this country....

The Canadian staff arrived for project on Monday and its made me take another look at this city and again realize how much it needs God. Yesterday my cab ran out of fuel in El Chorillo, one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the city... especially when you're white and female. Now I was with Jon and Wes so I was safe but there was definitely some concern on my part. Normally we wouldn't have been driving through that area but we were looking for an open gas station. It was the middle of the afternoon but gas stations had closed in anticipation of today, when gas prices went up 25 cents; they simply wanted to make more money, and were doing it at the expense of others.

Today I stood in line at the grocery store behind a mother and her daughter. Their cart was stacked with the simplest of groceries but I soon realized they didn't have the money for all of them. They had separated the groceries into stacks of what they needed and what they would take if the total on the grocery bill wasn't yet high enough. I was standing there with a cart full of food for the Canadian students coming in tonight, with more than enough money for things that may not have even been necessities. I realized though how simply blessed I am. I've never been in the shoes of not having enough for even the simplest food items.

Today is a national holiday and instead of typical holiday actions people took to the streets in passive marches protesting the elevated cost of living. Even at the university Jon and I have become immune to the "exploding" noises of protests occuring as they often do. Someone asked today, "why are they protesting, does anyone actually listen?" Maybe no ones listening, but the people still desire to be heard and so act out to show that they're not happy with the status quo. A cab driver last night told me that none of the presidential candidates would actually represent the people and I could hear the apathy in his voice, and yet also desperation for someone to come and change this country.

What I've again realized this week is how much this country needs to know and experience the true love of Jesus Christ. Human action alone simply cannot solve dishonest business dealings, poverty, protests or corruption in the government. Tonight 15 Canadian students are arriving to join my team and the 5 other staff members that arrived Monday. All of these students are coming with a passion to see lives changed and moreover this country changed. Please pray for us. Only Christ can change hearts and change nations, and yet we choose to stand in the faith that this can and will happen.

And then there were 5.

When I came on project I had no idea what was in store but I knew that God knew. When I applied to come on Stint I knew that God would have to be my provision. He was and still continues to be every single day of my life. When I re-applied to come on Stint for another year I knew it would be hard but again that He was going to provide and draw the new team together. He's faithful and I know that with all my heart.

When I applied to re-Stint I was the third girl on a team of four. Raquel, Karina and I would make up the females with my friend Derek being the only guy. Knowing what I know now I was praying for another guy, not knowing where he would be coming from but knowing that God had the team dynamic covered, however it worked out. And so.... today I found out something officially that I get to share now. We have one more guy!!!... and none other than my good friend Steve who's on Stint with me right now. When I met Steve in an airport close to 2 years ago I never would have imagined going on Stint and let alone for 2 years. I feel so blessed to have a teammate that's going to know what it's like to be giving the whole stint thing another round and I couldn't have asked for a greater guy or a better friend to be doing this with all over again!


(p.s. although Jon seriously I'm still voting for you to come back too.... jokes jokes.)

"tell the world..."

(the napkin gospel... sat am. training)

This weekend was crazy!! Our "crossfire" youth retreat was these last 3 days and just like the last retreat there was not enough sleep but more than enough of everything else!!! The topic of this retreat was evangelism with the tagline being "tell the world...!!!" After an intense Friday night we spent Saturday morning training on everything from what evangelism is, why we do it, how we do it to obstacles to evangelism itself. The Canadian crew... Jess, Sarah, Steve and I, had the blessing of giving a chunk of these training sessions and using our "Campus for Christ" evangelism focus to teach and challenge the students in their own evangelistic lives.

(view from the top... cerro ancon)

This morning we all loaded on buses and headed to Cerro Ancon, one of the highest look-out points in the city and from there teamed up into groups of 4. These "evangelism teams" consisted of younger and older students with the jobs of praying, speaking or simply standing in support of each other as they were about to be sent throughout the city to share their faith. As we passed out 4 Spiritual Law tracts and survey questions I began to realize that the whole thing was a dream come true. Our Stint team seems to live and breathe evangelism... but to see the newer generation equipped and sent to share the good news was absolutely amazing!

