Thoughts About Readers

We have been continuing our work at the high school, the place where our congregation meets on Sundays. We have some very dedicated students there and enjoy the time we get to be with them. We have some students that are Christians and know a lot about the bible and they seem encouraged by our time together. Other students consider themselves "religious" but it is obvious that they aren't very familiar with the bible. It is good to see the power of God's Word work on them. A few of the students are searching, they know about Jesus, but they don't believe. The variety is a good illustration of the parable of the soils that Jesus tells in Luke 8:4-15. We read this story in Lesson 11 of our workbooks. It is interesting to think that most Christians at different times in our lives have been all of the soils. We must give attention, every day, to our soil to become and remain good ground.

In addition to our work at the high school, we meet with some other readers. These are adults and we have been meeting with them continual since we started our work in Panama City. As we see the end of our time in Panama approaching, we are focusing on spending as much time with them as we can. When you make friends with people that live in another country, it makes the possibility of never being together again greater. We all know that there is no guarantee of future time with other people, but sometimes we forget that and take for granted the time we have with people because we always think we have more time. The reality of the uncertainty of our time together hits home as we spend our last minutes with friends that live in another country that we have no set plans to return to. So, we are trying to take the opportunity to enjoy this time with our friends and not be greedy for more.

Luke 12:30b and 31
Your father knows that you need those things. The thing you should want is God's kingdom.

GREG'S BLOG

Greg has written a new blog giving an update about our work and he has a link to some pictures.
Click here to see Greg's blog

The Latest

We are in the midst of big changes in our Panama project and we wanted you to know what is going on.

As you should know, we have been working at a university, UDELAS since March. The semester is ending there and the students are now taking final exams. Most of our readers are UDELAS students and they are have many the end of the semester pressures, so it is difficult for them to continue with our reading sessions. We ended our project there on Friday. During our 4 months at the university we had reading sessions with about 45 different people, many of them were with us the whole time. We also got to work with two other LST teams at that location. There are a few of those readers that we will continue to meet with. Some ongoing through July and August and others that we will reschedule in August.

Now, I'm sure you are curious what's next for us. Today we spent the day at a local high school organizing our next project. It is the high school where our church meets on Sundays. We will spend the next three weeks meeting with students from that school during the day and then at night we will try to meet with some of our current readers. We spent today at the school organizing the schedule and meeting the students. Tomorrow we hope to begin reading sessions. Although we don't usually prefer to work with high schoolers, we know that this will be a great project. These are great students who are very excited about practicing their English and we hope to get them excited about Jesus, too. Another reason this is an exciting project is the impact it will have on the congregation we worship with. They really want to reach out to the community of the school and this is one way to do that. Greg and I are so glad to do something to bless this church that has been so good to us!

LESSON 13

I used to dread Lesson 13 in the LST workbook. I would just try to get through it as fast as I could and hope that my readers would just kind of overlook it and move on.
As I read over those two sentences, I realize, that doesn't sound very good. That's not the attitude of someone who likes to read the Gospels and talk about Jesus. But when I tell you what scriptures this lesson covers, maybe you will understand and forgive me. Lesson 13 is Luke 19:28-36, in English we refer to this occurrence in Jesus' life as "The Transfiguration". This is when Jesus and Peter, John and James go up on a mountain to pray and Moses and Elijah came to visit. Now let's be honest, this piece of scripture can be hard to understand in an "easy to read" translation of the Bible in your own language. Why are two "ghosts or angels" meeting up to chat with Jesus? Why is Peter wanting to put up tents (yes, our LST version says "tents", which makes the discussion even harder) for these three guys? Why does God interrupt Peter when he is talking? Is he angry at Peter? What does it mean, "Peter did not know what he was saying"?
Well, reading the same passages of scripture over and over for 10 months provides many blessings. Mainly, the blessing of new insights that the Holy Spirit will provide as you continue to re-read those passages. It is true that the Bible is the "Living Word". I know it is alive, because I continue to encounter that "Life" in my heart and I see that "Life" in the hearts of many of my readers.

