Saturday morning we got up ready to get our apartment whipped into shape. I washed and put clean sheets on both guest beds and Rick straightened his office/guest room. Then he ran some errands so I could mop. Lastly I got myself cleaned up so we could head to the airport. We picked up our friend, Carmen, and her two great children Bryce and Trista and took them to the mall for dinner. Then we rode the train, did a bit of shopping with them and ended with ice cream!

On Sunday they had to be back at the airport in the afternoon so we made a quick trip to the Canal:

We all enjoyed watching this ship come through the lock:

Carmen, Josh, Trista and Bryce were one of the first families that we had the pleasure to get to know when we worked at our training center in Virginia in 2012. Loved having an opportunity to be with them again. We headed to a mall where I took Carmen to a great grocery store and Rick took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese for some fun. Made it to the airport in plenty of time to get them on their plane back to Brazil!

Love how God gives us these little sweet surprises!

The week in El Valle had been on the calendar for a long time - actually more than a year. As the time grew closer, we still did not know exactly what God wanted the group to do, but we absolutely knew that He had a plan. It was great fun watching Him develop it!

Saturday evening we knew this was our group behind the doors of customs:

Soon the doors opened and out they came with smiles already on their faces:

In just the small amount of time that we had with the team that evening, we sensed that this was indeed a very special group of teenagers. Their joy and enthusiasm was already shining through. And their leaders told us that even the airport officials in Atlanta had noticed how polite they were - testimonies were already being given!!! We had asked for a small group since this was our first time to work in El Valle and we had asked for THE BEST students. We believe we got them!

Saturday evening was spent in a hotel near the airport. On Sunday we put our packed bags in our car and met them to go to church:

Rick told them a few things about El Dorado Baptist where we would be going:

We arrived early and waited for the Sunday School classes to end:

At this point one of our precious MKs, Didi, joined us and is sitting by me in this photo. Didi is a senior this year, an absolutely marvelous girl, and we are going to miss her terribly when she graduates! The pastor had the group come to the front of the church to give some words of greeting and Didi took photos for us:

Rick and I were pretty much beaming with pride as we got to share with our pastor that this group came from our sending church that we left 23 years ago, and that some of their parents had been in our youth group:

After church we went to eat lunch. Here are Nick and Ryan:

Val and Jacob:

Didi, Olivia, Delaney, Hannah and Alex:

Olivia, Abbey, Julia and Bryce:

The great adult sponsors: Mike and Tammy and Barry. We have been friends with Mike and Tammy for many years and we enjoyed getting to know Barry, who is now on staff, very much!

Then it was time to visit the Canal on our way out of town:

How wonderful is it for a dad to take two of his children on a mission trip!!

Hannah at the controls:

Oops the ship might be in trouble now!

Fun view from the simulator:

If you ever need a team to be prepared for mission work, we can highly recommend these two for the job. They met faithfully with these young people and gave them the best preparation!!! So thankful to be their friends:

We have to always get this photo of the dirt mover:

Then we made the 2+ hour drive to El Valle, arriving just at sunset. We tried to capture some photos:

The Hostel we stayed at was called The Windmill. I will share some photos that we took from a previous trip so you can see what it looked like:

All of our rooms were down this hallway:

We had the entire hostel to ourselves and could lock it up each evening. Girls' room:

Guys' room:

Adult rooms:

Kitchen:

Toilet facilities:

Fun game/meeting room:

Julia - quite pleased with her dart throwing abilities:

We went to dinner. I had the shrimp soup:

Don't mess with girls with knives!

Caught the guys at the end of their blessing:

Then it was time to get a good night's rest, having no idea what the morning would bring!! After breakfast on Monday morning, Rick and Barry took two of the students and went to the primary school to ask if they could use our team. While they were gone, Mike, Tammy and I went to get groceries. Rick came back with the word that the school would like for us to come and talk to their English classes at 7:00 Tuesday morning!! There was a lot of rejoicing when we received this word and we knew God was definitely at work!!

