianella). After the introduction the band played, and the villagers danced while  pulling several people from our team to dance with them. I was no exception. We then were able to hand out shoes, soccer balls, dum-dums (which was a huge hit even with the adults), and several other gifts. The people were very grateful. As we handed the gifts to the people we were sure to say "Dios Le Bendiga" (God bless you) with hopes of planting seeds to further His kingdom. The kids giggled as Benji handed them his soccer card and spoke his seemingly fluent Spanish, the little girls smiled as Lindsay painted their nails, and God's love shone through the lives of the Panama Aroma team as they served their last day in the most primitive village they had visited yet. It has been an incredible experience to be a instrument of the Holy Spirit. There is no doubt that we were able to strengthen and build the Kingdom of God as we tried to emulate our Savior; Jesus Christ. Prayer for these people and for the warriors of Christ who are here serving year around are  strongly appreciated.

-Panamaniacs

Church Without Walls, Faith Without Borders

We were taken completely off guard this morning as we woke up to 90 degree weather accompanied with saturated humidity; only joking, it's been that way since we entered Panama last Tuesday.  Aside from the stifling weather, our day was kicked off with fresh made pancakes and both fresh bananas and star-fruit.  We all piled in the familiar white bus we've been riding in all week, stacked up our bags of sports equipment and water jugs and headed out to a neighborhood in need.  We headed into a very poor and poverty stricken area where the homes were sometimes without windows or doors or even having a sealed roof overtop.  As we weaved our way through the narrow alleys and rundown shacks, I was a bit uneasy as to what we were about to experience and be confronted with.  The very first thing I was faced with when I entered the community pavilion in the neighborhood was  a warm embrace from Pastor Reuben, in Espanol, explaining how he was blessed to have us there to help him and his family. He told us that we were all considered as his family and that his wife and kids were our family. We were all confronted with a man who loves The Lord with his entire being and fully believes that we all are children of God, and we all are establishing His Kingdom here on earth.  We spent time hearing from Pastor Reuben and meeting his family, learning world class boxing techniques from Reuben himself, as well as showing them ways to improve the community center to better their vision of helping their community and others in need with food and the love of Christ. There was a spirit present among us all today, a spirit that shows the true extent of faith; the true extent of a real and tangible faith that results from completely trusting God and offering your life to Him.  Dan Cotton challenged us all to find what we can do to make the faith we believe to be true to be REAL.  Today I saw what that looks like. I saw a family that worshipped without the walls of a building with expensive sound systems or instruments or fundings. With a gourd, a wooden box, and voices of passion and energy, I saw the Spirit flying amongst us and opening out eyes to what loving God looks like. Loving God is letting go of everything we are, everything we put in between us, whether it be predispositions of what others think of us when we worship, or what people wear and look like, or even to having different languages between one another. Yesterday I sat with two kids of a village, with a Panamanian dialect songbook, a guitar, and a massive language gap between the three of us.  I began singing the song Hosana by Hillsong, and Jorge began playing the guitar and Marylin began singing in her unique dialect of Spanish, and we worshipped the same God.  And after running through the Panamanian rain forest this evening and seeing His glorious majesty (along with a family of monkeys) I know without a doubt in my heart that my faith has gained another level of a deeper understanding that I can hardly explain.  I see God in more places in my life, and I am beginning to hear His voice and feel His presence in the most unexpected places. My prayer each and every day will always include asking God to utilize my gifts and talents in ways that are real to me and my faith, but also real to someone else that needs to feel God's love in a very real way.  I'll leave you all with a closing statement from Pastor Reuben today before we left his community:  "you all are angels that God has sent to help me and my family and develop these relationships. No matter where we come from, and where we go, through Jesus Christ I know we will all meet again in heaven."

