Panama 2007/2008

Dear friends and family,
We wanted to let you all know what has been happening in our lives. We have been seeking what to do this winter and we feel that we are being led to Panama. We met a family last year in Costa Rica at a YWAM (youth with a mission) base and told them of our desire for taking our kids on missions. They also live that dream them selves and we talked a lot since then about what that could mean for our families. Well, this summer we talked about how in addition to our family we would like to see other families also experience missions abroad. We knew from last year that there were a few building projects that really needed to be done on the base that we had visited. That seemed to be the direction that we would go. Then in another discussion with Sarah (the YWAM mom) we started talking about a plan to involve our kids directly with the children in that country to show them the hope that we have in Jesus. We prayed a lot about what that would look like and Sarah came up with the idea to start a team of kids and equip them to go out and reach their generation among the nations and show them the love of Jesus. Then after much prayer she thought of a name to call this outreach. She is calling this mission KidzReach.
So this December we will be going for a month or so to isla Bastimentos, a small island off the coast of Panama in the Bocas del Toro island chain. God blessed us with the opportunity to go and spend Christmas with the Ngobe people who live on this island. Last week Sarah and her family were there for a week and brought down a bunch of bibles that had been translated into Ngobere (their native tongue). When the first man, a new Ngobe believer took the bible carefully in his hands he asked “who wrote this?” He was asking who knew his language and took the time to write God’s word so that he could truly read and understand.
These are the people that we will be visiting. We will also be able to help the new YWAM base on the island to build a church/school for these people. The material for the building has been sitting there for a couple of months because a group had fundraised and bought the material to build it and the material didn’t arrive in time to do the work. So Dean is very happy to have a project to do while we are there. They are very happy that someone who has building experience will come and help them.
So we will be the first exploratory team for KidzReach (the new ministry Sarah has started). We will be focusing on the relationship aspect and then trusting God to show us what to teach and how to act to bring His hope into the lives of the indigenous. The first KidzReach team will be training, mobilizing and Educating kids to take the gospel to the unreached. So we are trying as a family to wait and see what else God is asking us to do. We are trusting that He has a plan for us every step of the way. So many times during this we have seen how God is surprising us and guiding us in directions we never expected to go. Every time we think that we have it figured out, we are again amazed at the cool things that He has for us to learn. Once again we find ourselves traveling a new journey and through Gods grace we will see where that leads us. Thank you for all your prayers and support.

Dean, Wendy, Colton and Miranda