We did a pretty long prayer walk then, going around a big circle praying for all the households that we saw, the businesses, the bars, etc. We know how powerful prayer is and we wanted to call down God's power in that place!

Tat afternoon we decided to go into town and introduce the team to our friend, Theo, the wood carver:

Rick introduced him to the group:

Theo showed him the tools he uses:

And demonstrated how he does his work by hand:

Then he took us into the room where he leads men in an alcoholics anonymous meeting each evening:

He shared very honestly how he had wasted many years of his life but has now been sober for 25 years and has learned the skill of woodcarving. I always love taking a photo of this view from his shop:

And also the beautiful flowers:

Then we took everyone to the market where they could buy some of Theo's work and other fun things:

Love girls in hats!

Mike trying out one of the chairs:

A pretty view from the market:

Every evening after dinner Rick did a Bible study on missions. The team would share observations of the day and prepare for the next day. Tuesday was our first day at school. This is a shot of the primary school:

Here is Daniel, the English teacher, with the group. We purposely did not take too many photos at the beginning, being aware that the children were minors and also that we wanted to be very respectful. Daniel asked for this photo:

This is where the students got really brave!! We thought they would be in groups of three and the students would rotate around to different centers that they had prepared with English activities. Oh, no!!! Daniel took EACH one of them to a classroom where they worked for over an hour!!!! Now that took lots of courage, thinking on their feet, and many prayers! I helped out in a kindergarten room and then in a class of 8 and 9 years olds. Rick and the other adults all went into a classroom, too. It was quite the mental workout to come up with different things that they could do! I have SO much admiration for the team for the way they handled it like PROS!!! Not a single complaint was made! I would like to see any group of adults do what they did that morning!

In the afternoon there was time for a bit of well-deserved relaxation:

As we got ready to leave for dinner, I was honored the girls asked for photos with me! Julia:

Olivia:

Abbey:

Olivia:

Hannah:

Alex:

Delaney:

The group's transportation for the week:

Dinner was at a delicious pizza place in this pretty plaza:

There were more photo opportunities with the gorgeous mountains that I am sharing for any parents who might read this!

Part of the group:

Hannah:

Alex:

Nick:

Mike and Tammy:

Abbey:

Ryan:

Jacob:

Olivia:

Olivia:

Barry, Bryce and Abbey:

Nick and Val:

Julia and Olivia:

Girls having fun:

(And for those who are in on the joke) Could this be Hannah taking a "celestial leap"? ☻

Rick and I got in on the fun, too:

A little more serious:

Well maybe this is better:

The mountain deserved its own photo!

On Wednesday we were asked to come back to the primary school to work with the older students. They go to the second session of school in the same building which begins at 12:30. Wednesday morning we got the treat to going to a beautiful spot for prayer over the valley:

Of course some selfies had to be made:

We climbed higher and lots more photos were made:

Nathan is a Christian young man who lives in El Valle and he directed us where to go:

Again we were honored by those who wanted photos with us! Hannah:

Abbey:

Julia:

Alex:

It really was an incredible view:

I tried some panoramic shots:

We got a look at our next destination:

Then we prayed over the valley as a group and sang some praise songs - a very beautiful time. Climbing down:

Made it:

Last group:

Fun painted rock on the side of the road:

One last look at this place:

Nathan picked this place for us to have our individual devotion time:

Again the views were amazing:

Great place to meet with God:

We gathered for a couple more songs:

Road we traveled on:

Fun group of pine trees:

Back in town I was able to get a couple shots of some beautiful trees:

We ate lunch and went back to the primary school. In this afternoon session, our team was allowed to go into the classroom in pairs. The upper level classes knew more English so this time seemed more beneficial to them. When we went back to the hostel, Rick left again with Barry and two students to see if the high school might want some help. They came back with the wonderful news that ALL the English teachers would love help in the high school and we were invited to come at 3:00 the next afternoon. A BIG answer to prayer and more evidence that God was really moving and openiing doors!

