A few hours in Miami

As I write this, I am sitting in a corner of the Miami airport catching up on my world and sipping Starbucks.  Ahhh, life is good.  Meanwhile, my hubby is out and about exploring Miami.  Further proof that indeed, opposites attract. :)

Tim and I are headed to Georgia to share in a mission conference with our home church.  We are super excited to share with these sweet people all that God has been doing in Panama.  They have had a large part in our ministry and we are excited to be with them for a few days.  We are not excited that our kids are back in Panama though.  It was not an option for them to be away from school right now so our friends have moved in to stay with them for a few days.  I hope that we are all still friends at the end.  Just kidding, surely my kids will be on their best behavior.  Right???

Miami is an interesting mix of English and Spanish.  I am pretty sure it is a 50/50 split.  Which is rather tiring to the brain I might add.

Off to get lost in a good book while I have time......

Back in the swing of things

After a month off of school, the kids returned this past week and we are back in the swing of normal life. We had an amazing holiday season.  We were able to travel, rest and just enjoy each other.  Although, I have to say that I am pretty happy to be back in some kind of routine. 

In January our job here took a shift.  Our primary job is to connect US churches to church planters and Panamanian churches in a partnership so that they can plant more churches and tell more people about the saving grace of Jesus.  There is lots more to it than that, but you get the idea. :)  

Until now, all of our work has been done in the city.  So, we have lots of rural Panama to explore and get to know.  To that end, Tim headed out for a few days to meet and explore with a couple of other guys. 

 

I have been holding down the fort and running the taxi service at home.  My kids and their social lives sure do keep me busy. 

Pie Crust, it's the little things

One of the things I have learned while living overseas is how to cook more from scratch.  We have considerably less prepackaged choices here in Panama than in the USA. Many times the prepackaged choices we do have are far out of the budget.  Over the past few years I have learned to bake several things from scratch.  Pie crust is one of the things that works out some times and goes south others.  While doing my weekly grocery shopping this week I saw a most exciting sight tucked away near the tortillas in the fridge section.

I promptly purchased this little treat (for a semi reasonable amount) and went home and whipped up a cherry pie for the family. 

It's the little things. :)

My theme for 2012~ CONQUERED

Like many people around this time of year, I have been thinking about resolutions for the upcoming year. I need to eat better, exercise more, get less frustrated with my kids, not worry so much about my house being clean, blog more, be more faithful in my prayer time....oh the list could go on and on and on and on and on.....well, you get the idea.  I have decided to ditch the idea of setting new resolutions that inevitably, I will not keep.

I have however been inspired by several things I have read in the past couple of days about being intentional about changing things in your life.  To that end, I have decided to set a "theme" for myself in 2012.  A kind of cornerstone that I can come back to throughout the year to keep things in check.  A reminder of what really matters if you will. I have been praying and seeking the Lord as I try to decided on a theme.  Finally, this morning my heart has settled on one. This year, I am asking to be CONQUERED.  I want His agenda to be stronger than mine.  I want His dreams to trump mine. I want to live surrendered and  CONQUERED  by His love. Praying that this will be a reality in my 2012.

“They believe they were created for more than a Christian spin on the American dream.  

They believe the purpose of their lives is deeper than having a nice job, raising a decent family, living a comfortable life, and tacking church attendance onto the end of it.  

They believe Jesus has called them to a much higher plane and given them a much greater dream.  

They are Christians who have been conquered by a superior ambition, and they are surrendering ever facet of their lives to knowing Jesus and making his worth known in all the world.”

~ David Platt, The Radical Question ~

Out with the old, in with the new; Panama style

While traveling during the past week we kept seeing the oddest things decorating peoples yards and businesses along the streets.  We began asking around and found out that Panama has a unique custom of making scarecrows and burning them at midnight on New Year's Eve. They dress up and fill the scarecrows with newspapers and pieces of wood. I have to say we say some pretty creative pieces of work! As mid night approaches, everyone gathers outside their home and each family burns their scarecrow. The tradition says that this destroys all the bad things that took place in the past 12 months. The scarecrow also scares away any bad luck that might be approaching for the new year. Interesting tradition.

