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Mission News From Panama

March 2010

 

(If you would like to print the newsletter CLICK HERE)

 

Panama Team

 Our Panama team traveled out to the village of Diwarsikua March 12-14.   The team was overwhelmed when they witnessed how much the believers are growing spiritually in Diwarsikua.  The believers do not have a permanent pastor but have miraculously began to organize themselves and are showing a great deal of maturity in their faith.  It shows how God takes care of His people even when they do not have a human Sheppard to lead them on a regular basis.  When the team arrived on Friday they played a game of basketball with some of the men.  The next day they decided to organize a small basketball tournament with all the guys in the village.  This was a huge success; a lot of people came and watched the tournament.  This gave the team an idea of organizing a tournament between all the villages in the Bayano area.  It is amazing to realize that God can and will use anything to reach the lost.

We were finally able to receive the boat motor we paid for back in September. The money for this motor was donated by Wiley Mae Community Baptist Church in Silsbee, Tx and Pleasant Hill Baptist Church in Spurger, Tx.  We have also had donations to buy a canoe for the team, part of which came from Rey de Reys in Marshall, Texas.  We are in the process of looking for a canoe to purchase.  This will make the trips for the team a great deal less expensive.  We are so very grateful for the believers back in the states for making these sacrificial donations to help the cause of Christ amongst the Kuna’s.  We are making plans now for another mission trip June 7th – 14th.  We want to do a medical mission trip this time.  We are praying for doctors, nurses, and other medically trained individuals to commit to come on this trip with us.  The most heartbreaking part of these trips
Boat Motor we will use for trips

is seeing the suffering these people, especially the children, endure due to their lack of medical care.  Simple things such as soap, antibiotics and other medicines are a luxury for them.  We are praying for a team of 10 people for this trip.  Please prayerfully consider being a part of this, even if you do not have any medical training.  We will be bringing down supplies and offering basic first aid training.  If you know of any nurses or doctors that may be interested please pass this on to them.

We would like to ask you to take the time to read the testimonies from the team.  The stories are amazing, but what is more amazing is how greatly God is using this team.  Their faithfulness and sacrifice is so apparent.  The same is true no matter who you are in missions, you go with the goal of changing lives, but inevitably you are the one that is changed…forever.

Prayer Request

  • June 7-14, 2010 – Medical Mission Trip

  • Sickness in the village

  • Diwarsikua New Believers—to have strength and burden to share their faith

  • Kapanti—new village for ministry

  • Transportation for Christy in Panama

  • Mission house in Panama

  • Generator

  • Projector, to show Jesus Film

 

 

 

Women of Diwarsikua - Praying

 

Maxi Playing Basketball

 

Some of the guys from tournament, t-shirts donated by Trinity Christian Academy of Willow Park, Texas were used as prizes for the basketball touranment

 

Feeding the kids in the village

 

Team doing drama

 

Kemuel teaching the guitar

 

Elias

 

Mission Team Testimonies

Pastor Roosevelt – Last year a man by the name of Ovidio was saved on the trip we took in September.  He was one of the men driving the canoe when we went from Diwarsikau to the village of  Kapanti.  He witnessed us being asked to leave the village.  At the end of the trip I was talking with the three guys from Diwarsikua, sharing a little about our faith.  Seeing what the team went through, leaving their homes, and experiencing the refusal of the villagers to hear the gospel made Ovidio want to be a part of the group of people that were willing to go through such things.  We were told that he is the only man in the village that always attends every meeting the believers have in Diwarsikua.  I had the privilege of baptizing him on this trip.  I asked him if he was sure he wanted to be baptized, he said ‘yes’ he was convinced he was a believer.  Sunday morning at church, the time came for the offering.  Ovidio’s children came to get an offering from him.  He pulled out all the money from his pockets and gave them all that he had.    Maxi said to him, ‘they took all your money’, his only response was pointing to the sky symbolizing that God would provide. 

Maxi – We played basketball with some guys from the village on Friday and decided to have a small basketball tournament with all of them on Saturday.  It was a big success. After the tournament we asked the guys that won to come and eat with us.  We shared a little of our faith and prayed with them.  We invited them to go to the service that night and Sunday morning.  Pastor Roosevelt preached Sunday morning on why we came so far to share the gospel with their village.  He said that he would continue to come regardless of his health problems until God called him home.  After the message one of the men that won the basketball tournament accepted Christ as his Savior.

Ingrid – My name is Ingrid de la Ossa, I am 20 years old and this was my first time to travel to Diwarsikua.  It was an incredible journey in the canoe, seeing all of nature, including crocodiles.  I will forever remember the kids from this village.  I was able to teach them new games, songs and bible stories during my short time there.  One thing that stood out to me happened right before we left.  Saturday night I noticed that they had left out two plates of rice.  All of us from the team were bothered at night by how many rats were running around above and below us.  We would hear them fighting and scurrying all over.  The next morning I saw two little girls eating those two plates of rice that had been left out all night.  This really touched me, seeing the necessity, the hunger these kids have. It made me very sad to know that they ate that rice because that was all they had. 

I will also remember talking to a young girl in the river.  She told me she was in the 5th grade.  The girl was asking me about my school.  I asked her if she wanted to keep studying and she said yes, but she said her parents told her that they did not want her to keep going because it was not important.  I told her she should pray for the opportunity to keep studying and that I knew God would hear her prayer.

