Sorpresa!
James turned 24 yesterday so we had a little surprise party for him. Our friend from English class is a magician and came and did a show! Click the more tab to see the video!
Perusing Peru
Peru, that strange mysterious country which ever since childhood carries with it that air of mystery and adventure, home of the Inca, the towering Andes and the steamy Amazon… well I finally got there.
regresamos
…and we’re back!
These last few weeks James and I had the opportunity to go back home to the States as September marks our one year being on the field here in Panama.
Going home was amazing. We missed our family and friends so much and being able to be in the same room with them was [...]
semana tipica
It occurred to me after talking with James’ dad last night that we don’t really talk much about our personal work here in Panama. A lot of times it’s not too attractive or romantic so we often feel it’s not blog worthy, but in reality it is. So I thought I would take this post [...]
High and Dry
You’d think living in a tropical country surrounded almost entirely by coastline and touching the warm tropical waters of both the Caribbean and the Pacific, that I would have been to the beach more than three times in our year here, but you would be wrong. Unfortunately for us the beaches worth swimming at tend [...]
An earthquake in Panama?
I woke up at 1:47 last night to my room shaking. I thought it was intense thunder but it kept going! I found out this morning that it wasn’t thunder at all.
Everything is fine here and everything appears untouched.
esl in action. literally.
This week in English Class groups reenacted two of the many miracles of Jesus found in the book of Mark. Every week we do something different. It’s not exactly very orderly, but the group is building relationships with each other, with the church, and most importantly with their Lord and Savior.
Gloria Dei has really embraced [...]
Call of a Deaconess
I realized I hadn’t posted this to our own blog. This is a video I produced in Spanish for the deaconess retreat in Argentina. It was shown to over 500 people on the big screen in Buenas Aires. It’s all in spanish but she is more or less describing what a deaconess does and it [...]
Who Invited You?
“Welcome to the cookout! Who invited you?” Pastor Rueben asked the kids who had wandered their way in to the English Class Barbecue at Los Andes this Saturday.
“God.” they responded and walked right in.
It was a funny answer, but at the same time a very intriguing one.
El Diablo
(The Devil).
I hesitated quite a bit before writing this post, but I have been wanting to write about this for quite a while.
One of things we talked about in missionary training was spiritual warfare. We were prepared in a small way to expect to be tempted and pushed in ways that were not of the [...]
English is 2nd
This after one of my English classes a week ago. Sharing the Gospel and reaching out to the community is reason for the class, not English. I wanted to share a video with you of this night pictured above. I will be writing a lot more in our June newsletter about this but I wanted [...]
Argentina: 2 weeks of Autumn
It’s been a while since I’ve been able to post anything to the blog, returning from 2 weeks in Argentina, we’ve kept ourselves pretty busy with guests and work. I have a regional newsletter due at the end of this month, and am working on several videos I shot in Argentina. The trip went very [...]
The didn’t even knock on my door.
We’ve all encountered them. They knock on your door on Saturday afternoon and ask if they can talk to you a bit about your faith.
Chupa Chup
A couple days ago, Jack yelled for me to come see something. I didn’t really know what he was going to show me. I thought maybe he wrote a new song or found something online. Well I went to meet him by the backdoor, and what he wanted to show me is now my new [...]
apple pie
I never thought I would be making apple pie with a Panamanian and a Honduran in Panama, but there I was on the Sunday after Easter service, making pie.
Return to the Embera
Finally! 2 and a half years after my trip to visit the Embera Indians of the Darien and Chagres rainforests, I had the opportunity to bring them their very own copies of the book: The Unseen Author: Stories of the Embera. My little brother, Jon, has been visiting us all week and he was able [...]
Tuesdays @ Gloria Dei
Every Tuesday I teach English at Los Andes. Jack teaches music lessons at the same time. We leave here at 2:30 PM to catch a bus at the terminal, to then arrive just before 5:00 PM at church to start classes. Always an adventure I must say.
Wo Yao Tze
As some of you may know, I once spent an entire summer living in Macau, China teaching English with LCMS World Mission at an English Center/outreach that they operate in the “legal evangelism zone.” The experience was my first major international cross cultural experience that went beyond the short term mission team. I knew that [...]
Arms of Love
(I apologize that what was meant to be published a week ago has been neglected during a very busy week, my sister came to visit us, along with a professor teaching a course in Panama, a young man from Honduras, and the LCMS Board for Mission Services, here is the second half of my writing [...]
What is Yours?
For who do you know that really knows you, knows your heart? And even if they did, is there anything they would discover in you that you could take credit for? Isn’t everything you have and everything you are sheer gifts from God? So what’s the point of all this comparing and competing? You already [...]
The Staunch Stench
“Something is rotten in Denmark”- Hamlet, William Shakespeare.
Denmark aside, something is definitely rotting inside our air conditioner. Yesterday Christel and I came home to a very unpleasant smell in our bedroom, and tracking it to our window air conditioner, we’re convinced something has died in it. We don’t know if it’s a bird or a cat or [...]
Arachnid
I came across this really crazy looking, doubtless highly venomous spider, on a hike in the Los Cruces Rainforest park on an early Saturday morning. This was a case of look but don’t touch, but it was well worth the look, the rainforest here is filled with all sorts of crazy looking things!
Speaking of crazy [...]