Mission to the Americas

Serving Ministries and Missions in Latin America

Missions Congress: Casa De Oración Panama

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Pastormario “I want to thank you for being a part of what God is doing here at our church.

The work of raising awareness of missions is not easy in our country.  We are glad to have met you, and as we are all co-laborers in the kingdom of God we want to work with you in the future.

We believe that God has brought you here to help us, and God permitting, let’s work together to use each others strengths to advance God’s work here in Panama and around the world.

We know that in God’s sovereignty, He’s permitted us to work together for His glory and I look forward to how we can help each other in the future.”

Mario Vásquez
Missions Pastor
Casa de Oración, Panama

This is the general gist of what Pastor Mario said after the second day of the missions congress at Casa de Oración Cristiana, Panama on August 29, 2009

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I was invited to be part of a team of expositors from

  • Costa Rica
  • United States
  • El Salvador
  • Panama
  • Honduras

to share specifically on the Role/Work of Youth through the Bible, history, and now in world missions.  That was such a big theme to cover in 75 minutes.  I had approximately 60-70 people attend my workshop.

Other workshops focused on the work of missions, working with handicapped, working with the youth, and working as business owners to generate funds for missions.

As a four day event, this missions congress was wonderfully organized with an international collection of speakers.  The church streams its services live over the Internet and as I write this, I’m listening to one of the plenary speakers wrap up the congress by speaking of global missions through the book of Jonah.

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One of the challenges to global missions in Panama is a common phrase: “We need to reach Panama first.”

But one of our speakers called out this excuse and exposed it for what it is:

“What if our North American friends waited to reach the US before coming to Panama to bring us the good news?

What if our European friends waited to reach their own country before coming to Panama?

We’d still be lost in our sins, waiting to hear the good news from somewhere.  Those missionaries who came to us from Europe and the Americas didn’t hide behind the excuse that they needed to reach their own country first. . . .

Neither can we hide.  If we are called to global missions, we need to go!”

The Foursquare denomination chose Panama as it’s first mission field in the early part of the 1900s.  Methodists, Church of God, Assemblies of God, Baptists all came along as well, bringing the gospel message.

Panama owes a lot of its Christian heritage in the last 100 years to missionaries who came from other countries and were willing to learn it’s language and communicate the outrageous grace of God.

2 Years of Ministry

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the_cry_splash_photo_1 This past week, on July 19, we passed the two year mark of our work in Panama and in Latin America.

It’s been two years of ups and down, highs and lows, all the time believing in the promise of God that called us here.

To revisit our purposes and the promise of our calling, here is a summary.

The Calling and the Promise

“Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed. . . . just as it had been said to him “so shall your offspring be.” .  .  .  . He did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. (Romans 4:18-21).

I’m not Abraham, but the Lord reminded me that he gave us a calling and promise when we were called here.

We came to Panama with a calling

to Ignite the Church in the Americas in the power of the Holy Spirit to passionately fulfill God’s call to reach the nations.

This plays out in three parts

1.  Evangelism training.

We give workshops in personal evangelism and church growth for individual churches, individuals, and also regional groupings of churches.

Workshops vary in length from 2 hours to a full weekend.    This training is taking us all over Panama, and into other countries.

The Lord has also opened to the door for training missionaries for cross cultural missions, whether in the home country with immigrants, or abroad.

2.  Serving Mission Teams.

Over the past two years,  we served a team from Seacoast in Charleston SC and then one from Richmond VA this year.

We are praying for more open doors to partner with local mission organizations that bring teams to do outreach in our city.

We firmly believe that street evangelism is not to be disconnected from a local church and we serve a local church to help in this area.

3.  Teaching Children’s Ministry leaders.

The whole family is involved in children’s ministry leadership training as the Lord opens the doors.

We continue to pray for more open doors in this area that Brenda may be able to give more presentations and grow her webiste.

As part of the promise given to us,

Panama was to be the hub from which we operate.

Panama is the airline transportation hub for Latin America, and as such, we live close to the airport.

Our ministry is international in scope, continuing to give evangelism training in the US and in Latin America.

Time in Venezuela, Nicaragua, the US, and next month Guatemala.  Costa Rica remains in discussion, as does Colombia.

Amazed at God’s care

Through it all, we’ve had to rely on God’s provision from God’s people.

There have been times we have faced the end of our bank accounts in under 45 days.

Yet there appear surprises in the mail that continue to sustain us.

Planning for the future

We are grateful for the support that has been given to us over the year.

We need to grow it to a sustainable and somewhat predictable level to free us up to ramp up more ministry.

Our budget for this coming year is about $3500 a month.  $5000 a month would enable us to save for the future.

We are not quite there and ask you to join us in praying for more supporting churches and individuals.

We ask you to pray for more paid evangelism teaching engagements in the US with churches and regional governing bodies.

How can you respond?

1.  Download and print our partner response form

You’ll need a PDF reader to view it.

Print it out and stick it with your devotional materials as a prayer reminder of what God might be calling you to do with us.

Whether you choose to donate or simply pray for us, still print this out.

You can print and distribute to mission committees and prayer groups.