Today was a Sunday like none other. Instead of a typical Sunday morning church service we had church on the bus. We were on our way to a village far away because they asked our group to come play some volleyball with them. During this two and a half hour bus ride we heard testimonies from two of our team members, had a devotion, and finished with some worship. Even before we stepped off the bus today we were feeling blessed to hear the promises of God. We were reminded that we are not only children of God, but also heirs to the throne. This was the energizer we needed in order to spend the day pouring ourselves out into others.
Once we arrived we were greeted by hugs and kisses from many of the villagers. We made our way over to a central location where the food was cooking! A few of the girls helped with the cooking along side of the village woman. Once we finished  I looked out and saw my team dispersed throughout the village. Some were playing basketball, some were playing fútbol, others were handing out stickers, while a group was "speaking" to the locals. The team was spread out sharing the love of God not through our words but rather through our actions.
Two of the girls on the team had the opportunity to visit another part of the village about two minutes away to visit a woman who had just recently had a baby. The difference between these two areas were incomparable. The children were running around with close to nothing on and these people were living in grass huts. Seeing people live in these conditions has burdened our team for the people of Panama. When they returned to the other part of the village it was time for lunch.
After we scarfed down the lunch of chicken and rice that the women prepared for us, many of us started a mini volleyball tournament with some villagers. They seemed to really enjoy the sport of volleyball and were excited to see that we wanted to compete with them. During the tournament some of the younger children were running and around and playing with the goodies we brought for them.
Tournament play ended around 3:30 and transitioned  into a small time of closing fellowship with the village people. We introduced ourselves, heard a testimony from one of our team members, and received blessing from a man in the village after hearing his heart warming story of spiritual transformation. We finished with a prayer  and started on our long bus ride back to Cass Paraiso with heavy hearts for these people.

When we arrived at Casa Paraiso we enjoyed nice hot showers (well, most of us), a  big pizza dinner and a time of fellowship. Of course we ended the night with a little bit of ping pong and a game of signs. tomorrow we will be switching things up a bit and working along side of the collaboratory from Messiah College. As we head to bed we are excited to see what the Lord has in store for us tomorrow and the rest of our time here. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers, God is hard at work here in Panama!

 Hi everybody! I can't believe it's already Saturday! The days have been long, but the trip is going by so quickly. I was so excited to come on this trip and see how God would use me beyond my wildest imagination. I've been on trips before but none like here in Panama! The coolest parts of the trip have been the little moments when I see God work. There have been a lot so far, but one of the coolest was today.
My family is pretty awesome, and put together a surprise package of letters for me to open everyday while I am in Panama. Today's letter was from a women from my church (which was wonderful!) but I also noticed I was a day behind. I opened another and it was from my brother, and it said things like "go beyond your comfort zone, eat new food, try new things and have an awesome time." I got super excited from this and definitely tried to be put it into practice. I would have loved to have the opportunity to eat a new food today at lunch, but I got full! However! I have been eating the food that the schools or villages have made for us, which has been great and exciting to try new things! But also following Jeremy's words of wisdom,  I was able to be a part of a group teaching field hockey to the kids at the camp we went to today.
Running isn't as easy of a sport to teach, so it's been really fun to be a part of volleyball clinics and today, field hockey! It was new and interesting to pick up, but it was so much fun! Seeing how excited the kids are to play a new sport and have so many people excited to play with them and just show them Christs love all day is a new feeling, and it's something I will treasure for a lifetime.
God has blessed us all with an amazing opportunity to use our love of Christ and sports to show love to so many people here in Panama.
Another awesome thing we got to do today was help build Sawyer water filters for people we visited. They were missionaries who housed orphan children, as well as for people who lived nearby who didn't have clean water to drink. It was amazing to be able to (literally) be hands of Christ and help build these water filters that they can use for years and years to come. One women was saving up her money to buy a filter for her family,  and we were able to be give her a filter to use. We were all so amazed by God's timing and how He placed us there  today for a reason, and able to give this women clean water for her and her family.
Thank you all much for your encouragement and prayers while we are here!

