have ticket, will travel.

Well we're off... or almost! In less than 4 hours the entire stint team along with 10 Panamanians will be boarding a flight for Costa Rica as we head on route to the Dominican Republic. Excitement levels are high and we're all looking forward to seeing what God has in store for this trip. Please continue to keep us in your prayers over the next 10 days as this is a huge step of faith for not only the staff and students but for our Canadian team as well!

More details of the trip...

Saturday November 1- training and orientation of the city, training includes sessions such as sharing your personal testimony, evangelism brainstorming and practice sessions, spirit filled life...

Sunday November 2- church in the morning followed by an afternoon/evening showing of the Jesus film in a rural community outside of Santo Domingo

Monday November 3- Friday November 7- throughout the day we will be heading to the UASD (Universidad Autonomia Santo Domingo) campus for evangelism and outreach activities. We will be focusing in the humanities and arts faculties with the goal of reaching as many students with the gospel through various means and then engaging in initial follow-up. The hope and prayer is that by the end of the 5 days on campus we will be able to turn over a committed group of Christians (both new and old) to Layla and Prospero, the campus staff in the Dominican.

Evening activities include... a training session for students from the Dominican Republic, sharing the vision for Vida Estudiantil at a private campus, debriefing as a Panamanian team and a wrap-up party for all the students from the Dominican.

Friday evening and Saturday will be spent debriefing and bright and early Sunday morning we head back on a plane to Panama City!

I hope that gives you a little taste of what we'll be up to over the next 10 days so you can be praying for us in specific ways. I know I've said this before but this is a dream come true for so many of us in so many different ways! Thank you over and over for all your continued support, you've made a difference in my life, in the students here in Panama and now in the Dominican Republic too!

cracker vs. banquet

(my awesome small group!!)

The last weekend was the 9th annual Crossfire retreat in Chame and with it came all the craziness that normally accompanies 200 kids and 30 leaders heading away for the weekend. For me the best times of the weekend were the small group times where I had the chance to really connect with the 8 girls that make up my awesome group!! We had some good times of talking together and praying for each other but also laughing together and simply hanging out. It was both amazing and encouraging to see how God really unified our group over that weekend!

(the banquet table)

Saturday Mark (our youth pastor) talked our life before death and how this life is supposed to be one of abundance. Every student was passed two things, one was a simple cracker and the other a invitation to a banquet. Mark explained that the cracker they held in their hand symbolized the satisfaction that the world could give. The things that we had control over, but how just like a cracker they were only temporal satisfaction. A cracker can't satisfy your hunger and shortly after the initial taste only leaves you wanting more. Mark then turned the attention of the students to the side of the retreat room where a banquet table loaded down with various deserts was waiting. As the students were invited to walk past the table and look at what it had to offer Mark talked about the parable of the kingdom of God being like a banquet. How we are all invited but only a few choose to go and be at the table. It was a powerful metaphor to see played out in front of me. I think that so many times we settle for the cracker and the temporary satisfaction because thats the part that we have control over. We don't want to submit ourselves to preparing for the banquet would rather hold onto our cracker than risk coming to the banquet table and living an abundant life, because with that life comes surrender. And thats the scary part. All of the youth were invited to come forward and crumble their cracker into a garbage can to symbolize their commitment to Christ, whether it was a new decision to follow Him or a re-dedication to stop walking around the banquet table and away from God and to come back to his banquet.

(committments on a wall... there were so many amazing things!)

Sunday morning everyone, youth and leaders alike had the chance to write their committments on a wall... specific things that they were committing to do. My small group all wrote committments on the wall and I know that a lot of them were afraid to fail. But more than a fear of failure they all really wanted to see God change them and change those around them. "The kingdom of God is like..." was repeated a lot this weekend but my favorite fill in to this blank came from the girls in my small group.... "The kingdom of God is like a party!" And we're all invited to the feast, an abundant life in Christ. It's John 10:10 all over again.

(small group shot #2)

And so the question that has been posed to me numerous times this week (and one that I love!!) is this.... are you living the kingdom?

it´s actually happening.

(the team in training!!)

Saturday morning rolled around last weekend and instead of a typical morning to sleep-in our Stint team was up and at it! Along with 7 other Panamanian students and our Panamanian staff members, our team helped out with a 5 hour training and preparation session for the upcoming project to the Dominican Republic. It was the first time that the students from Panama City and the 2 that are coming from Santiago had been all together and as we laughed and learned together I couldn´t help but think to myself... its actually happening.

