Dear Blog,

Well project has come to an end. Last night I spent a little time reflecting on what I learned in the past 6 ½ weeks here in Panama. After some thought and prayer I came up with this: The Gospel truly does change both lives and even communities.

Yaremis was a student from the National campus that I saw come to Christ last year at the end of my time in Panama. Even now, a year later I still vividly remember the visible change in her face and character the day she accepted Christ.

In the past year Yaremis has continued to grow in her love for God and love for others. This year as part of commitment dinner at the end of project where we challenge students to commit to reaching their world for Christ, Yaremis stood up and shared her testimony of a changed life and the passion it gives her to share the Gospel with others. For me, seeing Yaremis today vs. a year ago I can hardly believe it is the same person as she is constantly being renewed and transformed into the image of Christ.

The Gospel is for Christians too. This may sound silly but it something I became even more convicted of. Just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him, rooted and built up in Him… We need to keep the Gospel central to our Christian walk and daily remind ourselves of it.

Over project much of my attention was focused on serving the Canadian staff and students, ensuring that they were equipped and available to reach out to the campuses. In doing this I was able to see really how much God transformed so many of the Canadian students who came to Panama. I believe that a great part of this was due to the fact that the students not only were sharing the Gospel with others, but also reminding themselves of what the Gospel is.

The Gospel has the power not only to transform lives, but communities as well…. One of the highlights of the Panama project for me is the ‘Adventure Cycle’ where we head out to remote communities in the mountains and there reach out to the people by serving and working alongside them during the day and showing the Jesus film at night. The idea is to help a missionary who is reaching out to these areas plant churches. This was my 6^th such trip, and although I arrived thinking I knew what to expect I have been in awe of what I saw.

This year our project went to a village called Sancona, high in the mountains of the Cocle province in the interior of Panama. Before going we had been told that, unlike the other communities we had been to, Sancona had a small local church that existed. The power of this small church, or rather the power of God through the church, amazed me.

In most of these communities the people generally wear a weathered, detached look on their face, families don’t seem to be loving towards each other, there is limited community activity and often times alcohol is a factor. In Sancona we immediately saw that none of these applied

As we began getting to know the people, and saw the difference in this community versus the other communities in the area, we asked them what made the difference. When asked, one of the people from the area (who was not a Christian) said “The Word of God. Ever since the church began and people started sharing the Word of God people in this community have stopped fighting like we did before.”

Up to this point I had been assuming that the difference in the community must be the Word of God and the presence of His church, but to hear it come from people in the community really blew me away. As I processed this, I realized that while I believed in my head that the Gospel was the answer for these communities, I needed to actually see it to really truly believe it with all my heart.

So with these three ‘stories’ fresh in my mind, and having spent some time reflecting on what God has done these past 6 ½ weeks in Panama I am now more convinced than ever of the need to simply share the Gospel, Jesus Christ with people and allow God to do the transforming work. Further, in order to do this I need to continually remind myself of the Gospel in order that I too may be changed continually.

So for now I’m off. Thank you so much for all your prayers, support and encouragement. I am sad leaving Panama, yet feel so privileged and blessed to have been a part of what God has been doing down here for these past 4 years.

Con carino

Steve