7-2-08

6:30 am
Panama

The plane ride was intense. We had some major turbulence and I got scared of flying for the first time. Panama actually reminds me of Long Beach and L.A., but none of the buildings seem finished and there are a lot more trees and Spanish.
Our first day here we just hung out tat Kiko’s apartment. Kiko is a missionary that’s worked with Castillo Del Rey for a while and is studying to become a medical missionary. We got to use the computer so I sent a really long e-mail to my aunt and uncle.
Throughout the day, a lot of people were sick, really sick. It was a major attack. I even began to feel nauseous but sleep seemed to restore everyone along with some major Pentecostal healing. We were ready to leave in the morning by six and headed out for our first program.
We did two programs at a school, one for younger children and one for the high school students. We also did one at a church before that with youth from the Christian school. We did another program after that and then a night service.
At the Christian school in the morning, we did puppet master. Then Garret spoke about freedom. When he did an altar call, the reaction was shocking. The teenagers were so ready to receive their freedom. I began praying for a girl and she fell into my arms and cried into my shoulder as we swayed back and forth together. The same thing happened with another girl as I moved across the room.
At our first program at the school there was another amazing altar call. The kids are so full of love here. I was hugging a girl and six other kids came and made it into a mega-hug. One of the girls fell to her knees so I kneeled with her. The other six girls kneeled with us as well.
At one point I was praying alone and I could feel the presence of God all around. I opened my eyes and there were about five kids waiting in front of me for prayer.
Kids amaze me. They recognize the Hoy Spirit and they go to it. They cling onto it. They will seek prayer time and time again, always hungry. They amaze me.
At the next program at the school, our program was a little more of a struggle because it was focused more towards youth. The altar call was once again breathtaking. You can really tell the difference in the different countries and the kids living there by watching how they respond and love each other.
One girl began weeping. She was crying the type of cry when you want to scream into your pillow you don’t know why. She didn’t have a pillow, but she screamed over and over into my shoulder and chest for about half an hour and she wept and shook until she was physically and emotionally drained.
Our night service was also amazing. Instead of doing a program we did four major dramas as Liz spoke about each one. It was powerful. During the altar call though, all I could do was pray for my youth group back in Long Beach. I miss them. I wonder what phase they’re in right now and how they’re doing. For the first time on this trip, I began to feel homesick.