The fear of the bridge does not run as deep anymore...

12/29/2013 It's Sunday morning and I'm awake for church. Quiet in my room, just a peaceful humming of the air conditioner. After last night's craziness next door, I'll take the air conditioner! Well we made it to Changuinola, Panama!! All of the flights were great, smoothest travel day we've ever had! Yesterday morning we left on our bus ride to Panama. It was a beautiful ride as always in the rain forest and along the beach. For those of you who've been to Panama, you know how fabulous (insert sarcasm) the walk across the bridge is. Broken pieces of wood, rusty metal, and semis trying to get around you as you trek across the bridge hoping to miss a hole and praying none of the moving boards pop up and hit you in the face! (You know, like in the old cartoons, I think it always happened to Tom in Tom & Jerry! Ha!) well........now they've built a new bridge alongside of the old bridge. Of course the new bridge is only for vehicles and we still have to continue to walk on the old bridge, but we don't have to contend with vehicles and semis anymore! :) it is the little things in life.... Last evening we had a great meal served to us by Yanis and the ladies of the church. We were able to see Pastor Nieves, the boys (oh my! They've grown!), Alicia, Dario, and Arcenio, among many others. It was a great reunion! Today we will be headed to church and then to La Gloria! We are all very excited for this trip! We love La Gloria and then people we get to see there! We are praying this year we have more than enough flip flops to pass out to the children of La Gloria. They said it has grown with over 100 children in the church, with I'm sure more coming out of the wood works when we arrive! They also said that the local church has worked on their building as well, so we can't wait to see all of the changes made! Our schedule this week is very busy. We are at the worksite Monday-Thursday, showing the Jesus Film Monday and Wednesday night, NYE Celebration on Wednesday, and hosting bible schools in between all of it! It's going to be a long, exhausting, but amazing week!! Please keep us in your prayers....we have already been blessed by everyone's prayers already....

In anticipation....

So just a quick post this evening as I finish up the packing and head to bed to endure a very long day of traveling! I can't believe in just a few short hours I will be getting on an airplane to embark on my 9th trip to Panama! I'm looking forward to this year's trip, just as every year! I anticipate a great group of people who come from all walks of life. I anticipate an exciting project, along with VBS, and showing the Jesus Film. I anticipate seeing the faces of some of the most amazing people we've been privileged to be able to call family. And I anticipate a time of renewal, refreshing, and a time of closeness with God. Every year is different, and every year we say it's the best! I can't wait to see what this year holds for us! Please pray for us if you will! Here is a list of the people in our group! Jeremy and Rebekah McLaughlin (WI) Cabot McLaughlin (WI) Rosie Stanchik (WI) Vikki King (WI) Lori Slaney (WI) Robert Slaney (WI) Derl and Karen Keefer (MI) Bryan and Sheila Baker (IL) Gabe and Kerri Manis (CO) Al Smith and Karen Wenger (IN) Karen Renner (IN) Jama Pyle (IN) Kristen Cook (IN) Jamie King (IN) Julia Sorrell (IN) Lois Pines (IN) Thank you for you prayers!! I will be posting as much as I can on this trip....keep looking out for it!

"...I won't say garden hoe"

07.01.2012 It's Sunday, our last day in Panama. This is usually the day that is filled with the most fun and sadness. We headed to church at Puerto Caimito. We were excited to go and celebrate with the people that we spent all week getting to know and love. Edwin preached the sermon, while Pablo translated. We had a great time worshiping, Kenia and Dina led it. Dina is a sweet girl who knows English and translated quite a bit for us. Deena and Dalton did a special...Dalton on the guitar and Deena singing. Two girls, Kayla and Lia also sang a special, along with Jeremy, a sweet 10 year old. Of course it was hot and sticky during the service....fans were blowing, but it's hard to get relief. After the sermon we headed to the back of the church where the roof was put up and Edwin had Jeremy pray and dedicate the new dining area. We also recognized the ladies who made our food all week and also the Pastor and his wife. They also gave each of us a gift. Saturday was Pastor Milanio's birthday and we celebrated it with cake and ice cream! Yum! Lots of photos were taken and lots of hugs were given out. The people of the Puerto Caimito church are very loving people and we enjoyed getting to know the people and the children. We were blessed as much, if not more, then we blessed them. As I shared with them, God continues to remind me of the parable of feeding the 5000. I always stress over the money, whether we have enough and where it all goes. This year was no different. I knew the amount of money we had for supplies and before we were even there they had used the entire amount for the roofing project. We were great about that, but knew that we actually couldn't do the work of the roofing project since it entailed welding, which none of us could do.    So when we arrived we were a bit concerned with what laid ahead of us throughout the week. So God, of course, continued to stretch our money...so much that we were able to scrape the entire church inside and out, paint the entire church inside and out and purchase the materials to replace the front part of the building's roof. Again, God answered our prayers and proved to us His faithfulness.  After church we headed back into the city and went to the markets to shop for some souvenirs. It poured raining so we didn't get to see a lot of the city as planned, but we were all exhausted from the busyness of the weekend that I don't think anyone really minded. We had dinner at Pizza Hut, a tradition, before heading back to the house for devotions and packing.  Dario gave the devotion which was amazing and very fitting. Afterwards, Arcenio prayed over our group. I love when he prays....I like to say he prays you right through to heaven! Dario and Arcenio are two of the most amazing people I've met. I'm so glad that they were able to come down and spend the week with us. I've really enjoyed watching Arcenio come out of his shell, he's such a joy to be around and has such a heart for those that are lost. I sure do adore those boys! We had a great time of reflection and enjoyed spending the last moments of the day with them as well as Pablo and Edwin. Tomorrow we load up at 4am to head to the airport where we will be traveling all day tomorrow to get back home....it's time to plan our next trip! :-)

