Week 9: Panama Outreach

God has been so faithful and moving during our time here! We just recently reached our half-way point in the DTS and took a short-term outreach trip to Panama to apply what we have learned. As a group we carried out many ministries of mercy including feeding the homeless, playing with orphaned children, sitting and sharing with the elderly, serving an indigenous tribe by assisting in cleaning their school house, dancing/performing dramas in the streets to people passing by and praying with those in need and hurting as they shared their requests, and so on. As the week came to a close and we took the 20 hour bus ride back home, we had time to reflect on why we are here. We began to grasp the vision for our future here. The key is that we believe and then do and not the other way around. This is not faith by works. It’s applying God’s love to others as He loved us first!

All of the time we have spent in classes was preparing us to go out and be God’s hands and feet to His children in need. As Jason and I tumbled around on the floor with a group of orphans., our hugs and smiles were those of God’s to his forgotten babies. When we walked the streets in prayer seeking hungry people to give food to, God opened the door for us to not only share physical food with them but to tell them for Him that He loves them and they are worth caring for, praying for, and loving. Even in the indigenous village where they have heard the gospel numerous times, God opened a way for us to show our love for them by getting to know them as individuals and meeting a physical need by carrying buckets of water from the river to their school. In doing this we gave them a day to watch others do a dirty task to show God’s love for them instead of preaching the same thing they have always heard and asking them to serve us. This week was so humbling and at the same time exciting because God put all of our head knowledge into action by asking us to use our hearts and hands to get dirty and serve others.

Thank you so much for praying and supporting us! The next weeks and months will be even better! God is calling us out into the nations to share his love. We only had a week in Panama but that is only the beginning of this ministry. We wish we could fully express how excited we are to be His tools!