Panama through the eyes of Sarah Allen

Hey guys! This is Sarah Allen. We’re having an awesome time in Panama! We woke up bright and early again this morning to continue our ministry with the children at the school.  After our typical adventurous bus ride to the school, we split up into four groups today and set to work.  As well as everything went yesterday, today went even better, just because we knew more what to expect.  Since we’re with different groups of kids each day, we taught the same Bible stories (Creation and salvation through Jesus) and did the same crafts (bunny puppets and salvation bracelets).  It was really cool, though, because the kids were older today, about 2^nd through 4^th grade, so they were able to interact with us more and understood what we were trying to get across a lot easier.  They really got into the Bible stories and enjoyed the crafts.  Kids were running around with their “conejo” puppets showing them to us and hopping like little bunnies.  They also really loved the songs we got to sing with them.  In fact, after we finished teaching them our songs, they would sing a couple songs of their own to us.  That was a neat experience.  Also, our rec team did a great job of helping get some of the kids’ energy out and just let them have a lot of fun.  Like yesterday, we went through the process once for the morning group and once for the afternoon group.  When we were all done for the day, we packed up and headed back to the bus, but not before being swarmed with tons of children – some saying bye in Spanish, some in English – but all wanting to give us one last hug.  They’re all so sweet and just love to be able to talk with us, even if some of us have a hard time talking back.  It’s okay, though; Jesus’s love translates to all languages.

Now we’re all back at the house just hanging out, playing scrabble, and as Noah would say, “taking it easy.”  We’ll be having dinner in a little while and then we’ll start getting prepared for tomorrow’s work.  We’re staying safe and hydrated, though probably we’re all a little tired.  Please keep praying that we’ll have the energy to keep up with all these kids and that they’ll respond well to what we’re sharing with them. Love you all and thanks for your prayers!