Dear family,
One of the privileges I have when I go to Latin America is the opportunity to visit and preach at different congregations. Valle Verde represented one of those time this past Wednesday night.
This congregation got started a few years back and for the most has progressed with only help from within Panama. It is not the first of it’s kind being a purely native work, but it is one that represents more and more of here in Panama.
The current work going on here in Panama by the Forrest Park church of Christ goes back to when Bob Bryson was a preacher here in the early 60′s. Bob had started the modern day work in April of 1958. By the time he came to Valdosta and Forrest Park, he had already been doing mission work for 4 or 5 years as an itinerant missionary.
Valle Verde represents one of over 200 congregations that now exist due to that humble beginning way back in 1958 when there were literally NO congregation among the native population of Panama.
The current preacher there is one who has not had any formal training in the school that has existed since 1963 although one of our current students goes out there every weekend and works with this church. The brother who preaches there also preaches at another humble place with less than what Valle Verde has. All of which has come about by sincere love of reaching lost souls with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
When Erasto de la Rosa (our student) and I left from the school we were told it would take about 30 to 45 minutes. Our arrival time was to be 6:00 pm. Erasto has never attended a Wednesday evening service since his arrival here in as a student in March. We were both surprised with the heavy grid lock we encountered as we tried to work our way out of town about 10 miles on the road that goes to Colon. To make matters worse, we were traveling in a tropical rain storm for the entire way. We arrive 45 minutes late. I thought we would come in to the meeting with only about 15 minutes left. But when we arrived they seemed only ready to get started and have me teach the class. I don’t think they reduced the number of songs they normally sing (we sang about 6 to 8 songs before and after the lesson) so it seemed there was no hurry to get up and leave.
I did a very basic lesson on the need of personal daily Bible study from Hebrews 5:11-14. I did keep it shorter than I normally would (I don’t want to hear any “funny” remarks from any of you who know me!) and afterwards they did their normal 3or 4 songs, a final announcement, and then a final prayer. They were very eager to stay afterwards and show me their building that was still under construction. They have put it together with their own hands with the help of some neighbor workers and another congregation or so in Panama. They still need a lot of help to complete the building, but they have a roof and 4 walls with light. They show me what they lacked and I assumed with the hope that I could somehow find some more help for them. I am attaching several pictures with this post so you can see what has been done and what is lacking.
Pray for this small struggling congregation that they may get the help they need. Then put some legs on your prayer to help.
Well that’s about it for now.
God bless.
Conducting the Wednesday evening class at Valle Verde
The Wednesday night crowd at the Valle Verde congregation
Unfinished construction of a bathroom in the church building at Valle Verde
Panama Jack
BSAM- Panama Staff working of the school term for 2011
The BSAM-Panama students taking one of 4 exams this past week in Panama.
Dear family,
Well, I have just completed a good week here in our preacher training school, The Bible School of the Americas. I had 9 students, 4 from our San Blas school, and 5 from our Panama City school.
All of these men are in their first year of our 2 year school. I have been teaching them the book of Romans. It is a great book, but as usual, not nearly enough time to cover all as I would like to see it done. There has been a total of 30 hours of instruction and testing for the past 5 days.
This makes the 5 time I have taught Romans in our school system. I have been quite excited about that.
I leave tomorrow morning from Panama and travel basically all day on my way to Lima, Peru. There we have 5 students and again will will begin an other 5 days worth of teaching again on the great book of Romans. We have 5 students there in Lima.
My final week of a 3 week trip will be completed by going to Medellin, Colombia where I will be teaching another 30 hour course, but this time on “Greek Words”!! This will be my first opportunity to teach this class, and since I am not a GREEK SCHOLAR, I’m a tad bit anxious about the class. I’m sure it will work itself out, but I’m not there yet.
While here in Panama, I got with the current staff for a meeting. We started our 2011 budget. This year of 2010 saw more cuts from planning last fall. We hope not to loose momentum that is going in our favor at the present. We have less students than 2009, so we don’t want to do that again this year. It looks good so far this year and we have have stopped dropping in all areas and are holding our own as it stands. We do need desperately to raise some more funds for 2010
I’ll will be puting some pictures on the page for you to see the students.
