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!

Finding a House!

So we were desperately looking for a house.  Brandon was taking long days to search by bicycle for houses.  Talking to people and trying to find out if they knew anywhere we could rent.  It was very frustrating when day after day he went out and came back with no real prospects.  So I went with him about 5 days into the search.  We rode in the hot sun for hours and it became so frustrating we both gave up.  We had been praying and praying that Jehovah help us find the right place and we weren’t able to find ANY place.  It felt very much like it did when we were in Guyana and searching for houses.  We were exhausted and decided to go back to the Ward’s and reevaluate the situation. 

We decided that we had done enough searching and we were going to leave it in Jehovah’s hands.  Brandon said we were all going to go in service as a family the next day.  I hate to admit it but, we were thinking well maybe we are supposed to live somewhere else in Panama and not in Puerto Armuelles, but it didn’t make much sense to me because the Wards are an amazing family who our children were forming close bonds to and there were so many things specifically about Puerto that made us choose here that I couldn’t imagine leaving from not being able to find a place to live…

So as planned we got up the next morning and all of us were dressed to meet for service when OUT OF THE BLUE a Panamanian man came to the Ward’s gate.  He said in Spanish that he was there to take us to see the house.  We had no idea who he was, or what house he was talking about.  Brandon said no, we are going in service.  Ken suggested that since we had been praying, he had a vehicle and was offering to take us to see a house that we go!  So we jumped in his truck hoping it would be a house that would work for us. 

We had been praying to Jehovah specifically about what we felt we needed.  We wanted a tiled floor, at least 3 bedrooms and a one floor house.  All things that are common here but, not necessarily in every house.  The man took us about 5 minutes away from the Wards to a house that to our amazement had everything we had wanted.   It is an older house but, it has everything we need and the landlord is wonderful!  We moved in the next day!!!  

 It is a completely unfurnished house, so it has been a bit of a challenge getting organized with owning so little but, we are getting by.  Each thing we bring into the house for organization makes our lives that much easier.  We have been able to get some hangers, some small shelving units that allow us to live a little bit less out of suitcases =)  The Wards gave us a small table for the kitchen that has been such a help.  We had to purchase a refrigerator, stove, a washer and beds.  I still need to get curtain rods, curtains, and more creative ways to store things but, we are settling in slowly. 

It’s been hard, frustrating, rewarding and awesome all in the same day!  I think that is how life is when doing need-greater work!  Jehovah gives us what we need when we really need it and we keep chugging along!  We are so happy to be here!!!!!

Here's some pics of our house...

View from the front

The kitchen

View of our backyard

the back of the house

Our new ADVENTURE has begun!

 

We have arrived in Panama!!!

We have had so much going on  it has been too busy to update the blog. (If you're wondering how we ended up here or the process of eliminating all of our possessions minus the 11 suitcases we moved with- I will eventually do a post filling in the details. But for now here is the up to date info) I'm sorry to those who have been waiting.  We had about 8 hours in flights and layovers. We arrived very late in the evening to where we had accommodations for the first night.  (around 2 am) Then the next day we had an 8 hour drive to where we are now living in Puerto Armuelles.  

It took a few days to recuperate from all the traveling and of course trying to adjust to the intense heat.  Our dear friend Monica Gallagher came along with us to assist with the children and offered us the much needed luggage space.  We just love her and as you will see in the next few posts of pictures, she is sooo much fun! (and she speaks just enough Spanish to be very helpful!)

So we arrived late Tuesday night and then we officially arrived in Puerto in the early evening of Wednesday.  It has been a bit of a whirlwind as we had our first English/Spanish meeting on Thursday night.  We were able to meet the Puerto Armuelles Spanish Congregation, and we felt so very welcomed! Despite the very obvious language barrier we had, it was so exciting to get to meet our new congregation!

After the Thursday Night Meeting

 

Since we have joined a newly formed English Group we go into the second school for the first half of the meeting, which we do in English and then for the rest of the meeting we rejoin the Spanish.  It is amazing to feel the love the brothers have for the congregation as they deliver their parts, even though we have no idea what they are saying....yet!!!!

So, we have been actively pursuing a house to rent since our arrival.  Thus far it has been to no avail.  It's frustrating but, the family we have been staying with (who are leading the English group) are The Wards.  They have 2 sons who are teenagers and they have been so gracious and hospitable to us. Including their family and ours we are a total of 10 people living in one house and amazingly it is going very smoothly.  We all work together and have been really enjoying each others company. Obviously though we NEED to acquire our own home to get settled and begin our new routines.  

We are praying to Jehovah to help us find what we need, not necessarily what we may want but what we really need to be able to accomplish our purpose for being here!  Speaking of, we were able to go in field service on Saturday morning! It was so awesome for all of us but for different reasons.  Rita Ward, Jace and myself went on some bible studies.  The first one wasn't home and the second one was in Spanish.  The woman was so kind and very, very interested in learning more about the bible.  We were studying the chapter in the Teach book on death and as she learned the truth about the condition of the dead we could see her relief.  It was a very personal chapter for her as she had lost a family member recently and was very concerned about the condition of the dead.  Even though it was in Spanish I was able to understand quite a bit.  She understood some English so that was helpful too.  It was a wonderful morning and I was thrilled to be apart of helping her to learn more about Jehovah!

In the Ministry resting in the shade!

When we returned we learned Brandon had started a bible study that morning!  It was his first time in the Ministry in Panama and he started a bible study!!! I could feel the excitement in the house when we walked in! What a great way to start our new life!

So on Saturday evening we attended our first Watchtower study as the new English group.  It was awesome! It was a feeling of being with family as we all have the goal of forming a new congregation here.  What is especially neat is that some are learning English from the Spanish congregation and so we are all helping each other...us to learn Spanish and them to learn English!  Thankfully there are a few who speak both and can help us to communicate with one another!  It can be hilarious but, we are all trying very hard to learn.  It is so much fun!  The brothers and sisters are so welcoming and our children really love them already!  Ok, this post is SOOOO LONG!! I apologize.  Here are some pics that we took in the last 6 days of our being in Panama!!! Enjoy!

Puerto Armuelles English Group September 2012

Rayah loves Monica!

Bates and Ward Kids with Candy Teeth!

Kenneth giving KK a ride home from the meeting

They made their names out of upside down dominoes!

And We're Off To.........

 

 

PANAMA!!!!

 There will be many more updates to come.  Everything with Jehovah's help has fallen into place and we will be leaving for our new life in Panama very soon! 

We are so thankful for all the kind words and suggestions that were emailed to us to help us make our decision of where to move.  We can't wait to begin the adventures of our new life choice!

 

Come along for the ride and don't forget to email us and/or post comments!!  :)

 

Brandon, Angelique, Jace, Kaden & Rayah