"blessed beyond belief..."

06.30.2012 It's Saturday and it's been a longggggg day. We began out journey at 5am as we headed on our 2 hour bus ride. We finally made it to the river to get into the hollowed out tree trunked boat. It was so cool! Something I always envisioned doing! We had a full boat....17 people, 8 boxes of rice, cookies and juice, and lots of bags filled with goodies for the kids. The boat ride was an 1 1/2 hour and started pretty well until....it began to rain! We were going to the village of Incanti, but heading to another village first to drop off rice and pray with the people. The closer we got, the more it rained. We probably looked a little silly with ponchos and garbage bags over us...all you could see were our eyes! So funny! We made it to the kuna village and hiked up the mountain with rice in hand. It was so awesome to be greeted by some of the little kuna girls. The village was made up of grass huts all around. We were asked to come into the home of Alexia, a man that Edwin knows. We were greeted by all, the kuna children sang to us and we sang to them the same songs in English. We prayed for one another in our own languages also. Afterwards Deena and I served the kids tea and cookies...that was so cool! Each child had went to their homes and brought back coffee mugs to be filled. I was so filled to serve them on this way. We met a few people that were going to be baptized the next time Edwin goes to the village and also a couple that plans to get married. We prayed over them also. We walked around the village some and then went into another hut to look at all the things they made. I got a new bracelet! :-)  As we were getting ready to head down the mountain to head to Incanti, we received news that Incanti was being quarantined because of an outbreak of diarrhea and fever in the children.  Four children had died that day. We were saddened to hear of the news. We decided to stay in the village and play with the kids. We made a craft with them and also made salvation bracelets with them. I was almost trampled by the ladies and kids when I began to pass out bags to them! We headed back down the mountain and into the boat. We were all exhausted Nd enjoyed the calm rude back. We prayed as we went past the Incanti village for those families who lost children and were sick. After we made it back we headed for supper. It was an exhausting, emotional day. I was glad to get back to the house and go to bed. During dinner we were able to skype with the kids.....I needed that. Tomorrow is church and our last day in Panama. Sad....

"...and then the tire blew..."

06.29.2012 Today (Friday) was our beach day. Of course we waited quite awhile for our bus driver so instead of leaving at 9am, we left at 11am. We had a nice morning, though...breakfast, devotions, hanging out. We finally began our journey to Colon, not the nicest city (lots of drugs), but it had beautiful beaches. Unfortunately, on our way there we blew a tire in the bus. Our bus driver was amazing! He got us safely off the road and changed the tire in no time! We probably looked a little crazy....a group of Americans on the side of a road! We finally made it to the beach. Everybody enjoyed the warm water and sand. Dalton had his guitar, so Edwin played some songs for us... Tonight, after the beach, we went to the largest mall. We didn't have much time, but we shopped a little and had supper there. Tomorrow (Saturday), we will be headed to the Kuna village, Incanti. We all have been anticipating this exciting journey! We will be taking a 2 hour bus ride and a 1 1/2 hour boat ride to get there! I know we are going to be blessed with an amazing time! We've been warned about different things...cameras/pictures, the boys looking at the girls, etc. The church is in the process of forming relationships with the people, so we don't want to jeopardize that. We've got to get up extremely early for this trip, so Adios! Keep the prayers coming! :-)

"a Guatemalan, a Panamanian, and an American..."