God bless.
Panama Jack
Dear Family
I am flying home from Panama (Aug 7th) after having made a quick 4 day trip to speak on our BSAM Lectureship. I had two topics that went with the topic team of “The Mature Church”. My first topic was “A Mature Church Uses the Talents of It Members” and the second was “How to Organize the Church from Its Current Status”. The conference covered two days starting at 8:30 each morning and went until 8:00 each evening. The attendance was good with participants from all the extremes of Panama.
The lectureship gives time with preachers from all over. It permits us time to visit and discuss the work all over Panama and gives us a perspective of how the church is doing in a lot of different areas. I enjoy getting to see men that I haven’t seen in some time and renew our acquaintance to find out how they and their families are doing. It also gives me a chance to discuss things with them that will enhance what we are doing in Panama.
There were various other needs that I was able to work with. The first one was to search for something to cut the grass on the property. We have a 10+ year old commercial mower that had seen it’s last days. We have 25 acres of land at our school, and there is grass on about ½ of it that needs to get mowed. It is a major job and while we had a commercial piece of equipment to do the job, it was small and took a lot of time. We are currently looking at a compact tractor with a “belly” mower attachment. Since any commercial mower will be between $8,000.00+ we feel that having a tractor will give us greater versatility since it would accept other attachments that will greatly aid us in maintenance of the property and not cost that much more. Besides that, a compact tractor will have a diesel engine which will be more rugged and last many more years than the machine we have had. We got a quote for such a machine in the States, but wanted to get a quote for one in Panama so we would not have to ship it. The Panamanian quote was about $5000.00 more than the US quote plus the US quote was for a tractor with a larger engine. Now we have to evaluate how we want to proceed. If we purchase it in the States it will cost about $12,000.00. We then can ship it to Panama on a container for about $4500. Since it will occupy less than half, we put other things on the container as well (clothing, literature, etc.)
Almost on every trip there are some items that need attending to that require my attention. Sometimes it is a conflict somewhere or with someone. This trip was no exception. While the conflict has not been finalized, I believe that things were put in order to bring it to an end.
Also, there are coordinating issues to be dealt with since in Panama we have two campuses there. I am hoping that when I teach the book of Romans in two weeks that I can do so with both Panama and San Blas. By so doing, I will get a chance to have a class with the students in San Blas for the first time this year.
We are also bringing in a new group of students to Panama in February of 2011. One of our teachers, Francisco Gonzalez, has as a secondary duty to coordinate our entire Satellite School system in all the countries. It is from those country Satellite coordinators that we find our students each year. I was able to obtain the applications of the entire group of prospects for the 2011 student body while there. We will be getting a new student from Venezuela where we have not had one for about 10 years.
Finally, it gives me a chance to mix with our staff and students in a different setting. I can tell you that all of them worked overtime to do such a great job for this lectureship. The beforehand preparations were evident and showed us that some of our guys have a great deal of talents.
Well that’s about it for now.
God bless.
Panama Jack
Dear Family,
I am currently returning from Medellin, Colombia where I have been teaching the books of Genesis and Exodus (July 3rd) . I must say that while the 30 hours was long I enjoyed every minute of it. the young man in class were eager and attentive, asking a lot of questions.
The school in Medellin has been in operation since 2000. The current class will graduate this December.
Fernando Ospina is the sub-director with Gustavo Vasquez as the other teacher. We have just changed secretaries. Alien Marin has been our secretary for several years, but has decided to go back to school and become a lawyer. she is very talented and will be missed. Fortunately we have her replacement from our former secretary who Alien replaced, Johanna Vasquez. Johanna comes fully prepared to pick up where Ailen left off. We welcome Johanna back.
Besides teaching, Fernando and I also interview the next prospective crop of students. At the present time we have 6 prospects who are eager to come to school for 2 years and prepare to preach the word of God. I look forward to the possibility of this new class.
The final major thing I was involved in is interviewing the prospective preacher for Lota, Chile.
God bless.
Panama Jack
Dear Family.
Well the last day went as expected – large crowds, and more people than we can ever serve. We did our best to help as many as possible.