The dream of a Panamanian partnership has always been there. But I don´t think that any of thought it would actually happen this soon. Even last year as some of the stint team went to the Dominican Republic with two of the Panamanian staff for a scouting and vision trip I still felt like the whole thing was a dream. But as I´ve been putting together the student manual and working on logisitics with the staff team its finally starting to feel like reality. We leave in less the a week and the excitement is starting to grow! I was sitting with Karina on the national campus one day this week when Lorenzo, one of the students coming on project came up to us. He had just recieved his passport and his visa for the Dominican Republic and was so excited simply to show it to us. And so its happening... we're going!

(the whole team (minus duby and oliver) all together!)

A couple of details and prayer requests:
1. We're leaving on the 31st (this Friday!) and connecting through Costa Rica en route to Santo Domingo
2. We'll be focusing on the UASD campus, the largest national campus and the oldest one in the western hemisphere.
3. Some of the students are still finishing up support raising... please pray that the rest of their support comes in!
4. There's a fundraiser concert Sunday night... please pray that this goes well!
5. Please pray that we would be unified as a team and love both each other and all the students and people we will be coming into contact with!!

pablo the pavo/turkey

(Steve discovering some yummy turkey parts...)

("pablo all said and done...)

Canadian Thanksgiving came and went on Monday and with it a great 3 hour meal together as a team. Steve and I tag teamed the turkey making bliss and combining some old school family traditions had a blast cooking up the feast for the team. But as we continue to eat leftovers (and let me tell you there's lots!!) I've continued to be thinking about so many things that I have to be thankful for.

(The Driedegers and Yenkana's that came to visit me....!)

God just blows me away with the people that he puts in my life, both in my relationships here in Panama and at home. Sometimes relationships are hard to maintain over distance but even this week something happened that gave me so much confidence in knowing that God's at work even over many miles as I continue to be both challenged and encouraged by my loved ones at home. And then there's everyone here. My team is absolutely amazing. The combination of our skill sets and just the different personalities both cracks me up and amazes me continually. At times it feels like we were always the little family that our Stint team is. Then there's these amazing girls that I've been discipling who both encourage me and challenge me to love deeper and continue to seek more in my own relationship with the Lord. Even this last weekend I had some supporters visit from Canada on their way home from Paraguay. Spending time with them over the last weekend was restful and super encouraging as we were able to share with each other what has been on our hearts and how we've seen God move all over the world.

(3 of the beautiful girls that I disciple... from Interamericana)

I've just been reminded how God is always at work and this morning I had such a crystal clear reminder of that. The girls and I were transporting supplies to campus so we decided to take a taxi instead of the bus this morning. As we got in the cab our taxi driver starting asking us questions about where we're from and what we were doing in Panama. My first reaction was that I was barely awake enough to have a deep conversation in Spanish but as we were able to share a bit of our hearts for the students at the universities I quickly woke up. Raquel asked Fidel (our taxi driver) about his own beliefs and he launched into this crazy story of a literal near death experience with a extremely bad car accident and his super difficult recovery from this. He went on and explained his experiences with all of this and wrapped the whole thing up saying he was afraid to go to church because he didn't want to fail God. Here was a man who has struggled with physical pain from many years but also a deep spiritual pain and fear of coming to God even though he wanted to so much. He glanced back at me in the rear-view mirror and his eyes were filled with such sadness and loss. Our taxi ride came to a rapid end but Raquel pulled out a booklet we use when we share our faith and left it with Fidel, telling him that this book explains how to have a personal relationship with God and inviting him and his family to come to church with us on Sunday. It was like something lit inside of him as Fidel gave us this brilliant smile. For me it seemed like he was so excited to have something in his hands that explained how he could have this relationship he so desperately wanted, this peace that he was seeking and that he would never be left behind or forsaken by this God. I stepped out of the cab into the brilliant sunshine, humbled that God had simply let me be in that cab that morning. Because I'm nothing special, but I know more than anything that I want to be used where God places me and this morning he placed me in the back of Fidel's cab.

I was reminded of Acts 3. Peter and John heal a lame beggar at the Beautiful Gate. The beggar is looking for money but Peter and John say to him, "I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!" Fidel didn't charge us anything this morning for our cab ride. It was as if this other thing we gave him, this little piece of our own hearts was worth something so much more.