Reading Time

Now that we've really started to meet with readers for a couple of weeks now. I'll tell you how its going. I currently have a dozen readers who I meet with once a week. People sometimes will fail to come to their reading session without telling us. But this is common in Latin America. I'm getting to know all kinds of people, from professors at the university to janitors. Most are university students that have taken several english classes.

Things started off really well, but about 5 or 6 of my readers have missed their sessions. I'm emailing them now to remind them, but I can't force them to come. The rest, who come, are really doing well and understand everything they read about Jesus. Please pray that the ones who aren't coming will come back.

The really cool thing is that we are still getting new people coming in to sign up for the program. The university has offered to pay for our meals while we are on campus. We are being treated very well. One of my readers last week, thanked me for spending my time with him. It made my day, of course, but more than that, he let me know that God is using the time we are spending reading His word to make a difference in someone's life. I hope that I can always remember to get out of the way and let God do His thing.

The Dry and Rainy Seasons

I apologize to all of you who regularly check this blog for updates for my lack of blog time. A couple of weeks ago, Cyndi and I had to leave Panama because our tourist visa expired. Every 90 days, we are required to leave Panama for three days, then we are free to re-enter the country and receive another 90 day visa. We went to the closest country we could travel to... Costa Rica. During this time, Crystal Jones visited us even though she knew that we would be taking Central American transportation! We were so glad to have her experience our latest adventure. We really enjoyed Costa Rica, and Crystal's visit, despite the overnight bus ride through the mountains. Blah!

A week ago, an LST team of five from New York state came to Panama to help us with the opening of UDELAS, the local university where we are finding new readers. Cyndi and Lisa Carter (our missionary contact in Panama) spent the first couple of days going to classes telling university students about the LST program. The word spread and we spent last week signing up lots of readers. And starting reading sessions!!!! We are so glad that people are ready to read with us now! Summer vacation is over and they are ready to get to work.

God has brought to us many college students, and some faculty as well. All five of the folks from New York have lots of readers. They plan to be here for two more weeks. Once they leave, Cyndi, Lisa and I will take all of these readers and continue to have reading sessions with them. We are so excited with the response that we have received. So many souls drinking in the Word of God. Praise God for His work in their lives. Please pray that we will be His instruments as we read the gospel with them.

In Panama, the are two seasons... the Dry Season and the Rainy Season. Their equivalent of summer vacation started the day we arrived in Panama and last week it ended. Also, the rainy season will begin very soon. The same has been true with our work here. We tried and tried to read with people, but had very little response. But now, the response to our work is almost overwhelming. In Panama, when it rains, it pours and I'm not just talking about water. Let it rain.

Let my teaching fall on you like rain; let my speech settle like dew. Let my words fall like rain on tender grass, like gentle showers on young plants. I will proclaim the name of the Lord; how glorious is our God! Deuteronomy 32:2-3

"Summer Vacation"

This time of year in Panama (and much of Latin America) is vacation time. It is very similar to our summer vacations where the kids are out of school and folks take time off from work. For the next four days, Carnival (a nation-wide Mardi Gras) will commence. Things are really quiet all around and many people are traveling. School starts in March and will last through to December. We plan to start a full load of reading sessions in the next couple weeks at the local University - UDELAS (an acronym for Universidad Especializada de las Americas). The University incorporates LST into the curriculum even though our services are free and we don't work for the University. It's an amazing opportunity to teach college students about the Bible while they take their regular classes. The University provides space for our reading sessions and we live only about a mile away from the campus. God has really set everything up perfectly and we are ready to start.

But we have been taking advantage of the down time though to settle into our new apartment and I am working for the Bible Study Guide for 40 hours a week to make up for time lost during our travel from Brazil and the Christmas holidays. We have been getting used to our new home and surroundings. Plus we are studying Spanish with a tutor 3 nights a week. It is really difficult to learn the language, but we are giving it our best.

Please pray for our upcoming work. We plan to have a very full schedule soon and will be reading through the book of Luke with as many people as we can handle. I have downloaded pictures to our Picasa web page of our recent work in Chepo and of our new apartment. Click here to visit the photo page.

Settling in Again

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.

Turn of Events

We've run into a bit of a snag concerning our work in Chepo. Read Cyndi's blog to get an update. Click here.

Happy New Year!

We are starting an exciting adventure this weekend to start off our work in Panama. Cyndi and I plan on going to a small town called Chepo. In Chepo, we will start a 3 week project where LST has never been attempted before. The local church of 40-50, has been advertising our free lessons and we will start sessions next Monday, Lord willing.

We had the opportunity to go to visit the church and the town on Monday. The challenge for us will be that we are only beginners in Spanish, but no one at the church speaks English. I have a feeling that our Spanish is about to get a power boost! Necessity is the best teacher, right? So stay tuned to find out how that works out. Ha!

There are a lot of details that need to be worked out. And Cyndi and I are going to be asked to do some things that we have never done before, so please pray that God will make everything fall into place, as He has done so many times before. We will not have much internet access while we are there, so you may have to be patient with our updates.

This is the great adventure! Happy 2009!

Panama Pictures

During the holiday free time, we have been exploring our new city. If you would like to see some of our pictures, click here.

Feliz Navidad!