Of the truths I have learned about this particular passage, two stay on my mind and cause me a great feeling of AWE. First is the realization that I don't need to know the answer to all the "Why?" questions to know that God had a definite purpose in this event. He wanted everyone to know and understand that Jesus is his son and he wants all people to obey only Jesus. (It was important for the Jews to let go of their obedience to Moses' and Elijah's teachings, and that couldn't have been an easy message for them to take in, they had been doing that for generations.) The second truth comes to me from the end of the lesson. The scriptures say, "And for a long time after that they told no one about what they had seen." A great question to ask my LST readers is, "Why didn't they talk about this to other people?" This question makes for good, easy conversation but it also gives me an opportunity to share my faith, because many months ago the Holy Spirit taught me a truth through this question. My answer is that although we don't know exactly why they didn't tell anyone, I think that maybe they were overwhelmed by the presence of God. In other places in the Bible when people encounter God they are overcome by strong emotions and reactions, fear being one. These guys have just heard the voice of God, I'm sure that was stunning. Maybe they just needed to process that encounter internally for a while. Although I have never heard the audible voice of God, when I encounter Him in my heart, I am overwhelmed, I don't know how to process it and I usually can't share the experience with anyone, at least for a while. Telling this makes me think of the song "I Can Only Imagine". I don't know how I will respond to the presence of God, will I stand and sing and shout for joy or will I fall to my knees unable to speak?

I can truthfully say, I no longer dread Lesson 13. I love the chills I get as I share this with my readers. I love the unanswered questions, they are evidence of faith. And best of all, I love the fact that many readers say, "I'm going to go home and read this in Spanish to try and understand it better." That is the power of the "Living Word"!

Here is a link to Youtube, if you want to listen to Mercy Me singing "I Can Only Imagine".

Encouragement

Today we had a great surprise, we received a card of encouragement from the ladies of Greg's childhood church, Hermitage Church of Christ. It means so much to us to know that we are remembered and prayed for by people at home. We feel so loved by their act!
Ladies of the Hermitage Church of Christ in Hermitage, PA we offer our heartfelt thanks to you. God willing we will be with you for a visit sometime this fall.

READERS

I'm sure most of you remember but just in case some don't, in LST we refer to the people we are meeting with as "readers".
They are the reason we are doing this work. Actually, the reason we are doing it is because we felt led by God to do it, but the readers are the recipients of our work.
The situation in Panama has been very different than we were used to or expected. Most of the readers at our current site are beginning college students at the university. They are very young and some are a bit lacking in maturity. The way that affects us is that they often miss our sessions and don't contact us to let us know they aren't coming. Another problem that presents is that many of them have a pretty low level of English. This makes it difficult to conduct the sessions in the way we were trained to do. But one thing we have learned over the last year is flexibility. Since we meet on a university campus, many of them just see this as another class and view us as "professors". In addition to that, we had to take so many readers from the previous teams that we can only meet with most of them once a week. So, developing relationships are difficult. We are trying to adjust our expectations and work with the situation as it is. The North American missionaries here in Panama tell everyone that visits that the best way to get along here is to have no expectations. We are working on that, but it is definitely contrary to our nature.
Now, back to the real reason I'm writing this blog. On Monday I had one of those reading sessions that makes all the trouble worth it. This particular reader is a university student, but not at our university. She takes an hour bus ride to get to our sessions. She always contacts me if she can't make it. She is a bright spot in my week because she has enough English to have real conversations with and she seems to really value our time together. In a session several weeks ago we read about Jesus' baptism. She told me that she has not been baptized. She knows this is important for her to do, but she isn't ready yet. Her grandmother is always pressuring her to be baptized and she doesn't want to do it for that reason or to be acceptable to a religious organization. She said that when she is baptized she wants to do it for the right reasons. I really respect that and encouraged her to continue to seek God's purpose for her in this area. This week we read about the time Jesus used the illustration of the foundation of a house and compared that to obeying his teachings. When I asked about her "house" she said she thinks part of it has a good foundation and part doesn't. She knows that she doesn't obey Jesus completely. I know you are all hoping that I will now say that she said she wanted to be baptized. Well, sorry. You will be disappointed. She isn't there yet. She left the reading session with a hunger to continue to learn more about Jesus' teachings and a desire to grow in her obedience. I am trusting God to guide her to the point of realizing that the part that is missing just might be baptism. She has enough people pressuring her to do it and I don't want to add to that. I just want to help her realize how much she needs Jesus. She needs to obey him because of her own desire and not to please me or any other person. I truly believe she will be baptized one day, but I accept that it may happen long after I am gone and I may never even know about it. But, it is God's work to add to His number. My work is in the fields. Planting some seeds and watering others.

I pray that we can all see our role in the Kingdom work as clearly as the apostle Paul saw his.
"I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow."
~1Corinthians 3:6

Pictures

Greg has put together a slide show that gives an idea of what our life in Panama looks like.
Click here to see it. It's called LST in Panama City.

LST at UDELAS

Now that we have settled into a bit of a routine in our new project, I thought it was time to give you a glimpse into the work here. As most of you know, there was an 5 person LST team here from New York doing a three week project. While they were here, we worked alongside them for the most part, but now that they are gone, Greg and I are on our own with lots of love and support from the local missionaries.

