Adventures In Boquete: May 2014

I cannot believe it has been almost a month since my last post! Our family has been so busy! First we have been getting ready for our return to the States. We are sad to say out of money and have to go back to work. This time we will both work so that it will not take so long to save up for our next ministry assignment.

Before I get into May though, Danielle reached a milestone at the very end of April. She gave her first talk! It was not an easy one either."Why Don't Christians Observe the Sabbath". She did a really good job and pretended I was her art teacher and she had to explain why she didn't observe the Sabbath. I helped her a little with putting it together but for the most part she did it and did very well!

We also decided that May would be "NO SUGAR"! We want to try and not be so addicted to this "legal drug"! HA HA! Anyways to finish off April with sugar, April and I went to Finca Lerida to enjoy the views and one last bit of sugar before we had to give it up!

April and I

Views on the Way Up

Views at Finca Lerida

Flan de Cafe - My Treat

Rhubarb Cobbler - April's Treat

We have been busy in our preaching work. Jehovah has blessed me with a bible student who I must say I do not want to leave. She studies the bible 3 times per week and really has a love for the bible and Jehovah. She comes to my home as we were doing bible study at her place of work and she did not want to get in trouble from her work so she comes to my house when she gets off work. She says her house would be too distracting. We have been studying since April but this month has been the best as she has been staying longer and learning more since it is not at her job.

We are almost finished with the brochure "Good News From God", and we also do a lesson in the "Who Are Doing Jehovah's Will Today". We will start the "Bible Teach" book before I leave. I know for sure I will have many tears over this girl. My prayer is that she will attend Christian meetings before we go.

This is Olga - My Precious Bible Student

Look at our Beautiful Lilies

This is Sunem, eating her first s'more

This is Liliana, eating her first s'more.

Bonfire with our guests for the Special Assembly Day and our Neighbors

I have also been blessed with another beautiful bible student. Her name is Marleni. She is a Ngobe, but she speaks only Spanish and English. We study the "Good News From God" brochure as well. She has three beautiful children. Two of them are not there most of the time as they are in school. The littlest is so shy. I was so happy when a couple of weeks ago the children all hugged me as that had not happened yet!! My heart melted. This past week we had no transportation to her home so we walked to her study. She lives in the mountains. It took an hour and twenty minutes to get there. She was so impressed by our efforts, and she kept asking "you walked??" Then she said "you walked from Alto Boquete?" After we studied the brochure we showed Jadiel, her littlest boy who will be two this week, the Caleb videos. We only had two on our phone and they were in English. We told her next week we would bring them in Spanish for him. Marleni said "Can I give you my memory card and you put them on it for the other children to see?" We said "Of Course".
We walked to another return visit after that and she was home, we were so glad because she was on the other side of the mountain which we had to go up hill to get. We said "the expression up hill both ways was literal in this case!" After that we walked down the mountain to Bajo Boquete. The whole trip took 4hours and 20 minutes. Of course an hour of it we were at Marleni's having bible study, but we were exhausted. I kept thinking "How do people walk days to assemblies?"

This is our first study, and all her children were there.

We are walking to Marleni's up Jaramillo Abajo

We saw incredible views on the way

This was a waterfall in the distance, it was hard to get a good picture

Right before crossing Wilson's Bridge

WOW! Jehovah's creation is amazing!

Crossing Wilson's Bridge

View of Volcan Baru

Me and Marleni and Jadiel

After Marleni's study we went to a return visit

Up the other side...

You can see all of Alto Boquete from here

We were tired so we sat for a spell...

We made it to the other side and there was a tiny store in the middle of nowhere!

We stopped for a cold drink

Then down the mountain to Bajo

You can see all of Bajo Boquete from here.

I was in no mood for pictures at this moment

We finally made it to the bottom and caught a taxi to Alto!

We had an awesome assembly the past weekend. It was our last Special Assembly Day. A highlight for me was they could not get the sound to work for the first song and we all sang "Jehovah's Attributes" acapela, it sounded beautiful! We had several assignments. We had the privilege of hosting a family and a single sister, Jason was cleaning captain and we all helped him with the bathrooms, we had the privilege to set up and to take down the assembly, also I was asked to do a contribution box, and finally Jason was in parking. So it was a very busy Assembly, not to mention Dylan was interviewed in the afternoon on the part for youths. He was such a pro! No notes, and straight from the heart answers! Our special speaker was a special pioneer from Panama City, Ken Curry. He and his wife were so nice. They sat right in front of us and we got the opportunity to visit with them. Richard Tounier, from our home congregation, knew Ken way back when! He was so precious, he has been in Panama over 30 years. He kept on saying words in Spanish because he could not think of the word in English, and even in his prayer when he was praying for the young ones, he said "jovenes". So cute! There is hope that we can learn Spanish, I know it!! We were able to meet others in special service as well. A couple in Changuinola that are special pioneers and just graduated from the "first and last School for Couples held in Panama", now we know it will be called School For Kingdom Evangelizers. Also we met a longtime missionary in Panama, Cindy Clark. She has been here 17 years and she serves in Spanish in David with her husband Scott. What a joy to meet ones who are so self-sacrificing.

A few of the children in our circuit

Dylan, Sunem. and Danielle before the assembly

Helena with Her Bible Student, Ebelina, and Myself

More of the children from our circuit...I counted 20 children at our assembly

Some were bible students!!!

Dave and Karla Kemkaren

Ken and Maribel Curry - Special Pioneers

Dylan during lunch preparing for his part

Dylan's interview

Buffy Conza

Janice Whittle

Dustin and Ginger with their Bible Students and their studies' children

With the family who stayed with us - The Bakers

The Bakers and The Currys

The growth here in Panama is truly amazing. When the special pioneer couple came here 6 years ago there was barely any English. In fact four years ago at the Special Assembly Day in Panama City the whole entire circuit was 92 in attendance. Now we are in three parts, Panama has two and Costa Rica is one part. At the Special Assembly Day here in Boquete we had 202, the weekend before in Panama City they had 362, and Costa Rica had not had theirs yet so you can see the growth. Also there is talk that the circuit will split and Costa Rica will be its own circuit and Panama will be its own. Truly Jehovah is speeding up the work!!

With Angie Mosqueda - She is very self-sacrificing!

She is leaving Changuinola to go preach on the Camarca (unsure of spelling)

That is the Ngobe-Bugle Reservation

No Electricity, or indoor plumbing, and the brothers have to walk a day and a half to get to the meetings.

We have had lots of fun here with our brothers. We have been doing bon fires and sushi nights. We are planning a trip to the beach. I hope soon! The congregation seems so empty right now as so many are in the States and others have had to move. Thursday at our meeting we only had 22 in attendance and Jason volunteered literally seconds before the bible reading to do it. It was a hysterical meeting.

Sushi at the Bromiley's

My Sushi Plate

We also had sugar free smoothies with fresh fruit and coconut ice cream

In service with the Spanish I saw a parrot in the tree

At Brother Leo's house for a break

Sabrina (Panama) Ingrid (Italy) Iysah (Venezuela)

I went in service with Spanish for the first time, it was wonderful!!

We are so thankful we have been in Panama, and hope we can return to a foreign assignment again soon! It has truly strengthened our faith in Jehovah's ability to provide for us and help, and helped each and every one of us in this family to grow spiritually!