Missions Congress: Casa De Oración Panama

“I want to thank you for being a part of what God is doing here at our church.

The work of raising awareness of missions is not easy in our country.  We are glad to have met you, and as we are all co-laborers in the kingdom of God we want to work with you in the future.

We believe that God has brought you here to help us, and God permitting, let’s work together to use each others strengths to advance God’s work here in Panama and around the world.

We know that in God’s sovereignty, He’s permitted us to work together for His glory and I look forward to how we can help each other in the future.”

Mario Vásquez
Missions Pastor
Casa de Oración, Panama

This is the general gist of what Pastor Mario said after the second day of the missions congress at Casa de Oración Cristiana, Panama on August 29, 2009

I was invited to be part of a team of expositors from

• Costa Rica
• United States
• El Salvador
• Panama
• Honduras

to share specifically on the Role/Work of Youth through the Bible, history, and now in world missions.  That was such a big theme to cover in 75 minutes.  I had approximately 60-70 people attend my workshop.

Other workshops focused on the work of missions, working with handicapped, working with the youth, and working as business owners to generate funds for missions.

As a four day event, this missions congress was wonderfully organized with an international collection of speakers.  The church streams its services live over the Internet and as I write this, I’m listening to one of the plenary speakers wrap up the congress by speaking of global missions through the book of Jonah.

One of the challenges to global missions in Panama is a common phrase: “We need to reach Panama first.”

But one of our speakers called out this excuse and exposed it for what it is:

“What if our North American friends waited to reach the US before coming to Panama to bring us the good news?

What if our European friends waited to reach their own country before coming to Panama?

We’d still be lost in our sins, waiting to hear the good news from somewhere.  Those missionaries who came to us from Europe and the Americas didn’t hide behind the excuse that they needed to reach their own country first. . . .

Neither can we hide.  If we are called to global missions, we need to go!”

The Foursquare denomination chose Panama as it’s first mission field in the early part of the 1900s.  Methodists, Church of God, Assemblies of God, Baptists all came along as well, bringing the gospel message.

Panama owes a lot of its Christian heritage in the last 100 years to missionaries who came from other countries and were willing to learn it’s language and communicate the outrageous grace of God.

2 Years of Ministry

This past week, on July 19, we passed the two year mark of our work in Panama and in Latin America.

It’s been two years of ups and down, highs and lows, all the time believing in the promise of God that called us here.

To revisit our purposes and the promise of our calling, here is a summary.

The Calling and the Promise

“Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed. . . . just as it had been said to him “so shall your offspring be.” .  .  .  . He did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. (Romans 4:18-21).

I’m not Abraham, but the Lord reminded me that he gave us a calling and promise when we were called here.

We came to Panama with a calling

to Ignite the Church in the Americas in the power of the Holy Spirit to passionately fulfill God’s call to reach the nations.

This plays out in three parts

1.  Evangelism training.

We give workshops in personal evangelism and church growth for individual churches, individuals, and also regional groupings of churches.

Workshops vary in length from 2 hours to a full weekend.    This training is taking us all over Panama, and into other countries.

The Lord has also opened to the door for training missionaries for cross cultural missions, whether in the home country with immigrants, or abroad.

2.  Serving Mission Teams.

Over the past two years,  we served a team from Seacoast in Charleston SC and then one from Richmond VA this year.

We are praying for more open doors to partner with local mission organizations that bring teams to do outreach in our city.

We firmly believe that street evangelism is not to be disconnected from a local church and we serve a local church to help in this area.

3.  Teaching Children’s Ministry leaders.

The whole family is involved in children’s ministry leadership training as the Lord opens the doors.

We continue to pray for more open doors in this area that Brenda may be able to give more presentations and grow her webiste.

As part of the promise given to us,

Panama was to be the hub from which we operate.

Panama is the airline transportation hub for Latin America, and as such, we live close to the airport.

Our ministry is international in scope, continuing to give evangelism training in the US and in Latin America.

Time in Venezuela, Nicaragua, the US, and next month Guatemala.  Costa Rica remains in discussion, as does Colombia.

Amazed at God’s care

Through it all, we’ve had to rely on God’s provision from God’s people.

