finishing up project....

Campus cycle has finished up and we're on out way this morning to El Valle for a little R&R before heading to the interior on a 6 day rural missions experience. Campus cycle was great and even though we had a shorter time than planned at UTP we had a fantastic time and God moved hugely! Heather, one of my team members said, "I think we saw the same thing that would have happened in one month at the national campus that we saw in 2 weeks here!" God was simply faithful and the students are stepping into this next phase of project excited and encouraged and I think truly changed themselves.

Tuesday morning we leave for 6 days in the interior... no running water... no electricity... no nothing! It'll be a nutty time. This is the first time we've done a trip this long so it's going to be a little insane. BUT!! I am so excited to be working again with Pastor Correa and his ministry into this set of 20 villages. I'm also stoked to let the Canadians see a peek at the interior of Panama and what the complete flip side of the city is. Please be praying for safety and wisdom as the stint team is running this little endeavor! Till then.... chau!!

field trip?!

In a classic case of Panamanian action, protests shut down the national university for three days last week. Normally we would take a "riot day" and catch up on administration or whatever loose ends needed to be taken care of but for three day and with a team of 5 Canadian students working hand-in-hand with Jon and I this wasn't an option last week and so.... we headed on what originally thought would be a one or two day field trip to the Universidad Tecnologica de Panama, UTP. We headed to the private campus to do some evangelism and weren't really sure what was in store for the team there or at the national campus. As the days passed and the national campus didn't open I think that as a team we fell more and more in love with the UTP campus and more importantly the students there. I walked onto campus there for the first time and was surrounded by trees and I could hear the birds instead of the normal drone of Panamanian traffic. Both the students and the staff there were awesome and as we pulled students from the national campus onto UTP to come help us go sharing I was simply excited to be there.

UTP has no campus for Christ staff working permanently at it but it does have part time staff and a small but dedicated group of volunteers with a heart for that campus. And so, the decision was made that even though national campus had opened up, our team would be staying at UTP for the remainder of May. When I told Johnny, one of the key volunteer leaders at UTP, that my team would be staying at UTP you could see the shock all over his face. "Really???" he said. His face of appreciation and gratitude made any qualms I would have had about a campus change completely disappear. We're excited to be on a new campus and see something new happen from the ground up, that way we'll know like always it was God, and not us, that was really at work!

41 & counting...

30

We started our second full day bright and early this morning, kicking off the day with a classroom talk in a nursing class of 33 first year students. Our campus director Secundina gave a talk on goals and limits with all the new Canadian students along with Jon and I also getting to introduce ourselves, saying what we studied and where we're from. Secundina wrapped up the talk with a gospel presentation and soon after that the room was filled with voices repeating a prayer to receive Christ. Out of a class of 33, 30 indicated decisions to accept Christ! It was craziness and again reminded me of how incredibly blessed we are to openly share the good news in a university lecture.

8

One of my teammates has left to the interior city of Santiago and sent me a text message this afternoon. Their team had been touring the university there when they were randomly invited into a classroom. Wes, the co-leader, shared what was on his heart and 8 students prayed to receive Christ.

3

My team went out sharing today on the rest of us were in a staff meeting. Even at times without translators the team saw one young man and 2 young ladies pray to receive Christ. My team is blowing me away time and time again with their excitement and their hearts for these students around them.

41

So Day 2 in Panama ends with 41 new brothers and sisters in Christ. PLEASE PRAY for these students as we will be starting the follow-up process tomorrow with phone calls to set-up times to meet and begin the discipleship process. God is so faithful, through sickness and lack of language students are pushing through, being faithful and God is answering and salvation is coming to our universities!

The New Team

Our new team.
(Kaitlyn, Grace, Heather, Steve back L to R, Jon & I in front)

So... this week has barely begun already but I am so excited about whats already taking place. Today we took the Canadian project students to campus for some prayer and a tour of what will become their new home/workplace for the new 4. The above picture shows the awesome group that Jon and I are blessed to have an opportunity to lead and work with in the science faculties. I am so so excited to have 5 more people to add to whats been Jon and I for the last eight months or so. We have an awesome team and getting to know them and their hearts has been a blast. Tomorrow will be our first full day of ministry on campus. I know that they're nervous about the language and everything that comes with being in a foreign country but at the same time they are so much desiring to be obedient to what God is calling them to do and really change our faculty over the next 4 weeks. Please be praying for us... for our spanish... for the classroom talks we already have this week and that more than anything the Canadians and the Panamanians alike would experience the life-changing love that is only found in Christ.

All my love!!