I’ve got to say that last month in Panama is in my top three months of the race, if not my very favorite. I’ve made many friends and met so many new people from around the world this year. Saying goodbye is always hard but for the first time this year, I felt my heart crack right down the middle when I left the people at the YWAM base in Panama. This was one of the few times on the Race where I got teary eyed as I hugged my friends and told them goodbye.
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I’ve got to say that last month in Panama is in my top three months of the race, if not my very favorite. I’ve made many friends and met so many new people from around the world this year. Saying goodbye is always hard but for the first time this year, I felt my heart crack right down the middle when I left the people at the YWAM base in Panama. This was one of the few times on the Race where I got teary eyed as I hugged my friends and told them goodbye.
During my time in Panama, I met one particular girl that I created a quick friendship with. We share many of the same things including the age of 22, a deep love for Jesus and our favorite flower being a sunflower. Due to the easy blush I can’t control, she called me “red face” along with “blue eyes” and within a week I was responding to my nicknames. Though she is only a month older than me, she seems years wiser. She is strong and extremely brave. The love she has for the Lord and missions spills out of her and so obviously affects the people around her. Our lives and culture are different but even though we were not raised the same, our desire to serve God and the people around us bridged any gaps there might have been. I can’t describe how much this friendship has blessed me or how much love I have in my heart for someone that was just a stranger not so long ago.
We asked to hear her story and with her permission and a name change, my teammate Jess put together a beautiful blog that I would now like you to read:
“She is a local here in Panama, from an indigenous tribe out in the jungle. That jungle is a three-day walk to see human civilization, to even see a car.
We will call her ‘Rose.’ To share her life, I must first give background on her family and culture.
Rose was born into a culture where it’s common for men to marry multiple women and have more than one wife. It is custom that after the first year a girl ‘becomes a woman,’ she is expected to marry and start a family. Basically, the typical age to get married and have a baby is 13 years old.
Rose’s mother was brought into this lifestyle at an early age. Being the second wife to her father, Rose had a sister from another mother, or she called ‘aunt.’ The whole family lived together, and Rose grew up knowing that her sister was her sister, her father had two wives, and she had an aunt/mother.
When Rose was 2, missionaries came to their village to preach the Gospel. Rose’s father denied hearing what they had to say ... he said he didn’t need Jesus.
Eventually, Rose’s grandfather said he wanted the Bible. This sparked the change in the family.
Rose’s father became sick with stomach pain. People in the village said that only a witch doctor could heal him because of the curse on the land in their village. He instead went to a normal doctor and they said nothing could be done. He later decided to visit the witch doctor, but even that didn’t save him from his sickness.
After some time, Rose’s father’s sickness worsened, he became so skinny. With loss of hope he finally decided to go to church. The congregation prayed for him, and he was healed. Not only physically, but also spiritually. He was saved.
While Rose’s father was away at church getting healed and saved, Rose’s mother and ‘aunt’ were still at home in their village. Missionaries that knew their language came and shared about baptism.
Rose’s mother became interested in learning about ‘baptism.’
The missionaries invited her mother and her aunt to Easter Sunday church. When her father returned, it seemed the whole family was building a foundation on the resurrection of Jesus Christ.