Merry Christmas to all of our family and friends! If you've been reading Cyndi's blog, you already know that we are in Panama City, Panama. We had an uneventful flight (Praise God!) and are in the process of settling into our new environment. We have met some people who are very important to us already, Raul and Betty Alvarado. He is a local native minister and they have three beautiful children. They are both from Panama and went to Harding, built a ministry in California for several years before moving back to Panama. They have been back here for around ten years. They have been helping us get settled in and showing us around. This isn't easy when you consider that Christmas is so near. The Alvarados have graciously invited us to spend Christmas with them. So we will get the pleasure of experiencing the holiday in another culture. That will be really welcome, because being by ourselves would be difficult since we won't be with our families this year.

We are living in the Carters apartment while they are home in Florida for the holidays. We were able to meet Lisa before she left. While they are in Florida, we are hoping to find a place of our own. No success so far. Please pray that we will find something close to the university where we will be reading with students. Housing is very expensive here and we also want to find something reasonable so we can stay for nine months, like we agreed.

We have a difficult road ahead of us. We started learning Spanish when we arrived, but have A LOT to learn before we can even take care of our own needs, let alone carry on a conversation. So please pray that we will be quick students. I think a genuine miracle will be required for that one, but I believe God can do amazing things as we have already seen.

After the New Year's holiday, we will be moving out to a small town called Cheppo. There we plan on spending two weeks doing LST work with the people there. We may be staying in the church there. We may be out of internet contact while there, but will surely fill you in on all of the details once our time in Cheppo is through. We look forward to this challenge.

Thank you for your interest in our lives and how God is using us. Thank you so much for all of you who have given us support and prayers. Just reading our blogs is a gift to us. A special thanks to everyone who leaves comments, if it weren't for you, we wouldn't know that anyone was reading our blogs. Thanks to our families for giving us up for one year, we miss you, especially now. Thanks to our friends who have offered to do whatever we need them to do. The time to ask for favors may be near.

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year! God bless you!

Another Transition

It seems like transitions are becoming a habit for Cyndi and I. But that doesn't make them any easier. We are preparing to leave Natal on Monday, Dec. 15th and the good-byes have already started. Last night we had a farewell party and most of our readers came to wish us well. Cris and Lacy coordinated a great time for us all to share one last time together. It is really hard to let go of people that we have shared so much of ourselves with. From the first day we all met, our goals were to give of ourselves and share the Word. We all have relationships that do not go much deeper than, "Hi, how ya doin?" "Fine." "How are you?" "Fine." But with LST, we spend at least an hour per week talking and studying together. Needless to say, these relationships can really run deep.

So as we leave Brazil and look to Panama, it's a mixture of emotions for me. We are leaving close friends and traveling to a place that we've never been before to work with people we've never met. It's real easy to reject this idea and want nothing more than to stay here in Natal with the people we know. But I know that God is calling us to Panama and we will meet and grow to love more people. At this point, it is difficult, but trusting God's will and plans is what we set out to do a year ago. I'm reminded of the lesson that I blogged about at the very beginning: I'm not to make plans and ask God to bless them, I'm to let God make my plans and follow. So that's what I am trying to do, even when I don't feel like it.

Our plane leaves Natal on the morning of the 15th and arrives in Panama City later that evening. We are planning on making contact with Lisa Carter, one of the missionaries before she leaves for the holidays in the US. We will stay in the Carter's apartment for the holidays learning as much Spanish as possible. I plan on sending more details once we are settled in. God bless you and please keep us in your prayers.

Thanks and More Thanks

We have had A LOT to be thankful for, here in Natal. On Sunday night, two young men gave their lives to Christ in baptism. Both were involved in the LST program. We are so thankful to announce that Talis and Jefferson are brothers in Christ. What an incredible blessing to see both of them grow in their faith and knowledge of Jesus. Talis had been reading with Lacy Hefley. The first time I saw Jefferson was at our costume party at the end of October. He has been studying with John Jewell since then. You can see pictures of their baptisms by clicking here! (For those of you that receive our newsletter, Talis was the young man that we highlighted in the reader profile of our last newsletter.)


We recently celebrated Thanksgiving by having a party with our LST readers. We had a great group and served a traditional Thanksgiving dinner to all of them. Our LST team, the missionaries and church members alike pitched in to make it all come together. We got to teach our readers about our culture and really share ourselves with them. Cyndi made some great food that wasn't easy to do in a different culture. But it was a wonderful taste of home... especially the pies. We were really encouraged by the success of the party. Last year Cris Carpenter was the lone American trying to do the same thing. Marisa, a local minister's wife, mentioned how last year they were praying and praying for God to help them reach the community. She said that this year, she can see that God answered their prayers in a great way. (You can see pictures of our party at the same link above.)

Cyndi and I are starting to look to the immediate future. In two weeks, we will leave Brazil and travel to Panama City, Panama. It is difficult to imagine the transition that awaits us. It will be excruciating to leave our coworkers, church family and the readers we have come to know so well. It will be especially hard because we are going to a brand new place that we know little about. All we know is that God wants us there. And I guess that should be enough, shouldn't it? He has taken care of us so well that I am constantly amazed at His grace.

I will send more info about Panama in the next few weeks. Until then, rejoice with us as we celebrate two new lives in Christ.
Visit Cyndi's blog to read more about our Thanksgiving.