Natalie

M

Another Adventure in Panama

Another beautiful early morning in Paraiso, we all awoke anxious for another adventure. After scarfing down some cereal and cinnamon buns, which were actually quite delicious, we headed out to our destination. Rather than the green forest we ventured to yesterday, we found ourselves going into the concrete jungle of Panama City. After enduring some rush hour traffic we arrived at a Panama Christian Academy. Walking through the front gate and to the single concrete basketball court, we were greeted by a group of 8th graders ready to play volleyball. We started with our traditional game of „Tierra e Mar" with Pete at the helm, which is always fun to watch and participate in. The kids smiling faces and enthusiasm showed it all. It was a blessing to see them laughing and so excited to play.  We split up into groups and taught them volleyball basics, such as hitting, passing, and setting. The kids picked it up very well and we were all having fun. We quickly made friends and were able to make some deeper connections today as most of the kids spoke English. After a few rounds of intense volleyball games we went to our testimonial section. Craig shared today and left a lasting impact on the kids encouraging those that were already Christians and telling and explaining the good news of Jesus Christ. After this class dispersed, we learned pretty quickly of the free flowing environment. Kids were out on break constantly and we were able to play with them and make more friends and continue to encourage and teach. Clip was able to get the kids going with a game of high fives and along with Craig and Pete showed some of the kids how to dunk. Suzi was talking to girls about the life found in Jesus. Aaron spent some of his lunch talking to kids around the little courtyard, and so on! Everybody was interacting and loving on the kids and they were loving back. It was amazing to connect, but yet again sad we had to leave. We all have agreed this is one of the hardest parts of our mission both for the kids and people we are impacting and ourselves, but our short time here will still have an impact and gives good help to David and Marianella's ministry for Christ.

After a hectic morning of fun with the kids, we took our afternoon time to watch some soccer and visit Panama City. Unfortunately David's team lost. After gaining a 2-0 lead in the first half, the second half ended in a draw. It went into pks were David's team, CCA Eagles, lost by 2. It was a sad loss especially in semi-finals, but it was a great lesson to us as athletes how David was able to walk across the field after the game and transition back into life without letting it effect him. We kicked around a little bit, and watched little Dani show off his natural soccer abilities against Rev (Chris) who was in goal. Once we finished kicking around we went into the historic part of Panama City in search of memories and souvenirs. The history of  the city was amazing. Marianella told us a story about a church that was amazing. The center piece of the church, which was gold leafed and all carved images of Jesus and other saints and other artistic interpetations was thrown into the ocean by Pirates, but was recovered by the indigenous people. We soon found ourselves walking on a walkway by the bay where home made souvenirs were scattered across the tables of eager barterers. It was amazing to see the selflessness of everyone as they picked out necklaces and gifts for friends and family back home.

The drive back we passed the ghettos along the highway and you can't help but think the hardship that is there in the city. It reminds you of how fortunate we are and how much people need to be reached out to in the world and in our own country that are in similar situations. Ending on a happy note, we ate out at a mall that would put many malls in the U.S. To shame. It was huge! We enjoyed each other company before returning exhausted, yet ready to do laundry and for another intense game of signs! What is in store for us tomorrow? Another adventure we are eager to go on.

Today our group again, had a great day! We traveled on a bus for about an hour and twenty minutes. It was quite the bumpy ride as we zipped along the twisty roads up and down the mountains. We finally arrived at a public school that rotated between elementary, middle and high school aged kids. The view from the school was breath taking, as it was perched  on the top of a mountain that was surrounded by more mountains and beautiful scenery. On the little flat area we had, we started the day with the elementary aged kids and worked our way up. Thanks to our awesome translator, Manuel, we were able to proclaim  our love for Jesus and for our sports. We then did some silly relay races before breaking into our sports. The kids could pick whether they wanted to play soccer, baseball, volleyball or field hockey. They seemed especially interested in field hockey because they have never seen nor heard of it before! It was exciting to teach something completely new to those kids. Although the language barrier seemed difficult, we were glad that fun and laughter proved to  have  no borders. The age groups were into a different set of sports each time, but we were able to involve everyone and have a lot of fun! The group members shared testimonies and encouraging words to connect to the kids of all ages. In the afternoon when we were playing with the high school kids, it started to rain. Many  kids braved the rain and continued to play field hockey and frisbee while volleyball was played in a pavilion. We were also able to leave field hockey sticks and balls to the school so that they can continue to play and learn about it! Our day was filled with Jesus, sports and tons of fun! We are excited to see what God has in store for us tomorrow!