Frosh at national

(hanging out at the info table in chemistry)

This week was a definitely a little unexpected for me... frosh week hit at national and we were there in full force! Well at least everybody else was... I on the other hand was out of commission on Wednesday and broke ordered bed-rest to make it to the concert! It was definitely difficult for me to not be on campus with the team but at the same time it was amazing to see all the students come and take leadership. Tuesday Jon and I were actually able to leave our "info table" in the hands of the students and take an unexpected lunch break. One of the highlights was sitting at our table in science and being surrounded by students in matching VE t-shirts and then... walking over to the law faculty and seeing their table surrounded by more students...

(Ericka, Yavi and I at the concert)

Thursday morning came along and with that the concert... the outreach meant to cap the week of activities off. As I came onto campus tual (our amphitheater) was already humming with people in matching shirts... setting up sound equipment or the info table. Students filled the back rows of tual, sitting in the shade and listening as the sounds of Jose Andreas and his band filled the air. It really did sum up the week for me. I sat there, with two of the girls I disciple on each side of me and listened as the name of God was lifted up and glorified on our campus. These two girls, Erika and Yavi have blessed and encouraged me so much. And so as frosh week has winded down I'm excited to start their leaders bible study this week... and then on Wednesday morning to pass over a fresh batch of students to them and watch as they begin to lead their own bible study!!

(the concert!! everyone was up top in the shade.. )

A simple touch

"Come to me, all you are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
Matt 11:28-30

The last couple of days I haven't felt burdened so much as weary. I've been physically sick and so weary as I tried to keep going at a normal pace, only to realize that I simply couldn't. That was a hard realization for me to come to. Jesus tells us to take His yoke, instead of our own... and more than that to learn from Him, to learn from His gentleness and His humbleness.

"And when the men of that place recognized Jesus, the sent word to all the surrounding country. People brought their sick to him, and begged him to let the sick just touch the edge of his cloak, all who touched him were healed.”

Matt 14:35-36

In my mind I can see the crowds and the people just grasping to touch the edge of a simple cloak, a simple garment. And yet, for them it meant healing, cleansing and more than anything life. This was the Jesus who saw people down to their deepest need, the powerful man that healed with a word and whose heart broke with compassion when he saw the crowds of people, even in spite of his grief (Matt 14:13-14). That’s my best friend. That’s the relationship that I wake up to every morning. And so my prayer is that I would to be gentle and humble in heart like He is and that every day I would get another touch of His cloak.

Semana Santa... Holy Week

I walked into church Sunday and was jolted into the realization that it was Palm Sunday. Easter is my favorite time of year because it makes me think for more than a moment, or more than a time of communion once a month at church of what Jesus did for me. There's no other perfect picture of love.

Isaiah 53 (The message translation)

"Who believes what we've heard and seen? Who would have thought God's saving power would look like this?

The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling, a scrubby plant in a parched field. There was nothing attractive about him, nothing to cause us to take a second look. He was looked down on and passed over, a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand. One look at him and people turned away. We looked down on him, thought he was scum. But the fact is, it was our pains he carried— our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us. We thought he brought it on himself, that God was punishing him for his own failures. But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins! He took the punishment, and that made us whole. Through his bruises we get healed. We're all like sheep who've wandered off and gotten lost. We've all done our own thing, gone our own way. And God has piled all our sins, everything we've done wrong, on him, on him.

He was beaten, he was tortured, but he didn't say a word. Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered
and like a sheep being sheared, he took it all in silence. Justice miscarried, and he was led off—
and did anyone really know what was happening? He died without a thought for his own welfare, beaten bloody for the sins of my people. They buried him with the wicked, threw him in a grave with a rich man, Even though he'd never hurt a soul or said one word that wasn't true.

Still, it's what God had in mind all along, to crush him with pain. The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin so that he'd see life come from it—life, life, and more life. And God's plan will deeply prosper through him.

Out of that terrible travail of soul, he'll see that it's worth it and be glad he did it. Through what he experienced, my righteous one, my servant, will make many "righteous ones," as he himself carries the burden of their sins. Therefore I'll reward him extravagantly— the best of everything, the highest honors— Because he looked death in the face and didn't flinch, because he embraced the company of the lowest. He took on his own shoulders the sin of the many, he took up the cause of all the black sheep."

#100.

A new school year...
Coming up is a lot of firsts for our staff team here in Panama City.... a new (and first ever here) servant team, the first leadership retreat, the first frosh week, and a new "look" for our campus ministry.

A new look...
Looking at the logo above you might notice something a little bit different. "Green???" you might say... "whats up with that? what happened to the red?" Many of the political parties at the Universidad de Panama use red combined with some combination of black, white and yellow. The political parties at the university are extremely active, especially in the law faculty, which is one of our key faculties. And so... to distinguish ourselves all together we've decided to change the color altogether to green, a color not used by any of the visible student groups on campus... at least as far as we can tell.

