Videos from Mission Trip

Boat Trip To Diwarsikwa

The boat trip to Diwarsikwa started in Kuna Yalla where we loaded the boat with the teams luggage and started on the 6 1/2 hour journey to the village. You can see the path we took by following the Orange Path along the map. We stopped in the Kuna Village of Icanti to drop off on of our Kuna "Boatsmen." Icanti is about 1 hour from where we started.

You can see the luggage of all 19 of the Team Members loaded onto the 20ft Kyuka. It was powered by a 15 horse outboard engine. No water skiing on this trip. (grin)

Here is Pennie Langston, Earl Clepper and myself as we get ready for the ardurous journey to Diwarsikwa.

This was where I was tempted to rock the boat and see if I could introduce Earl to the Bayano River up close and personal like.

Crossing the open lake was rough and wet. I hunkered down trying to stay dry, warm and confortable ... did not work a bit.

Here we are arriving at Diwarsikwa.

Movie Ministry

We showed both movies, "The End of the Spear" and "The Passion of the Christ" in Diwarsikwa. There was an estimated 250 to 350 each night that watched the movies. This is late in the evening as we get ready to show the movies.One of the new features we tried on this trip was taking pictures and videos, rendering them and showing them that evening on the screen as a draw before we showed the "Feature Film." It was immensely popular with many people "posing" through the day hoping they we see themselves on screen that evening. And that isn't just for kids - even the Village Chiefs got in on the act.As you can see, many sat on timbers, while others stood and watched throughout the evening.

This is a photo taken at night during one of the movies. During the week about 15 Adults and 30-35 children responded to an invitation to follow Christ. One of the Chiefs stood in front of his Village and indicated that he too wanted to follow Christ. For his story, watch the video about the Kuna Indian Chief at the top of the blog.

Working With the Children

Some members of First Baptist Church Porter worked with the children each day teaching them Bible Lessons and telling them about Jesus. You could tell that they had a real heart for Jesus.

Kids will be kids - they were all waiting for the teachers to start!

During the afternoons, we would show movies to the Children inside the huts. We should a variety of Disney Movies, as well a bible cartoons.

With the extra wood from the church, the men constructed a swing for the kids and adults. The Kuna had never seen anything like it and had to be taught how to swing. Later that evening, some of the more adventurous Kuna Adults took their turn "flying" on the swing.

One of the team member from First Porter had a wonderful ministry. Susan had women and girls lined up to comb and braid their hair. It was an amazing act of servant hood. I was blessed as the love for these women showed as she used the gifts that God had given her to show love to these women.

It didn't take long to draw a crowd once class started!

Construction of Church in Diwarsikwa

What started out as a empty piece of land ended up a church in a matter of two weeks.

There were over 100 Kuna Indians at the dedication of this building. After the Teams left, the Kuna put the traditional roof over the church. A retired Kuna pastor will be in Diwarsikwa for 3 months to help the believers there.

Pennie's Daily Journal of Diwarsikwa

3/8/09

At 6:00 Sunday morning everyone met for breakfast, went back to their rooms and got their luggage to meet at the vans for the long trip to the Village Diwarsikwa. There were around 12 of us packed like sardines in a very small van for over an hour or so before we made it to our check point at Aquayalla. There they wrote our passport information down, and then me, Mark, Earl, loaded up in one the boat that was carrying the luggage and Sam, Royce & Steve loaded up in another for the 5 1/2 hour or so boat ride to the village. On our way we stopped at a village named Icanti where one of the Kuna guys got off and stayed then we headed back out. We were on the Bayano LakeBayano River and there were kids lining the bank, standing around a sign that said welcome. So many kids every where most with no shoes & some just walking around in their underwear. We got settled in, set our mosquito nets up around our hammocks and then walked out to an area where our group was. Susan was combing the little girl’s hair and putting them in ponytails, and her husband Rudy was showing the boys how to play jacks. The kids were also given beach balls, and you would have thought they had just received a pot full of gold. After dinner I laid in my hammock writing in my journal and the kids swarmed me fascinated by my writing, and surrounded Earl after he started taking their pictures (they had never seen themselves before like this). A few from our group went with Sam and presented the chiefs of the village with hats & neck ties, after that it was time to get to bed and prepare our bodies for the hard work ahead. for quite a while which for 99% of the trip was very rough soaking us to the bone, but it was an awesome experience. We came around this turn in the

3/9/09

After sleeping off and on all night it was time to climb out of our little cocoons to start our day. We ate a good breakfast, and then went out to where the church was going to be built and started measuring & marking for the 35 holes so we could start preparing for the wood to arrive. The ground was a very sticky paste like clay, it made for a very long process. I think no sooner then we finished digging the 35 holes the wood started arriving & the Kuna men were bringing it up from the river. The wood was very wet & heavy & we had 2 x 4's,

2 x 6's that were 12 foot and some 2 x 6's that were 14 foot so stacking the wood according to size was a very tiring task but everyone kept on trucking & got the job done. We put together five 36 foot floor joists, so now we have to wait to get the 4 x 4's now and put those in the ground before we can set the floor joists. Since we had to wait on more wood, we were informed that the chiefs gave us a small building to work on and prepare for a pastor that was coming to Panama to the Diwarsikwa village to stay. It had a tin roof and wire mesh walls with Styrofoam. We were able to knock out 2 walls and frame them out with extra 2 x 4's we had, so we got off to a good start. Now its time for a bath & prepare for dinner. It's around 6:45 & Mark is preparing a movie for the village to watch so for some of us it's time to lay it down, everyone is tired & drained from the work & the sun.

