Cyndi and I are finished with our work in the little town of Chepo and are back in Panama City where we will remain in residence until we come back to the US. The work in Chepo started off really well, even though there weren't many people with good enough English to read with us. We had lots of people coming to Cyndi's basic English class. I am really proud of the way she tackled teaching because she had never done anything like that before. She and Amada (our God-sent translator) really worked hard to show the students that the church is a welcoming place where everyone is accepted. I had several readers who were doing well. Then we got sick.
I got sick first, then Cyndi three days later. It was a virus that gave us fever and digestive trouble. Once I got the fever, I wanted to come back to Panama City so that we could see an English speaking doctor. The illness lasted for about a week and a half and after feeling up to it we decided to go back to Chepo and finish what we started. But, it appeared that the momentum had been lost and we only had about half of our original students. Chepo had never had LST before and we were kind of a test to see if they were good for an LST team. We've decided that its a little too rural and there are just not enough people with English comprehension. Our goal was to make a contact with the people and the church and I think that God blessed that work.
Now we are back in Panama City and have moved into our apartment! This is the first place to call our own since coming to Panama City in mid-December. We are busy getting all of the things a couple needs to survive. Tonight, we went to the mall and Cyndi got pots and pans for the kitchen and various other things that make a home. I will take pictures soon and post them on our Picasa site for your viewing pleasure.
I will spend February working for the Bible Study Guide full-time to make up for lost time while traveling, the holidays and being sick. Cyndi will try to pick up a handful of readers that have some contact with the church already. We don't start work with the university here until March, so we are filling our time as wisely as possible. We are also continuing or Spanish training and learning more and more. It is really difficult, but we are determined. With God's blessing, we can learn more than we think.
Thanks to everyone who has been praying for us. We are trying o find our place in Panama and it is a bit of a struggle. But we also know that God has brought us here and we are anxious for the university to start so we can meet the ones we came to teach about Jesus. Please pray that God will prepare those readers for the seed.
P.S. I'm sorry that it is so cold in the US.It feels like summer here every day. I know that sounds nice to some of you, but I miss the cold. I know, I'm a crazy polar bear living at the Equator.
Thoughts About Readers
14 years ago
