Over the last few days, we’ve been praying specifically for provision for a couple of things. 

• International Airfare for our Mission in Venezuela
• Praying for a Car
• Language Comprehension (Spanish Lessons In Panama)
• And a small group.

Today as I sit in the airport, leaving to teach a conference in Florida for pastors, we want to report on some blessings.

• Bank error in our favor, collect $2700. 
• The offer of provision for our family’s airfare to VZ.
• An invitation to a small group, we can walk there and our kids are welcome.
• Two more churches have added our ministry to their monthly mission gifts.

We’ve seen other evidences of God’s hand of care and concern.

• HP will repair my out of warranty laptop for free.
• Free lodging while in Tampa FL.
• A cell phone that fell in the toilet continued to function.
• We thought our fridge motor had burned out — it was no longer cooling.  We unplugged it, pleaded with God for mercy and replugged it in.  It functioned.  Thankfully, the food didn’t spoil either.
• My faulty laptop wireless card worked yesterday when it was needed.
• Continued safety as we travel.

We give thanks to God for His blessings.  Living on the edge by faith is a razor edge away from failure.  Yet often, we see God’s provision and sustenance.

Our invitation to come and work in Panama was initially to work along side an existing ministry and plug into their active teaching network.

However that has fallen by the wayside and we are required to build our own network of contacts.

Over these next few months, we will be aggressively networking ourselves here to make more people aware of our presence in Panama and in Latin America in general. 

Email and social network sites haven’t quite caught on with overworked pastors, so the best way to get in front of pastors is to start meeting with denominational leaders and personally visiting pastors.

Thus the goal is a face to face meeting with pastors.

Basic networking challenges.

The challenges here to networking are very clear.  These are just observations and not complaints.

1.  Transportation. 

First off, we rely on Public Bus Transportation in Panama, and as such, the inefficiency of public transportation makes it difficult to get to places on time and at hours that are workable. 

For example, it took 4.5 hours of transportation — waiting for bus connections and traffic to attend a 45 minute meeting.

2.  Different understanding of time. 

Last week, on two occasions, my appointments canceled on me after I made the effort to get to the meeting point.  Of the first two, one called and apologized.  The second didn’t show up at all.  The third appointment showed up an hour late and never apologized for it.  This different understanding and treatment of time require us to be flexible.

3.  Travel schedules. 

I’m wanting to meet with one denominational supervisor but he has been out of the country (he oversees 17 countries) that it’ll be mid October before connecting with him.

4.  My language abilities. 

I’m still learning and growing in my ability to speak the language, so conversations still feel clumsy.

5.  Telephones

It doesn’t appear that telephone conversations are as common as they are in the US.  Most cell phone minutes are expensive, and thus calls are really short.  I don’t see people spending 60 minutes or more on their phone like I see in the US to make idle chit-chat and connections.  I also have a real hard time understanding what is said to me on a telephone with the background noise.

How to Pray for Us

Be in prayer for our networking contacts.  We must get out and meet and greet.  To do that we have to overcome some of the obstacles that are in front of us. 

Would you join us in Praying for a car?