3/10/09

Most of us woke up around 6:30, so it was time to get up put my socks & shoes on and get my body moving. A few of us were talking in the little house we were preparing for the pastor until it was time to eat breakfast. It was time to start working again so some of us worked on the church & some of worked on the pastor's house. The 4 x 4's finally arrived so the cutting & tamping began and since there were 35 holes it took quite a while to get the job done. By the end of the day the pastors house was completely framed out & the church floor has been framed & support joists are in place ready for out 1 x 12's to be delivered. We hope Wednesday the wood will be delivered & we can get the floor down & the walls up and complete what everyone wants to get done. Today Mark also gave me a chance to walk around the village with his video camera, I was able to get some good video pieces but the thing I liked the most was the simple snap shots I captured. Some posed for me, some little kids didn't even know I took their picture and for some of the older Kuna ladies I asked for permission to take their picture. Some gladly stood there & some did clearly not want it taken so out of respect I moved on. Me and another member of our group went on a hike after dinner and found beautiful Birds of Paradise plants, beautiful butterflies & woodpeckers that echoed the jungle. How quick we forget about the little things in our lives, and how we should slow down and enjoy them. When we got back "Passion of the Christ" was being shown, and by the end of the show around 34 or 35 kids gave themselves to Christ along with 15 adults and among those adults was one of the chiefs of the village. What a wonderful testimony for that village!! I was awakened tonight by a noise I had never heard before, it was a whaling sound and it was very loud but I had no idea what it was or who was doing it.

3/11/09

We all woke up this morning to a very somber quiet time; the whaling sound that woke me up was the family mourning over a Kuna boy that disappeared in the river last night. A group of 4 Kuna guys were on their way back from another village names "Torty", when all of the sudden their canoe hit something in the middle of the river throwing 2 of them out. Out of the 2 that went over board only one guy came up to the surface. The guy that disappeared was the son of the chief that gave himself to Christ the night before. He was 27 years old, and from what some of the Indians are saying a red mermaid came and got him. For now work has halted and can't be resumed until the chiefs get done meeting and discussing the events that have occurred. Lino our translator went and talked to the chiefs and came with news that we have been given the okay to start work on the church again, so Lino has left to go and check on the wood that is supposed to arrive. They have also sent out extra boats to search for the chief’s son, with everyone praying they find him alive somewhere but if not we just pray they find him & give the chief closure. Our group gathered together and had quiet time & Mark prayed for the chief & his family to give them the strength they need. Our hearts are heavy today for the family and we all shed a tear, we will try and show them the love we know they need right now. We wired the Styrofoam into place in the ceiling in pastor's house to help absorb the heat from the tin roof during the hottest parts of the summer. I needed a change of pace and it came @ the perfect time, Mark needed me to video him talking about the tragedy that happened so after then I went to our make shift kitchen hut & helped Royce prepare dinner for our group. Once we were done Sam Craig came and got us and took us to see the swing that part of our group built for the village. Tonight is some of our groups last night in the village; some will be staying behind until Friday in hopes of finishing as much as possible on the church.

3/12/09

After a very sleepless night, I may have gotten an hour or two of sleep between babies crying, men snoring & dogs fighting. I'm tired and I don't have much energy left in me, I guess maybe I'm shutting down knowing we are going back to the hotel today. After breakfast I sat around talking to Mark and a few others in our group. We weren't sure what time our boat was going to be there to pick us or even if it was going to be there at all, but we were all packed and ready to go. Around noon the 1x 12's finally arrived, but I just couldn't seem to muster up the energy right then to go and help set everything up to start cutting and nailing. I finally made myself get up & go out in the heat & once I got out there I had a burst of energy and came alive again. We got about half way done with the floor and we got word around 2:00 that our boat had arrived, so we took a quick group picture & headed down to the river to load up and head back to aquayalla. We arrived at our destination around 7:45 that evening, we unloaded our bags & went up to our waiting point, & Sam bought everyone a coke. Another group heading to Diwarsikwa where we just came from to drill a well, they picked us up a little after 9:00 that evening and took us back to Hotel Riande. At almost midnight we finally arrived at the hotel, for a much needed shower & meal.