Project so far...

The past two weeks have been a flurry of activity, with the Canadians here on Panama Project 2009! This project is for University students across Canada to come down and partner with the Panamanian ministry in doing evangelism & discipleship, to both help the ministry here and also train them so they can reach their campuses more effectively back in Canada.

Last week (May 5-9) we had a training week for the Canadian students. Wednesday & Thursday were spent hearing sessions on topics such as how to have a quiet time, how to construct a personal testimony, how to share the gospel and how to live the Spirit Filled Life (and so many more...). Training is so important, as the concepts are basic for all Christians (its good for us all to know how to share our faith etc), and are very transferrable, meaning the students will use the concepts here in their ministry on Panamanian campuses and also when they return back to their Universities to Canada. The week finished off with a morning sharing their faith on campus, an amazing race across Panama City, and a tour of the Panama Canal, Causeway and the market on Saturday.

This week was the first week on campus!!! (Mon-Fri, May 11-15). It definitely was not what I expected at all, as I ended up getting sick with a sinus infection/cold over the weekend, which made me stay home & rest both Monday & Tuesday. However, my team made the trek to campus each day, and began our work in the Faculty of Business Administration and Accounting (Facultad de Administracion de Empresas y Contabilidad, FAECO).
My team is: Me, Andres (co-leader), Maria Jose, Lisa and Kathleen. Pictures to come...

And, some crazy things happened that first morning...as the team stepped out to go sharing, a couple profs approached them, seeing they clearly werent from Panama, to ask what they were doing there. After some dialog on our purpose on being on campus, the team met with the student in charge of the student club, and an influential professor in the faculty. And then, they organized a meeting with the dean of the business faculty the next day, to discuss ways we from Vida Estudiantil, could partner with the faculty to give helpful talks to the students (such as how to receive better grades at university, which ties the academic side, into the spiritual side of their lives.).
The meeting with the dean took place on Tuesday, and was incredible. So many doors were opened for us to enter into the classrooms and give talks to many 2nd, 3rd and 4th years next week (May 18-22). At first they wanted us to give 8 talks per day, at one hour each...whoa. But, after discussing a bit more, it was decided that we'd hold about 4 talks in the morning, each day next week. Thats an incredible outreach opportunity, as many classes have atleast 40 students in them...so, the potential gospel presentations could be as many as 4 talks*5 days*40 students per class = 400 students! WHOA.

My STINT teammates are leading teams at UTP, Santiago and in the Architucture/Law faculties...and they too have seen God work in crazy ways this week! Check out their blogs for some cool stories.

Ps. 66:3a - "Say to God 'how awesome are your deeds! So great is your power..."

Please be praying for our team, as we organize details for these talks, and also come up with strategies to follow up with the interested students. Follow up is so key to helping students really understand the Gospel and getting them hooked in with Vida Estudiantil, an environment they can grow in their faith.