There have been times we have faced the end of our bank accounts in under 45 days.

Yet there appear surprises in the mail that continue to sustain us.

Planning for the future

We are grateful for the support that has been given to us over the year.

We need to grow it to a sustainable and somewhat predictable level to free us up to ramp up more ministry.

Our budget for this coming year is about $3500 a month.  $5000 a month would enable us to save for the future.

We are not quite there and ask you to join us in praying for more supporting churches and individuals.

We ask you to pray for more paid evangelism teaching engagements in the US with churches and regional governing bodies.

How can you respond?

1.  Download and print our partner response form

You’ll need a PDF reader to view it.

Print it out and stick it with your devotional materials as a prayer reminder of what God might be calling you to do with us.

Whether you choose to donate or simply pray for us, still print this out.

You can print and distribute to mission committees and prayer groups.

2.  Donate.

• By Credit card: Automatic recurring contributions or make a special offering by visiting our support page.  I’ve put up a video screen cast to show you how.
• By Check: Mark your gift for the Mission to Americas.  Make check payable to PRMI and mail to PRMI, P.O.Box 429, Black Mountain NC 28711

We need people to join our monthly team as well as one time gifts.

Our desire

We long to see the church in the Americas equipped to do the work of evangelism.  We invite you to join with us as you are called and empowered by the Lord to do so.

The Earth Shakes

Overnight on July 4, about 1:42am, we awoke when the earth shook underneath us.

A 6.0 earthquake had just rocked the city.

Centered about 60 miles Northeast, 28 miles down, it was enough to startle us.  (Just north of El Provenir on the map below).

The weirdest sensation.

A growling rumble wakes me up (thinking it was a passing truck or something).

Increasing rapid vibrations as the window blinds tremble.

The bed in which we were sleeping begins to vibrate side to side with a rapid frequency.

Suddenly the entire building is swaying and the furniture is moving across the floor.

It’s like being on a boat that is tossed by waves, when you can’t grab your footing.

Venetian blinds banging against walls and windows.

It’s over.

Within 15 minutes, a 6.2 preliminary report is found online, and revised within moments to 6.0.  (Source: US Geological Survey)

Panama newsgroups and twitter are all full of chat messages – did you feel it?  What were you doing?  You ok?  How is your building?

Some of my friends slept through it.

Others were awakened, like us.

Damage reports

Because of its depth in the earth (28 miles down), damage discovered seems to be light.  Building cracks, drywall cracks, a few trees that fell over.  No reported injuries.  Some loose canned goods fell from grocery store shelves.

For us, we have a new crack in our ceiling, but we live in a steel reinforced cement column structure.  Other than that, it’s just our nerves that shake a little.

Panama’s Earthquakes

Panama has seismic activity.  Most is often in the western provinces of Chiriqui near the border with Costa Rica.  The US Geological society has a record of reports since 1990.

According to published reports in La Prensa, a 6.3 struck in 2000, 6.0 in 1995, 7.3 in 1974, and 6.9 in 1951.  No pattern, but you can see that it happens.

Reflections

The earth is not supposed to move like that.  It’s not supposed to rumble and groan.  But in reality it does.

We normally don’t think of the power involved to sway cement buildings and rattle the earth from a pressure point 28 miles down.

I suddenly think of just how small and powerless we humans are in comparison to some of the forces of nature.

The building rocking back and forth felt like I was but a grain of sand being sifted by a gold hunter.

But I’m also compelled to think on the sovereignty of God and the sustaining power He gives us.

The prophets use imagery how the earth shakes when God speaks to communicate the power of God (Habakkuk 3:5-7).

Mountains will bow down and the seas will roar at the sound of His name.

I simply have no words left and will simply worship.

UPDATE:

Three aftershocks have been reported.  Sunday night, 11.10pm, a 5.3 aftershock was recorded and felt.

Pickpockets in Panama

Today, walking my daughter home from ballet, I watched a pick pocket lift a cell phone from a purse.

I felt powerless to do anything about it.  Not enough language skills to find a police officer or describe the person

Like a shadow, he appeared and it was gone in less than 3 seconds.

Because of the drug trade that runs in our city, I have no knowledge if the robber is carrying a gun, or has other accomplices or what.