The frosh approach...
Rapidly approaching in t-12 days is our frosh week at the Universidad de Panama. Yesterday, the four of us Canadians that work at the national campus met up to brainstorm and get on the same page for this crazy week of activities. First year students are always key to a ministry. When a student gets involved in their first year they then have four years to both be built into and trained but then also to turn around, reaching out to those around them and then taking leadership in the movement. So from the 24-27th of March we're targeting the frosh. Whether it's carnival style games, information tables, a concert and prayerfully a concert; we're praying for salvation and for new students to get hooked into and full heartedly committed to reaching their campus for Christ.

P.S. This is post #100. Thanks to everyone that's stuck with me this far. That's pretty special.

Reminded why I'm here...

This morning I took my dad to the airport and as I said good-bye I felt pretty homesick. As much as I miss my family and friends I'm able to talk to them and keep in touch but there's a chunk of me that misses Canada. That misses what is still deep down still my home. But tonight as I get ready for what looks to be another crazy week I'm reminded of why I'm here and how much I love it.. even when it's rough sometimes. Yesterday and today I've been getting calls and text messages from the two of the Panamanian students that I'm discipling here. Just simply to say they missed me. Don't get me wrong, that's nothing to do with me and everything to do with God and what He's been doing and continues to be doing in their lives. But as I've talked with them and with other students this last week they show me why I'm here. Last week our team (minus one) headed to campus to share our faith and with being an odd number I really felt like I wanted to stay back and pray as the other four headed out. I was sitting in a really uncomfortable spot so as I went to move to a bench I spotted a girl sitting alone on a bench. I felt God whisper "go talk to her" and so I headed over to say hello, wondering more than that what I was going to say. BUT (!!!) sure enough she's a Christian about to enter her first year in architecture and not only that she spoke fluent English. I was totally blown away and taken aback. If I had stayed in my comfort zone I would have sat on the bench and not said hello. Instead I have a new friend, Jissella, in my life and a lunch date set up with her to explain a little bit more about what we do and to challenge her to get involved.

God has brought people into my life in crazy ways and each of them are so special to me. This week I'm getting to reconnect with the students that have been key in my life the last semester and gear them up for this new semester... frosh week is on the way!

Jericho... Day 1.

Tonight was the first night of 7 days of prayer for the campus ministry here in Panama. For the 6 days we'll be prayer walking around the national university campus praying for the students and the needs there. Sunday morning at 6am we'll be marching around 7 times... for the biblical back-up to this check out Joshua 6. So tonight 13 of us set out around the national campus praying and confessing the sins of the various faculties. This was something new for me and I was wondering why exactly I was confessing sins that I hadn't done. But as we were praying and speaking out loud what was happening in the university I really felt that it was bringing these things into the light. Darkness and sin isn't hidden when it's openly confessed and that's exactly what we did tonight on behalf of the students. So as we came to end I just started to pray for forgiveness and that it would begin to roll over this campus. It was a special time and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens this week. Please be praying with us.... all my love.

One more year.... officially.

Found out yesterday afternoon. I'm officially accepted for one more year in Panama. Whoa, it's kinda crazy it'll actually be happening all over again.

Please be continuing to pray for my team and us being here now... but... looking forward to the future, please continue to be praying for the movement here and for the new members of next year's team that are getting prepared to support raise and move. Currently, there are 3 of us ladies accepted and 1 gentleman. Please please please (!!!) pray that one more guy would join the team. I can't imagine the team without at least two guys and I'm praying that God brings us one more... at least, I'd take more if we could get more. God had the dynamic covered on this team totally and I know that it's in his control for next year too.

p.s. took me long enough to figure out how to title these hey??!

My part of my application to re-Stint.

The last 6 months have been full of ups and downs, both as a team but for me individually. But 3 months into Stint when God starting to speak to me about coming back it was honestly the last thing that I wanted to do. Jessica (one of my team members) spoke at a weekly meeting about "running the race" like the finish line was on top of our toes. I was really convicted by that as God spoke to my heart that for me to run like the finish line was any minute I needed to stay another year and to come home to Canada was running like I had 20 more years of ministry. I knew that the decision to stay was the one I needed to make but it still was a little unnerving to me. Stint has been a lot harder than I had ever anticipated. At times I just wanted come home and join what I thought would be a normal staff team somewhere on campus. But in Jeremiah 29 is a letter to the exiles and as I was reading it vs.10 really gave me the peace about making the decision to apply to re-Stint. God says to the exiles, "... I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place (their home)." I feel that's a promise for me to hold onto. Its harder applying to come back another year because I know the struggles that are in store for our team and for the ministry here. More and more I'm coming across verses about the flawless nature Gods word, His faithfulness in His promises and more than that His everlasting love for me. I don't think that I'll really ever understand the depths of any of these 3 characteristics. I could list off the practical and strategic reasons why it's a good idea for me to stay and give this another go and tell story after story of the lessons I've learned here. But in the end its my relationship with God that makes me want to stay. He's placed in my heart a God-given passion for people and daily I learn what that means for my life. But it's His love that gets me up in the morning and turns me in the right direction and places me in the right place when I don't want to move. It's this love thats calling me to stay.