Ngs' Update

It's almost time

2006-06-14T00:04:00.000-04:00

When we mentioned the rain in our last update, we hadn’t yet seen what the rainy season in Panama is really like. Lightning is so close and bright that it seems like it’s right in front of the window and deafening thunder wakes us up in the middle of the night. Rain comes down not merely in big drops but like a waterfall. The roads turn into swiftly running rivers in minutes. From the rain, we realised at least two things: First, the drainage system here is very efficient, with huge outlets for the water to run underground, so flooding goes away pretty quickly Second, four-wheel-drive cars are popular in Panama because those cars can get through deep floods. It rains almost every day but no one can predict when it will rain. It can be sunny with blue skies the whole morning and suddenly a huge dark cloud turns the day into “night” with thunder and rain. Once in a while we are uplifted by the sight of a rainbow reminding us of God’s love.

Mother’s day in Panama is not celebrated until December but, nevertheless, Christina gave a sermon on “Love your children in God’s way” on North American Mother’s Day. That meant that Peter had to teach the children’s class. Praise the Lord for the lovely children and the opportunity to tell them Bible stories and talk to them about God’s love while they are young.

For the past months, things have been progressing steadily with the church. New faces show up now and some old ones disappear and return for various reasons. Praise the Lord that all those missing faces are only gone for a short time.

Brothers and sisters have by now opened up to us more, so we can walk with them through tough times. We can hold hands and pray to seek God’s plan together. We don’t have solutions. We only have the name of Jesus that can enable them to get up and walk. When they fix their eyes upon the Lord, they can find meaning amidst the unbearable circumstances and that gives them strength to get up and walk.

Soon it will be the time for us to leave Panama. It is not easy to say farewell. We hang on to the strong belief that the Lord loves them much more than we can and He is their shepherd. We will be back in Toronto on June 26. We praise the Lord for our opportunity to join a short term mission team from a Vancouver Mennonite Church to go to Lima, Peru. We will be leaving for Lima on July 3 and will stay there for three weeks. Please pray for protection, health, guidance from above, and that everything will be according to His will and bring glory to His name. Pray that the mission team, the local missionaries, the churches and prayer partners will experience the blessing of serving. Most of all, pray for our kinsmen in Lima that they will open their hearts to the Gospel.

This is our last update on our ministry in Panama. We thank you for your prayers, caring thoughts and encouragement.

Recent Events

2006-04-27T11:09:00.000-04:00

As it normally does, the 8-month rainy season came in April this year. For two weeks we have seen very little of the sun and it rains each afternoon, ranging from drizzle to downpour. Unfortunately, the temperature did not come down with the rain. As a result, the humidity makes the heat even more unpleasant. Even ants want to come out of their abodes more often and act as inspectors in the kitchen. We are able to find “invisible” bits of crumb where their parties are.
We thank the Lord for the timely visit of Uncle Ken and Bro. Kenny from our home church for their short-term mission experience from April 1 to 10. They were “heaven-sent” manpower to put the resource materials and children’s stuff in their proper order, to move appliances from one location to another, and of course to do lots of cleaning. When they joined us for visitation they experienced the power of prayer. Visiting the Panama Alliance Bible School affirmed Kenny’s intention to come back to Panama to be equipped. They also spent time with the kids for two Sundays. The younger children may be too young to appreciate the full meaning of the “wordless” book but older children responded, promising to be good boys and girls and wanting to invite Jesus to be their friend and to be a friend of Jesus themselves. Praise the Lord for the many blessings to all of us.
Our church also celebrated our first anniversary during their visit. They presented their testimonies, which was a blessing to the congregation.

Over the Easter weekend we had the annual Panama Chinese Churches Retreat on the theme of “Be a disciple to the Lord”. The attendance from our church was an overwhelming number of more than 30 adults – more than our regular Sunday attendees. When the speaker issued a call for response, three brothers and sisters from our church dedicated to live for the Lord.

Now with the new adjacent unit, we are thankful for the extra space where children can do various activities in groups. The teens can even play games after Bible sessions. They can play table tennis in the new unit while lunch is being set up in the other unit. Air conditioning is working nicely now, but we are still waiting for the telephone connection. Let’s hope that it will be ready soon.

Moving in

2006-04-03T23:00:00.000-04:00

We have just passed the half way mark of our stay in Panama. In order to get a visa for another 90 days, we took a trip to Colombia for a 3-day vacation . We did not venture outside the chain of hotel complex so we really got some rest. We thank our Lord for this wonderful “bonus”.
With the church moving into the new unit, we had to arrange to hook up different utilities. The procedures were totally annoying by North American standards. Thousands of documents were required and we had to go and line up many many times. At this point, we are still waiting for electricity and telephone to be connected.

Basically we have already moved into the new unit even without air conditioning. We are in the process of putting things back into their proper places. Last Sunday, we had our first children’s worship and adult Sunday school in the new unit.
A team of two short term missionaries arrived here last Saturday and will be staying in Panama for 10 days. They came just in time to help with getting the new unit ready for use. They will also be involved in various ministries while they are here. Pray for their adjustment to the hot weather and also that they will experience God’s love while serving in Panama.

