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."