Maybeth – My name is Maybeth Perez and I am 22 years old.  This is my first experience going to Diwarsikua.  I will start by saying ‘Thank you God’ for guiding us on this trip.  I was humbled greatly when I witnessed the young girls carrying all of our heavy things up the steep embankment and how lovingly they welcomed us to the village.  I was amazed to see the kids smiling when we offered them one piece of bread and some oatmeal.  I saw how excited they were and the look on their faces.  I realized that if I had offered that to my nieces and nephews in the city they would not have eaten it.  They would say, ‘what is this’?  I was greatly impacted by how little these kids have, and how grateful they were for what we gave them. 

Kathy – I was originally not going to go on this trip.  I was at the bus stop on my way home the night before, when I felt God’s spirit leading me and I made the decision right then to go.  This particular trip was special for all of us because we could see the new believers’ spiritual growth, especially a young woman by the name of Dio.  She is only 18 or 19 years old.   I remember the first time we went to visit her house.  She was sewing and when she saw us she stopped and listened to what we came to tell them.  She listened quietly, looking very serious and on that day she accepted Jesus as her personal Savior. 

This weekend when we saw her I could see that there was no turning back from the decision that she made to follow Jesus. She has grown a great deal spiritually.  I saw her at the door of the church, each service, greeting people and leading them to a seat. It made our team feel so happy to see that all this time we have been going to Diwarsikua, leaving our homes, family and sitting in the canoe for hours at a time was so worth witnessing the spiritual transformation in the lives of people like Dio.

I would like to ask you to pray for all of the believers but particularly for Dio.  God is using her greatly for His glory.  She is the only one from Diwarsikua that was able to come to the pastor’s conference this past November in the city.  During that time she shared that she would like to marry a pastor.  In their culture it is very common for the parents to choose the spouses for their children. I had an opportunity to talk to her about the choice she will make for her future husband.  I told her to make sure that this man knows about her first love, Jesus Christ.  I reminded her how important it was that he knows Jesus as his personal savior and that he makes Jesus the center of their lives.  I let her know how important it was to pray for God to lead her to the man that He already has chosen for her.

Kemuel – I was given an amazing opportunity by God to share the gospel with a group of young men in Diwarsikua while I was teaching them how to play the guitar.  One guy, Elias, came in after I had already started.  During the lesson I stopped and picked up a few rocks and told them how God created man.  I shared with them how special God thought they were and that He had created them for a purpose.  I told them that God has us in the palm of His hands and we can trust Him.  But I told them they had a free will, a choice in whether to put their faith in Him or not.  After I spoke I gave them an opportunity to accept Christ and Elias made that amazing choice.  I was very surprised that I was able to share with them in my native Kuna language.  I am not very good at speaking in Kuna, but I decided to try my best and let God do the rest.  Praise Him for using me! 

Max Perez -  The first thing we did when we arrived in the village was meet with the believers.  After we sang some songs and shared some stories from Genesis, I asked them to share what God was doing in their lives.  They were a little shy at first.  I kept asking because I wanted to know what God had been doing through them.  I also asked them about what kind of obstacles they had been facing and their needs.  They began to share about their experiences with a great deal of passion.  One example was their desire to cover the gaps in the wooden floor because when they pick up their offering it falls between them under the church.  I was very happy to hear that they had started picking up an offering.  Another lady stood up and shared that she wanted solar power for the church so they could have lights. There were other ladies that stood up.  Then God led us to teach them to pray to Him and to point to Him as their provider.  I told them that they can ask God all for the things they wanted for their church.  I asked all of them to pray.  The first lady that came to pray raised her hand, bowed her head and passionately began praying as if she was talking to God in person.  It was awesome!  The other ladies did the same thing.   Feeding the kids was amazing to see because the ladies from the church took over when we told them what we wanted to do.  They arranged everything and where able to share God's love with the children from their own village.   One of the ladies from the church by the name of Dio organized to have oatmeal for all the people that came to church that night.  Witnessing her spiritual transformation reminded me of how a caterpillar becomes a beautiful butterfly.  The first night after we had our service, I noticed that one of the ladies had a bowl and I asked her what it was for.  She said it was for the offering.  Although our team was in charge of the service she said she needed to take up the offering.  Due to the training and hard work from the team in Panama and your prayers; the new believers are falling in love with God. They are making amazing progress in their spiritual maturity and commitment to their service to Jesus Christ.  My prayer is that God continues to grow them and use them in their community.  I would like to encourage anyone that has never gone on a mission trip to take every opportunity you can to go with our ministry or another organization.  God is doing amazing things and He can use you greatly to reach the world.

 

 

If you would like to make a contribution to SSM please contact us:

Souls Seekers Ministry

1129 Pullman Dr ● Saginaw, TX - 76131

Clara Clark: 817-847-5536 ● Max and Verna Perez: 817-914-2255

Christy Rader: 409-349-0245 (from U.S. to Panama)   69-03-5238 (Panama Cell)

panama@soulseekersministry.org

 

Soul Seekers Ministry is a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization.

This means that your contributions are tax deductible as allowed by the IRS.

But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.  Hebrews 13:16

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