Panama, An (extremely) short summary

Hey y'all!

I have meant to post this for such a long time, but I have been so busy with school, projects, papers, and stuff like that. But better late than never, right?

First off, a big thank you to all who prayed for us!  To tell you the truth, my heart is torn now. I love my country, the USA, my friends, and especially my church, but I also loves my mom's home country, and all of my family.

(Right now, this describes me perfectly :P It gets a little annoying, honestly. If I don't remember a word in English, I say it in Spanish. I wish Spanglish was a real language....)


Our departure of the States was a huge miracle, and it would take too much time to tell you everything (though I wish I could, truly!).

The plane ride gave me a lot of time to think about how really small and insignificant we really are.

We, who are so little, are so beloved by the Father! What a thought! We are like ants (barely!), insignificant, yet the father loved us so much that He sent His only begotten son! What love!
Our missionary friends down their were so gracious to allow us to spend time at their house! We were able to attend their Wednesday night prayer service, and I was given the opportunity to play the piano for them.
Thursday was a day spent with family. The Missionaries live about an hour away from my uncle's house (and that's with regular traffic *shivers*. It's amazing everyone's not DEAD.  Enough said.). We didn't have a car, so they were our "chauffeurs" to the car rental place. The route they chose took us by the military base daddy was in, and other family landmarks.

This is where daddy's church attended, the old YMCA building. It was so sad to see such a beautiful building that was used for so much good to be so run down.

This is the place where Daddy proposed to Mama. Isn't that something?! 22 years later we drive by the place where our family started. We really wanted to go and have a picture taken up there, but there was a limited amount of time, and sooo much to do.
One thing that was so funny to use was this:

 This is how Panamanians (really Hispanics, not just Panamanians) make their own business. These people were selling drinks that they made out of fruits. How creative is that? They also go in between cars at red lights selling water, small pizzas, stuff like that. It was rather stressful, because you never knew if they were going to be run over.
The rest of the day was spent with our family, going to the mall (and I kid you not, my dad and I were the whitest people in the whole mall. It felt soo weird), and trying to distract them for a little bit.

Something that really stuck out to me about being in a pagan country was the hopelessness. Every night, the Catholic community in their neighborhood would come every night to recite the Rosary.

I don't have a very good memory, but if I remember exactly what they said for the Rosary chorus, you know it has been repeated. A lot.
When they were repeating all the Rosary, it reminded me of Matthew 6:7 "But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking." They were faithful in coming and begging for my aunt's soul, that she could be granted access in to heaven.It was so sad for us Christians to watch this "vain repetition", knowing that what they thought was pure piousness, was actually pure paganism.

    My Grandfather.

My cousin Evelyn with Yours Truly.

Now, to summarize:
The trip was too short to see all of our family. We haven't seen our relatives down there since I was 6, so when they saw us they were rather surprised (I think they kinda expected us to be little.) We were able to share the gospel to my cousin Laura, and recently we got news from some other missionaries that her brothers Jason and Isaac became believers. I hope and pray that this conversion is true, and not just a "convenience".

Thanks again for praying for us!
~Andrea~