We got all 10 houses sent out to the 10 families that needed house. One had been built on Wednesday, and another started today. There was not enough man power even with 10 men. We learned that there are more houses to be built with materials given by a foundation called “Techo por Chile” (A roof for Chile). There are other groups giving these emergency houses as well. We ran across many who had the house “kit”, but was waiting for someone to come and build it. The prefab walls were very heavy and required some man power to put up. They also required someone with a little knowledge of construction. Both of those are in short supply. They deliver the kit and stack it all up in one place, so you have to lift and move everything in order to start building.
I was interested in finding a place for the new congregation to meet. I met with Sergio Villa, our contact person here in Lota, and a long time member of the Lord’s church here in Lota/Corneal. In our discussion and calculating the cost it looked like to get something that was in a decent spot we would have to pay between $350 to $550 per month. Then Sergio remembered a lady with a house to rent near downtown. He call her and she still had it to rent. The price would be $150!!!! We went to her business. Her name is Carmen. We walked about 2 1/2 blocks from her business to where the house was located. It is a two story house that had not been lived in since the earthquake. It had a hole in the back wall of the house and some small damage in the kitchen and the front wall on the street. Other than that, it was in need of clearing out the trash and would serve as a meeting place down stairs and a living quarters up stairs. We made a deal, got the key, and made plans to occupy the building. I sent our construction crew to clean it up and fix up. We are excited about this great find.
Today, we had other baptisms today, and as a result we have 16 new Christians.
All in all it was a very good campaign once it got started. Now if we can get out of town, we’ll be happy. It seems that Concepcion has a restriction on vehicular travel. It depends on the last digit of the license plate. My rental care is ok, but our our pickup is not. We have to get special permission to go through Concepcion. We don’t know what it will take, but we will be working on it fast and furious this morning.
Keep us in your prayers.
God bless.
Panama Jack
Dear Family,
Today was the first day with all our STUFF. I can tell you that the arrival of the containers has put everything in high gear. We had a huge stack of clothing boxes in the compound area that was plainly visible to anyone who walked by. That plus the word of mouth that always plays a factor created for huge crowds. I always tell the teams I work that it takes a day or two for the community to “find us”. But, when they find us, we get tons of people and tons of pleas and cries for help for one thing or another. Wednesday was that sort of a day.
I am very happy with the team and everyone on it. They have stepped up and done a GREAT job. I am really proud of the way the benevolence team put their area together. They developed a plan and through the day were able to help over 750 FAMILIES!!!
I must tell you one event that David Garner and I experienced last night after service. A lady came to me and asked if I would help her. It seems that she gets off of work each day at 4:00. She came today at 4:00 and got in line only to be turned away when the line closed for the evening. She told me that her job would not let her off to come any other time. I asked David over since he has been in charge of the benevolence team. I asked him to let this lady in when she comes tomorrow afternoon and let her have some clothes. What happen next was humbling. This sweet lady literally began to sob with gratitude extended to her. David and I both had tears in our eyes as we tried to console this poor lady seeking help for her family.
I wish I could tell you all the stories that are coming out that the team is experiencing. It is a very humbling experience. I have been asked by MANY people of Lota as to HOW did we decide to come here. I described the events that led to the decision, but I have always concluded that it was the PROVIDENCE OF GOD. Our God is great and to Him be the GLORY AND HONOR. I truly feel gratified for the good we are doing here. It has been well worth all the trials we have gone through.
As usual, I have saved the best for last. During the day we were privileged to baptize 9 precious souls. Now we have had more baptisms in other places, but what I have been impressed with is that these folks submit to a baptistery full of COLD WATER. We were bundled up from head to toe last evening, yet two women climbed into that water and were baptized. Everyone there were impressed to the willingness for them to do so. One of our campaigners told me that a few weeks before their baptistery heater went out so they opted to take the person a ways away to use a “heated” one. His reflections on the events of these baptisms has caused him to think how spoiled we are back home!
The total baptisms to date is 12. I can tell you that I was not sure how these people would respond here in Chile. I know that the local church only has 30, and here the Lord has added 12 new ones. That means that there are 1/3 more new Christians now than it has taken to put together in this congregation that has existed since 1980, THIRTY YEARS AGO!
