What's been happening....

We've been so busy that I have multiple posts to put up.... bear with me as I get each one done I will add them.  I am hoping to do them in chronological order but, there's no guarantees! :)
We have had a really crazy Novemeber.  We had a Circuit Overseer visit in Spanish the first week of the month.  It is definitely a challenge to attend meetings in a foreign language and literally not understand a word of what is being said. (We have to have at least 15 publishers in our group before we are assigned an English Circuit Overseer - presently we have 8)  But, we know in time we will learn the language and/or we will grow into a congregation! Naturally, we would like to see both things happen!! =)
Then the following week we had our first Circuit Assembly in English.  It was located in David (pronounced Dah-veed) which is about an hour and a half from where we live.
It was so exciting to get to meet and greet other brothers and sisters (most of the attendees were fellow needgreaters and their studies) from various congregations located in Chiriqui Panama. We had an attendance on Sunday of 179.

We were so wonderfully spiritually fed that weekend! The brothers gave such energetic and stimulating talks!  It was really cool that the few other needgreaters we have met in the past 2 months, had parts on the assembly!  From our group, Ken, Rita and Tyler Ward all had parts.  We have a new brother that just moved into our group, Jordan Dolph.  He did microphones and stage all weekend.  He flew in from Washington earlier that week and was being used at the assembly days later!

There were a few other families there with small children too!  One brother made a comment that really made us laugh, he said "your family single-handedly moved in and doubled the kid population!!" It was  exciting because we knew these children were going to be raised around our kids and hopefully encourage one another to serve Jehovah forever!

We got to meet other brothers and sisters who had moved here when their children were small and now they were teenagers giving talks at the assembly!  Their words were very encouraging to us.  They too had sold their homes and left their lives to serve Jehovah more fully and knew the things we were going thru.  We also met brothers who had wonderful success in the preaching work for many years, and to this day did not speak Spanish.  That was also surprising.  They knew tips that they said they would gladly teach us on how to reach the Panamanians and what reasoning points we can use.  It was especially exciting to be invited to come visit them so they could take us with them on their studies, and also that they were willing to come down to Puerto Armuelles to join our ministry!!
I was so overwhelmed with appreciation for an English program that I started crying during the song right before lunch.  I never realized what a privilege it is to learn in your own native language.
Many things about those two days were AWESOME and we truly needed it!

I admit, attending any assembly with small children is tough.  But doing it in a foreign country was even more challenging.  Getting all of us checked into a hotel, purchasing groceries and locating the site for the assembly while not speaking Spanish was interesting!  It's funny the things that seem challenging that I never even thought of....  Like being in a hurry to get our lunch for Sunday (because we got lost on the way to the assembly, our hotel was 5 minutes away but, it was very confusing and we ended up truly lost!)
I wasn't able to identify what specific foods were at the store because they were all in Spanish!! Usually I can take my time, pull out a dictionary if necessary and figure it out.  We ended up with imported Oscar Meyer lunch meat and slices of cheese!  It worked beautifully, although it was quite expensive.  For those of you wondering.....yes, we made it on time! =)  I don't even want to begin to tell you how silly we must look attempting to order breakfast for a big family at McDonalds and not speak the language! Trust me, we will not be doing any drive-thrus for a long, long time!

                            Everyone knows taking a family pic on Sunday at the end of
 the Assembly is never a good idea. But we tried :)

I apologize I didn't take more pictures.  There were so many things taking my attention I didn't document the weekend very well.  :( I'll work on that!  Some of the other sisters got a group shot of all the kids.    Once I get those pics I'll put em up.
Oh and if you're wondering why so few pics of Jace on this post?! He is Mr. Social and we could barely keep track of him! Each time we lost him, he was found having a personal conversation with our spectacular District Overseer!  :-)

Kaden with another little girl from Florida
(yes, he has a shiner....banged heads with Jace
chasing a frisbee, right before the assembly)

We couldn't get Rayah to settle down but,
apparently Rita had the touch! :)

Our New Schedule

We have been able to start a schedule.  It's working out great for us.
We are very,very busy spiritually so our weeks are FLYING!

We have set service days, set days off and we pretty much stick to it.  That way everyone knows what to expect and it just goes smoother!

So here is our schedule:

• Monday- All of the needgreaters in Puerto take Monday off to run errands, get housework     done, and prepare for the rest of the weeks needs. We also have Family Worship and a Spanish Lesson that evening.

• Tuesday - We go in service (or as they call it here "preaching") most of the day. The group meets at our house for the service meeting.

• Wednesday - We have scheduled off to work at our secular jobs

• Thursday - We go in service for the morning (Brandon has a bible study in the morning and sometimes I go with Rita to her study in the afternoon) Then we have the Congregation Bible Study in English and the rest of the meeting in Spanish.

• Friday- We go in Service for right now but, as our work picks up this will likely become a work day.

• Saturday- We go in service in the morning (Brandon has two bible studies, and I have one in the morning) Then we go for the English Watchtower Study and once a month we have a visiting speaker.  It is a real highlight for us all!

• Sunday- We all REST!!!  It is quickly becoming a scheduled BEACH DAY!!!!

Here are some pics from the last couple of weeks of our new daily life!

This is a bible study Rita is conducting that Rayah and I went with her on.

After an hour Rayah was finally getting past her shyness!

This is Rita's study's little girl. She is very sweet!

This is on a bible study who has the funniest parrot. 

 As she talked to him he went crazy and started flailing about his cage. 

 It was great entertainment!

