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

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. 

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! 

                  

Thomasville Team Wrap Up

The week is over and our time in Panama is done. We have experienced so many emotions this week because God has shown up in some big ways. Our team had the privilege of working closely with a fantastic team of missionaries who are passionate about leading people to the Lord. During the week we were able to play and love on children who were thankful for our attention because they live without lots of the things that our American children take for granted. We were able to go into a school and teach about the 10 Commandments and love of God. That certainly doesn't happen in public schools in America. We were able to witness walls and strongholds come down as Baptist ministers from all over Panama City met with the Urban Panama team to discuss God's love and how they must work together to spread that message. God allowed us to lay hands on two young men who surrendered to the call of missions. What was most amazing about this event was that we were able to worship and sing the same song, "Open the Eyes Of My Heart Lord," while singing it in three different languages. Although we couldn't understand what the other Panamanians were singing, God heard a beautiful choir of voices lifting their praises to Him. The stories of God's goodness could continue, but I simply want to end by saying that God is real. God is good. God is faithful, and God is mine. I hope He's yours too.

Thanks for praying for us. Your prayers helped us to plant seeds all over Panama City.

Leigh

Final Day in Panama

Today we met with the members of the UP Team and some Panamanian translators to go into a small public school in a neighborhood called San Fransisco. According to Panamanian law, Religion has to be taught in the public schools. The Lord opened a door for the UP Team to teach the Gospel to over 200 elementary school children. The principal of the school welcomed us in to spend the morning teaching the 10 commandments and singing about Jesus. We were so blessed to be part of the day! ~ Debby


From Amy~
It is difficult to express the bridge built tonight between the Urban Panama team and the local Baptist pastors in Panama. In fact, I believe it will be impossible this side of heaven to glimpse just where or how far it will extend in reaching others for Christ. A banquet was held tonight in appreciation for those pastors and their wives to encourage them in their ministry, introduce them to each other, and encourage a working relationship which promotes a unified effort in reaching Panama for Christ. The pastors and their wives were SO APPRECIATIVE. Joy radiated their faces as they expressed their desire to work together to plant more churches in this city of 1.2 million people.

Serving

How do I put into words the things of today? God already did Matthew 20:28 - "Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve." This is our heart and this is why we came. Today was absolutely indescribable. Our plans changed today due to unforeseen events, but our resolve was quick. We were able to go to a community center and play with children and perform some construction. It is so sweet to serve. The afternoon was full, both spiritually and time wise. We attended one of the most eloquent services we've all ever experienced. We laid hands on two brothers in Christ, named Ariel and Wika, who are leaving for the mission field on Friday. These men have received training from Tim, Cavin and Derek through a Church Planting program that they created. Last Tuesday Ariel decided to quit his job and go into the mission field. He will be leaving his family on Friday to go with Wika to Bocas Del Toro and then into a remote jungle for two months. The church they attend have 10-15 members. They are sending two of their own. Fantastic percentages!!

God is good and again isn't it GOOD TO SERVE! - Steven H

Ariel and Wika, 2 new missionaries

The Living Water

Hola!! Today was our first day on the mission field in Panama. We started the day at the Louderback house for a meeting with the Urban Team (Tim, Tina, Cavin, Charlotte, Audrey and Derek). We learned a lot of interesting information about Panama City. Out of the 1.2 million people who live in the city, only about 2% are Evangelicals. With this in mind, we all went to Ancon Hill to pray over the city of Panama. We are really praying for God to use us to do some amazing things this week. After praying over the city, we went to Omar Park to give out water to people. On the bottles we had labels that explained how Jesus is the Living Water. We had great conversations with lots of Panamanians. Hopefully lots of seeds were planted today. Tomorrow is another great day full of many mission opportunities. Please pray for our team. We love all of you and have already felt your prayers. ~ Leigh

FBC Thomasville Georgia Visits Panama!!!

We are getting ready to head to the airport to pick up a group of friendly faces! Our home church, FBC Thomasville, Georgia, is sending a mission team to work with us for the week. We are BEYOND EXCITED! We are not only excited about seeing our friends and getting to serve with them this week in beautiful Panama, but about what God is going to do through our work. We are going to update the blog throughout the week, so be sure and check back in. Please pray for the Urban Panama (UP) Team this week along with our Georgia friends:

Leigh
Ben
Steve
Amy
Caleb
Brady
Lori
Stephen
and Debbie

Thanks to our new Oklahoma City friends!!!

Tim with some new friends in one of our ministry areas.

The Urban Panama Team has officially hosted and lived through our first mission team! In reality those wonderful folks from Capital City Baptist Association in Oklahoma City survived us! :) The team was beyond gracious and ever so flexible! We had an amazing time getting to know them and most importantly, lots of work was done for the Lord! We sent them home good and tired. In the time they were here, they canvased a large area prayer walking, completed several construction projects and we were able to provide an amazing family block party in an area of Panama City we are working in. With their help, the UP Team saw work completed that would have taken months to do alone.

Thanks to all of our new Oklahoma City friends, you blessed us with your time and sweet spirits.