Its finally here!!!

I cant believe it is actually here....today is the official start of Dominican Republic Missions Project 2008 (Oct 31-Nov 9)!!! This afternoon, 7 Panamanian students, 3 Panamanian staff and our STINT team of 6 are all going down to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic via a stop over in Costa Rica. God is going to work in so many ways, impacting both our lives and the people of Dominican Republic.

Here are some more trip details...

Saturday, Nov 1- training and orientation of the city. The training includes sessions such as sharing your personal testimony, evangelism brainstorming and practice sessions, spirit filled life...
Sunday, Nov 2- church in the morning followed by an afternoon/evening showing of the Jesus film in a rural community outside of Santo Domingo
Monday Nov 3- Friday Nov 7- Each day we will be heading to the UASD (Universidad Autonomia Santo Domingo) campus for evangelism and outreach activities. We'll be focusing in the humanities and arts faculties with the goal of reaching as many students with the gospel through various means and then engaging in initial follow-up. The hope and prayer is that by the end of the 5 days on campus we will be able to turn over a committed group of Christians (both new and old) to Layla and Prospero, the campus staff in the Dominican.
Evening activities this week include: a training session for students from the Dominican Republic, sharing the vision for Vida Estudiantil at a private campus, and a wrap-up party for all the students from the Dominican.
Friday evening and Saturday Nov 8 will be spent debriefing and bright and early Sunday Nov 9 morning we head back on a plane to Panama City!

This trip truly is a dream come true in so many ways. Thank you so much for your prayers, thoughts and partnership!!! I am so blessed to have such an awesome support team, and definitely couldnt do any of this on my own. You've made an impact in my life, the lives of Panamanians and now in the Dominican Republic.
You guys are great! Blessings, Karina

Today

Today I was reminded that God has a way of working things out in His way and timing. And, He often has a sense of humor....

Just before lunch, Raquel, Lindsey and I were going out sharing. We thought that since we were a group of three, we would share with another group of say 2-3 students. We headed to the Science faculty and proceeded to approach one group, but they were going to class soon; we then approached another 2 girls, but they were studying for a midterm; we yet again approached another group, but they too were also busy doing something. By this time we had reached the entrance of the Biology building, and were semi-disappointed that we had been shut down so many times (usually students here are so open to talking, even when they have things to do!). So, we proceeded to pray and then walked across the parking lot to pass by the Science cafeteria. As we were walking down the path, we saw a girl sitting alone and decided to go and talk with her. She was a super sweet Catholic girl, and as our conversation proceeded, her friend came and joined in. And then, her boyfriend also came and joined us. The conversation was great - we talked about everything from spiritual things, to general talk on Panama, to things like marriage and choosing churches once a couple gets married. Even though I did not understand most of the conversation, I left our meeting feeling very encouraged. Not only did God provide us the opportunity to share with a group after all, he also orchestrated us to meet some students who were solid and serious in their Christian beliefs.

Please pray for next week as we meet up again with Yisa, Joel and Idalises: we have set a follow up meeting with them on Tuesday at 12pm, and want to challenge them to get involved with Vida Estudiantil.

Semana de los Valores (Week of Values) at UTP...

Sometimes I forget how busy life gets down here! We are finally back to a more normal schedule, after taking a two week theology course in addition to our work on campus. The course was pretty interesting, yet at the same time it has felt good to be back on campus on a more regular, daily basis.

Looking back over the past couple weeks, one large highlight was the Week of Values at the Universidad Tecnologica de Panama (UTP), that took place Sept 23-26:

God opened so many doors on the UTP campus this week!! Right from the time we (Vida Estudiantil, VE) were invited to participate in the Week of Values, up until the end of the week, we were amazed at God's provision and work. Each day when we arrived on the UTP campus, we had a brief time of prayer and organization, and then were linked up with a member of the administration who took us to our assigned classroom. I was amazed to see these administrators simply usher us into the class and announce that we had something important to share with the students! Our campus staff team was able to present the lectures along side all of the Cruzada staff from other ministries, which was a unique opportunity. Some students involved in the ministry also took part in these lectures. I was in one lecture where a student from UTP was able to share a brief story about his involvement with VE and how the Gospel transformed His life.

On Wednesday, we also had the opportunity to throw a concert in the main courtyard entrance of the campus, and had an information table table set up. At the information table, we got to use an innovative evangelism tool, called Soularium ( see http://www.mysoularium.com/ for info). How this tool works is students look at various thought provoking images on a table or wall, and then answer questions on their life, spiritual walk and view of God. The images caught the eye of many of the UTP students and we were able to ask them the various questions, followed by a 4 Laws Gospel presentation.

(Left: The band playing at the concert; Right: Soularium in action - Tania and Raquel talking with a student)

The concert was both an outreach opportunity to share with a large crowd how they can know Jesus personally, and also to increase awareness of Vida Estudiantil presence on the campus. Just after the concert, a girl named Jeaniris came up to my partner, Marielena, and I, and was very interested in knowing more about VE. She explained how she was a Christian, but felt like her present relationship with God and going to church was all very mechanical. She wanted to be challenged in her faith and taught new concepts, and wanted to get involved with VE. It was such a privilege to be a link and resource for students such as Jeaniris, in their walks with God!

Overall, during the week we were on the campus, 586 students were exposed to the Gospel, and 83 were interested in getting involved in Bible Studies. Praise the Lord!!!! This task, however is pretty big. Please be praying for the staff team as they begin the follow up process of meeting with students who indicated an interest of knowing more about knowing God personally.