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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...
Panamanian Food
This is Shirlene, blogging yet again about, you guessed it…FOOD! It seems I am unable to refrain myself from sharing more about food and all things “food” related. It’s amazing to me how varied foods can be from one place to the next. I’ve been wanting to learn what a true Panamanian meal looks like and to learn how to make it, from the time we arrived. A simple undertaking you might think, or so I did, however I found this was no small feat. I naturally learned that rice, beans, seafood and chicken were staples to their diet locally. When I asked some of the indigenous what a typical meal looked like, however, they stared back at me, rather blankly. So I prompted, “what do you eat for breakfast, for instance, and...
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...
Ouch!
Warning: this post is not for the faint of stomach and includes some photos that might be graphic for young eyes. Sore throats, poop, blood and more blood…yesterday was a doozy of a day! As some of you know I have been fighting what appears to be something like Strep throat so my throat is incredibly sore, I’ve had a low grade fever for a couple of days, been mostly useless around here so I finally started taking some antibiotics and am waiting to start to feel a lot better. So yesterday morning I was feeling pretty crummy. I am so thankful to have Liz here who made lunch for the family and dinner too! I was in the kitchen when Ellie calls to me from their room, “Quick Mommy, come here!” Upon entering the room, what do I find but...
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,...
In the city of David…
…a child is born. Somewhere there I’m sure this is true as David is the second largest city in Panama. We took a trip South to visit David and spent three nights there. Dale and Kimberly from the local YWAM base were kind (and brave) enough to make the trek with the 5 of us! Our journey began with a 25 minute boat ride to the mainland town of Almirante where we then caught a bus to travel across the country, nearly to the Pacific coast. It sounds like a long trip when I say, “travel across the country” doesn’t it? This country happens to be a lot smaller than the one we hail from, so it’s not as impressive, but the journey there still felt long and I will elaborate, as usual. 🙂 Let’s talk a little about the...
Tortillas & Miracles
Tortillas and miracles…sometimes they are one and the same. A lot of you know that home made corn tortillas are a staple for my family back home. Many a kind Mexican woman has attempted over the years to help we Sonntag girls learn the art of corn tortilla making. Camille particularly put forth a lot of effort into studiously applying the many principles offered by these women. We had many failed attempts over the years and eventually, success! Now that we know what principles seem to work (most of the time), and because the ingredients are simple (special corn flour, regular flour and water), tortillas are something we make quite regularly. The Maseca corn flour, though readily found in our area of Washington state, is not something that...
Old Bank Bastimentos
We have been quite busy over the last week, haven’t had much time to blog. Spending time seeking God on His purpose, plan and direction. We have some big decisions before us and we are prayerfully discerning God’s will, we would greatly appreciate your prayers. About a week ago we visited Old Bank Bastimentos looking to go to a Thai food restaurant. We asked around, talked to the chinos (Chinese at the store) and next thing you know, we spotted a sign on a tree of the restaurant we were looking for, which also said, closed Sundays. I ended up talking with a Afro-Caribbean man, I asked him about good places to eat. He was happy to help, said he wouldn’t tell me no lies. With every word he spoke cigarette smoke leached from his lungs,...
Sharks! No Wait, Dophins
As we headed out one day in the boat we were surrounded by dorsal fins, hungry shark-looking creatures. Scenes from Jaws played through my mind, remembering how in the movie, which is based strictly on fact, the shark was able to bite through the hull of the boat and eat the passengers. Well, that was not happening on my watch! There was no way that would be our fate, and the main reason for that was, well, because these were dolphins, and to my knowledge, dolphins don’t eat people… yet. Honestly this experience was awesome! The dolphins were swimming with our boat, jumping into the air, and putting on a show for us. As a part of Ellie’s home-school, she had an assignment of writing a report on dolphins. Here is her report, everything...
We Traded Our Minivan For A Panga
Back in the states, which honestly feels like a very long time ago, we had a minivan. Here in Panama we have a panga, a small boat. Our panga was made in Panama City by CaribePro in 2006. Its 25′ long, 7′ wide, weighs 1,300lbs (empty), has a 100 gallon fuel tank, a bazillion fishing rod holders, down-rigger set up (for fishing), live well or bait well tank, and currently has a 115hp Suzuki 4-stroke outboard motor on it and has a top speed of about 33 mph. The boat can easily carry more than a ton, if not two, and has lots of storage compartments for keeping life jackets, the anchor, rope, tools, drinking water and naughty children. The boat is equipped with GPS, which is very necessary in this area for this newbie due to the...
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