God in the Mountains

"I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth."
(Psalms 121:1, 2)

Psalms 121, one of my favorite Psalms.  Maybe because I love the mountains, but we really got to see our majestic God at work in the mountains yesterday.

Cerro Punta near Volcán Barú

To be completely honest, the past few days in Changuinola was a frustrating experience for me.  Don't get me wrong, God did amazing work through Rev. Lau, Pastor Lily, Simon and dad.  But I felt like the odd one out while they were running around in the Panama heat doing visitation and discipleship.  Besides visiting the few youths from the Campamento (Karen, Lucy, Stephanie, Michelle, Ernesto and David), there were not youths for a next-gen pastor to minister to - plus they were usually busy during the day helping around the Super or around the house to have any meaningful conversations.

This became a challenge for me, after preaching on Romans 8 that the will of God is not for us to "do more" but rather for us to become like Jesus.  I started to read in the Gospels to see what Jesus would do during his "down time".  I found 2 passages, Mark 1:35 and John 4.

"Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed." (Mark 1:35)

And since I could not have the opportunities to engage in conversations like Jesus did in John 4, I spent the three days in Changuinola praying.

Prayer Items for Changuinola:

• Pray for the local church leaders in this town (their closest support, Pastor Lily, is 4 hours drive away)
• Pray for the youths who attended campamento (esp. the Chan family, of their 7 children 4 attended campamento, and the family still does not know the Lord)
• Pray for the Natives VBS ministry opportunities on the banana plantations in the Fincas (many of the local Natives are from family of multiple wives, and children are literally running around the streets in these communities)

Local Natives dwellings near the banana plantations

Now on the way up the mountains near David, we stumbled across a pleasant surprise from the Lord.  Some how God guided us to Rev. Kao and a Korean seminary in Bambito.  Walking through the grounds of this seminary was like walking through Eden.  Rev. Kao has been serving this seminary for the past 16 years, developing over 800 pastors for the Central and South America regions.

After falling in love with the scenery of seminary, we visited several families near Cerro Punta (Mountain Peak).  This is were I was reconnected with several more youths from Campamanto and witness first hand the potential of the youths in Chiriquí.  I had a great time chatting with each one of them, we are planning a campamento reunion in David on Saturday.  I believe the next generation of youth leaders will come from this mountain in Chiriquí.  "I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD,the Maker of heaven and earth." 

Prayer meeting up in the mountains

Prayer Items for Chiriquí:

• Pray for Pastor Lily, the church in David and their church building project
• Pray for the the youths in Chiriquí, who are zealous and passionate for the Lord
• Pray for Rev. Lau as he is resolve a few issues within the church in David
• Pray for the campamento reunion of Saturday and I will lead a few of the young leaders to minister to the youths
• Pray for the health of the mission team, our bodies are taking a beating with the late 10:00p dinners and late nights meetings (ending in 1-2am in the morning)

Urgency Springs Intention

Only the 4 full day in Panama.

If you look around, you will find the short term missions team here often engaging in conversations with the locals. 

Knowing our limited time in Panama, we engage in conversations with the local leaders with the intention of leadership training. Even though it is the still the first few days of my visit in Panama, I was able to have in-depth conversations with a few leaders.

Only if we that kind of urgency at home.  We take for granted the time we have, where the fact is the the Lord holds our tomorrow.  We don't even know if we will be around tomorrow.  So we need to cease each opportunity to impact and witness to the lives of the people around us.

Prayer Requests:

• Praise the Lord, Simon and Joseph arrived safely in Changuinola.  Pray for the two of them along with Pastor Lily in regards to the training of local leaders.
• Continue to pray for Rev Lau as he speaks to the youths.  Today, he just challenge to youths to get baptized and quite a few responded to this calling.  PTL!!!
• Pray for myself as I lead a workshop on "Identity" tomorrow.
• Also pray for one of the young leader here in Panama, I am in the process to recruit to just us on our trip to Changuinola to serve the youths there.  It will be a great discipleship opportunity for her and an example to the local leaders.
• And of course, continue to pray of the youths at the camp.  116 in total from throughout Panama.

A Cold Evening on Cerro Azul

I cannot believe I just admitted I'm cold, in Panama.  But last night, on the top bunk with 6 others pastors in the room, on the mountain of Cerro Azul, I was cold.  In the morning we realized we had all the windows wide opened.  Being on the top bunk, I was to lazy to climb down in the middle of the night to my suitcase to get a jacket, so I just wrapped myself in my tiny wash towel.

6 hours of sleep, but cannot complain.  It was 2 hours more than my average during my last missions trip to Thailand and Vietnam.  Praise the Lord!!!

