DATELINE PANAMA:
My trip to the coast (after missing last year)
Or
Oh!, where has all the money gone?
We have been months making general plans and working double duty the last few weeks finalizing our planning for the bi-annual Bible Conference on the northern coast of Panama. We normally do these in May and October because those months are the months that give us favorable weather and calmer sea conditions for these activities. The last conference was canceled and the I was out of country last October so it has been a while since I have been able to be present.
The last conference (one I missed) had an estimated 175 people attending towards the end of the conference at the church in Belen. The services had to be moved outside due to the fact that the church building (constructed on stilts) could not sustain the weight of so many people. That church is now building a new sanctuary and have laid the foundation. (These people are worthy of some special help if you are looking for a project).
Preparation starts with work on the boat. There is always a need for constant maintenance with the boats and we always want to make sure that everything is in order before we leave. I do not like surprises on these trips because we normally do not have a lot of free time to dedicate to “surprises”. We do some painting, check the motors and make some modifications for security reasons. The cost for these efforts run about 150 dollars.
As the time for departure nears, last minute preparations become our focus. I will gather some supplies the national missionaries have requested and get them to our boat, which requires several round trip deliveries to the site where we store our boat. Each trip is an investment of five or six hours, excluding packing and unpacking time. Add another $20.00 for travel costs. We now see an expense of $170.00
I also spend time buying supplies for the conference. The missionaries do not ask for this assistance, but I do it with the desire of helping out. I know I am upgrading the quality of the meals that will be served three times a day during the conference. The people have very limited resources and it is a way we can help make it a better conference.
This year the meeting is at Rio Concepción where they have better facilities. I spend another $200 on food, mostly rice, lots of gallon cans of vegetables and some common dry goods like 60 packs of pre-sweetened cool aid and 50 pounds of sugar (Panamanians think you have to add some sugar at least to the cool aid). The cost at this point has now reached $370.00
I have been advised that a generator has been donated to Brother Roderick de Gracia, the missionary in charge of the work in Río Concepción. That is delivered to my house and forwarded to the boat site. I arranged to have Roderick take 35 gallons of gas as he was in from the coast just days prior to the conference, which adds another 90 dollars to the trip. We now have invested $460.00.
I have also been busy trying to motivate some mechanics to finish the work on a boat motor owned by brother Vasquez, the missionary in Belen. It has been in the shop for months due to problems locating necessary parts. I have to go on a scavenger hunt for some other bearings so the motor can be finished. Add another $61.00 to our expense list. Total investment at this point is $521.00.
Our schedule always uses Monday as final preparation day, getting everyone ready to leave early Tuesday morning. This day we must deliver all remaining supplies, send our personal items and buy our gasoline and oil and have it loaded in the boat gas tanks. Because the motor is ready we will have to make two trips today. After the second trip, some of our team go buy the gas and oil. Another $300 is invested in this adventure. I can not leave with the second delivery trip so I send the team ahead as I finish up certain things at home. We are now at $821.00 spent.
I leave home about 9:30 in the evening. I will go by taxi – bus – taxi in order to get to the boat site. The cost for transportation will cost another 8 dollars to bring our investment to $829.00.
Tuesday is departure day and we understand expenses will be minimal from this point on. We are delayed some because the coastal missionary wants us to bring ice. We arrived too late last night to buy ice so we head for town as soon as possible Tuesday morning. This is an exercise in futility as traffic problems exist, causing us to cancel the idea. I do have a cooler full of plastic bottles full of frozen water, we will have some ice, at least for a few days. Because I have extra people to take with us, which always happens when others hear the news of our travel plans, we have to make two trips to the boat launch ramp.
The first includes a couple of people, the extra motor and the spare 33 gallon tank of gasoline. We have delayed our departure as well because one man has not shown up. I pay one man for helping our team get ready. He invested a good part of his day yesterday so I give him $10.00 as a token of my appreciation. We now stand at $839.00.
After dealing with the delays, we hitch the boat and head out as soon as possible. In a few minutes we are delayed because the swing bridge at the Panama Canal locks is retracted because of ship activity. It turns out to be a long wait. I end up buying everyone some snacks and drinks. Add another $7.00 to our list of expenses which brings us to $846.00.
We finally get our boat in the water, start the engines and head down stream, anxious to reach our goal of being in the ocean. We are in salt water by 10:10, which is somewhat behind schedule. We arrive at Río Concepción in about five hours, which is considered a very good travel time. Sea conditions have been very good throughout the trip. Brother Fernando, one of the men coming to preach, has the opportunity to see some porpoises and turtles on this trip (probably a first for him). After arriving, we find out the river mouth was in very poor condition over the week end and only started changing Monday afternoon. We consider that God's hand of protection.