Later, I thought of things I could do safely, but I still don’t know if I would be able to do anything.

It happened so fast, so casually. 

The victim left her cell phone in an outer pocket of her purse, and with a swift hand, he lifted it. 

One thing that happens in a big city like ours is this kind of petty thievery.

On New Years eve, a lady was getting a soda at the little convenience store, when a fireworks vendor snatched and grabbed her necklace, leaving the fireworks box on the floor. 

Some of our party guests were witnesses, as they were getting additional ice for our party.

We’ve been picked at least twice and Brenda has stopped one or two trying to get into her backpack.  One of our uncles was picked on a crowded bus.

Well meaning strangers have often warned us if they notice that our backpack zipper is slightly open. We understand the reason why. 

I find that when I walk with my kids anywhere these days, I walk with a level of alertness that we didn’t have before.  I’m scanning the crowd.  During my walk, all are suspect.

We’ve had to learn the hard way.  In the suburban US where we lived, this was never a consideration. 

We’ve now formed new patterns of behavior and new ways of thinking because of our calling to live in this city. 

We pray for this city, we love this city, and it does break our hearts to see this kind of stain in our city.

Corregimiento De Bella Vista

Panama is broken in to Provinces, one of which is named Panama, that contains the capital of the country, Panama City.

That province is broken into 11 districts, and those are further subdivided into corregimientos.

We live in the corregimiento de Bella Vista.

It covers 5.1 square kilometers, (about 2.0 square miles). 

According to a 2004 article, this area had almost 90 banking institutions, 27 embassies, 4700 businesses, 29 hotels, and more than 15 schools and universities. 

The article states that the last census (2000) indicated that 42,046 residents.

According to a mayoral candidate in the 2009 election, the area has 28,421 residents.

Church planting in Our Context

I live in a city of nearly 1 million people.

I prayerwalk the 3 neighborhoods regularly and have discovered a few observations:

• Less than 5 churches in the entire area.
• Condominium towers from 4 stories to over 50 stories.
• Very popular night clubs and restaurants.
• Streets known for hookers at night.
• A smattering of single family houses.
• Lots of office buildings
• Lots of pedestrian traffic during the weekdays.
• Very empty on the weekends.
• Residents generally middle to upper middle class.

Housing

Apartment towers have 24 hour security and access to them is by being buzzed in by a resident.

High density housing even among single family houses means that your next door neighbor’s wall is likely less than 3 feet away if not directly attached as row houses.

Single family houses are hidden behind walls and gates.  Windows and doors are covered with iron bars painted to match the color scheme of the house.  Border walls have razor wire or broken glass in the cement to keep people from walking on them.  Some families have their own private security guard that sits at the entrance.

Privacy and fortress like security is a key description of housing in our neighborhoods.

People

As we people watch in some three or four parks, we see families, lots of children, and nannies.  The parks begin to fill up with people as the afternoon wears on, and the sun starts to set.

Live-in nannies are common in our part of town who are likely receiving salaries of about $300-400 a month.

Some parks seem to attract more children with their parents.  One park seems only to attract the nannies and children.  It’s an observation to keep watching.

Questions in our mind

• How do we build relationships with our neighborhood?
• How can we discover the community needs as we are in the parks?
• What kinds of park-based outreaches can we do to start ministering to the need?

Would you join us in prayer as we seek to discern this?  We are participating in Launching a New Church in the city and this is part of our prayerful discernment about our neighborhoods.

Prayerwalking my City

Yesterday and today (Thursday and Friday), I (Chris) had errands to walk.

As I meandered my way to my destinations, I spent the time praying for the city, praying for the people, and asking God to show me how to love this city and minister to it’s people.  We desire for God’s name to be glorified.

The question that I’m asking God to show me is “What binds this city?”  “What are its spiritual needs?”

Two events happened today walking home from an errand.

Try to imagine with me

I stopped to sit on a platform and do some people watching and praying on a busy street.

Backpackers, lost tourists, homeless, and street vendors are all common sights.  I am often given a invitation to a over-priced taxi, or to buy cheap pirated CDs from a walking vendor.

Trash overflows from the cans.