Carnival of PANAMA

2006-02-28T19:52:00.000-05:00

Our son Alvin came on Feb 18 and left for Toronto yesterday with Christina’s mom. We all enjoyed our short time together. The highlight was on Monday when we had lunch at the Panama Canal restaurant, watching huge cargo ships navigating through the locks. We couldn’t help but marvel at such an achievement and felt respect for the many lives that were sacrificed during the original construction of the canal.

Feb 20, 2006 was a memorable day for Panama Chinese Baptist Church because God gave her “the Land”. We accompanied the chairman of the church committee to sign the contract for the purchase of two adjacent units (unit #30 and unit #31) to be used as the place of worship and for children’s activities, as well as for offices. The next step will be renovation and the actual move. Please pray that throughout the entire process God’s name will be glorified and His people will be built up. May the Lord’s blessing be upon those who have and will be supporting the project. To them, the church expresses its gratitude.

For the English Class, a total of 16 participants came at various times. Two are from outside the church. We will now be running a 2-hour class on Sundays to accommodate those who have committed to attend regularly.

Feb 28 is the last day of the Carnival here in Panama. Streets have been blocked off for five days in anticipation for the parade for the Queen of the Carnival and her Court. The festival is supposed to start on the Friday before Ash Wednesday (this year it is March 1). On Wednesday morning, people will bury a sardine in the sand signifying the burial of their worldly pleasure and go into the period of Lent. We did not join the carnival crowd, but it is interesting to know that people are thinking about Lent and remembering their sin against God. It is a good tradition. Let us pray for the mercy of the Lord to fall upon those who seek Him.

Church as a Family

2006-02-05T23:31:00.000-05:00

Attendance for a Sunday service in the Panama Chinese Baptist Church here is around 24 adults. The figure does not fluctuate much from week to week. Also, there are practically the same number of children attending as well. The reason for this is that there aren’t too many single adults - Sunday worship is a family affair.

Every Sunday, we start the morning with a prayer session at 9:15 followed by the worship service at 10:00. Children have their own Sunday learning time when adults are in their service. Children are divided into two groups by age. Christina looks after the younger group while Armilcar Fernandez, the son of a local pastor, is helping with the teens. After the service, the adults go to their Sunday schools and the kids have their play/discussion time which lasts until 12:30 when everybody has lunch together. Eating around the tables gives us a one-hour fellowship time. Kids play ping pong as soon as they have finished eating and some adults will stay on, chatting a little longer.

We had a Chinese New Year celebration last Sunday. It was a lot of fun as brothers and sisters joined in for a couple of games. One picture here shows the kids lining up to participate and the other is a banana eating race. Afterwards, we were all treated to some traditional Chinese eats.

Starting from today we have added an English class every Sunday and Thursday from 2:30 to 4:00. Today was the first attempt and attendance was not good. It might be due to the heat in the afternoon and people getting tired after service and Sunday school. We will see whether we need to change the class time after the first week.

Christina’s mom came with us on Jan 5. She has been enjoying it so far but she feels tired easily as the heat gets to her. Our son Alvin will be here Feb 18. He will bring grandma back to Toronto as they leave on Feb 27.
Bye for now. More news in 2 weeks.

Settling In

2006-01-17T18:29:00.000-05:00

Jan 16, 2006

The dry season has just started but it is still very sticky here in Panama. The temperature is 32 degrees C every day. Peter just loves the “sauna” while Christina keeps turning on the fan. Driving is a bit easier and not as crazy as in Lima. However, finding the way when maps do not seem too helpful is still a challenge at this moment.

Paul and Grace have left for Toronto for their furlough so we have to pick up from where they left off. They have also arranged someone to help with the youth group (about 10-14) every Sunday so that Christina can focus on the other 10-14 younger ones. Praise our faithful Lord. For adult Sunday School, it was an amazing 92% attendance! With 26 in the Sunday worship, 24 stayed for Sunday school. It must be some kind of a record at least from our experience. One class is on basic truth and the other hopefully will be able to complete the Old Testament survey.

When we were here 15 months ago in Oct. 2004, we loved the tasty “small eyed fish”. So we did not waste any time before feasting on them again and ....they still taste goooood. Pineapple is another favorite of ours except that Christina has to ration her portion.

Bye for now. To be continued in 2 weeks!

Panama Bound

2006-01-02T22:51:00.000-05:00

Jan 01, 2006

Yes, we are ready after having left Lima for 4 months. We are heading for Panama City on Jan 5, leaving the freezer and going right into the oven. We will be there for 6 months and will be involved with the development of the Panama Chinese Baptist Church from January to June, 2006 in the District of El Dorado.

Unlike the past 7 years, this time we are with CBM, the Canadian Baptist Ministries with their head office in Mississauga, Ontario.

We need your prayers as we head for our new ministry. We will be using this blog to deliver our updates from time to time. Please stay tuned.