Wednesday evening we attended prayer meeting at the local (and only) Baptist church:

Iglesia Restauracion En Christ:

This photo turned out really dark but Pastor Roddy came into El Valle from Panama City by bus just to have this midweek service with us. He is bi-vocational and sleeps in the church Saturday evenings in order to have services on Sunday mornings:

These two little friends were so darling! We asked permission to take a photo:

Then they tried to teach Julia and Olivia one of their songs:

On our way to get some ice cream, God gave Hannah the desire of her heart - something she had been talking about since she arrived - spotting a sloth!!!!!!

He used the power lines to cross over to a tree:

Don't bother trying to tell me that God does not delight in giving good gifts to His children!!

Thursday morning we cooked breakfast and the students were given a longer bit of time for their devotions. Tammy and I made our last trip to the grocery store and everyone got ready to go to the primary school, not having any idea what we would be doing on this day! However, once there, they lined up like horses at the starting gate, ready for whatever opportunity lay ahead:

Immediately we were told that we had been given permission by the principal to do the skit that the group had prepared!!! We made sure they knew that it was about creation and the life of Christ - the crucifixion and resurrection - and they said that was great because the coming week was Holy Week. The students had NO idea of that timing when they prepared the skit!! God works ON time EVERY time!! We had seen the stage and knew it was perfect!!

The students came in with their teachers:

Rick and I had translated the narration into Spanish and three girls read it like PROS!!! The first was Delaney:

The land separated the waters:

Hannah was the second narrator:

The enemy serpent tempting Adam and Eve to eat the fruit:

Our Adam and Eve:

Third narrator was Alex:

The play was really well received! Taking their bows at the end:

After that we also got to do some sports.We had been asking about that all week and on this day we found out the students only have sports two hours each week. So that part made a little more sense.

Volleyball:

Basketball:

Soccer:

Ping pong:

The coach asked for a photo:

Then at 3:00 we entered the high school. Here are a few shots of the buildings and the view they have:

This was probably the TOUGHEST challenge of the whole week. Many of the high school students were timid and some just did not have a lot of interest in learning English. However, as they had every day, our students pushed through, persevered and made the best of the situation. They got to go into the classes in groups of 4 so that made it a little easier. We were invited back to do the middle school group English classes the next morning!

As we went to dinner, we once again had a pretty photo opportunity so enjoy:

Could not love this group of girls any more!!

Prom pose! lol

Found some gorgeous hydrangeas:

After dinner that evening we had Bible study and everyone packed as much of their stuff as they could. After breakfast Friday morning they did their final packing and we headed back to the high school to be in the English classes for the 7th and 8th graders. This went a bit better since the students were younger than our team. They also seemed to know more Spanish than the high school students!!

Here are two of the teachers:

One of them shared with me that we were the VERY first group to come into the high school to help them. That amazed me! She also asked me to take photos and send them to her to put on the bulletin board. Therefore I feel I can share them here (but not on facebook in general). I am mainly sharing them for the team:

Then we had a special treat. These high school students came to show us a special project that they are working on:

They are all majoring in tourism and are working hard on their English. The students have been working on clearing a path through the woods above their school and they led us through it. I went with half the group to translate and Rick went with the other half. These photos are from my group:

Signs are going to be made out of this wood to identify trees and plants along the path:

View from the school:

Its own papaya tree:

Group photo on campus:

Hannah and another sloth!

Rick and I leaving the school:

Then it was time to go back to the hostel, get our vans loaded and say goodbye to two Roberts. The one on the left helped us all week setting up restaurants and the hike and other logistics. He has come from Nashville to live in El Valle and actually found this particular hostel for us. The Robert on the right is the manager of the hostel:

We ate lunch on the road, drove across the Bridge of the Americas and made it up Ancon Hill for some pretty views of Panama City:

More selfies were necessary!

