Overflowing in Gratitude

Our prayers for provision of a car for the ministry over the last 2.5 years are answered.

We have been praying for a car to help us accomplish our ministry goals here in Panama.  This will make churches and pastors much more accessible to us and make it easier to respond to the invitations we receive.

Oops, that didn’t work

We were a little naive in thinking that we could use public transportation to accomplish all we needed to do.

After a few months, we discovered that the lack of available transport cost us ministry opportunities that

• were inaccessible by public transportation
• couldn’t cover a weekend car rental

We also had problems networking with pastors because public transportation was inadequate.

I couldn’t get to those pastors, and they couldn’t get to me.  Taxis would refuse to take us places cross town during peak hours, if we could find an available taxi.

Often, after making the effort to get to the meeting point by bus or taxi, the other party simply didn’t show up, often because of their own transportation issues.

There was a surprise and embarrassment factor as people assumed that we had a car — simply because we were foreigners.  For example, one pastor was embarrassed that I took a bus after leaving his church.   Another person was simply shocked when I said “I’ll take a bus home.”

Finally, it was just the plain inefficiency:

• 2 hours to make a 20-30 minute one-way trip.
• Leave 1.5 hours early to attend a meeting and hope it wasn’t cancelled.
• Once, it took me 5 hours RT to attend a 30 minute meeting.
• We didn’t let our kids participate in evening school events because we couldn’t transport them.

Growing the reach of our ministry

This car will help us expand our reach!

We’ll be able to get to conferences and workshops in the interior of the country.

We’ve got about 10-15 churches to start with that have asked us to come, but we’ve been unable to get there.

We thank God for this generous provision through His people.

Give thanks with us that this car is fully paid for, and the first year’s insurance premium has been paid in full.