Messiah College AROMA 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

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