For all these blessings we are truly grateful.
This is the first baptism on Wednesday morning that led to 9 on this day.
The picture does not due justice about the temperature of the water. I can tell you that it is FREEZING COLD!
Well, that’s all for now. Please keep us in your prayers.
God bless.
Panama Jack
Dear Family,
In my last blog you will recall I mentioned we were anticipating receiving our containers in the night hours. I said then that I would believe it when I see the containers. Before I even got to the compound, Larry Ligon, who has been with me since day 1 and who has worked in Lota as I worked in Santiago, called me to tell me that the containers DID NOT arrive. It seems that the route they were taking required them to cross some bridge that would not allow them to cross because of their weight. Now one of the containers is nothing but cardboard boxes fulled with used clothing. It couldn’t get much lighter than that with any other cargo. So when the drivers encountered that bridge they turned around and headed back to the port. They turned off their cell phones so when we tried to contact them we could not. We were told that if they had left their cell phones on we could have advised them about another route. It was a longer route, but they could have made it without any problems with weight.
When I got to the compound, Larry had contact with the company. They agreed to the longer route and said that the containers would arrive about 3:30 pm. Well I thought then I wouldn’t hold my breath about that!
About 5:30 we received a call saying that they were at the entrance of Lota and need a guide to bring them in. We gladly sent our guides. BUT, the rest of the story was the containers were NOT going to stay, they had to be unloaded IMMEDIATELY! When the first container arrived about 30 minutes later, we began the massive job of unloading these 40 foot trailers. The first one was full of our building materials, literature, team equipment, and clothing. We got the last item off the truck about 7:30. Since the unloading as going through the place where we had our night time services, we were delayed until all the wood was off. Our men then took on the second container and allowed the native workers and our other community guests to begin the night time preaching. It was after 10:00 pm when we finally got the last container unloaded.
Well, we were told during the day that the local police or the military would be there in the night to guard all of our container items which was spread all over the compound. Before the containers was finally unloaded I was told that we HAD NO GUARDS! We coordinated with the local civic leaders and finally made arrangements for some of them to be our guards for tonight. As I write this blog on Wednesday morning I am praying that we still have our STUFF when we arrive this morning after all that has transpired to get it here.
The GREAT NEWS is, we had 3 baptisms yesterday!!!! This has excited us all to know that our labors have not been in vain. We now have new Christians to work with and build the Lord’s church here in Lota. WE EARNESTLY PLEAD FOR YOUR PRAYERS ON BEHALF OF THESE NEW SOULS. We have a preacher from Colombia that we invited here to come and look at the possibility of living here and working with the church. In order for him to do so, we MUST raise his support. He will return to Colombia when the campaign is over. Between today and tomorrow we must have a solution to this problem. He will need moving money (he has a wife and 1 child), plus a salary to rent a house and live and eat here. We have not determined what his salary will be. I can tell you this that he is a worker. The first baptism was one he taught. He has been in a constant study since the clinic began. He very likable and friendly.
Up to now we have seen about 350 people in the clinic in 1 1/2 days of work. We have had the people coming in a constant stream, but due to a lack of translators and lost of over 1 1/2 days we will not see the anticipated 2000 patients we intended to see.
We had a tremor during the day. I was in a radio station at the time. The guy working the radio broadcast interrupted the music he was playing to try and calm the people. The nerves of the population are frayed. One of our team members is a certified counselor and he is getting his cup full of patients.
The team is in good spirits. Today is the 3rd day with only one more left. The weather is cold at night, but mild during the day.
Well that’s about it for now. We have a lot more work to do today with the arrival of the container. We covet your prayers.
God bless.
Panama Jack
Dear Family
Well as I write this the first day is complete here in Lota, Chile. I feel good about today, but let me go back to the beginning.
I got up at 5:15 my normal time to do so. It was a short night. Breakfast was at 7:30 and all but 2 made it to the breakfast. The first challenge was that our bus that was suppose to pick us all up DIDN’T. Neither did it get our other group at the other hotel as well. Therefore, I walked the closest group to the work-site, and then began to shuttle the large group with the two vehicles we had. We were finally able to get our devo in by 10:00.