Indigenous women and men from the Kuna people sell their molas and other handiwork.

Vendors sell knock off Ray-ban sunglasses and hawk newspapers.

The urban poor search trash cans for recyclables.

Beggars lean against the wall holding out little foam cups hoping for a spare change from a tourist.

This street has erotic shops, an active strip club and massage parlor, and I’ve often overheard male airline passenger share tips that high priced panama hookers are easily available on this street to service the casino and hotel patrons.

“Do you want a young girl?”

A young man, malnourished, tries to scrape a few bucks by managing the parking in front of a busy plaza.

Common practice in the city.  He tries to stop the flow of traffic to help people back out, cross the street, and directs people to park their cars in the stall.  Typically, folks give him a quarter to “watch their car” for his service.

My attention is drawn to him as I watch his efforts.  People don’t respect him.  He takes authority, as if he’s a traffic cop. Some people share their quarters with him.  I watch him also asks tourists for some change as well. He’s working hard. Confident in his steps.

He sees me sitting on my little bench and approaches.

“Friend” he calls me.  I find that I’m assuming he’ll hit me up for money.  Then he begins to say that

“If you want women, young women, I can hook you up.  I know where they are.  18, 19, 21.  They are pretty, they’ll do what you want, and you can have as many of them as you like. . .”

There is an eagerness to his voice.  I am both stunned and humored.  I let him continue to describe the fleshly beauty and the temptations that he offers (though I am not tempted).  He’s selling me the services of young girls.

I hold up my left hand, showing him the gold band around my fourth finger

“A Ha” he exclaims, leaning back to change his tone and sales pitch.

He’s obviously disappointed.

Refining his eagerness, he starts affirming my decision to stay with one woman and how all the hookers in Panama are infected and that’s its not good to use them because I might get a disease. . .

I chime in: “It is God’s perfect will that sex be expressed inside a marriage between one man and one woman.  I want to be pleasing to the Lord and always honor my wife.”

The shift to God’s calling in marriage quickly stops everything.  Knowing that he won’t get a sale out of me for his services, he then says “Friend, can I have some spare change to buy a soda?”

I turn down his offer.  I know he won’t buy a soda.  He’ll simply add it to the pile of change in his pocket he’s earned from parking cars.

Do you want a taxi?  A woman?

I resume my walk, pondering why was this offer made to me.

There is a section of this street where I’m always offered a taxi.  It’s a pattern that happens every time I walk this street.

A slightly overweight driver points to his car and offers “Taxi my friend?”

Looking him in the eye, I smile and decline his offer.  “No thanks.”  Sometime the drivers attempt to make other conversation with a quick follow up question — “Where you from?” or “Where you going?” or something like that.

Today was different.

“You want a woman?  I can get one for you.”

Stunned, I simply hold up my left hand to show him my wedding band.

With a laugh, he says “that don’t mean anything.”

What are its spiritual needs?

I walked home continuing to pray for my city.  In the time that I’ve been here both as a tourist and resident, this is the first time I’ve been offered women and girls.  I’m sure it happens.

However, I’m also certain that God has shown me an insight into some of the spiritual bondage of this city related to prostitution.  He’s answering my prayer.

For now, he’s guiding me to pray for these men, for these women.

While that profession is very old and I can’t do much about it, I can certainly pray that the Church in this country can reach men and women for Christ and bring healing to the bondage that prostitution brings.

Spiritual Climate of Panama

I gave a talk this past weekend in Virginia where I was a speaker at a missions banquet for a church sending a mission team to Panama in summer of 2009 to work with Youth with a Mission.

We’ll be helping them for part of their trip, and as their event and my travel to Richmond coincided, I had the chance to share.

I recognize that I have only been here at this point for nearly 18 months and as an extranjero (foreigner) living here, my observations are somewhat limited.  I don’t presume to be writing the definitive description, but only as I see it, and as it is informed by pastors that I have spoken with.  Also, this talk had to be done in about 10 minutes or less, so it’s no where near exhaustive.

Allow me to introduce you the city that we pray for, that we feel called to, and that God has given us His heart for.