One of my “unscheduled passengers” has been driving and will guide the boat t through the river mouth. This is always a challenge since the river mouth configuration is always changing and is now very shallow. He ends up going outside the channel, as announced by the motors doing some strange vibrations and bouncing as the propellers hit bottom. It turns out both propellers are completely destroyed. From experience I know it will cost $60 to reconstruct them. Our expedition cost now stands at $906.00
The church people have been anticipating our arrival. Lunch is ready and we eat before long (it is early afternoon). The rest of the afternoon allows us time to rest and plan for the evangelistic service in the evening. We are not near as sun burned as wind burned, but our skin does need some TLC. All are physically drained because of the trip and the long hours of Monday's prep activities.
As the time for the service approaches, some men of the church are working to get the generator functioning. It is located a couple of hundred yards away, at the bottom of the hill and in route to the pastor's house.
It is summertime weather here and is the first time we have been here without major threats of rain. There has been minimal rain, which partially explains the river mouth conditions we had to deal with when we arrived. Unlike most summer time conditions, the breeze has been almost non existent, which gives us a special pastime: sweating.
Because the church is located on a hill and because rain has been minimal of late, the gravity flow water system is not creating enough water pressure to deliver running water to the church facility. All water is being carried in five gallon containers and that is a very common activity thought the day ... everyday of the conference. Because they are feeding some 150 or so at most meal times, they are using a lot of water.
The evening service is well attended considering most people have not arrived that are coming from distant locations. The seminar will have people from six communities before we finish. I am estimating we have a little over 100 for the evening service but there could be more than I estimate. Brother Fernando, a man starting a new church in our area of Panama City, is preaching this evening as one of the invited special speakers. He is from the same sending church as the two missionaries working on the northern coast.
We have a strategy for the morning teaching. Fernando will teach on Missions, brother Chavez will teach on the Holy Spirit and I will teach on the Charismatic movement and it's errors. The evening services have programmed one preaching and one testimony time. Our teaching team will be giving a testimony each night. The idea is to give the new Christians from the local area an idea of our spiritual history which serves as an introductory presentation for the special speakers. In the morning seminars they have decided to include testimonies of some of the faithful men in the local churches. Two of which would confirm God's call on them to be in full time service.
The first to give a testimony was Elí. My mind raced back to the medical clinic where our team was instrumental in saving his life, supplying the gas (60 gallons) so he could be rushed to a hospital (which required 60 gallons of gasoline). Later Eli would be saved and last year he surrendered to full time service. He was a member of the evangelistic team that worked in our medical clinic last year and has had a burden for the town of Cusapin ever since. He is preparing for full time service under his missionary pastor, Roderick de Gracia.
During this conference, I have noticed that the general focus has changed since our first seminars. In the beginning the meetings were highly evangelistic, but now they are more discipleship training or doctrinal instruction. So far the two missionaries in this area have started five churches, which have a good base at this time. These churches are now penetrating new areas with evangelistic efforts, but not all areas where evangelistic activity has taken place are represented in this meeting.
This year, afternoons are free. Sports activities are taking place and I notice that the two missionaries are active in these activities rubbing shoulders with those who have been and are disciples at this time. Tuesday afternoon a number of men cut the grass with machetes in order to make the volley ball court ready, uneven as it was.
Every morning there is a prayer meeting at 6:30am. Wednesday we had men's prayer meeting, Thursday was a ladies prayer meeting and Friday would be a general invitation to all. We had about 20 men and older teens in the men's prayer meeting on Wednesday. Is your church ready for 6:30am prayer services?
Thursday morning services have been modified with some local men giving testimonies. Some took a lot more time than they should have and Oscar lost his teaching time slot because they insisted on stopping at noon today. There was a secret plan in place to celebrate my birthday which had already past some ten days ago.
For the first time in my life we celebrated my birthday with a piñata. Ladies from the church in Belen made a simple cake with no icing and the missionary wife, Anayansi, made the piñata. Everybody enjoyed the special time. I was humbled by their desire to honor me in this fashion. It was a special blessing to me.
Thursday afternoon I had a mechanic inspect the motors because one was constantly dying when in the idle mode. He also changed the propellers as I usually carry a spare set. I gave him $10 for helping me out. I did not feel like doing a lot because he was driving the boat, running it into shallow water when the propellers were damaged. Our cost for this trip is now $916.00
Since we brought sufficient gasoline for our return I am giving the 35 gallons of gasoline that Roderick brought and needed oil to the church in Rio Concepción. They are making plans to go back to Cusapin (members of this church made up our evangelistic team, during our medical clinic in 2003)in order to have another evangelistic effort and I want to encourage them. This church was a major element in our evangelistic team when we did the medical clinic there in 2003. I have also offered my boat since it would be a lot more economical than the church’s heavy cayuco. We will make plans to do that in the next day or so … if the conditions are favorable … and …. if we can get an alternative transportation back to Colon where we will have to get my vehicle.
