The Zoo has Landed

Open your eyes Team Panama. It's go time. 

After touching down in Panama City at 10 o'clock Monday night, we arrived at our base in Paraiso for a late night orientation to our home away from home.  The orientation clued us in to our new surroundings (Swim in the nearby canal? No. Become friends with the majestic local street dogs? Maybe. Expect exciting and eye-opening experiences every day? Absolutely) and was followed by a quick night’s rest, and an early rise to kick off the first day of ministry. 

News flash: Panama has gigantic spiders.  And bad traffic. These two things we found out Tuesday morning, but neither the spiders nor the traffic could prevent us from reaching our first destination on the outskirts of Panama City: Santo Christobol School. 

At Santo Christobol we jumped right into things, leading Basketball clinics with three different groups of students.  We taught, laughed, and played alongside kids in fourth grade all the way through high school.  Although the ages varied, the three groups of students had one main similarity: they love to have fun. Coincidentally, this team loves to have fun too.  It made for the perfect pairing.  

The morning and early afternoon included many special moments at Santo Christobol.  We were blessed by the way the students listened attentively to our basketball instructions and the testimony given by Maria.  Hugs were on no short supply when saying goodbye, as our friends at Santo Christobol helped us get the trip off to an awesome start. 

From Santo Christobel, we traveled to Pandesportes in downtown Panama, where we trained and played volleyball against a team of 14-16 year olds. We have to admit that none of us have ever played competitive volleyball, but that didn't prevent us from taking on the challenge (...one we lost every time). Though our volleyball "skills" need some work, we had an great time learning from our talented opponents, and also sharing the love of Christ with them through Jake's testimony. 

It should also be noted that the Zoo definitely rocked the purple shirts.  

Tuesday ended with a time of team worship and devotion back at the house, a refreshing end to a long day. Pray for us as we continue to grow closer as a team, that we will go forth in the peace and strength of the Lord. He is capable of so much more than we can imagine! 

*With each blog post, we would like to include Scripture from the team testimonies shared that day* 

Jake - Ephesians 5:11-14; Psalm 25:8

Maria - Isaiah 41:10