Panama Update..Finally!
Well, as you are all aware we are possibly the worst missionaries in the world about getting out newsletters. It just seems we are so busy, there is so much to tell, and yet trying to get all that in words on a newsletter just does not happen. So lets see if we can catch everyone up to speed since the last one was nearly a year ago!
2017 was a year of challenges and before we kicked it to the curb we decided to pray and decide what God would have us learn from those challenges. Some were very basic, like take care of yourselves before you take care of the world ( you know like they tell you in the airplane…adjust your own oxygen mask before helping others around you!). Others were areas where we were caught off guard by situations and those dominoed to affect us in multiple areas. So lesson learned there is to slow down and listen to God since He is never caught off guard!
Here are some of our adventures continuing from 2017 ( and before)
1. We continue to provide housing to an awesome YWAM missionary here on our property. We finished the little efficiency apartment above the garage last Spring. We love having her here on the property and our two dogs think it is awesome to have 1 more person to welcome home every evening!
2. Terry continues his work at Arturo Miro Boys Home 2 days a week. The boy’s skill levels in woodworking now include making furniture and learning to repair some structures in the orphanage as needed. Several of the boys he started with have either graduated or been able to return to their homes or the homes of relatives. When they leave we provide a very nice tool kit, a certificate of completion that states what machines they are able to safely use and how long they were in the program, and of course celebrate with pizza and soda for everyone. Sometimes including the staff!
3. Somehow, though we are not really sure how, Terry also has the privilege of heading up some Aruturo Miro projects for a great group of guys from Cypress Baptist Church in Benton, LA.. They have at least one and usually two teams a year who come to help with projects and minister directly to the boys. Last week one team tore off the old roof from the cafeteria and replaced it with a new one as the food preparation tables had more buckets to hold the leaks than bowls to prepare the food!
Doesn’t that look like Terry up there? I was pretty sure he would not “oversee” this from the ground. I obviously was correct!
These groups work in the morning on “projects” but in the afternoon play and have Bible Study with the boys. It is so important that these boys get appropriate interaction with men and to see that someone cares enough to put in hard work to make their lives better.
This month another team from this church will be coming to pour a foundation to an already existing container. This will pave the way for a future basic mechanic school at the home. We have a friend from South Africa who is praying about heading that up. Please pray he learns Spanish quickly. For our South African friends it is their third language!
4. We are finishing up a house build here designed to train local Panamanians in a more “gringo” style building technology . It is built more to the standards of a North American home, with steel stud walls, drywall interior Hardiboard exterior, pex plumbing, insulated walls and real threshold under the entry doors. Much to our surprise the guys really enjoyed learning new ways to build. The reason this is important is that in our area of Panama many new homes are being built this way as opposed to concrete block construction. It is our desire that they be able to work with both the old and “new” way of construction. ( Can anyone guess which of us wrote that piece????)
And if you are still with us, this is the newest adventure/challenge! Don’t stop reading yet…this one is great!
We have joined with a friend from Florida ( and the story on how that happened is totally a God thing but we will wait for another newsletter to share that one.), Mike Mariotti, to open an auto mechanics school in a real garage just 10 minutes from we live . We found this garage already equipped with a mechanical lift and pit ready to rent. It is in a prime location and were were able to secure it and move the equipment Mike brought from Florida in late December. The big challenge now is to get electricity turned on. To date we are still lost in the bureaucratic process necessary to get power restored. It is not easy here and the “rules” are subject to the person you are speaking to at that moment in time and subject to change without notice. You may remember what a fiasco it was getting the electricity to our own home a few years ago. But God prevailed and we know it will happen again!
The goal here is the same as the boys home and construction ministries. It is to train and employ local young men and women in obtaining good paying jobs while introducing them and encouraging them in their walk with Christ.
Mike is an experienced and certified mechanic with 28 years of working as a owner/operator in the auto mechanic industry. WE have identified a company that will allow us to purchase their software ( in Spanish) for the purpose of online training. The trainees will have both online and hands on experience. Upon completion they will receive a diploma and referral that should help them secure a good paying job in the area.
And last but not least….what is Liz doing?????
Liz continues filling in the gaps with all the above, with YWAM, and with our awesome home church, Chiriqui Vineyard. And since that was not enough to keep her busy ( really???) she now volunteers with the local Health and Hospice Foundation as the need arises ( and it does arise)!
Thank you for being a partner with us in these endeavors. Currently we have our expenses at the boys home, rent for the garage, and partial salary for one employee/trainee covered by donations. A couple of local churches have committed to partner with us as well as many of you. We still have a need to underwrite at least one more full time trainee at a cost of about $850 per month.
We are blessed by each of you and appreciate your continued support. Please keep us in your prayers. This type of ministry has a surprising amount of challenges. The enemy would like to keep this country in poverty and ignorance of the Grace and knowledge of God.
Please let us know if you have any questions about any of these ministries and please think about coming to visit us here in Panama. It is always a blessing when we have someone from “home” come to visit.
In His love and by His Grace,
Liz and Terry, Zorro, Trooper, Chipper, and Blue Boy ( we were going to try a group shot but was pretty sure the dogs would try to eat the birds!)
PS..And just to show why it is so hard to keep up with what is going on, we got electricity at the shop the day after we wrote this letter! The next day we dedicated and prayed over it, and the next day we opened for business! Here are a couple of pics and a bit of explanation!
These are our partners. Nikko , Mike and Astrid Merrioti, and you know the two other ones. Now, about the banner. Mike asked for the wrenches to be made in the shape of a cross. Notice, they are “crossed” and he asked for praying hands with no mention of the rosary intwined therein. But the message is clear
These are some of the folks that came to pray over the shop and we dedicated this to God for His Glory. Missing from the picture but there with us were Steve and Linda Banks and Carole Kaylor. Dan Kaylor is in the very back . You can see his forehead and one eye if you look close! 🙂
How many 65 year olds are blessed to have their mother pray at a dedication? She prayed for lots of things but as a Mom she repeated safety several times. Guess we never lose that…..
And this is the one they worked on 3 weeks before we opened. Not planned but when a fellow missionary needs a car…..we actually pushed this one into the garage and used a generator to power the lift!