Of course it is yet another reminder of the way Satan has a hold on the people of Panama.  We know that our steps have been ordered and our future is ultimately in the hands the Lord. 

The Message 

^10-11This is God's Word on the subject: "As soon as Babylon's seventy years are up and not a day before, I'll show up and take care of you as I promised and bring you back home. I know what I'm doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.

Farewell 2011

We are wrapping up a wonderfully relaxing, lazy and much needed week at the beach.  It was just what the doctor ordered after the busy holiday season.  We have loved every minute of it.  Much of our time has been spent in our PJ's playing games and watching old movies.  When we have managed to get dressed, we have thrown on our swimsuits and hit the beautiful beach.  We even managed to take in a few day trips to some of the most beautiful places we have seen thus far in Panama.  All in all, it has been just about perfect family time.  I am so grateful for this sweet family of mine and have enjoyed the get away from everyday life.  

Today we have spent time reflecting on 2011 and all that God has allowed us to experience.  We talked about our favorite memories of the year and all of the wonderful blessings of 2011.  Then, we talked about the challenges and hard times 2011 brought. We remembered that in their own ways, they were blessings too.  We were even able to see "good things" that have already come out of some of those challenges. We talked about faith and trust and how to be thankful for the good and bad.  

So, we have kind of closed out 2011 and are now looking forward to what God has in store for 2012.  More on that soon.......

Merry Christmas from Panama

May your heart be lifted in praise this Christmas
for the wonderful gift of Jesus
and the joy He brings to our lives.
Have a wonderful Christmas
and a Blessed New Year.

a thought from Trinity

It’s November 17^th. It’s been about 2 months since our last blog post. Louderbacks = Lazy, huh? Anyways, let me get you people up to date on our lives.

Gracie Lynn and I had great birthdays last month. She had a CANDY PARTY for her 11^th birthday. All you can eat CANDY! It’s like Halloween twice in one month!
I spent my 15^th with some friends, hanging out, making music, and watching Nacho Libre. Then came Pumpkin Day. We went to many parties, many Fall Festivals, and ate LOTS of candy. J I love holidays where people have to give me candy.

Hmmmmm what else is new? We’ve got our Christmas decorations up! Don’t judge… I think it’d be weird to have turkeys and stuff all over my house for Thanksgiving. The pilgrims will understand. We put up our Christmas tree today while we listened to the wonderful Christmas songs on Glee’s album. Good times.

The girls are busy rehearsing for the Cantata coming up in December. The Cantata is a Christmas Program that happens every year to share with people the true meaning of Christmas. (Jesus!)

I don’t know what else to tell you about. Life’s good.

Okay, I’m going to sleep now. Later people! – Love, Trin.

Current Life of the Louderback's

Tim has been BUSY keeping up with lots of exciting things God is doing here in Panama! The team has just wrapped up two weekly church planting classes and are preparing to start another one in a new area of the city in a few weeks. We are constantly amazed at how God is opening doors to train Panamanian church planters and start house churches. Tim also enjoys discipling several of the guys who have graduated from the class and are now working in their own areas. In his free time he is taking a seminary class and of course still is in the running for Dad of the century!

Trinity has settled into life as a high school student. She is enjoying singing in weekly chapel at her school as well as her youth praise team. She is a great student and spends lots of time hitting the books. We are navigating our way through the scary teenage years and all in all, I think we are fairing pretty well. :) She is an amazing Godly young woman and we could not be more proud of her.

Noah is enjoying being top dog in the middle school this year. 8th grade has it's privileges you know. Currently, he is a basketball fanatic and spends every waking moment possible with a basketball in his hands. He is enjoying playing on his school team and God has given him the opportunity to have some really great coaches who teach him life lessons as well as basketball techniques. Noah seems to be following in his Dad's footsteps and does not meet a stranger! He is the life of the party and only slows down to sleep.

Sweet Gracie Lynn is just as happy and carefree as ever. To her delight she is on the cheerleading squad at school this semester. She loves school and does great. She is so creative in so many ways and really loves art class this year. She is also leaning lots about Latin American history so she always has stories to teach the rest of us. She is such an amazing big sister to Eden. They have the sweetest sister bond.

