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Published: March 11th 2006
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Dormitory
Here you can see how they collect the rain for their water needs Today we traveled to the Youth with a Mission organization outside of Gamboa. YWAM is an international and inter-detominational Christian missions organization. YWAM is operating in more than 900 locations in over 140 countries. The YWAM in Panama is headed by the wonderful Tracy family. They had been working in Panama since 1993.
There are three main things that they do here.
The first is YWAM training programs. YWAM is a large international movement of Christians working to help make a difference in a needy world. They offer a five month discipleship Training School (DTS). They also offer Staff and Leadership Training. The purpose of the SALT school is to produce better equipped staff members for their schools and base staff.
The second thing YWAM Panama offers is short term Mission Adventures. They offer a 7 or 10 day adventure for a group of all ages. They also have custom dates available. If your church, small group, or youth group is looking for something that will change your life and bring so much to others make sure to look at their information. A spring break trip could be under $250. The experience would be priceless!
http://www.hogarjucum.org/ywampanama/english/ministry/missionadv.htm
Tank platform
Bryan, Richard Tracy, and Wes standing where the new tanks will go. The third program is what we came over to see. It is thier newsest and most exciting ministry named Hogar Jucum. This is a home for indigenous youth. They currently have around twenty to thirty high-school age youths living with them.
The children are from several of the indigenous people from around Panama. The government only educates students up to sixth grade. And most people in these communities can not afford to send them to study in the City. They are provided housing and food. They attend a private school and are educated very well. They then become the leaders back in their villages. They can grow up to be the educated voices for a people that have very little due to the lack of education. Parents are asked to make a contribution of produce or native arts to the school.
They school has a shortage of water. After our visit last year, Wes asked the Overland Park Rotary club to give a grant in order for them to collect water running off of the roofs of the houses. They then use the water for all of their non-drinking water needs. This allows them to use the potable
Friends
These two girls are going to be the first to graduate from the school. I actually have a picture from last year with the two together. This is one of the great things about the school. It teaches them that they can make friends from other indigenous people. water for drinking. Most of the infrastructure was set up but they are still awaiting delivery of the large collection tanks. After touring the improvements, we met with several missionary students and indigenous youth. Greg Peterson´s company had produced shirts for the youth and he was able to present them. Wes also had arranged for many English/Spanish dictionaries and Lois had some school supplies.
I spent a lot of time with a young man named Celso. He is from Sanjuan de Pequeni. (Richard, please correct me if I got that wrong). His father is the Chief of his village. He spoke much, much better English than I will ever speak Spanish. I think he told me he wants to study theatre in college. His younger brother wants to be a doctor. It was an amazing experience to spend time with them again. I asked Richard if Celso´s parents contributed art. After some searching we found a wonderful carving of a frog that I purchased. Celso was really amazed and proud of the work his father had done. They are doing such wonderful work and it is always a humbling experience to see how much these people do for others.
Greg Handing out shirts
It appears he is lecturing them on the proper care of the shirts. These were great gifts and very much appreciated by the kids. Later in the evening we were treated to a spectacular dinner at Diva´s. It is a restaurant located in the Continental Hotel. It was put on by all of the Panama City Rotary Clubs. The food was incredible. It was so nice to spend time with old friends and make new ones. The Rotary clubs in Panama have been grande!
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John and Kristina Henry
non-member comment
Thanks
I enjoyed reading about your trip thank you