Bastimentos, Panama

We are on the small island of Bastimentos Panama. This is the second part to our KidzReach outreach. We have had a busy last few days. It has been raining like crazy for the last 3 days. They say they have never seen it rain like this in December. So it feels a little like Vancouver. I didn't ever think I would miss snow, but I have been talking about snow a lot. It is so much dryer than rain. The blessing is that the house that we are staying in even in the rain is so great. It is up on a big hill over looking the mangroves and the bay.
Today we spent the morning playing with some of the local indigenous kids. They came over to the house and we baked Christmas cookies and just got to know each other. In the afternoon we made the families in the neighborhood a big Christmas dinner of chicken mixed into rice with boiled beans on the side. We also served them the Christmas cookies that we had made for them in the morning. Before dinner started we had to go and pick them up from the village so that they wouldn't have to treck through the jungle in the pouring rain.
We had a bit of a program for them. The kids did a skit for them about the meaning of Christmas. They really seemed to like it. After dinner before they left we gave each child a bag with a toy in it that we brought from home. They were so excited to get this gift. Because not only was this probably the only gift they would get this Christmas. But they also took the left over food home with them so that they would have food for tomorrow.
We talked a lot this evening about how happy we made these families and how that is a great way to be able to serve. We are so blessed to be able to have this experience and can't wait to tell our friends and family more about it when we come home. Merry Christmas!