Our church seeks to be a blessing for it’s community. We don’t want to create another “come-to-us-4-nights-a-week” church.  There are enough of those already.

Instead, we want to be the hands and feet of Christ in the community and surrounding areas.

Recently, our church partnered with Vida Joven Panama for a day of community service.  Vida Joven helped determine the work projects and our church provided the volunteers and materials.

We spent a few days walking the community, talking with Vida Joven leaders to learn about their community needs. Panama Viejo is a different community than where our church is being developed.  Our church is in the midst of high rises and a growing upper middle class.  But just a few miles away, Panama Viejo is an at-risk community where Young Life (Vida Joven) has been working for a few years.

Entering their community, we did not want to impose our plan upon then, but rather, partner with Vida Joven to tell us some of the needs that they see and want to meet.  At their invitation, we established work projects around needs that Vida Joven knew about.

The biggest project accomplished that day was replacing a zinc roof for a family.  The picture below show some of the holes rusted out. We took off the existing roof, welded some new beams, and then replaced the roof.  It was the monster project of the day. Other projects included painting some rooms and some some work in the local elementary school.  There were other projects that were on the table, but we didn’t have enough volunteers that day.

We also gathered up several bags of dried goods, and Vida Joven showed us where they were to be delivered.

Video

Last week, a Panama church invited me to share a mid-week service about ways to reach more young adults for Christ.

After a 45 minute drive across the country to the Northern coast, I met with the pastor, who is a young guy, probably in his 20s.

He leads a rapidly growing church of young adults just outside the city of Colón.

I’ve been following their growth over the last three years and seeing the impact they make.    I first encountered them three years ago when this church was in their infancy.  Even though they have grown, their passion is still to reach more for Christ.

They invited me to share my teaching with them.

So this night, I spent a brief time looking at the core personal evangelism teaching I give.

While it’s too soon to know the impact of how they practice what I shared with them, they’ve invited me back for a day long workshop to explore what these themes mean in their particular context.

I admire their passion to reach young adults for Christ.  It is contagious being around them.    What moves me more is how they want to be more effective and less obnoxious.  Teaching them how to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in the work of evangelism will help them accomplish their goals.

 

In the middle of January 2012, our family joined in a bible camp for at risk children.

We’ve gotten to know Pastor Raquel over the years.

Each year she allows us to minister to the kids she ministers to all year long.

These children come from a high risk area of

• poverty
• malnutrition
• gangs
• sex trafficking

This church is one of a few that minister in this area.

Their holistic ministry is more than just preaching the gospel, but feeding the hungry, providing education to families, and sharing health information to kids to help them escape the cycles of poverty.

In one of the community health segments, using bi-lingual coloring books provided by Children’s Medical Ministries, our son served as a translator with the youth leader dressed like a nurse.

The kids wanted to hear American English speaker repeated what the nurse was explaining in Spanish so our son got into the act.

During one of the craft sessions, Brenda helped each of these kids find simple ways to share the gospel with their friends, using tools like the wordless book.

Each kid assembled their wordless book from felt we had pre-cut, and then used it to practice a simple gospel presentation to their friend at the table.

Thanks to Westminster Presbyterian Church Richmond, Royal Oak United Methodist in Maryland, and Children’s Medical Ministries for their financial gifts to make this outreach possible.

They provided funds for craft materials and the books.

Our church recently celebrated 11 baptisms.  We thank God for the work He is doing in our midst.

Each one of these lives has a precious story of how they came to faith in Jesus Christ.  I’d love to tell you some of their stories.

Here are some photos from the celebration:

I was away on a teaching trip and not able to be there. But the family reports that this was a priviledged moment. Many of these young disciples are already sharing their faith with their friends.