In some ways, our work is the same here in Panama City as it was in Natal. We are doing one on one english conversation classes with people who are learning english (we call them readers), using the book of Luke from the New Testament as our curriculum. But in many ways, our work is very different. We are meeting primarily with university students on a university campus. The university has provided a room for our exclusive use and they are even providing some of our meals. Greg has about 17 readers and I have about 25. We meet with most of them once a week, but if possible, we meet with some more often. Although we are mostly working with university students, there is a little variety among our readers, from campus janitors, to first year students, to professors, and a few that come over to meet with us that have no connection with the university.

Another difference we are learning to adjust to is how we connect our readers with people from the local church. Many of our readers commute to the university and have very long bus rides to get here. And to make the situation harder, the church family that we have most contact with here in the City is comprised of people spread out all over the city, so it is almost impossible for them to gather together at times other than Sunday morning worship. In our past LST experiences, we have worked really hard to get church members to develop friendships with our readers so that as they come to know the Lord, they are also developing relationships with His people. Our contact missionaries here in PC have recommended that as we have readers who are coming to a level of faith that develops an interest in involvement with the church we try to connect them with a church in their own community. So, instead of regular social events we will probably try to visit them in their town and hopefully attend their local church together. Please be in prayer with us that we will see the leading of the Lord in this.

We are enjoying this new phase of our year of LST. It is great to be on a university campus and interact with our readers as we pass them in the halls or on the grounds. It is exciting to develop relationships with the cafe lady and the man that works at the desk (exciting and good for practicing our Spanish) and the english professors. And we look forward to seeing how the Lord will work out all the changes!

The Passing of a Hero of Faith

I found out this morning that yesterday my Aunt Terecia (my dad's oldest sister) passed away. That was bittersweet news. Sweet because she has been battling cancer for several years and her body was worn and weary and she has been ready to go home to the Father for a while now. Bitter because of the pain that her absence will cause in the lives of those who love her, especially her husband, Uncle Doyle. Aunt Terecia and Uncle Doyle are some of my personal heros of faith. My time with them was always limited to visiting at the biennial family reunion or short visits in their home but that was enough time for me to get the impression that their faith in God was the most important thing in their lives. When I picture their faces in my mind, I see them singing praises to the Lord with a look of love, joy and peace. My favorite memories of them are the times I was privileged to worship with them.

My parents went to visit Aunt Terecia in her home a few weeks ago and while they were there, I got to talk to her and Uncle Doyle on Skype. I appreciated that so much, in just that little time despite her physical discomfort, she had words of encouragement for me in this work we are doing. I am so thankful to God that He gave me one last opportunity to connect with her in this life and I know my next reunion with her will be even better.

On a selfish note, a lot of the family will be gathering in Panhandle, Texas this weekend for her funeral, and I am very sad to have to miss that time together. I would love to be able to join in Cousin's Chorus to sing songs of praise at her memorial as a tribute to her and as an encouragement to Uncle Doyle but I will be with my family in spirit. I know Aunt Terecia and Uncle Doyle support the work I am doing and they wouldn't want me to leave my work to go to her funeral.

One thing that God has been teaching me over the last several years is to stop trying to possess everything and just try to enjoy the things of this life without having to own or horde them. Not too long ago I realized that goes for people too. We can love, admire, appreciate and enjoy people for whatever time we have with them, whether that is 2 minutes in a taxi or 50 years of marriage and when that person is not present in our lives, that doesn't change the love, admiration, appreciation and joy or diminish the importance of the relationship. Instead of focusing on the time we don't have together, we must just be thankful for the time we were together. I think the loss of Aunt Terecia will be an experience that God will use to help me continue to learn this lesson. And how fitting that in death, just as in life, she is teaching me how to grow more like Christ.

"Don't be greedy for the good things of this life, for that is idolatry." Colossians 3:5b

More pics

Greg uploaded pictures of our project in Chepo and also of our apartment in PC. Follow this linkto see them.

Odds and Ends

If you read Greg's blog, you know that we are back in Panama City and have moved into our own apartment. The Lord provided richly. The day we returned from Chepo we moved right into an apartment. We live in a neighborhood very close to the university where we will be working and we are paying much less in rent than we thought we were going to have to pay. We have spent the last week getting settled in and except for a few little details, we have made the place our home. Greg has been working full-time for the Bible Study Guide this week and will continue to do that through February. Our work at the university will not begin until late March so I am trying to find some other English students to do LST with until that time. I have the names of several former readers and am hopeful that I will be able to arrange a full schedule by the end of the week. Also, I may have an opportunity to learn the administrative end of LST projects from the missionaries perspective. It is very exciting to really find out what the life of a missionary is like. The slide shows we see when missionaries visit our congregations just doesn't do justice to the demands on their lives.