Various years ago, one of our campaigners called the first day a “well oiled train wreck”. It is a maddening ciaos and a wild thing to try and tame on the first day. Everyone has to find their place and what and when to coordinate all that was going on. Since we don’t have the containers yet we are without some items we need to start the campaign.
We have great support from the community. When we arrived, all the promised workers were present. The only hole in the help from the community was the morning bus service.
After a brief meeting with the individual team leaders, we got all our folks oriented to their work areas to begin. Since benevolence did not have the clothing to hand out, they began helping the clinic to get the meds labeled and ready to give out. We had people waiting to see the docs, expecting us to be up and running by 9:00 am. We actually did not begin to see patients until almost 12:00.
The construction group had few tools and no lumber to work with. The first order of business was to coordinate with the community leaders to see where there were houses to work on. That was a surprisingly simple task. Within minutes we found two houses almost across from the compound that need work. They were new “media-aguas” houses provide by national Chilean donations, so all the lumber was readily available. All we had to do is buy some nails, a hammer, and a couple of saws. The need for our construction team was so great that we have more projects to work on than people to do the work. It took a little time getting all things situated, but we were able to work on 4 houses. Two of them were completed, and the other two were begun today and will be from the ground up projects.
The cooks got things running in the kitchen fairly quickly. Again, the community had done what they said they would do. We had a relative clean place to work in, a stove to cook on, and helpers to work with us as promised. The only thing that was not available at first was the bread promised. We needed it for lunch, but it didn’t come until the afternoon. The cooks had to go out shopping right at the beginning to get bread and a few other things to have lunch ready. Since the clinic had barely gotten started by noon, a little later lunch was not a problem, but actually a blessing. We did rotate the clinic personnel so as to keep the line flowing.
The evangelism team was active from the outset. Some of the men we brought to help us were immediately involved in Bible studies. The team mostly stayed in the compound and worked due to lack of literature and translators. We lost two of our translators chasing the container problem. Also, most of our translators were tied up in trying to communicate sufficiently so as to get the clinic running. We had no lack of prospects to study with, but had a lack of means to communicate with the teachers. That will be resolved today when our two other translators get into the mix of things. If there is one area where the anticipated help from the local church and the local community did not come about as promised, it is the need for translators. That is largely due to so few prospects.
Now, concerning the containers. There is not enough space and I don’t have enough time to try and describe the negotiations on this pesky problem. Needless to say, we had 3 guys chasing that goal all day long. By nightfall the negotiations proved effective with the anticipated delivery of the two containers in the middle of the night. As I write this blog this morning I am anticipating to have both containers parked by the compound ready for use when we get there. I guess I must have a little Missouri blood in me – you know, SHOW ME! I want to see those containers before I rejoice and say that the job is done. I have hope that it will be so since the communications I had yesterday were the most positive since this whole mess started.
Well, that about all for now. Everyone seems to be in good spirits and working harmoniously together. The days are sunny, and the nights cold, but the spirits are high. For all we give thanks to God who makes all thing possible.
Be sure and check out my QIK video on the right side of my blog page concerning SPAM!
Please continue your prayers on behalf the this work.
God bless.
Panama Jack
Dear Family,
It is both hectic and at the same time showing signs of things coming together. Let me explain.
Just before the campaign begins, there are a lot of little thing that must be attended to. That’s especially true if there have been some major snags such as we had with a holiday suddenly stealing away time that was counted on to complete things on a set timetable. It is also a major snag when the medicine is 3 times more expensive than expected. So now, as we tried to find work-arounds for those snags, some things got put off which are now needed to be completed before the team gets here. That leaves us to work and scramble to try to do those things today and tomorrow. The phone is ringing and quick decisions must be made.
What has occurred is that Friday night a huge storm covered Atlanta and make flying impossible due to the weather conditions. When it was all said and done, 4 flights had been canceled and those 4 groups missed the Friday night flight. We had 22 on the Delta flight the next morning meaning that clearly 1/2 of our crew is stuck in the U.S.
When the first group arrived the decision had been made to hold this first group together in Santiago and wait for the rest to catch up and go to LOTA on Sunday morning. After getting 13 hotel rooms we settled in for a catch up day (sleep that is) for the all night ride our campaigners had just experenced.
