Hispanic Ministry - see Espanol

Sunday Bible Study:  9:30 A.M. - Room #205

Worship:  10:30 A.M. - Room #204

Wednesday Night:  7:00 P.M. - Room #205

Minister:  Cristobal Echevarria

Hi!  The Spanish members are using their homes to evangelize their friends and families.  This Friday we will be at the Norma's house to have a devotional and we will share the Word of God with them.  We are asking you to pray for us that we can convert some of them.  God bless you.

Hola!  Los miembros hispanos estan usando sus casas para evangelizar a sus amigos y familiares, estes Viernes estaremos en la casa de la hermana Norma, tendremos devocional, y estaremos compartiendo la Palabra de Dios con ellos.  Pedimos sus oraciones para que podamos convertir a alguno de ellos.  Que Dios les bendiga.

Panama -  A new congregation has begun in Periati, a small Indian village in the mountains in Panama.  This new congregation consists of nineteen members, the village has a population of eight hundred people.

Guyana: Please pick up a list of over the counter medicines that will be taken to Guyana in January. This list is located on the Welcome Tables.

Guyana Mission Supply List -pdf
 

Cambodia

Doris Morrison has returned to Cambodia.

China

Remember the Shi Zong orphanage in your prayers.

Predisan

The name “PrediSan” comes from two Spanish words: predicar (to preach) and sanar (to heal). These words occur in the Bible in Luke 9:2, when Jesus sends his disciples out “...to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.” PrediSan means “to preach and to heal.”

The mission began in 1986 when Dr. Robert Clark and his family moved to Catacamas, Olancho, Honduras, Central America to teach basic health care principles and techniques to community health volunteers in Catacamas (population 36,000) and the surrounding mountain villages.

Today, 10 North American professionals and 54 trained Hondurans work in a large clinic in central Catacamas... in two Community Health Centers in suburbs of Catacamas... in five rural clinics in remote mountain villages... in an alcohol and drug rehabilitation facility... and in a variety of educational initiatives.  www.predisan.org

Panama Letter from Percy Brooks

!Dios le bendiga! de Iglesia de Cristo estar Panama. God bless you from the Church of Christ in Panama.

We had an exceptional trip. The numbers don’t really tell the story but Trisha, Steffen and Barbara’s letters do. They tell a very personal story of the trip.

We had 103 people on the trip. They were grouped in teams. We had an evangelism team, a medical team, a glasses team, VBS team, clothing team, and a construction team. The results were 47 people obeyed the gospel, three congregations were started, 1900 people were treated, 2 children’s lives saved, 350 glasses given, 500 children in VBS, several hundred cases of clothes and shoes given out, 64 footings poured for the new medical facility, one house built, one church painted, 20 pews assembled, delivered and set.

As I returned, I thought about what I was thankful for. They are anything cold, air conditioning, toilets that flush, tap water you can drink, less than 3 people in an 8x12 room, real beds, lights to shave by, no mud, and medical care plus many others.

To give you an idea of what happened behind the numbers with the evangelism team. They could see the eyes light up as the people were taught. They couldn’t wait to be baptized. We were baptizing in a dirty, muddy river where you had to slide about 20 ft down a muddy bank or go through a waterfall to get to the river. The last two days a baptistery was built by digging a hole and lining it with plastic. Some people were so anxious to be baptized that they didn’t stop at the river bank but went right into the river. In several cases more than one family member was baptized. One young man was baptized and immediately went home and taught his parents who were then baptized.

One village asked us to start a church there because they had no church in the village. In another village, the elders were concerned about us starting a church there because they already had three and were concerned that there would be religious conflicts. After we had worked there for two days and left, the villagers voted to have us start a church. It will be starting with the 16 village members we baptized.

On the medical team, the most common problems were worms and parasites. The parasites were from drinking the water and the worms from going barefoot on the ground. There were quite a few anemic women and malnourished children. We gave vitamins to every one. We treated one 18 month old who wouldn’t have lasted another week. He only weighed 15 lbs., had diarrhea, and was dehydrated, plus being malnourished. We were able to stop the diarrhea and get fluids in and provide special food. One of the young ladies we baptized, needed a gall bladder operation, but the family couldn’t afford it so we took care of that. One Panamanian preacher has a bad back problem and we arranged for him to get X-rays so it could be diagnosed. The grandmother of one we had baptized had congested lungs probably from the wood smoke over the years, was anemic, and had acid reflux. She couldn’t breathe at night since she was sleeping flat on the floor. We gave her an air mattress and a pillow, pills for the acid reflux, and we are sending iron pills.