06.28.2012 Well, today we were woken up by Pablo! Through broken translation yesterday, Edwin thought we were planning on staying in the city starting tonight, instead of the original plan on Friday. So...we started our day packing all of our things and getting them ready to be moved to the district house where we were going to stay. After packing up all of things and moving them into one room, we headed to the church for breakfast and to begin our last day of work. The plan was while we started the work on the church, Jeremy, Pablo, and Dario would go load up the luggage and take it to the district house so it was there for us tonight.  At the worksite we had a lot of little things to do. I had to finish the two signs on the outer walls, they began painting the two outside side walls, and the stage area had to be finished before we began cleaning.  After lunch, we continued to work, but the boys were not back so I called Pablo just to check on them. They had just finished up and were grabbing some food and heading back. About an hour later we got another phone call from Pablo telling us they had gotten pulled over, the bus they were driving had an expired insurance. So, they ticketed Pablo and took the bus!! So needless to say they were going to be a bit late and hopefully not walking back! We finished up our work in the late afternoon, right before the skies opened up and poured. We hung around for awhile waiting on any word from the guys and also for supper. Right about the time we were headed to dinner the guys arrived, without a bus! Our plan was just to hang out until another bus arrived, so after dinner, Dalton played his new guitar and we had an impromptu jam session...part Spanish, part English. We finally got a new bus and headed into the city. It was a long ride, but we made it to the house. This is the same house Jeremy and I stayed last summer when we were here.  We are blessed to be in the city. We don't have to get up extremely early now, so that's nice. The next few days we have here in Panama City are going to be fun! Tomorrow we will be heading to the beach and to the mall. Saturday is our trip to the kuna village and Sunday we will be headed back to the church for service and then going on Edwin's tour of the city. Should be a great weekend before our travel day back on Monday....

..."you missed a spot!"

06.27.2012 It's Wednesday and it's been a great day! I think we are wearing down...between the long hours, heat, and the sun...it's exhausting! But it's definitely fun work!! This morning I started my morning with devotions and read about how we are refreshed by God throughout our daily lives and how can we be refreshing to others? I love the word refresh! It reminds me of when I've run 5 or 6 miles and then I down some water...that's refreshing! Or when you've worked in the sewer muck on a mission trip and then go take a cold shower...that's refreshing! It's a great, positive word that is even more magnified when it has to do with God refreshing us.  After finishing, I headed downstairs and met up with Janel who handed me a bag of tiramisu cookies and a sweet, encouraging card....that's refreshing!! How easy it is to refresh someone else by a nice, kind word...a smile...a gift...or a hug! So here's my question to you....who are you refreshing today? How is God refreshing you so you can refresh others? After breakfast we headed to the church and began working. We all split up...a few on the stage painting, some in the sanctuary painting, Deena on the roof painting, Janel and I painting the lettering on the walls, etc. It was a long day of painting! It was a successful day...a lot was completed and the morale was positive! Edwin and Stephen Sickel (w&w coordinator) stopped by today so we chatted with them a bit. Tonight we had supper...beans, rice, some kind of meat (veggies for me!), and the pastor caught some jumbo shrimp that they made for the team. They even gave us ice cream!! Diane brought the devotions tonight. Now I'm sitting here in our room. I just cleaned the nasty, sweaty grime off of me and now as I type I'm being serenaded by my cousin's singing. She likes to sing as she gets ready and she has a beautiful voice so I'm all about it! It's very uplifting! In a bit we are meeting together to bag up the rest of the candy, toys, and salvation bracelets for Saturday. Saturday we get the experience of traveling by bus and boat to a Kuna Indian village to spend the day with them. We are super excited for this trip, well, except for the lack of bathrooms, but we'll make do!  Please continue to pray for our group! Again, because God is such an amazing God he has blessed us with more money they we could've imagined and we have been able to do so much more than anticipated! I can't wait to compare the original list of what was expected to get done, to what has now been accomplished! I give God all the praise...this happens every year! Every year I sweat about money, and every year God multiplies it to further His kingdom! We have really enjoyed all the local church people who have helped along the way this past week....from making our meals to helping us work....it's been great! We have especially enjoyed some of the kids that come by everyday after school just to hang out with us....I think of Jeremy, Lia, Abby...such sweet kids that make us laugh and help us get through the sweat and heat! I can't believe that tomorrow will be a week since we've flown here. From the first day being a bit rocky in the travel to now, it's been AMAZING!!!! God has been faithful and for that I'm thankful!  Oh and....I got momochinos!!!!! That is totally spelled wrong, but those that have been on the trip may have remembered the spiky fruit!! YUM!!! :-)