We made it to their hotel around 5:00. Everyone got their luggage into their rooms and Rick and Mike returned the rental van to the airport. This is such a beautiful place!

A well deserved treat for a job very WELL done:

We had dinner with the group at the hotel. Then came the very difficult goodbyes!! That is the part I always dislike so much. I can't say enough good things about the ministry they did! We definitely feel that they not only touched hearts and lives this week, but they also opened doors for future ministry! We will always love them and will always be grateful to them!!

I don't have time to do justice to Rick's photos tonight but I wanted to put a few on the blog. Maybe I will have a chance to go back and explain them...as soon as he has time to explain them to me!! Haha! We are doing a quick turn around before we both leave for a week. That meant getting his clothes washed today so he could re-pack and finish last minute preparations. I think I mentioned that he got to go to a soccer game last Sunday evening. That was really big!

The next evening they got to ride the train to Toledo, known for making knives:

This is where I am unclear on what is what so I am just going to share the photos:

This evening at 9:00 we were at the airport to greet the high school group coming from our sending church in Cleveland, Tennessee!

GREAT group - so excited, friendly, happy. One of the neat things about them is that at least 3 of them come from parents who were in our youth group WAY back when!!! That makes us feel so good. And some got right off the plane saying they want to be missionaries. Well, alrighty then. I do believe this will be a really great week. We will take them to our church tomorrow, tour the Canal and then drive 2 1/2 hours to El Valle where they will spend the rest of their week. Pretty neat for them to be so excited about spending their spring break doing things for the Lord in a strange country in another language. Very proud of them indeed. Now I HAVE to get to bed!!

This morning I a friend and I met at a nearby restaurant that just recently opened:

The little store part kinda reminds one of a Cracker Barrel. They sell organic produce from local farmers and a variety of other products. We chose to sit here:

There was a great breeze and the temperature was just right plus we had great conversation!

This afternoon I receive an e-mail which I thought was very humorous:

"PASTOR: "Praise the Lord!"

CONGREGATION: Hallelujah!"

PASTOR: "Will everyone please turn on their tablet, PC, iPad, smart phone, and Kindle Bibles to 1 Corinthians, 13:13.

And please switch on your Bluetooth to download the sermon."

P-a-u-s-e......

"Now, Let us pray committing this week into God's hands.

Open your Apps, BBM, Twitter and Facebook, and chat with God"

S-i-l-e-n-c-e

"As we take our Sunday tithes and offerings, please have your credit and debit cards ready."

"You can log on to the church Wi-Fi using the password 'Lord909887.'

The ushers will circulate mobile card swipe machines among the worshipers:

a. Those who prefer to make electronic fund transfers are directed to computers and laptops at the rear of the church.

b. Those who prefer to use iPads can open them.

c. Those who prefer telephone banking, take out your cell phones to transfer your contributions to the church account.

The holy atmosphere of the Church becomes truly electrified as ALL the smart phones, iPads, PCs and laptops beep and flicker!

Final Blessing and Closing Announcements.
a. This week's ministry cell meetings will be held on the various Facebook group pages where the usual group chatting takes place. Please log in and don't miss out.
b. Thursday's Bible study will be held live on Skype at 1900hrs GMT. Please don't miss out.
c. You can follow your Pastor on Twitter this weekend for counseling and prayers.

God bless and have a nice day."

The e-mail was definitely humorous but there is a lot of truth to it, also. I am still not comfortable taking my iPad to church and looking up the Scripture passage. Oh, I don't think there is anything wrong with it and if I am traveling and that is all I have, okay. However, I still prefer to actually look in my Bible!! I still actually prefer to put offering in the offering plate (where Rick and I go, you actually go to the front of the church to do that!). If I were a coffee drinker, I would feel a bit funny carrying my cup with me into the sanctuary. I am very thankful for all forms of social media and use most of them. I am not being critical AT ALL of any who use them in worship service or anywhere else. It just occurred to me, however, that I am just a bit old-fashioned about church and probably I will stay that way.

