So... I bought a guidebook for Panama a couple weeks ago and was finally perusing my way through it today. Just an interesting fact that's actually pretty sobering when you think about it;

Although Catholics are the majority, only about 20% of them attend church regularly. The religious orders aren't particularly strong in Panama either: only about 25% of Catholic clergy are Panamanian. The rest are foreign missionaries.

77% of the Panamanian population profess to be Roman Catholic and yet only 20% attend church. That's a crazy stat when you start crunching the numbers....

For the longest time, well the last year anyways Panama has been so far in the future that it almost didn't seem real. For months it was a year away, 9 months away etc., etc. and now the wheels are spinning away and I'm actually getting set to leave. My plane ticket out of Calgary is bought for August 8th which means that in less than a month I'm potentially gone for the next year. There's still a lot of "ifs" and "buts" and so so many details to get sorted out and yet I know I'm exactly where I need to be right now. So whether we leave as a team straight from Toronto or I'm back until sometime in September I still know and trust completely that all this details, all the things that could potentially stress me out are nothing in the face of a larger and ever loving God.

Just a brief glimpse of home...
I was at home this weekend for Canada Day. I went for a walk and came to the place where I shattered my leg a couple of years ago. The last time I was there is gave me the chills but the sun was shining and I was so thankful to be home that it didn't matter this time. So I just wanted to post some pics from this weekend and wish you all a belated Canada Day... Enjoy your summer!
This was the fence that broke my leg... notice the post on the right still standing... stupid post... haha oh well. I broke the one running horizontal... one point for the good guys!

The sunset... there's no place like home, it's still home to me!