Speaking of Eden, she is enjoying being a first grader. She is learning so much and loves to read to us each night. She is still quiet at school but has a sweet group of friends that she enjoys being with each day. Eden asked if she could take violin lessons this year so we found a teacher and she LOVES it. She practices each day and the teacher tells us every week how amazed she is at her progress. She looks so sweet and dainty holding her little violin.

Finally, as you can tell Mom stays pretty busy keeping up with this crazy crew! I really do love being a wife and Mom to my family. I enjoy working alongside Tim with our church planters and also enjoy doing some research for the IMB on different church planting movements in Urban cities in Latin America. I have also been able to attend a Women's Bible study in recent weeks that has been such a blessing to me. It is an eclectic group of women from so many different walks of life. In fact, last week I looked around in the area I was sitting and there was a young lady with a Chinese Bible and on the other side of me was a friend with a Spanish Bible. What a beautiful picture of God working in all the Nations!

As you can tell, the Louderback's are doing great and are living large as my husband likes to say down here in Panama. We cannot thank you enough for your prayers! Keep them coming!

Back To School 2011-2012

Scrapbooking design generated with Smilebox

Summer Wrap Up

As we finish up the Summer, and look back upon the eight mission teams from the States that we have enjoyed working alongside the past two months, we are thankful and very blessed to be a part of what God is doing in this beautiful city on the Canal!  

We currently have national church planters with new works going on in 10 focus areas of the city, and 3 more areas that we will be starting new works in over the next few weeks! 

All of our work is done inside the city limits, but there are more than 1.2 million people living within it, so it is a God sized task for sure! God gave our team a vision for creating the “Church Planting Institute” a year ago. This is a class where we teach, train and disciple Panamanian’s who desire to plant churches and see lost people come to know the saving grace of Jesus Christ. Thus far, we have 15 graduates, with 32 more graduating in September!

 Please join us in praying for the specific areas that we are working in:

Las Acacias, Los Rosios, Boca la Caja, San Francisco, Villa Graciella, Chanis, Curundu, Bella Vista, Bethania, and Santa Fe. 

The map above is a picture of Panama City and the areas that Panamanian church planters are starting work. What an exciting time to live and work in Panama! 

A quick update

Just a quick note to remind you to jump on over to the team blog this week to hear all about the amazing Team Thomasville! God has been doing some exciting things!  Check it out at Urban Panama Team Blog

A note from Jacob and Ally

Hey friends and family! We have had an amazing time in Panama these past two weeks and it will definitely be bittersweet to return home. As recent graduates from high school, we both really wanted to experience life as a missionaries and spend some dynamic time with the Louderbacks before we go off to college. Although this trip was filled with lots of fun things, God opened up some cool doors for us to do ministry in diverse ways. First we were able to work with the people of the Gamboa Indian Village. We partnered with a mission team from Ohio and helped them in their game plan to minister to that people group. This trip was accompanied by a pretty sketchy boat ride to the village, some rain, lots of soccer and butterflies. Weird combo, huh? Anyways, working with the Gamboa Indians was cool in that we got to play games with the kids, fellowship with the adults, pass out dental hygiene supplies, soap and medication, make salvation bracelets, sing songs, etc. It was a very cool experience because that people group is so independent, hardworking, and interesting. Their way of life is just so different that it opened up our eyes to a new culture. The second thing we were able to do was visit an orphanage here in Panama. We actually did this for two days and it definitely broke both of our hearts. We worked with about 19 2-4 year olds and to say the least, they were adorable. All they really wanted was someone to show them affection whether that was by a hug or by pushing them around in a little broken car. The kids stole our hearts and made a lasting impact on our lives. Whether they are special needs or not, they are precious children of God that simply need the love of a parent. Trust us, at 17 we would've adopted every single one of them if we could. Another thing we got to experience was a Panamanian kids camp. Yes, kids camp. We were both counselors for about three days for 3rd-5th graders at a place here in Panama. It was very cool for us to be able to invest in the lives of these kids that never really get to go to fun stuff like the camp. Pastor Andrew from Crossroads did an excellent job of coordinating the camp and the weekend paid off for sure. The kids learned more of what it means to be a light for Jesus Christ and how to shine that light to the world. It was encouraging to see the kids learn so much and get excited about sharing Jesus with their friends and families. These are just some of the things we did on this trip and we could both go on forever about all that God did. He is so faithful and it's such an honor to be able to serve Him in other countries. It'll be sad to leave Panama and the Louderbacks but maybe God will lead us back! Thanks for your prayers and please continue to pray for the UP team and all that they are doing for Gods kingdom.
In Christ,
Jacob Spencer and Ally Smith