In other news, Greg and I will begin Spanish classes tomorrow. A lady at church is a bi-lingual Spanish/English teacher and will come to our home to give us private lessons. We are very excited and a little nervous. We have been working hard to learn the language, but it is definitely going slowly. The lessons are a little expensive, so we don't know yet how many we can take. The teacher recommends that we have 3 or 4 classes a week (one hour each). We plan to take at least two a week and will see if we can afford more. We will just have to crunch the numbers and see what we can do.

This has been a week of excitement for us. The missionaries (David and Lisa Carter) that coordinate the LST work in Panama City have been away since we arrived in December. This week we finally had a chance to spend some time with them and get to know them. We feel very comfortable with them and feel confident that we will have a smooth transition into a working relationship with both David and Lisa. And if that weren't exciting enough, another couple (the Carter's in-laws) just moved to the city to began missionary work. We are amazed at their faith and courage in taking this step to leave their family (they left 3 children, ages 18-28) and life in the U.S. to dedicate themselves to the Lord's work in Panama City. We are especially blessed by them because they are our upstairs neighbors. I can't tell you how comforting it is to have a brother and sister right upstairs.

The greatest news of all, there were three baptisms in the city this week. One that we got to witness. The ministers here have an amazing gift of outreach and evangelism and the church is really growing in Panama City. LST is just one effort that they are involved in.

Well, I think that just about gets you up to date on what is going on in my life.
Every day I am aware of the love and protection of God and I'm sure that without Him, some days I would want to just hide in the closet. But, since our apartment doesn't have any closets, I'll just keep turning to God and receiving courage and strength from Him.

The LORD gives strength to his people;
the LORD blesses his people with peace. ~Psalm 29:11

Chepo

Here is the latest.
We had our LST Information meeting in Chepo on Sunday, Jan. 4. Although many people attended, only a small handful actually have enough English to do the program. So, I am attempting to provided beginning English classes for all the others. One for older children and two for teens and adults. This has been scary for me since I am not a teacher and have never taught English. But the Lord is so good and works through our weaknesses and He is providing help and inspiration. One of his greatest provisions in Chepo is the sister-in-law of the local preacher. She has been studying English for 3 months and she has come to stay with them during our visit (she lives in another city) so that she can help us communicate a little. Of course, after only 3 months of study, her English is pretty limited but considering that without her we would have no one who spoke any English, we think her English is great!!! She is also helping me with the beginners classes and I can't imagine how I would have done it without her.

Now, although all that sounds well and good, we have had a big snag in our work this week. Last Thursday night Greg came down with a high fever. On Friday we headed into the city so that we could take him to a doctor in an environment where we could communicate with the medical staff (either through people who speak fluent English and could interpret for us or, as it turned out, with a doctor that speaks fluent English). Greg kept having fever for 2 or 3 days and has had some digestive problems since then. On Monday night, I started getting fevers and digestive problems. We are still waiting for word from the doctor about what we might have had, and chances are, he may not be able to identify it for sure. But we are happy to report to we are both recovering. Although we aren't back to normal yet, we're very weak and tired, we are getting out of bed and eating solid foods. We have been staying in Panama City at the house of one of the local preachers and they have taken great care of us! We haven't decided yet when we will go back to continue our work in Chepo, but hopefully we will head back this weekend. We are sad to have missed a week of time with our contacts there but are trusting that the Lord is working through all of this. Originally we were suppose to work in Chepo only 2 weeks and we had decided to do 3. I guess we were only suppose to do 2, just not 2 consecutively.

One positive about our unexpected time in the city, we are very close to having an apartment. We have found one that is in the area we need to live and is affordable and it is suppose to be ready when we return to the city on the 24th or 25th. Only the formalities remain. I am very hopeful and excited about this. It was starting to look like we were not going to find a place and would have to crowd in with some local family or stay in a hotel. We are praying for the Lord to work out the details so that we can move into our own apartment when our work in Chepo is done.

But he said to me (Jesus to Paul), "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
~2 Corinthians 12:9&10

Quick Update

I got online to tell you all about our next work site, but as I reviewed Greg's last blog, I see that he has written about all the things I thought you should know about, so, if you haven't read Greg's blog lately go to this link and read all about our next adventure. We ask that you please be in prayer about this work. Greg and I will be called upon to do many things that we have never done before and that will challenge us but the effort is worth it if we can share the love of Jesus with even one person.