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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