A week in Antigua, Guatemala

Thoughts from Trinity..........
As many of you know, the Louderback family just spent the last week in Antigua, Guatemala. Every once in a while, the IMB missionaries from our area will gather together for a certain amount of time. The parents were stuck in meetings all day while us kids were hanging out around the hotel. A team from Georgia came in to work with us. GL and Eden participated in VBS until dinner everynight. The youth had a bible study in the morning and recreation in the afternoon. We had a blast swimming in the pool and meeting all the Missionary Kids (MKs) in our part of the world. It was a great time just to be able to go and hang out with other people our age who have the same life experiences that we do. At the end of the week, no one wanted to leave. It was neat to see how quickly we all bonded and became best friends. I hope we get to do something like that again very soon.:)

Team Thomasville

I will be updating the Urban Panama Blog this week with stories of how God uses the team from FBC Thomasville to share Jesus with Panama.  Hop on over and take a peek. 

Glimpses of Gratitude: Mother's Day

I had a wonderful treat this Mother's Day and got to spend it with my mom.  I cannot remember the last time that we were in the same place for Mother's Day! My brother and his sweet wife decided to treat us both and gifted mom a plane ticket to Panama.  We had a wonderful visit, did some shopping, played lots of family games and even got to take in a fun Panamanian dinner and dance show.  It was such a sweet and unexpected blessing.  

                                     Our Panamanian Dinner and Dance Show

Noah's Bum Knee

Well, the boy of the house decided that he wanted to liven things up a bit so this is a current look at how he is spending most of his time. 

Noah's knee has been bothering him off and on for a few months.  However, we kind of chalked it up to growing pains and the fact that he goes NON STOP on any ball field around.  Last week it seemed to get worse than normal and he was in a good amount of pain and unable to get around well so, off to the doc we went.  After a full day of docs and tests, Noah was diagnosed with osteochondritis.. The doc put him in a full leg cast for 2 weeks to let the swelling go down and get a better look at what we are dealing with.  The best option is that the bone is fractured but still attached and he will have to have physical therapy. The other option is that the bone is already detached and he will need to have surgery.  Obviously, my prayer is that is not the case.  Ugh.  He is doing ok but pretty miserable in the cast.  It is hard for him to be still. 

On a much happier note, my brother and his wife have gifted my mom with a plane ticket to Panama for Mother's day!  How sweet is that!  She arrives on Saturday and the whole house is so excited!  What a special Mother's Day treat her and for me!

Peeks Into Panama: Beautiful Views

One of the really cool things about living overseas is getting to visit a variety of different cultural locations and enjoy the beauty. We live within a short drive to some of the most beautiful beaches ever!  So, when we have a day off or a weekend without things on the calendar, we love to make a day trip to relax and enjoy the beauty.  This is a peek of one of the amazing views we are blessed to enjoy.

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Psalm 19:1

Quick Catch Up

Whew!  It has been a whirlwind couple of weeks!  The time with the Tville youth team was AMAZING! God truly blessed through the work they did here in Panama.  It was so good to visit and work alongside sweet friends.  It was a great time of encouragement for our entire family.

This week we have been playing catch up.  Soccer games started for Noah and Gracie Lynn.  The kids had achievement tests at school and just for fun, we threw in several meetings, dentist visits and hair appointments. Just the typical crazy week!

We are looking forward to a break next week.  It is Semana Santa (Holy Week) in Latin America so the kids have the week off.  Ya Ya (Tresa) is coming for a visit so we have planned several day trips and are looking forward to sharing our world with her.

More soon.......

Blogging this week over at the team blog

Our home church is sending a group of amazing teens to work with us this week!  We are so looking forward to our time with them.  We will be posting about what God is doing each day over at the 
Urban Panama Team Blog.  So, come on over and see how you can pray for the team as they serve each day.