Bocas Del Toro, Panama

Now for the rest of the story....
We did leave in the rain and we packed our bags through the rain to the bus stop. We took the 1 1/2 hr. bus ride to the border and then walked across the bridge from Costa Rica to the Panama customs and Immigration. That in itself is very interesting. The bridge is for trains, cars and also people to go across. The cars and people drive and walk on 2x6's some of which are broken. The bridge is about 150 yards long. So while I was carrying two huge backpacks as was Dean, Colton and Miranda were also each carrying a pack. What fun! Thankfully the rain stopped and we definitely thought that we had had ENOUGH! Then when we arrived into Panama and went to the 3 different places to get our passports stamped we grabbed a taxi bus and headed to the banana boats which we had taken last year. The trip was about 45 min. long. We were so happy to finally get there. When we dragged all our bags down to the boats we were told that there was a tree that had fallen across the canal and the boats wouldn't be going any more till tomorrow. SOOO we got back n to the taxi and took the road back from were we had come and went another hour to the other way that you can get to Bocas. Then when we got there we took a different boat for 1/2 an hour to the town, YEAH, we made it!!
Our bed and breakfast place has hot water and a/c. We are in heaven and we slept. Oh how great it is to sleep and not sweat. Today we did something cool. We went with some people that we met (on the long bus ride from Costa Rica )and rented a boat for the day. We went snorkeling and to the beach. We also tried to learn more about the indigenous by trying out one of their boats as you can see. Big fat Canadians are not meant for little cayuca canoes.
We also studied up on the local wildlife in the area. These are both native to the area and we just happened upon this strawberry poison dart frog and also this very cute howler monkey on the beach. No really, these are in the wild and that is why we love to come here.

Beach

We left the YWAM base after a busy week. It felt like it was a whirl wind of planning learning which was why we were there. It was amazing to see the difference in our whole family when we first spotted the ocean. We all came alive. We all got a new energy that is so fun to see. We started talking about what we wanted to see and do and laughed about how much fun it was going to be. After a long day traveling on a bus for 81/2 hours it was great to have some excitement again. We dropped our bags and headed for the beach to play in the water before it got dark. Also we needed to find something to eat. Dean is o.k. with food on the side of the road but me and the kids are a little more cautious about what we eat. We also had to make Miranda happy and find a coconut and eat it. That was what she wanted to do the most.
The next morning we started the day at the beach finding more coconuts to eat and also to take a walk along the beach rain forest jungle. The path takes you along the beach and in and out of the jungle. We took so many pictures along the way it was so beautiful.
That night it was sooo hot. We lay in bed a sweat. It was so nice to finally get out of bed in the morning and go out into the breeze. But unfortunately it was raining. It would have been a nice light rain other than we had to hike our 5 backpacks to the bus stop and then change buses 2 more times and take a half hour boat ride to get to Panama. Tomorrow you will hear.....the rest of the story.

New Goat pen needed

Here is a picture of the space that needs a new goat/horse house. Here are the kids with a kid.

KidzReach orientation

We have been very busy the last few days. It feel like we have been here a long time and it’s only been three full days. We were very lucky to be able to have our own house. It is a one bedroom house that we can stay in this week that Taja lives in. She works on the YWAM base and is out on Outreach for the next while in Columbia I think.
We started our time here with some tours of the main base. We looked for projects that we could do when the Fehrs arrive in Jan. One of the projects that is really needed is a new pen for the goats on the base. Right now they don’t have the funds to build one and the goats are tied out on ropes all day. Last week they lost one of their best breeding goats because it became entangled in it’s rope and no one saw it in time. So if it works out we would like to build them a space. I will try to download a picture. We have been having problems with our e-mail ever since arriving in Costa Rica. I found that I could get e-mails but I can’t send them from our computer. Ryan showed me how to start a new Gmail account and that seems to be working but of course we don’t have any of our address book in this new account and so it takes a long time to send a bunch of people e-mails.
The other things that we have been doing is preparing for our outreach in Panama. Colton and Miranda have been making prayer journals to document their time while one KidzReach. They have also been packing tracts into the toy bags we brought down from home We went on a bus ride down to the next little town San Rafael and the kids played in the park with the local kids and then after our time there they handed out 25 bags or so. The kids at the park were very happy to get these toys.
Yesterday we started to learn a drama to do for the indigenous in Panama. It is a story about 3 trees and how they were used to glorify Jesus.
We have been having a great time living like the Costa Rican’s, and team building with the Bedencops.

KidzReach

We made it to Costa Rica. We spent today in orientation and went into town and played at a park with the local kids and handed out a bunch of the beanie babies and hot wheel toys that the kids back home collected for us. It was very fun to see the faces on the local kids and also on our kids faces. It was fun to see our friends Ryan and Sarah and the kids again.

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

Canadian Summers

Canada has some of the best summers. We spent the summer being together as much as possible. We tried to go camping as many weekends as we could. One of the best beaches in the world I think is Grand Beach north of Winnipeg.
One of the things we also did this summer is to plan where we would go this winter. When we got an e-mail from Sarah in Costa Rica asking us if we would like to help her get a new mission off the ground in Costa Rica, we jumped at the chance. This was exactly the type of program that we had hoped to find when we started becoming interested in serving abroad with our kids. It is all about families serving others and how kids can make a huge impact on the world. The name of this program is KidzReach. It is about Kidz reaching across the nations. www.kidzreach.com
So that is what our plan is for this year. We will be flying out to Costa Rica and meeting Sarah and her family and busing it down to Panama with them. There we will boat out to a remote island where we will meet with a village of indigenous people. We will also help to build them a small church. It will be a challenging few weeks but we are all really looking forward to it. After Christmas on this island we will make our way back up to Costa Rica and work on the YWAM base that we worked on last year.