Well
Well… we just recently had a team from HydroMissions and Rowan Engineering School drill a water well on our property to serve the neighboring village. They packed in all of the well drilling equipment, hand pumps and other well paraphernalia from the US. They arrived on a Sunday after an overnight bus ride from Panama City, put on their games faces and started drilling. Over the next week they drilled three wells and settled on one that had such a high replenishment rate that even bailing it out as fast as possible didn’t seem to have any effect on the water level – awesome! This in the midst of (what we are told is) the longest dry spell here in remembered history. The creeks are dry, the ground is hard, hotels are running out...
Busy Tropical Life
It has been many months since our last blog post. Life here on the island has been quite busy and it’s been hard to make time to recap and write blog posts. Although, the great thing about writing an update is the fact it causes us to reflect on our lives and see where we’re going, where we’ve been and all of the amazing things God has done in our lives. So here it goes… Arrived home from the US, here on the island in early August. We had an AWESOME time visiting friends and family back in Washington. Sometimes we forget how much easier life is in the US. Grocery stores with stocked shelves, good internet, shipping to your door, roads and ice cream – mmmmmm. But best of all, our wonderful friends, family and church...
Almost Moving Day
We are soooo close! We have been working, pushing and wanting to move now since we started the construction in December 2012. Well, now it looks like we’re moving at the end of the week. What a construction journey this is, huge ups and huge downs but in the end the Lord’s plan prevails. We are so excited to build deep relationships with our new neighbors, to start reaching out with Community Health Evangelism, and Lord-willing, opening a medical clinic. Please be in prayer for us, this journey is taken its toll on us, we are worn out, many new gray hairs for me (Bobby), and down to our last dollar – trusting God daily for His provision, which He has always provided. We are so hopeful for the future, may God shine His light from this...
April, Almost May Already? Crazy!
Time truly does fly. Where does it go? We love to keep up with our blog to update all of our three fans out there, mom, mom and dad. But sometimes life gets incredibly busy. We have been busy hosting teams, building at the new property, living life and building relationships. God has been so good to us, He is faithful to provide for all of our needs, He has been faithful in keeping us safe and He has been at work in connecting us with tons of people in every sphere of society. God truly is good, all the time. Praise the Lord for sending us help! An awesome group of four men from South Africa stayed with us for almost a month doing hard labor: digging septic holes and building a long road from the dock to the multi-purpose building. It was a great...
Busy Times, Good Times…
It has been over a month since our last post. Between having very poor internet, Christmas, birthdays, the wonderful Thompson family arriving, a fun-loving 16-member team from Belize arriving, construction and farming of the new property and remote island living – we have been swamped. God is so good and He is at work, in our lives, our community and in the islands. We see the seeds being planted and pray that God waters those seeds. Now begins a huge number of photos taken from multiple cameras (hence the random order) recapping our time here: Ellie shows the Thompson girls the ‘secret water hole’ With built-in water slide Ellie head...
Bat Cave
To the bat cave! We heard about a bat cave fairly close to where we are living. Chris and Ashley (Terry & Liz’s son and his wife) were visiting at the time and love adventures as much as Shirlene and I do. Terry and Liz graciously offered to watch our kiddos. Shirlene & I headed over to where Chris & Ashley were staying, across the bay and while we were there, Chino, a local Ngobe man who’s family owns the land the cave is on, offered to drive us in our cayuco. So, all five of us piled in and headed off towards the bay of Bahia Honda. In the bay we started towards a small clearing in the mangrove which was a creek that headed up into the hills. As Chino navigated the creek for about a half an hour, I was glad he was driving. ...
October Photos
Some October photos in completely random order for your viewing pleasure. Ethan’s downward dog. Bella and Ethan love to play on the hammock. Ethan looking for “Lih” (Liz). Rides on the “wee wee.” Moving day for Terry, Liz & Odie. They are heading to Potrerillos, Panama to work with the YWAM base there. We will miss them. We spent 6 crazy months with them here on the island. 😉 Ethan tries to start every motor he finds. He has the form down. Loading Gene’s cayuco – it was awesome! We needed to tie down the mattresses so they drove some nails into the sides and tie downs were born. The precious mattress. This is Terry & Liz’s incredible memory foam mattress. The...
Reset
Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for peace and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. As believers many of us know this verse. In fact we have heard it so many times we almost respond half way through reading this verse with, ya… ya…, I know. But every day, over the last two weeks this has been the answer I have received when praying through a difficult and complicated problem we are going through here. God does not say these things lightly, He means them. We first came to Panama in March, we stayed at a house in Tierra Oscura (Dark Lands) for a little more than a month, God used that time to really throw us into the cultures here. We learned so much and started friendships that have only...