Yesterday, dad and Simon arrived safely and spent the night on Cerro Azul before flying out to Changuinola today.  It is very exciting to be on the mission field in Panama with dad.  Pray for their safe flight and for a fruitful ministry training leaders at the church in Changuinola.

Also yesterday, 116 teens arrived a the Campamento.  This reminds me of a mini version of Teen's Conference or Vision X in Toronto.  What really blew me away was every kid sang during praise, and no drums and loud instrument required.  They sang Spanish versions of Seek Ye First, Give Thanks, and Shout to the Lord.  Pray for these teens, as about 50 of them traveled 6 hours from David and 10 of them traveled 8 hours from Bocas del Toro just to attend this camp.  This is the next generation in the Panama church!

Young People Ministry is the Same Everywhere in the World

The last time I was part of a Cantonese fellowship was back in 1996: Philadelphia Fellowship.  It was an attempt to connect Genesis, the church's English Youth Fellowship where I was the chairperson, with the Cantonese Youth Fellowship.  Even though I was born in Hong Kong, the experiment to bridge the two fellowship was a trying one for me.  Having grown up in the English Congregation, I felt like a fish out of water; trying to express myself in Cantonese, Bible Study in Cantonese, play in Cantonese.

Flash forward 15 year - a year after I took the leap of faith and preach for the first time in Cantonese. 

In Panama, I had two options: to speak in Cantonese or to speak in Spanish.  The choice to a easy one to make but a difficult one to embrace.  My mind is screaming in English, but I needed speak complete in Cantonese... and not your typical Hong Kong Cantonese/Chinglish, but Cantonese complete void of English.  The funny thing is that I found it easier in Thailand in 2006, learning a completely new language rather than "perfecting" my broken Cantonese.

But the young people here, full of love and grace, welcomed me into their community.  I found the foundation young people ministry is exactly the same as the one I'm familiar with in Canada.  As Rev Lau will put it:

有得食, 有得玩, 有得講

Or as Dawn Haglund, quoted in Robert Webber, The Younger Evangelicals: Facing the Challenges of the New World.  Dawn states the older paradigm was behave, believe, and then belong. Young people ministry have come to value a sense of belonging as primary.  Some churches taught (and still teach) that first you believe, then you behave, and you finally belong.  But young people ministries are more or less reversing this order out of a love for people far from God.  Their philosophy is first you belong, then you believe, and finally you behave. 

This was evident even on the second full day in Panama, after enjoying an afternoon of mall hopping, swimming and dinner with the young people, we can get into deeper life question.

Dumplings dinner with the next-gens in Panama

Bullets are Cheaper than Firework

Panama City, Panama.

Rev. Lau and I arrived in Panama late last evening.  Before we left Toronto, on the car ride to the airport, we had an interesting conversation after driving pass The Prayer Palace Church near 400/Finch.  The discussion revolved around a question Daniel had asked: How do we identify wolves among the flock at church?  We came up with a humorous conclusion that if we were to ask each individual congregation members if they are willing to be a Stephen (Acts 7) then that member is not a wolf.

"So,  inset name here , I think you have the calling to become a Stephen."

Do you have what it takes to be a Stephen?

What an interesting question to linger in the mind just before a missions trip.  Rev. Lau joking stated that "pastor Joel have no problem being Stephen".  We all laughed and in response I said "there's nothing wrong in getting to see Jesus."

5 years ago, on the mission trip to Thailand and Vietnam, that very question was on our minds.  There was a chance that we would be captured and imprisoned by the authorities.  But what can go wrong in Panama serving at a youth leadership camp?

While reading "Uncensored Grace" by Jub Wilhite on the flight, I came across the story of Sgt. Henry Prendes from Las Vegas.  On Feb 1, 2006, Sgt. Henry Prendes was killed on duty in Las Vegas.  Similar to the story of Sgt. Ryan Russel in Toronto a few weeks ago, the news shook the city of Las Vegas.  However, it was the faith of his wife and daughters during the widely televised memorial at Central Christian Church to impacted the community of Las Vegas and brought many to return to Christ.

Sgt. Henry Prendes was a Stephen.  On that fateful day on Feb , 2006, God placed him exactly where he wanted him to be.  But long before he gave his life on duty, he already died to himself.

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26)

Are we willing to be a Stephen, dying to ourselves, and letting God place us exactly were he wants us to me?

Chinese New Year Fireworks at Panama City

When we arrived in Panama, the Chinese community was in high spirits celebrating Chinese New Year with fireworks.  I was informed that people in Panama knows how to celebrate.  During the New Year and other celebrations, the streets are filled with people.  However, there was a story that after one of these celebration a sister from church found a bullet shell on pillow next to where she slept.  Apparently, bullets are cheaper than fireworks.  So instead setting off fireworks, some would randomly fire their pistols in the air.

Do you have what it takes to be a Stephen?  It does not take much for God to call you home.