The glasses team fitted 350 pairs of glasses. They used a tract to test the people’s ability to see. Some of the people cried when they got the glasses and could see. They jumped up and hugged the people fitting them.

The young people which made up about 25% of the total team, did VBS for the children during the time that the parents were waiting to be treated or were having a Bible study. They gave out 500 stuffed animals and toys which are all the toys that the children had.

The clothing team set up in each village we visited and passed out clothes and shoes. It was evident from what the people were wearing that this was probably their only clothes source.

The construction team had to work around the weather in order to get their work done. It rained 7 of the 10 days we were there. Usually the rain started in mid afternoon. When it rained, it really rained.

We had several college students who served as translators. One young woman is a senior at Duke and another was on her fourth mission trip including one at Predisan in Honduras.

We had a gospel meeting every night. We stared with an attendance of 300 and ended with over 500. We only had seats for about 250 so many stood. People were there even in the rain which occurred during four of the nights.

Our meals were prepared by the Panamanian women from the Church over an open wood fire. The grilled fish and chicken were very good. Rice is a staple of their diet followed by yucca and corn so that is what we had.

I would like to give you some examples of the commitment of the people on the trip. Two people asked for unpaid time off to make the trip. They were denied so they quit. One young lady knew that she couldn’t take heat but she was there. She passed out the second day, but was back the next day.

I think I always learn a lesson from each trip. The lesson on this one was what are you willing to do that one person may hear the Gospel. I say willing because I am convinced we are capable of doing more than we are willing to do. What if the one person that hears the Gospel is Cristobal Echevarria or Jim Harrington? What are you willing to do?

9/18/05

Panama For Christ - 2005 (by Barbara Hill)

For months I was undecided about being a part of this mission trip.  I thought about it, but kept it to myself for a while.  Then one Sunday I mentioned it to Trisha Dean and we were a little surprised, but happy, to realize we were having similar thoughts.  Then we agreed we were not sure and would pray about it.  We did so for quite a while and I also solicited prayers from many of you.  We made the final decision only about six weeks prior to the trip.  Obstacles were put in my way and I did meet with some (caring) opposition to my going.  But my decision was made-I was excited and "ready for the adventure." 

I was, however, not well prepared at all.  In and near Torti, Panama, I experienced tiring 16-hour days in extreme heat (in spite of the floods of rain that came every afternoon), killer bees seemingly everywhere, mud, sweat, crowded sleeping quarters, missed meals, mud, cold showers shared with lizards, outdoor 'necessities,' unknown foods, (and smells we chose not to identify)...and more mud.  I must confess that these things were very difficult for me.  But don't rush to be sympathetic.  The hardships were there--the same ones these Panamanians and thousands of others live their lives with, in addition to their deep poverty and walking almost everywhere they go.

So, ask me about the real trip.  I'll share with you the beauty of the land and the people of Panama, and the face of our Lord that I saw there.  People who truly 'hunger and thirst' for God's Word, the baptisms, one which I was blessed to witness taking place in a muddy river, dynamic worship services every night (translated from Spanish to English to Spanish), heart touching singing in two languages, hugs handshakes, smiles, meeting and embracing my sisters and brothers who live for God there, the sweet children who would take my hand, and seeing an outdoor baptistry completed in one day.

Ask me and I'll tell you that my prayer was answered.  I still believe that God wanted me to go.  I saved no lives nor did I perform any extraordinary task.  But I believe there were powerful reasons for God wanting me there:  Some are very personal, and maybe some are even unknown to me.  But I know that my faith, patience, thankfulness and love grew there in the mud.  And I feel strongly enough to encourage, even plead with, YOU to be a part of a mission trip.  It's worth the price.  And thank you for your prayers.

In Christian love,

Barbara

9/11/05Dear Brothers & Sisters,

I was blessed this past August with the opportunity to travel to Cristobal's homeland of Panama to do God's work.  As was stated in an earlier report, the hotel accommodations in Torti wasn't anything that most of us would call comfortable by our standards.  Small, cramped rooms, (some of us didn't have AC), no hot water.  I was thinking.  What am I doing here?  And then I thought, yes this is uncomfortable, but, Jesus died for me!

As we started the new day in the field, the conditions weren't the greatest.  Just about a foot of mud was there to greet us because of the previous day's rains.  Also, HOT!  Hot just doesn't give justice to the description of what the temperature was like there every day.  Intense sun & high humidity.

I volunteered my services to work on the construction team where we were building the medical center for the Panamanian people.  My first job was to fabricate the rebar reinforcement structures.  Wasn't really a hard job, just sharp.  Had plenty of cuts in the hands that Barbara had to bandage up for me so I wouldn't get too many germs in the wounds or bleed to death.  I would look at my bloody hands again I would think, after all they're just cuts, Jesus died for me!

