First Week In Panama! Talk about the God's Greatness!!

Hola Amigos!

Today was beautiful and it was so nice out. The sun shining, cool breeze, the beautiful sounds of car engines and horns, whistlers and .... (*stop day-dreaming Ib). But anyways, it was beautiful nonetheless! It has been an eventful and lovely week. I have been able to witness God's wonderful works in the lives of Panamanians students and the professors too. HE is definitely worthy of all praises. And for safety, He kept His word from Psalms 121:8, "the Lord will watch over your coming and going, both now and forevermore".

More on the Panama, I love the public transportation here. The buses named "Diablo Reyo" meaning Red Devil, are pimped be the bus owners/drivers, with paintings all over the body and about 50% of the dash window.  On the inside are rows of seats with an aisle for standing room (basically picture a typical yellow school bus, and then customize it!) And bus fare is only 25 cents, I couldn't believe it! But the bus is usually PACKED, and there is little to no standing room. I am excited that we get to use this mode of transportation as this will be the last year it will be used in Panama as they are gradually switching to metro buses (similar to the ones in Canada).

The cuisine as I mentioned in my last post, is Mmm-Tastic. Below is a picture of one of the meals I have eaten so far (arroz con pollo)!
Loads of rice, plantain and chicken... that's what we eat most of the time!

Now, good news!!! Join us and the angels in heaven as we rejoice for the lost 14 souls that gave their lives to Christ last week on the university campus (where my team is based). It was a wonderful week. The language barrier was little to no obstacle to our spreading of God´s love for our lifes. On the other campus, Universidad Technologique du Panama (otherwise known as U-T-P), the team was invited to talk to a class on an impromptu basis, because the students were interested in chatting with them and the professor was amazingly kind to let them talk. They presented the 4 spiritual laws, and another student in the class (a guy on fire for God), stood up after the talk to help the team in closing, which is basically, if you will like to invite God into your life, raise you hands. Over half the class welcomed Christ into their lives, including the professor!. That was amazing!

For Friday, we worked on the Vida Estudantil Office (vida estudantil = Campus for Christ) here in Panama. Repainting the walls, doing art work to decorate the office space in other to make it really comfortable and eye-catching so that people will be more interested working there. We are joining them in praying for 10 new staff to join the office and be involved with the Vida Estudantil on both campuses so that they will be able to train and recruit people to go to the nations to spread the word also. (Picture above represents the team that worked on painting the office).

On the weekend we visited the Panama Canal, one of the major tourist attractions here in Panama. It connects the Pacific Ocean to the Caribbean sea. So a ship will be able to cross easily instead of going around for a longer while. Below is a picture of it.

"Canal de Panama" and it's locks were completed in 1914. According to the guide (or should I say the voice we heard over the speakers), for a ship to cross the lock, one of the marinas (or locks crew) will have to board the ship in other to carefully sail it through the really narrow locks, and also the ship must pay a toll fee (which is over $200,000). The lowest toll ever paid was 36cents by a guy who swam through the panama canal.

For this week, some of us will be going to elementary schools to show the Jesus film. I am super-excited for that, and I am praying it goes well according to plan (if it is God's will).

Some specific prayer points:
- Thank God for safety and for the new believers!
- Pray for safety and health (a few of us are feeling sick)
- Pray for the office project, that the materials needed will be provided and we will be able to finish it before we go back to Canada
- Pray for ENERGY and STRENGTH!!!!! (it can be a little tiring)
- Pray for the English Club that we are starting on the national campus to help the english students!
- Pray that God will put a desire in the hearts of 10 people to want to become staff at Vida Estudantil
- Thank God for safety for our team!! 

We are almost half-way through the project. I am super excited as I have been able to see God change the hearts of Panamanians and I cannot wait to see more of his wonderful plans come to accomplishment.

Hope your week has been going great! Thank you for your prayers! Hasta leugo Amigos! :)

Buenas Noches:

Ib :)