Panama 2006
King's Kids Orlando Visits Panama
What would it have been like to be the first missionaries in panama? Our team got a good example when we split into three groups. Each traveled by dug out canoe to reach out to a different “Wounaan” or “Embera” indigenous tribe. For hundreds of years the world has changed around them, but these tribes have chosen to remain much the same, building their houses ten feet off the ground and using palm fronds for roofing.
When we arrived, the children of the villages gave us a very warm welcome. After the welcome, we immediately started playing games like “duck, duck, goose” and soccer with the children. Many of the indigenous youth have to walk forty-five minutes to get to elementary school and have no high school available near them.
 In response to the villages need YWAM Panama has started to provide a specialized boarding program for these students providing education and intense Christian discipleship. Many of these youth say they first understood the Gospel of Jesus when a YWAM team like ours came to their village. Our journey through the rain forests of Panama was a wonderful, eye opening experience.
The students also successfully used the dramas and dances they had worked so hard to learn in Orlando to draw crowds of attentive Panamanian youth and adults. Josiah crafted his story to tie directly into the Gospel message of the drama that he and fellow students had just performed.
Many times over the students spoke to crowds of up to two hundred people and described how God is the Hero of their life’s story. Most of the students said that this was the first time they have shared about their relationship with Jesus with such a large crowd and many more told stories about how God used them after the program to have a personal conversation with members of the audience about the Gospel, and even asked how they could pray for them! |