One of the first notices I got from Rick was this photo from the soccer stadium Sunday evening. SO thrilled he got to go to a game!

He says his meetings have been going well. Yesterday he got to take the train into Toluca and look around. We sent each other messages through a good portion of the ride home with lots of "stickers" - little icons you can use on facebook messages. So fun!

Yesterday one friend posted this photo of the Jacaranda trees in Mexico. I enjoyed them SO much when we lived in Guadalajara!

And my dear friend in Barbados, Coraline, posted this photo of some flowers she was given in church Sunday. Just look at how beautiful she is! MISS her SO much!!!

Some photos from my walk last week:

You can't tell buy these are HUGE!

I think this is in the breadfruit family:

Really want to get closer to this with the good camera and take some shots. There are egrets there every morning:

One thing I worked on over the weekend was getting my inbox cleared. I started with 240 on Saturday and now it is at 25. I know it will grow again while we are gone next week but at least it won't be adding to the pile! Some of the letters were prayer updates which I just needed to enter into my prayer notebook. I also did some mending that I had been putting off and as I wrote last night I finished the Bonhoeffer book plus one fiction book. Got a couple of loads of laundry done yesterday and picked out some clothes to take with me next week. Someone wrote me that they hoped I would not get bored. That is NEVER a state I find myself in. I always have more that I want to do at the end of the day! However, I really miss Rick being here! ☺

Today's sunrise:

This afternoon I was blessed to be able to spend some time with one of the MK girls who will be graduating in early June. She is such a very lovely young lady and it made my day to get to be with her!! ☺

Today I finished reading the biography of Dietrick Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas, all 542 pages of it! At the end Bonhoeffer had been in prison well over a year and was thirty-nine years old. It has been discovered he had been part of a conspiracy to take Hitler's life. A bomb had been set off in Hitler's presence on July 20, 1944 but Hitler was not killed.

"So three weeks before taking his own life, in what was one of his final eruptions, Hitler railed against the men who had done this to him and gave instructions to Rattenhuber, the SS commander assigned to him: 'Destroy the conspirators!' Thus were the fates of Canaris, Oster, Sack, and Bonhoeffer sealed." .

In a sermon he preached while a pastor in London, Bonhoeffer said,

"No one has yet believed in God and the kingdom of God, no one has yet heard about the realm of the resurrected, and not been homesick from that hour, waiting and looking forward joyfully to being released from bodily existence.

Whether we are young or old makes no difference. What are twenty or thirty or fifty years in the sight of God? And which of us knows how near he or she may already be to the goal? That life only really begins when it ends here on earth, that all that is here is only the prologue before the curtain goes up--that is for young and old alike to think about. Why are we so afraid when we think about death?...Death is only dreadful for those who live in dread and fear of it. Death is not wild and terrible, if only we can be still and hold fast to God's Word. Death is not bitter, if we have not become bitter ourselves. Death is grace,the greatest gift of grace that God gives to people who believe in him. Death is mild, death is sweet and gentle, it beckons to us with heavenly power, if only we realize that it is the gateway to our homeland, the tabernacle of joy, the everlasting kingdom of peace."

One of the men in the prison with Bonhoeffer wrote this, "He had hardly finished his last prayer when the door opened and two evil-looking men in civilian clothes came in and said:

'Prisoner Bonhoeffer. get ready to come with us.' Those words 'Come with us'--for all prisoners they had come to mean one thing only--the scaffold.

We bade him good-bye--he drew me aside--'This is the end,' he said. 'for me the beginning of life.'"

"Bonhoeffer had theologically redefined the Christian life as something active, not reactive."

Bonhoeffer said, "If we want to be Christians, we must have some share in Christ's large-heartedness by acting with responsibility and in freedom when the hour of danger comes, and by showing a real sympathy that springs, not from fear, but from the liberating and redeeming love of Christ for all who suffer. Mere waiting and looking on is not Christian behaviour."