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Overview of Panama

Panama is a country in Central America, a small S-shaped Peninsula that runs generally east to west between Costa Rica and Columbia.

Nearly 3.2 million people live in this country the size of South Carolina, 1.8 million of which (more than half) live in Panama City, the capital.

In the country, nearly 1 million people live below the poverty line.  Extreme poverty is defined as below $100 a month.  This amount of poverty leads to all sorts of problems: hunger, malnutrition, crime, out of wed-lock births, and other social challenges.  The distribution gap between the rich and the poor ranks Panama as the 3rd most unequal country in the world.

By some standards, a group ranked Panama’s education system 108 out of 132 studied, and 6th grade math scores ranked worst in the hemisphere.

The business climate is improving, though showing signs of credit stress like the rest of the world.  In the last few years, gleaming skyscrapers have been built and completed units being delivered, but pre-construction speculators are now trying to sell their units before having to close.  Near where we live, there are a lot of dark buildings at night.

The canal is expanding, but with the worldwide slowdown in shipping freight, there are concerns that the expansion may not be able to generate the forecasted revenue — meaning that the government may need to defer spending to pay off the shortfall in expected revenue.

Positive Aspects Spiritual Climate

Receptive and Open

In my own experience, as also with many mission workers that I have consulted, most people seem to be receptive and open to talking about matters of personal faith.

Many will take literature that you distribute, and if they can, they will read it.

Conversations that I have had with people reflect that they recognize that something is missing in their life and are spiritually thirsty.

Tracts and literature distribution are a good form of working in partnership with a local ministry for groups that do not speak Spanish.

Gospel aspects

Several aspects of the gospel message are relevant.

Eternal life and the message of forgiveness has a great appeal.

Assurance of forgiveness also appeals to the heart.

Finally, I have seen that joining in God’s kingdom work to serve a greater cause than self is also an appealing aspect of the Christian gospel.

Challenges in the Spiritual Climate

But with these positive aspects, come also some challenges.

Pastors don’t work well together

I have traveled to this country since 2001, moving here in 2007.  On every trip, I have been told that pastors don’t

• don’t work well together,
• have great jealousy under the surface, and
• have a protective competitiveness among church leaders.

While I may not have experienced this first hand, I’ve been hearing about this for 8 years.  It seems to be a problem then that many know it exists, but I don’t know who is seeking to solve it.

Syncretism

Panamanian spirituality seems also very syncretistic.  Jesus may simply be incorporated into the ongoing evolution of spiritual belief.

Good luck charms, mystical events, horoscopes, plus a cultural background in spiritism seems to make this characteristic prevalent.  I’ve watched TV shows on the news channels that feature body energy manipulators, meditation centers, and practitioners who claim to modify the force field around you.  New age spirituality.

The challenge to a mission team will be presenting Jesus as the only savior and the only Lord.  Working partnership with a local church, a local church team can follow up with a person’s spiritual development.  This kind of teaching doesn’t get absorbed over night.  Because of the prevailing worldview, Jesus can be incorporated pretty easy.  It takes time for a person’s worldview to change.

Connecting to the Local Church

Other workers who have been here longer than I have experienced difficulties in getting people connected to a local church.  This may be for a variety of reasons.  Some that I have heard:

• Hurt in the past by legalistic church
• Bad rumors about legalism
• Untrained pastors preaching destructive doctrines.
• No compelling need seen for church integration.
• The failure of the prosperity gospel to work.

The last one can be a struggle.  Many times the gospel has been presented with the idea that following Jesus will make you wealthy.  While no one will flat out say that, it is the obvious conclusion one can draw with the way the prosperity gospel is preached.  Of course people respond.

The downside is, that for many, their life doesn’t change after a few months and so it seems that “following Jesus didn’t work” like the preacher said, so why stay connected to a church that didn’t deliver?

Praying for Panama

As a family that dreams to minister cross culturally long term, we seek to make the observations in partnership with those that have been here longer than we have.  We admit that we are on a learning curve.  We seek to serve this culture that God has given us a heart for and a dream to see fulfilled.

If you are thinking of sending a mission team to Panama, keep these things in mind.  For the team that is coming to be with us this summer, keep this in mind as you come.  I look forward to seeing you in a few months.