This is a video of the Panama City skyline from a "hike" that the team took yesterday through the natural metropolitan park (pardon the quality... I'm still working on it!). It was a gorgeous day for some gorgeous scenery... I've been praying a lot lately about what God is speaking to me. In John chapter 4:43-54 Jesus heals a royal officials son. What hit me about this was two things... 1. the man took Jesus at his word that his son was healed and departed... man I want to have faith like that and 2. Jesus said something and it was so. So I've been thinking... what is God saying to me??

Learning a lesson....

In the last post I mentioned that we had found an apartment for the girls and that we would still be looking for one for the boys. Backtracking a little though... when we had first started looking for apartments we had looked at a gorgeous building in a safe area called El Dorado, but... it was too expensive for us and only had 2 rooms. On Saturday we were supposed to move into what was supposedly the "girls" apartment. Our realtor called that morning though and said that another apartment had opened up in the identical building we had first looked at BUT that the rent was cheaper (moved into our price range), had 3 rooms AND was completely furnished. Holding our breaths we went to take a look. I was speechless... and we all know that that doesn't happen a lot...

I learned an important lesson that day. As I stepped out onto the balcony to look around I saw jungle and rainforest in the distance on my left and on my right the skyline of downtown Panama city but through the gaps in the buildings was a site that blew me away... the ocean. Standing near the ocean or even gazing at it from a distance I feel so incredibly close to God. But what I learned is that God desires to bless us more than we deserve... or even think we deserve. I wouldn't have asked to see the ocean every morning and yet He gave me that and as always more than I ever thought to ask for. Sometimes I think that God simply desires to blow us away, wherever we are, even when we think we could be satisfied with less.

The first (of many) girls nights in Panama city....

Post Saturday morning prayer... the morning we moved!

First dinner at "home"... well the boys house that is!

For more pics... check out this link....

http://ucalgary.facebook.com/album.php?aid=45277&l=f9b54&id
=523285093

Yeah!!! An apartment!!! We picked up keys for our new home yesterday and its exciting to know that we have a place to move into tomorrow. Its a 3 bedroom, 3 bath apartment halfway furnished with a washer, dryer and appliances which is a rare find down here. We´ll be taking the bus to campus, its about a 15 or 20 minute ride but it´s only one bus so we should be able to figure it out... thanks so much for all your prayers!

This morning we woke up a little after 5 and headed to the campus for a prayer walk around the campus. It was awesome to lift up the students and faculties in prayer and also pray that God would raise the level of evangelism on our campus. My hope and prayer is that the staff and our stint team really leads that way in this. I´ll be working in the science faculty along with my co'leader Jon. The Panamanian staff member we´re working with doesn´t really speak English so my Spanish needs to get better and fast! It´s awesome though because I´ll be forced to speak it so I´ll be able to learn... but please keep that in your prayers as well.

I´ve been delving into 1 Peter chapter 1 this week. I would encourage you all to take a peek at that, its such a beautiful progression within that chapter and concludes with a prayer I have for our team. I´ve been praying that we would love each other deeply and 1 Peter 1, I think vs.22 talks about this. Love each other sincerely because we´ve been purchased with something imperishable... the blood of Christ. Its an awesome chapter and one of my favorite books... there´s simply so much there. As always you´ll be in my thoughts and prayers, thanks so much for keeping me in yours!

Well well! Here's some pics for you guys now that I found a less sketchy internet connection... still in the process of apartment hunting but it's looking good at this point! More soon!

Jessica, Tricia and Sarah on the plane ride... I can't figure out how to flip this... sorry!

Our airplane row... Jon, Me and Steve!
Our Panamanian welcoming committee! Gotta run... more to come!