2.  Donate.

  • By Credit card: Automatic recurring contributions or make a special offering by visiting our support page.  I’ve put up a video screen cast to show you how.
  • By Check: Mark your gift for the Mission to Americas.  Make check payable to PRMI and mail to PRMI, P.O.Box 429, Black Mountain NC 28711

We need people to join our monthly team as well as one time gifts.

Our desire

We long to see the church in the Americas equipped to do the work of evangelism.  We invite you to join with us as you are called and empowered by the Lord to do so.

The Earth Shakes

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Overnight on July 4, about 1:42am, we awoke when the earth shook underneath us.

A 6.0 earthquake had just rocked the city.

Centered about 60 miles Northeast, 28 miles down, it was enough to startle us.  (Just north of El Provenir on the map below).

The weirdest sensation.

A growling rumble wakes me up (thinking it was a passing truck or something).

Increasing rapid vibrations as the window blinds tremble.

The bed in which we were sleeping begins to vibrate side to side with a rapid frequency.

Suddenly the entire building is swaying and the furniture is moving across the floor.

It’s like being on a boat that is tossed by waves, when you can’t grab your footing.

Venetian blinds banging against walls and windows.

It’s over.

Within 15 minutes, a 6.2 preliminary report is found online, and revised within moments to 6.0.  (Source: US Geological Survey)

Panama newsgroups and twitter are all full of chat messages – did you feel it?  What were you doing?  You ok?  How is your building?

Some of my friends slept through it.

Others were awakened, like us.

Damage reports

Because of its depth in the earth (28 miles down), damage discovered seems to be light.  Building cracks, drywall cracks, a few trees that fell over.  No reported injuries.  Some loose canned goods fell from grocery store shelves.

For us, we have a new crack in our ceiling, but we live in a steel reinforced cement column structure.  Other than that, it’s just our nerves that shake a little.

Panama’s Earthquakes

Panama has seismic activity.  Most is often in the western provinces of Chiriqui near the border with Costa Rica.  The US Geological society has a record of reports since 1990.

According to published reports in La Prensa, a 6.3 struck in 2000, 6.0 in 1995, 7.3 in 1974, and 6.9 in 1951.  No pattern, but you can see that it happens.

Reflections

The earth is not supposed to move like that.  It’s not supposed to rumble and groan.  But in reality it does.

We normally don’t think of the power involved to sway cement buildings and rattle the earth from a pressure point 28 miles down.

I suddenly think of just how small and powerless we humans are in comparison to some of the forces of nature.

The building rocking back and forth felt like I was but a grain of sand being sifted by a gold hunter.

But I’m also compelled to think on the sovereignty of God and the sustaining power He gives us.

The prophets use imagery how the earth shakes when God speaks to communicate the power of God (Habakkuk 3:5-7).

Mountains will bow down and the seas will roar at the sound of His name.

I simply have no words left and will simply worship.

UPDATE:

Three aftershocks have been reported.  Sunday night, 11.10pm, a 5.3 aftershock was recorded and felt.

Pickpockets in Panama

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pick_pocketToday, walking my daughter home from ballet, I watched a pick pocket lift a cell phone from a purse.

I felt powerless to do anything about it.  Not enough language skills to find a police officer or describe the person

Like a shadow, he appeared and it was gone in less than 3 seconds.

Because of the drug trade that runs in our city, I have no knowledge if the robber is carrying a gun, or has other accomplices or what.

Later, I thought of things I could do safely, but I still don’t know if I would be able to do anything.

It happened so fast, so casually. 

The victim left her cell phone in an outer pocket of her purse, and with a swift hand, he lifted it. 

One thing that happens in a big city like ours is this kind of petty thievery.

On New Years eve, a lady was getting a soda at the little convenience store, when a fireworks vendor snatched and grabbed her necklace, leaving the fireworks box on the floor. 

Some of our party guests were witnesses, as they were getting additional ice for our party.

We’ve been picked at least twice and Brenda has stopped one or two trying to get into her backpack.  One of our uncles was picked on a crowded bus.

Well meaning strangers have often warned us if they notice that our backpack zipper is slightly open. We understand the reason why. 

I find that when I walk with my kids anywhere these days, I walk with a level of alertness that we didn’t have before.  I’m scanning the crowd.  During my walk, all are suspect.

We’ve had to learn the hard way.  In the suburban US where we lived, this was never a consideration. 

We’ve now formed new patterns of behavior and new ways of thinking because of our calling to live in this city. 

We pray for this city, we love this city, and it does break our hearts to see this kind of stain in our city.

Corregimiento De Bella Vista

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Panama is broken in to Provinces, one of which is named Panama, that contains the capital of the country, Panama City.

That province is broken into 11 districts, and those are further subdivided into corregimientos.

We live in the corregimiento de Bella Vista.

It covers 5.1 square kilometers, (about 2.0 square miles).

According to a 2004 article (link broken), this area had almost 90 banking institutions, 27 embassies, 4700 businesses, 29 hotels, and more than 15 schools and universities.

The article states that the last census (2000) indicated that 42,046 residents.

According to a mayoral candidate in the 2009 election, (link broken) the area has 28,421 residents.

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