(16 girls + me = 4 evangelism teams)

As I headed to Albrook Mall with 70 students on a bus I was again struck with how crazy the situation was. There we all were on a Sunday morning headed out to share the love of Christ.. in public and with complete strangers. I had the job of sitting at a "cinabon" in the mall in case anyone ran into troubles and was there to watch and pray. As I sat there I saw people with a completely different perspective. When I go there to shop I'm focused on myself and what I need and rarely realize that I'm surrounded by people that don't have a personal relationship with Jesus. But as I sat there I realized the opportunities that surrounded me and the students. The chance that everyone had to know someone and touch their hearts with the love of Christ.

The mall was pretty empty and I began to pray that God would bring people into the mall and that all the students would be able to have someone to talk too. A patter became a roar as a torrent of rain began to come down. I almost started to cry. Rain in Panama stops traffic. Rain in Panama stops people and sends them to seek cover. And so there we were... 200 of us spread across the city with rain causing people to stay in the mall instead of leaving, and coming inside instead of outside. God answers prayer... and I believe with all my heart that as we were praying for people God brought them right to us.

I glanced up onto the second floor and spotted two of the students, Ana and Gracia gazing over the ledge. I began to look for the other two members of their team and as I watched, Laura and Rebecca (the other half of the team) walked up to a lady sitting on a bench in front of the cinabon where I was. I began to pray just as the two above me were and as Laura and Rebecca began to to talk with the lady on the bench. I looked up again and saw my friend Christian standing on the other side of the upper floor praying for what was unfolding in front of us. As we prayed I realized that the lady the girls were talking to had no idea that she was surrounded by a triangle of people praying for her. I don't know what all happened in that conversation, but I know that as soon as Laura and Rebecca left this lady sat and read through the 4 Spiritual Laws, and then clutching it in her hand along with her shopping bags stood up and left the mall.

I don't know what will happen in her life and I have no idea what kind of impact that had on her. But what I do know is this... a seed was planted. And all over this city seeds were planted this morning AND(!!!) there are new brothers and sisters in Christ as at least 6 people prayed to receive Christ today. As the retreat wrapped up this afternoon I talked with one of the students and a good friend of mine. He said with tears in his eyes, "I will never ever be the same after this." Gods love changes lives, evangelism changes lives and as the retreat tagline says, we simply need to "tell the world!"

(me and my small group... i love these ladies)

"Galleta-logía"

Something a little light-hearted to finish the week off... among the random things that happen here in this country there are tonnes of people with personalities that are distinct to say the least... let me tell you about my new friend the professor of "Cookie-ology"... "galleta-logía" in spanish.

Tuesday afternoon I was having bible study with my girls and a man approached selling cookies. Now as the convo went on the laughter almost reached hysterical levels as he went through his sales tactic...

"Galletas (cookies/crackers) with sodium chloride anyone???"- Sodium chloride being salt for any non-science people

"Benzene anyone?"- code word for chocolates that have the same shape as the chemical structure of benzene... rotating double bonds you say?

...and on and on it went... my spanish vocab missed half of it but the girls were quick to explain...

As I think looking back on it... how cool is it that my bible study is full of science students and that we could laugh together over something as nerdy as "scientific cookies?" God has totally placed this bible study together so that we can connect over cookie-ology or whatever it is that we've been through as science students.

Wednesday morning bible study happened again but with a different twist. Tuesday afternoon I lead a study with the four girls I work closely with in discipleship. Wednesday morning is a new group that Erika and Yavi are leading, so I get to sit back and watch as they take leadership over this group. It's been amazing! The new girls that are coming are awesome and it been amazing watching them share their pain and joy with each other. They're all connecting with each other but more importantly with God and its beautiful to see every week.