Thursday evening services bring us a record attendance – 181. The church was able to remodel in time for this conference. Panama churches provided the new materials and the men of the church provided the labor. The men decided to add a second story to the building since they had to replace a good number of rafters in the process. The new building will have a dormitory over the platform area, the middle will be open area and the last section will provide a balcony. That balcony was used on Thursday evening, I believe for the first time. Older young people and men used it since the guard rail does not exist as yet.
Friday morning we are off to a slow start. The local people have worked hard to provide meals and they have done a tremendous job in the kitchen, considering the facilities only include country stoves: Three rocks to set big pots on. These pots are about 40 inches in diameter and hold 20 gallons or more of the food varieties being served. They even use these pots to make bread … a special challenge we will not go into at this time. The local cooks know the thermometer control system well. Fire wood is inserted from any angle possible and the more wood the higher the heat. When it is time to have things stay on simmer, they just extract a number of the pieces of fire wood. Simple enough.
The dining facilities are rather limited. The men have extended some tarps out from the kitchen area and call it a dining facility. There are no tables, just backless benches relocated from the sanctuary. Some people eat standing under the tarp, some stand around the church grounds and some go inside the sanctuary.
Because men giving testimonies took Oscar’s time in yesterday's morning session, I managed to finish my lessons in two sessions (plus a little overtime). Oscar was given two hours this morning and he will use the evening service to finalize his challenge within the scope of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit.
After the morning service there will be a baptismal service. There always is one on the Friday schedule. This one turns out to be a little surprising to me as I am asked to do the baptisms at the last minute. I baptize one from brother Roderick’s ministry … a man the church had prayed for a long time. Then I baptized two from Jorge’s ministry. These two were new converts from some evangelistic efforts in new areas in recent times. I would rather the local men do the baptizing but they wanted me to do it as a token of honor. We survived the experience despite the fact that the river was now had a muddy base and we sinking almost to our knees in the mud.
Some people had to leave in the afternoon. These were pocket groups from smaller communities. Many of these people are here for the first time. Some who stayed ended up playing volleyball again.
Before the evening service gets started there is a problem with the wiring from the generator to the church facility. The wiring is piece-meal extensions of left over wiring from other projects, some of which is not capable of handling the load. Some coatings seem to have melted to some degree and the problem is not solved in time for the church service. We have church by flashlight and candlelight. This system limits the congregation from being able to read along when Bible references are utilized during the service. Brother Oscar deals with the situation well and does a good job bringing his block of instruction to a close with a personal challenge to the people to be submitted and controlled by the Holy Spirit.
Before the service is completely finished I have to go to to the house and find something to snack on as my sugar is dropping. I hear the church people honoring those who came to teach. We all go home with special remembrances from the people. It was a heart touching gesture.
All of the details were worked out in the afternoon concerning our trip home and our being able to leave my boat in the area. I will leave the boat in Belen because we have a covered shelter for it there. We move as much gasoline from my boat for the trip to Colon. I will supply the gasoline for that trip and I figure I will have to buy some gas when we get to Colon. The guys taking us should have been willing to pay for some of the gas since they were incorporating a supply run. They did not offer and I did not press the issue.
We leave early but not in the rushed mode. We stop at Rio Veraguas so Fernando can see the church facility there. It is a church closer to Belen than Concepción. After Fernando gets to see the building there and is able to get a sense of the town, we move on to Belen. There we take care of my boat and take care of the other things that must be stored, things like gas tanks and life jackets. Fernando gets to see the church in Belen and I show him part of the town. I wanted to show him the closed Ministry of Health facility that I would like to get permission to use for an ACE Christian school seventh grade and up. Before long we are ready to go and the trip to Colon goes smooth. Not much rain, not much sunshine, although there was enough to turn you red after five hours of travel on the ocean.
When we arrive I have to go get our vehicle. It cost 6 dollars for a taxi … a rip off. Now we are at $922.00. I give Jorge $30 for gas to make his return trip, so now we are at $952 for this trip.
Once Jorge gets his errands done with my car we can leave. I buy the guys something to eat at McDonalds on the way home. Now we are very close to $960.00 as the cost of this trip. Gas home requires another $10.00 So we have a new price tag of $970.00 and that probably has left a few minor expenses out that I did not remember at the time.
This record is an expense outside the normal ministry that takes place. I just thought it would be good to offer some perspective on the cost of ministry. I think there are a good number of pastors and laymen that do not understand just how much money it takes to actually do ministry in this kind of setting. Pray for our missionary families on the coast – The Vasquez family and the De Gracia family. Their expenses go far beyond the average ministry expense for those who work in the city. If you would like to support some national missionaries, working as missionaries, I would recommend both for support.
I guess it all boils down to perspective. We can call it expenses, or we can call it an investment in the souls of men. I am just reporting, you decide.