Okay, so about that whole updating more often thing, I'm sorry. I will make no more rash suggestions about updating more than once a month...

Anyway, we're still on the outreach phase although we get today and tomorrow off for Thanksgiving. Today we're having a feast here at the YWAM base in Chilibre (75 lbs. of Turkey...no joke), and tomorrow is just a free day. I'll probably do laundry and call my family like I promised.

Today I had a bit of an interesting interaction. While everyone was in the kitchen getting ready for the feast, I found this guy sitting outside. I recognized him from before we went on Outreach. He had been on base, asking the base director, Richard, for some help. Richard had us pray for him and then told us this guy's story.

His name is Eides, and he lives here in Panama. He's got AIDS, and was led to Christ a few years ago by a YWAMer. He met a woman in an AIDS home and they asked if it would be okay if they got married. Apparently this woman really wanted to get married before she died. Since no one saw a problem with this, they went ahead and got marriage counseling. The counseling was a sort of joint effort between Richard--a YWAM missionary--and a Catholic priest that Eides knew. Definitely a fresh alliance. So anyway they got married.

However, Eides' wife's AIDS was much further along than his own. She died a month after the wedding. As you can imagine he was crushed and his condition continued to worsen. If I wrote it down right in my notebook, it was only a month later that he was heading up to Costa Rica for some special treatment. On his way he stopped at the YWAM base and that's where we prayed for him.

I was intrigued as Richard told us Eides' story so I wrote it down in my notebook. I finished with "I may never know the end of the story." So it was sort of ironic that I saw this guy sitting on the YWAM base again. We chatted a bit in Spanish--so I didn't understand everything--but I got that he needed some money for treatment. He said something about having water in his brain, so I'm not sure what that means. Maybe my dad knows. But he said that the treatment costs $12 and he's got $5 already.

I wasn't exactly sure what to do. Part of me wanted to give him the money straight up, but I waited for Richard the base director to arrive. When he did I told him what was on my heart and, he said it'd be a good idea. I was going to just give him $7 for the treatment, but then I was like, you know what, I want to give him a $20 bill.

So I did and he said thanks. He said he would bring back a big rooster from his house for the base to have at the end of December. I said I would already be gone by then, but thanks anyway. It turned out he was also in need of a jacket, and we had an extra one that was left in the guys' dorm. So I gave him that, too. Then he left, and once again I'm thinking that I'll probably never know the end of the story.

That's kind of how life is, though. Everyone's got a story. And on earth they all intermingle, playing off of each other, affecting each other.

Hopefully this is encouraging to whoever reads it. I know that when I read stories about people giving away money I usually feel guilty. Don't feel guilty. I didn't give the money out of guilt. It's not like God guilted me into it. I don't think he likes to do that...ever. I think the reason is more that I feel very blessed. I have a lot that I've never done anything to deserve--especially when you start talking about physical and mental health, a good family and all that. So when I saw Eides in need it was just like "Freely you have been given, freely give."

And it felt really good. I think the best part about being blessed is when you get to bless others.

So yeah, that was one cool thing that happened today.

Since the last blog we've been to a few places in Panama, as you may have guessed. First we stayed in a gymnasium in Boquete, which is a beautiful town. It's refreshingly cool there, unlike most of Panama. In Boquete we shoveled mud from recent mudslides out of ditches on the side of the road. It was nice to do something very tangible.

Then we went to Parita which is on the southern penninsula of Panama (hot weather). The town is old and has a lot of history. We did two programs for the public and one service at the Baptist chruch where we slept.

We then went to Las Tablas which is also on the penninsula and stayed at another Baptist church. The pastor in Las Tablas was awesome to work with. He had heart; he really cared about people. We went house to house evangelising for a few days. It turned out to be less awkward than one might expect which was good. We even went to a Jehova's Witness' house one day. I thought that was sort of a funny switch-up. Anyway, we had some good talks. Although sometimes it felt like people would just go along with what we were saying without thinking about it. That was definitely a bit unsettling for me, but I'm hoping for the best.

Aftet Las Tablas we stayed in yet another Baptist chruch in Aguadulce. We did more house-to-house stuff and a few more programs. Everyone had sort of a funny feeling about the two pastors we were working with, but once again we hope for the best.

After being there for a few days we came back here to the base. The last couple days we've been driving to Colon, a city by the northern entrance to the canal. It's about a forty-five minute drive getting there. We did one church service and a tiny bit of evangelism. Today we were going to do a program for like three thousand kids at a school, but when we got there they canceled on us. That sort of thing will happen here in Panama. Plans are more like suggestions.

Another cool thing we've done here at the base is visit a Mother Teresa Home. Basically it's a place funded by the Catholic Church for the world's outcasts to be taken care of. It's sort of hard to be there in the midst of all this suffering. It's a lot of people who are in wheel-chairs, a lot of people who's bodies and minds aren't functioning fully, if at all. It seems as though they've been dealt a hard hand, and that's hard to come to grips with. Then there's the amazing ladies who work there full time. They're incredible, I think.

Anyway, this thing's getting long so I'll wrap it up. On Friday we're going deep into the jungle. We'll be staying with two tribes. One is a Kuna tribe, the other Embera. Suzy from our team is Kuna, though she was raised in the states. The tribe we're going to is her mom's. Suzy and her husband Jack are planning to do long-term missions work with that tribe, so that's pretty cool.

Alright. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

We'll see when I update again...

Take it easy.