We dug over 96- 4' X 4' x 3' holes to pour the footers and rotated between six of us who would get into the hole.  This would go on from 'bout 9 am till 'bout 4 pm. when the rains came in.  Walking through the deep mud and digging the holes was tough work but, Jesus died for me!  Another group of five construction guys built a two room house for one of our brothers in Torti so he could move out of the country into town so his daughter could attend school.  He was so grateful.

One day, we finished up early and we loaded up a truckloand of disassembled pews that were donated from a congregation in Cincinnati.  We started out by delivering 8 to the church in Torti.  We then continued up the road through two different check points to deliver more pews to several other churches.  The road that we traveled was the Pan Am Highway and when we were on pavement, we spent a lot of time dodging potholes.  Then, the pavement turned into gravel and in some spots, mud.  We arrived at the last village around 6 pm. and it was getting dark.  So, we hurried and assembled the pews with the help of a couple of local boys.  When we were finished, the boys just sat in the 'new' pews and just smiled.  As we were leaving, the delivery truck slipped off into a culvert.  The 10 of us spent about an hour and a half pushing and digging the truck out so we could be on our way.  We were only 30 or 40 miles away from Columbia and we were just about on the fringes of 'safe territory'.  So, we were in a hurry to get back to Torti.  It took us over two and a half hours to travel only 60 to 70 miles.

During our stay, we baptized 47 brothers & sisters, some of them Indians.  We were also granted permission to build churches in three different Indian villages, God is truly good!

Brother Cristobal delivered one of the most memorable messages to the local people one evening and listening to him speak in his native language was most inspiring.  He truly loves the Lord and wants to make sure his fellow Panamanians are saved.  We are very blessed to have Cristobal in our family at Greenbrier.

The ten days that I spent in Panama and the people that I met there, will never be forgotten.  I hope that the Lord blesses me again with the opportunity to return again soon.  I keep believing that my Lord, Jesus Christ died for my salvation and whatever I can do to glorify Him in the world, I will do so without hesitation.

In His service,

Steffen Smith

9/4/05 To My Church Family,

I just returned from a 10 day mission trip to Panama.  We went to the small town of Torti, 2.5 hours from Panama City.  I thought I was finished going on mission trips, but the Lord had different plans for me.  My friend asked me if I had thought about going on this trip and I had been thinking it would be nice but not possible, then suddenly things started falling into place for us to go.  I loved my trips to Honduras.  I want to know if I loved mission work or just the people and places there.

Our first stop was a beautiful hotel in Panama City, Not bad!  We had a huge, beautiful room with 3 ladies sharing it.  Good food, beautiful surrounding and 103 wonderful people.

The next day we drove a bus and 5 vans for 2.5 hours to Torti, talk about culture shock.  What a difference!  Our first stop was the building site for a Medical Clinic.  They had built us a meeting tent and a "Dining Hut".  We had groundbreaking ceremonies, a revival meeting, we were outside in a very hot and humid day for about 10 hours, and THEN we got to to our hotel.  It was a very small block building, community bathing facilities (4 enclosed showers, 4 enclosed toilets and 4 sinks on the outside wall).  The first thing I noticed was the 6 lizards on the outside walls!  Then we got to our room, maybe a 6x8 foot space with a full size bed and a table and we were till sharing!  Yes, 3 grown women, 1 bed and 6 suitcases.  After a little discussion we decided we could do this for 10 days!  Each morning we counted down 9 more nights, 6 more days...

Then we started seeing the people in the Indian villages, small grass covered huts, standing in long lines to see the Doctor.  There were people in their 80's standing in the hot sun for hours just to get 30 Tylenol for their arthritis.  Mothers with 3 and 4 children waiting 3 hours to get parasite medicine and vitamins for their children, it was amazing!

Our group trudged through mud, ate strange food and was on the go for 14 to 16 hours a day, sweated (a lot) and got rained on every day.  But in 10 days we would be home, they WERE home.

This was the hardest trip I have experienced, both physically and mentally.  Why was I supposed to come?  Maybe God wanted me to realize I'm stronger than I thought.  My family and friends would not have believed I could do this (I really don't like lizards)!  But I did!  Maybe this was to show me I can do more than I sometimes think I can, maybe I need to stop saying "No I can't" and say "YES I CAN!"

I felt like I touched some people's lives, I know they touched me.  Maybe my lesson was for us to push ourselves to grow, get out of our comfort zone and grow with the Lord.

In His name,

Trisha Dean