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 ~

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.......

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!

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

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.

Prince Avenue Christian School

I want to send a huge shout out to our new friends at Prince Avenue Christian School in Georgia.  Each year, the Senior class of Prince Avenue takes a Senior trip to minister overseas.  This year, it was our privilege to host them in Panama. The class divided into two groups, so we got to hang with them for 2 different weeks.  These kids arrived in Panama and hit the ground running!  They worked with our local church planters in communities where we are currently ministering and church planting.  They prayed, mapped out areas, performed dramas and skits and most importantly, showed the love of Jesus to the folks they came in contact with.  

Their sweet spirits were such an encouragement to us.  We really enjoyed getting to know them!  We are so thankful for their willingness to come and serve with us! 

                  

From Blog to Book

I may be the last one in Blog world to know this but did ya'll know that there are services that will take posts from your blog and make them into a book as a keepsake???  What a wonderful idea!  It is like digital scrap booking. This is the one I was checking out today; Blurb.com.  Since I stink at the regular kind of scrap booking, I thought I would try the digital kind.  Anyway, all that to say that I am going to be posting more family fun online. Hope it does not bore you to much but I am thinking this is going to be a great way to capture memories. Who knew!  I love new things! Happy Thursday. :)

Cheesy Nasty Grossness

HOW GROSS IS THIS!!!!  Last week I splurged on a treat for the family and bought a $6 box of Velveeta Mac and Cheese at the local grocery store.  The kids were out of school yesterday so I decided it was a good day for a yummy treat.  Imagine the HORROR when I opened the box and found this nasty mold mess inside. 

How in the world do noodles even mold??? We were all pretty disappointed over the snafoo but such is life living overseas. Think of me next time you enjoy cheesy goodness. :)

Glimpses of Gratitude: School

One of the things on my "concern list" about living in Panama was the education of our children.  I have never felt called to home school although I have many friends who do. Knowing just what we needed, God placed the most wonderful school blessing in our world!  We have been so pleased with Crossroads Christian Academy where the kids attend classes.  It offers a strong academic program as well as a positive and loving learning atmosphere.  The teachers have been such a blessing to our children and to us.  They also have lots of fun activities mixed in with the learning.  A few weeks ago they enjoyed SPIRIT week.  This is a picture of ZOO day. 

I am so thankful for a school full of lots of learning and love that I can send my children to each day.

Peeks into Panama: Public Buses

Thought you would enjoy seeing the lively public buses that travel around Panama.  Most Panamanians use these buses every day to get where they need to go.  You can ride around the city for just 25 cents.  Typically, we do not use the buses because although they are colorful, they tend to be a little rowdy and dangerous as well.

We do enjoy checking out all of the colorful painting each day though. :)

Peeks into Panama: The Heat!

As mentioned (possible several hundred times) Panama is HOT!  The average temperature is between 80 and 100 degrees Fahrenheit.  Currently, we are in the "summer" season in Panama which seems to stay closer to the 100 side of the average.  This past week, Tim put the temperature gage in the car just out of curiosity.  Here is what he found after a couple of hours! 

YIKES!