Well there was no rest for some of us. It also afforded time to do some tasks that had not gotten done, especially pertaining to the cooks necessities. So we spent most of the afternoon buying more supplies.
Well, tonight we are waiting to hear about the departure of the flight containing the rest of our crew. We have already learned that one campaigner had to bail out due to an immediate death in the family.
I started this blog 2 days ago. It is now Sunday morning. Now to resume “the great adventure” that is unfolding. Here is the latest: I received this text message from Erin Crisp, a PA for the team, about 1:23 am this morning: “Jack, part on plane broken. Stopped in Orlando for repairs. Staying on-board. Will take off again when it’s fixed. Flight is greatly delayed”.
I am able, by the internet, to track this flight as I have several others for this trip. On my tracker, it said that they left Orlando at 2:17 am and are continuing the flight (with the part fixed). They are scheduled to arrive in Santiago between 10:45 to 11:45 (I have 2 trackers and they list arrival time differently). That puts us about 4 hours behind schedule.
We are rested here in Santiago. I am concerned for those flying. One particular group from Nashville had a difficult time finding a hotel last night, so I know they got to bed late last night (they did have the full day yesterday to rest before leaving at 10:23 last night), but when you lose sleep it takes some time to recover what was lost. So when they get here, not having sleep well on this delayed flight, they will have 7 more hours of travel on a bus, and arrive late. They will need to eat since they won’t have gotten much on the flight down. That will delay us even more. Then when we get to Lota, we will need to unload, have supper and have a worship service before hitting the sack for tonight. That’s a lot to ask of them on the front end of our trip.
Well, the adventure continues, and we’ll see what next is in store. I know that our Father is keenly aware of all that is transpiring and that he will not give us more than we can handle.
BY ALL MEANS, KEEP US IN YOUR PRAYERS!!!
God bless,
Panama Jack
Dear Family,
Yesterday was a pivotal day. With only 5 days left before the team arrives, we had some major challenges in front of us. One of the “biggies” was medicine. We found out last week that the proposed meds we wanted would be 3 times our budget, something we can not tolerate. Just as we were moving to consider another alternative, we were hit with a major 3 day holiday weekend. As in almost every culture, the day before a holiday trying to get things done with governmental offices is near impossible. It’s like an old TV serial back in the 50′s – a major crises hits our hero and he is left hanging until the next “exciting episode”. The suspense was of such to get the audience to come back next week and watch how the hero solves his crises.
Now everyone knows what “Mondays” are like. The Monday after a holiday is doubly complicated. Everyone has to get back to work mode from holiday mode. If the weekend went well, people hate to stop having fun and go back to the grind. If it went bad,…. well that’s another thing as one returns back and is confronted with those who had a great weekend. Needless to say not much work gets done.
One person told me yesterday that our crisis could not have happened at a worse time with the holiday weekend. Duh!!
So we found about about the high cost of medicines. Then we found a solution, but the solution was not confirmed. We were told that the health department in the 8th region was just sent sent a ton of meds, and there would be extra. We were directed to the Dr in charge to get meds from her. Fat chance before that weekend. So here we are Monday waiting news from the Doc. She tells our man Sergio that she will NOT help us and more than that that our doctors are here illegal and can NOT WORK! Well I had already seen our permission to work, except it was for the wrong place. All we are waiting on to work is the corrected location. Therefore the Doc is NOT informed.
Well a meeting was set up with her at 3:00 pm yesterday, and while in that meeting I was call to speak with her. We worked out a solution, but we will not get any medicine. I’m not sure why but now we have to go to our backup plan where we can buy the “bare necessities” to make the team work.
I got on Skype last night with our pharmacist Van Swaim and our buyer, Gene Alley. When it was through we know what we wanted, and Gene went to work working until 1:30 am this morning on getting me a buy list. So this morning when I got up, the order was waiting for me. I have sent both companies who were giving us prices to see if they can fill our order. Trying to get those med by Friday will be a challenge. I expect that we will be short somehow.
Well, that about it for now. Keep us in your prayers as we continue to labor on.
God bless.
Panama Jack
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