From prison: "I believe that nothing that happens to me is meaningless, and that it is good for us all that it should be so, even if it runs counter to our own wishes. As I see it, I'm here for some purpose, and I only hope I may fulfill it."

On Christ and the world: "In Jesus Christ the reality of God has entered into the reality of this world. As long as Christ and the world are conceived as two realms bumping against and repelling each other, we are left with only the following options. Giving up on reality as a whole, either we place ourselves in one of the two realms, wanting Christ without the world or the world without Christ--and in both cases we deceive ourselves...There are not two realities, but only one reality, and that is God's reality revealed in Christ in the reality of the world."

On abortion: "Destruction of the embryo in the mother's womb is a violation of the right to live which God has bestowed upon this nascent life. To raise the question whether we are here concerned already with a human being or not is merely to confuse the issue. The simple fact is that God certainly intended to create a human being and that this nascent human being has been deliberately deprived of his life. And this is nothing but murder."

This is one of the longest quotes so far but it is SO good. I also believe that we are not going to die one day before God has determined we will (unless we do something terribly foolish!):

"To be sure, God shall call you, and us, only at the hour that God has chosen. Until that hour, which lies in God's hand alone, we shall all be protected even in greatest danger; and from our gratitude for such protection ever new readiness surely arises for the final call.

Who can comprehend how those who God takes so early are chosen? Does not the early death of young Christians always appear to us as if God were plundering his own best instruments in a time in which they are most needed? Yet the Lord makes no mistakes. Might God need our brothers for some hidden service on our behalf in the heavenly world? We should put an end to our human thoughts, which always wish to know more than they can, and cling to that which is certain. Whomever God calls home is someone God has loved. 'For their souls were pleasing to the Lord, therefore he took them quickly from the midst of wickedness' (Sol. 4).

In life with Jesus Christ, death as a general fate approaching us from without is confronted by death from within, one's own death, the free death of daily dying with Jesus Christ. Those who live with Christ die daily to their own will. Christ in us gives us over to death so that he can live within us. Thus our inner dying grows to meet that death from without. Christians receive their own death in this way, and in this way our physical death very truly becomes not the end but rather the fulfillment of our life with Jesus Christ. Here we enter into community with the One who at his own death was able to say, 'It is finished.'"

From my reading yesterday and today:

"...his thinking that Christians cannot be governed by mere principles. Principles could carry one only so far. At some point every person must hear from God, must know what God was calling him to do, apart from others.

"The German culture and civilization that ...Bonhoeffer knew and loved would be obliterated from history. Future generations would be convinced that nothing good could ever have existed in a country that produced such evil."

"To be true to God in the deepest way meant having such a relationship with him that one did not live legalistically by 'rules' or 'principles.' One could never separate one's actionsfrom one's relationship to God."

"A major theme for Bonhoeffer was that every Christian must be 'fully human' by bringing God into his whole life, not merely into some 'spiritual' realm. To be an ethereal figure who merely talked about God, but somehow refused to get his hands dirty in the real world in which God had placed him, was bad theology."

On my Friday morning walk I saw these blooms again that I love:

And a neat egret. This was the best photo I could get with Little Pink:

However, we passed by the same spot Friday evening and I had the Sony with me so I could get this:

We were on our way here:

Yes, our Friday night date was pizza and bowling. I wish I could say we are both great bowlers but truthfully, we need a lot more practice. We had lots of fun anyway!

The full moon over the weekend was incredible!

We did a little shopping, too. This...

...became this:

It is really great to have that ceiling fan in place and also this little standing lamp:

It is so nice to slowly be getting the apartment fixed the way we want it!! On Monday I decided it was close enough to Easter to decorate the table:

Mother always decorated for every holiday so I was thinking of her as I did it. She made my Valentine's placemats and I made these Easter ones. She had some just like them. We loved the fabric.