Shakin It Up [Gamboa, Panama]

The journey has begun and we have found ourselves in a quiet town in Panama,overlooking the canal, mid way between the jungle and the city. Our entire group is staying in a small church where Pastor Wilbur and his wife Ann have opened their doors and their hearts to us. www.gamboaunion.com Our time here thus far has been full of opportunity to get involved with projects that will have a lasting impact in Panama. What more could we ask for

150 Pastors and ministry leaders gathered at the Voice for the Voiceless conference here in Panama last week. Susi, co founder of PhotogenX, came to speak at the conference and will be spending the next month here with our team. As she shared her heart, there was electricity in the air. You could sense it. Hearts stirring within chests, beating loudly to connect with Gods own. Church leaders recognizing a renewed call to ACTION. God is truly shaking things up in Panama as his children decide to engage in his work. The very next night the EARTH shook! A 6.0 earthquake about 60 miles away woke us up at 2am. I had started to feel sick that day and was so delerious that when Steve told me that there was an earthquake, I put the entire sheet over my face [not unusual for me], assured him that it was just a train, and shifted to get comfortable on the shaking ground where we were sleeping.

I am an acheiver. I make to do lists for what to make to do lists for. I keep a running tally in my head of all the practical things I do in one day, and when night falls, the tally is wiped clean only to be started up again in the morning. I multi task. SO, at the end of the day when its time to lay my weary head to rest, I can sleep easy knowing that my checklists are filled with checks and that tomorrow is another day...UNLESS I am sick. In which case I have to suffer the worst imaginable punishment...I have to stay in bed all day long feeling miserable and like I can accomplish nothing. This proves to be particularly frustrating when the things on my to do lists are:
1. hang out with kids at orphanges.
2. help put an end to human trafficking.
3. trek through the mountains of Panama to spend 9 days with the most marginalized people group in the country.
and stuff like that. All of that said to give you an update on my health. There is some sort of flu [not the swine flu, mom] that has been going around our community and just when I thought I had enough vitamin C, Airborne and TLC in my system to ward it off, it hit me HARD. Steve deserves a trophey and the giant chocolate brownie vanilla ice cream sundae that he keeps talking about for nursing me back to health ...again.

I am learning to embrace my weakness before God and to live in utter vulnerability and dependence on him, in health and in my frailest moments. There is so much hope in knowing that his strength is made perfect in my weakness. I am resting and am hoping to be better in the morning to go to the Ngobe village.