                                                                                         Rayah got to pet her first chicky! (reluctantly of course)

In our free time relaxing and goofing around.....

Excited kiddos we're having hamburger, hotdogs, french fries (still in the oven at time of pic) and salad for dinner!

In David there is a Burger King and the kids love playing on the playground wearing their crowns!

A Bates Family Tradition of Arm Wrestling Daddy!

He was saying "You're going down PUNK!!!!" =)

The kids are SO tough they always seem to beat Daddy but, it's usually pretty close!  =)

Ministry Updates in Puerto

So we have been able to go in the ministry quite a bit since we got into our own house.  It has been really wonderful!

Brandon started at least 2 bible studies in English and I have been given 3 bible studies from people that were basically on a waiting list in English also.  When we are doing our territory it is what we call more of a census.  Going to each house and finding out if anyone speaks English, or even if they have a son or daughter attending university who speak English.  It’s a little tough because often times they want us to stay and talk to them in Spanish but, we are on a mission to find the English speaking people! We have had good success with finding numerous people who speak English and usually if they speak English, it means they WANT a bible study!!

Last week Ken Ward was at a door and he asked if anyone spoke English and the man said my nephew does, hang on.  Well, he went in the house and called his nephew and said he would be right over.  Well, after Ken had waited 40 long minutes he was starting to wonder if this had really been a good idea.  The nephew showed up and DID speak English and was very happy to have a bible study!!  Ken was so glad he had been patient!

Another experience I was privileged to be a part of was with the same woman I wrote about in my last post.  Her name is Sabi and she is an excellent study in Spanish.  Rita hasn’t found anyone available in Spanish to take over the study so she is continuing to do it.  This woman moved me to tears on the study last week.  When she found out about the Resurrection (John 5:28, 29) and all the specific details of what Jehovah is going to do for us, she was so excited she was practically leaping out of her chair, speaking Spanish a mile a minute (Rita translated for me so I could understand her excitement) and she was reiterating all that was to come to make sure she understood it correctly!  It was an unbelievable moment! In that moment I felt as though all the difficult things we had done to get here were so very worth it! I started crying and Rita had to tell Sabi I was crying because I was so glad to be a part of teaching her these bible truths!! I still can’t believe how powerful that moment was. 

So here are some pics taken in the ministry here…..

The boys LOVE Ken and Rita!!!!

Lucas and KK

I was terrified!!! It was my FIRST time ever on a motorcycle

And we're off to a bible study! ( I lived! for those of you wondering!!)

Some thoughts on Panama

So it has been really crazy the last few weeks.  We have been trying to get used to our new lives here in Panama.  There is so much that is foreign to us and challenging. 

So many things I never realized I took for granted.  For instance, not having hot water (which we experienced in Guyana also) but, even having water AT ALL!  We have been in our new house we are renting for going on 3 weeks.  In that time there have been two separate occasions when we have no water at all.  Which means for hours if not the entire day we can’t wash our hands, flush the toilet, do any kind of laundry etc.  It’s remarkable how often you run to the sink just to rinse quickly (especially with changing diapers) and don’t realize it until you can’t anymore.  I did feel better about going to the meeting without showering when I got to the hall and realized NO ONE had showered lol! By the time we got home it was back on but, had very little pressure so we still couldn’t shower, only had a small trickle in the sinks, but at least we had that!!  On a daily basis we only have enough pressure to shower from 3-9pm each day. The water won’t come out of the shower heads at all so we just wait to shower til between those hours. The rest of the day we don’t really have a good supply of water but, it’s sufficient to wash hands etc.

If we were going to describe Panama with one word it would be…..

                                                                HOT!!!

It is unbelievably hot here.  Because we officially are in the rainy season (though I really don’t think it rains very often) the humidity is very high.  It can make accomplishing daily tasks hard.  Brandon seems to be suffering the most out of us all.  He can be cool all day and as soon as he puts on service clothes and walks or rides a bike, he is DRENCHED!  I feel so bad for him.  Check out this picture of us in service….
He had just said to me “go ahead, I dare you to touch my back!” When my arm grazed his back and it was soaked I made that face just in time for the pic! Hahaha

One benefit of it being so hot is being able to go to the beach! The kids and Brandon had all been a couple of weeks ago but, Rayah had a fever so I stayed home with her.  Until Wednesday night I had never been to the beach.  We went with Ken and Rita Ward to watch the sun set.  It was breathtaking! Below are some pics I took….

The Panamanian people are very friendly and quite accommodating.  It is pretty tough not speaking Spanish though.  We are all learning rapidly, although there are times it feels as if we will never know enough to function efficiently.  The kids are all slowly starting to speak Spanish daily.  Kaden is the most zealous, asking how to say in Spanish everything he sees!  Although Rayah shocked us the other day when we were walking to meet for service and she saw someone passing by and said “Buenas” (which is like good day) and then looked up at her Daddy and said “I speak Spanish!”  Sooo cute!

Brandon and I are learning the best we can.  Every little bit we learn makes such a difference.  We both now can say right, left, straight to taxi drivers.  It may not sound like much but, it made a big difference!   Here are some random pics....

This pic is so funny because we told them not to get all wet and there is KK looking at his wet clothes like "how did that happen?!"   =)

The Wards made this cake with the kids while we were out shopping!

Sorry for the blurry pic but this is Tyler teaching KK spanish

Rayah and Ken are buddies!

This iguana was on a pillow when we walked into a room at the Wards (not their pet!) A brother put a harness on him and is keeping him as a pet!