Well we made it! As we were landing at the airport I remember looking out the window of the plane and thinking that’s home! We had a crazy trip down, from not knowing about the embargo on 3^rd pieces of luggage and oversize bags to being delayed 5 ½ hours in Newark, from losing luggage and a minor car accident with some of the Panamanians, it was an eventful day of traveling and as we landed at 2:30 in the morning we were just happy to be back. The Panamanian air feels wonderful. I just absolutely love this country. It’s weird and yet comforting how familiar everything seems as we walk around and pick up some essentials. The last couple of days has been intense as we’ve set up cell phones (I’m feeling less and less like a tourist) and gone searching for apartments. The real estate market in Panama City is going nuts and rent is sky rocketing which means it’s extremely difficult to find apartments. But we’re looking and learning more and more about each other and about God as we do that. Rod Alm always says that he’s happy when someone says no when they ask to talk about spiritual things because it means that there’s someone else God has for them to talk too. Jessica related this to apartment hunting. As we find more and more full buildings and high priced rent it simply means God has something better out there for and us that we just need to trust him and keep searching it out in faith. We’re in staff meetings tomorrow and the apartment hunting continues until a big dinner tomorrow night in celebration of the anniversary of Campus Crusade in Panama. It’s a great time to be here and I’m blown away by the partnership we get to be a part of. As we stepped off the plane so early in the morning we were greeted with cheers, posters and a welcome song. It’s so humbling to be an answer to someone’s prayers. This nation is ready to be impacted and I believe that an eternal difference is being and will be made. I’m so excited to get onto campus in the next couple of weeks and get rolling on ministry, whether its language learning or devotional time with the girls as I lead the team along with Jon. Pics to come as soon as I can get a better internet connection... much more to come!

In Guelph and all together finally!!!! Here's some pics and a quick update for you guys... Panama on Friday... so excited!

Leaving at the airport in Vancouver.... 5 am... here we go!
The team all together... finally! It feels right and we've decided that from now on we travel in 6's.... Gods totally hand picked this team and its so exciting to be a part of it!

We all made it here safe and sound, luggage and guitar included! The last couple of days of training have been great, the only real word I have for it is solid. We've spent a lot of time talking about communication, conflict resolution and all that fun and not so fun stuff. Language training and financial training followed so its been a little bit of everything which had been a little hardcore but awesome overall. The team is awesome. We sat through a Birkman analysis of out team dynamics and discovered we're a high fun team... which I think I figured already! It was good though to see who needs down time away from people (not me!) and who's high challenge, high esteem etc. etc. but it was awesome, I think it'll be super helpful later on.

Tomorrow we'll be dealing with details specific to Panama, such as roles, cultural stuff and things like getting our apartments set up (yeah!! apparently it's a pretty sweet setup in a neighborhood called El Dorado). Jon Agudelo and I will be leading the team which is both exciting and scary at the same time. I'm remembering a lot of lessons over the last couple of days that I've forgotten... like knowing and believing God is good and that he has called me to do this, there's so much more than that but I'll save it for later.... as always you guys are great, our team's awesome and God's great... so I think we're pretty much good to go!!! :) More to come!

So this will be super speedy but.... I leave tomorrow morning (way too early!!) from Vancouver to Toronto to meet up with the rest of my team. From there we leave on Friday morning for Panama City and then the rest will sort itself out!! Thanks so much for all your love and support as I've been crazily getting ready to go. I've been incredibly humbled by all the support and words of encouragement that you've all been so lovingly and willingly passing onto me in the last few months. I'll miss all of you but I know that this is exactly what God's called me to do and I'm excited to see what that'll look like over the next year. I love you all but this isn't goodbye because you'll all be hearing from me soon! I'll let you guys all know my new mailing addy and phone number in Panama with the August update that'll make its way out once we get down there.... if you need anything I'm always here... drop me a line.... lindsey.davies@c4c.ca Until then, much love and I pray you'll all be blessed even more than you've blessed me!

Love and prayers... Lins.

I'm leaving Calgary August 8th en route to Panama via Vancouver and then onto Toronto for some team training. Its craziness... honestly! I'm excited for so many things and yet at the same time nervous about a lot too. Its a hard place to be in sometimes when you don't have control over circumstances but it's in those times that we have a decision to make on who we're going to trust to control the uncontrollable. I think that some days more than others its a hard decision to make to trust God but at the same time He's never let me down when I do put my trust in Him. So as the days pass by ever so quick and I'm packing and sorting, and most likely crying I choose to rest in the fact that He loves me and cares for me more than anything.

Psalm 36:5-9 (The Message)

God's love is meteoric, his loyalty astronomic,
His purpose titanic, his verdicts oceanic.
Yet in his largeness nothing gets lost;
Not a man, not a mouse, slips through the cracks.

How exquisite your love, O God!
How eager we are to run under your wings,
To eat our fill at the banquet you spread
as you fill our tankards with Eden spring water.
You're a fountain of cascading light, and you open our eyes to light.