Thursday, August 13, 2009

Sara's Update from 8-12-08






Hola California!

Our days here at Panama are coming to a close. Our 2nd Panama Team, Mike Crowley, Jim, Lynn, & Libby Richardson, made is here safely about 10:00 last night. We were very excited to see some familiar faces. It was like they brought a piece of home with them. They stayed for an hour here at Delores', then headed out to Raul & Betty's house. The Richardsons are staying at Raul & Betty's for this week, and then they will be here at Delores' after Soldados de Cristo leaves for California. Mike is staying with Terry at Norberto's house (A member of Iglesia de Cristo). We are all praying that this trip will give the Richardsons answers about their possible move to Panama. What we do know is that God is in control of it. Team # 2 spent their first evening having an adventure. On the way home last night, they were pulled over by the police. There was some difficulty with communication because the officer didn't speak English, and no one in the Cali. car spoke Spanish. What ended up happening was that their license plate was taped on the rear window (which was tinted, so you couldn't see it), instead of in the appropriate place. The officer then asked everyone for their passports. Everyone had one except Terry who was just going along for the ride. The police officer followed Mike & Terry back to Norberto's house to get his passport. The officer said, "Because it is a rental car, I won't give you a ticket." Praise God!

What a great first experience on the first night here in Panama for Team 2. Ha! Team 2 spent the day organizing the rental car situation, and met with a lawyer to go over all the necessities and steps for moving to Panama. They then were planning to go to a small group with Raul and other Iglesia de Cristo members this evening.

For Soldados de Cristo, it was another normal day doing LST at the school (Instituto America). Terry & Jaclyn have 2 LST days left and my last day for LST is tomorrow. As we are informing the readers when our team will be leaving, they look at us with sadness and are bummed that this all has to end so soon. We are encouraging the students to continue to practice speaking English, so for the next time we come, they will show us how good their English has gotten. After school, we had a journey picking up Alberto, Manuel, & Inka (Norberto's nephews, & niece) from school today. We had to take Inka back to her parents house before heading back to Delores'. We were driving in traffic for about 2 hours. The ride was a blast! Jaclyn & I sang some church songs, while the kids tried to sing along with us. It was such a blessing to be on the road that long, so we could fellowship together. We were sad when we had to drop them off, because we were having so much fun. For our evening LST group, it was the usual evening.
We were invited to our reader's house tomorrow after LST. We are all excited to go and spend more time in fellowship with our friends. So, it is about that time. I guess this is goodbye for now. We will all see you soon! Please pray that we are able to plant those seeds that have not been planted. Goodnight!

With Christian Love,

Sarah