Raw
Well, it has been quite a tiring last few weeks. A whirlwind of good and not so good. But, we know God is at work, we stand on all of the provision, protection and love He has and continues to provide. Amen!? Ok, here is a summary of things that are happening here: It appears God is calling people here! This is awesome! Of course you heard The Thompson family is coming. And, in the works, are potentially three other families, one other couple and a short term team coming in Feb / March. Please pray for these people and the others we know God is calling but have not contacted us yet. Pray that satan will not hinder the things God is doing in each of their lives, here or where they are at. The other thing we have really been praying for is truth. ...
Our Family is Growing!
Yes, we are announcing a new baby via our blog – sorry mom. The Thompson’s have made a commitment to join our community here in Panama! Isaac (the dad): Jennifer (the mom): Lily: Guinevere: Turin: Iona: & Valor: Isaac and Jennifer and their five kiddos, yes FIVE, are planning to move here in November. We are super excited! The Thompson’s have a blog sharing their adventures as they make their way here: http://TheAdventuresOfSevenThompsons.com Of course they will be joining our family and Terry & Liz and potentially others by November. God is working! Be in prayer for us as it appears God is calling more families, couples and singles to live here in community with us – praise God! Pop quiz, which one...
Capitánes, Towing, Quinceañera, Hamacas, Egyptian Prince & More
Two weeks has flown by! When we first moved here people said, “the days go by slow but the weeks go by fast.” This is totally true! We are short on time this blog posting but will be posting a couple of announcements soon along with ways to help here in Panama. Pack your bags… or unpack your wallets. 😉 And here we go… The kids love playing in the water, ocean or creek, they are searching for starfish, shrimp, Jesus lizards, stingrays, crabs and all sorts of other creatures. Ellie has become quite the swimmer, boater, fruit picker, canoer, tropical girl. Ethan goes anywhere and pets everything, yes everything. Although right now its about killing every bug he spots, yelling “yea” with his hands straight...
Cayucos, Canoas, Aqua, Iglesias, Iguanas, Muchas Cosas!
Well its been almost a month since our last blog posting, needless to say things have been quite busy around here. 😉 We have been working on improving, repairing, remodeling and revamping the property here with the help of many local Ngobe and Afro-Caribbean – its been awesome! We hear countless stories of people being ripped off, stolen from, poor workmanship, etc., in fact this is the norm here in Panama. But, our God is greater than that! He has brought us people who have been wonderful, people who know Him and people who don’t know Him. One thing is for certain, there is a hunger for God here, a great hunger for God’s word and a hunger for real relationships built on trust and love. Our projects here have been diverse and...
Standing Firm
To put it simply, we have been busy. We’ve moved in to our new house, moved stuff around, organized and settled in and are now starting the repair, rebuild, redo and finish stage. We are learning a lot, meeting a lot of people, and being very blessed by the Lord finding favor with men. Although these last, almost three months, have been very challenging; broken down boat – twice, termites and wasps in the house, chitras, ants, people problems and anything else under the sun. However, we are blessed, God has protected, provided and cared for us – more than we needed and is carrying us through some difficult times right now. The transparent truth is some days are hard, some days we question, really God, is this what you want? But, we...
Settling In
We made it! We settling in to our new place here on Isla Bastimentos. New house, new property, new stuff and new community. This will be a mini-update before we head to Bocas this morning to visit a church. Let the photo journal begin. Madonna, Kathrin, Shirlene, Ethan, and Zulmy at the new dock. Instant community at the house. Zulmy and Madonna are now traveling in Columbia, we’re hoping they come back and stay longer. Kathrin is from Germany and will be with us for about another month. She is teaching English classes to the indigenous and helping with all sorts of other things like painting, cooking, cleaning and watching the kiddos. Madonna is quite the organizer. She took on the pantry and made it look beautiful… I shed a...
We’re Moving…
Well, we have been busy. We are purchasing a home on Isla Bastimentos – can you believe it? We are in the middle of packing and will be moving all of our stuff by boat tomorrow. We will have help, Alvaro our groundskeeper here, we will miss him, Gene, the Ngobe pastor, his brother and our new groundskeeper Tboo. We are excited and are hoping this is our last move for a while, although we are getting quite good at it. This move is bittersweet, we are excited we are going where God has specifically called us. But I am really going to miss Ernie, he owns the local “tienda” (store) near us on the water, I go and visit Ernie quite often, we’ve had some awesome God-inspired talks, today I stopped by his place to give him the news,...
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