Panamá summertime (if weather actually decides to stay dry) greetings in Jesus!

Thank you for your ongoing support in finance and prayer that makes possible our work here in Panamá and these brief ministry reports we share with you.

AD Kids is the Assemblies of God national ministry for the next generation. They started off the year with a Leaders Workshop, expecting maybe 75 people and well over 200 showed up! The focus was strengthening the ministry of kids church at the local level.

Directors Luis & Cenit Mendoza asked us to join sharing a workshop where we asked the question: “Entertainment or Training? Why not both?” We included dynamic and fun biblical learning activities that involve all the senses and activate kids’ participation.

Afterword Cenit shared her appreciation for our participation, saying we provide covering as their spiritual parents. While it makes us feel a little bit older, we couldn’t be more proud of Luis & Cenit if they were our kids. They’re doing a great work motivating and preparing leaders of the next generation. Please pray for all the AD Kids team as we travel to the Occidental zone later this month for the Training Workshop in their region.

The following week we traveled up the mountains for the annual Ngobe Family Conference. Last year attendance was limited to just a few hundred pastors and wives. Thankfully this year restrictions were lifted. Over 3000 dear Ngobe pastors, leaders, and families with grandparents, moms and dads, and kids of all ages, gathered for a week of seeking the Lord while camping by the river.

Walquiria Valdes, daughter of our beloved departed Pastor Julio Valdes who began this ministry, did a great job organizing the classes for each age group, for marrieds and singles, for ministerial preparation, and for the baptismal candidates. Seventy-five new believers followed Jesus being baptized in the river, many of them overcome with emotion afterward and collapsing on the shore as they prayed in the Spirit for a good long time.

Each family received a large sack of dried food goods, hygiene items, and various clothing donated by Abundant Life Church and delivered thanks to Convoy of Hope.

A serendipitous surprise was bumping into Pastor Cesar Rivera and his eldest daughter Ana Sarai. For those of you who have received our newsletters for many years, and if you have a really good memory, you might remember the Rivera family as the pastors / directors of the church and LACC school we helped in the Guaymí community (now called Ngobe) of Duíma. Here is a little Ana Sarai doing a craft. It was around that age that Pastor Cesar said she received a call from God to serve her community through medicine. Here is Ana Sarai last week, now a recently graduated doctor, heading off for her first internship. She plans to return to the mountain community of her childhood to serve as a medical doctor! Next generation ministry in action—ya gotta love it!

It was very special to be able to celebrate Yvonne’s birthday with Tony and Paola in person, and later with the rest of our kids on a video chat. While it is true that you never reveal a lady’s age, I can admit that both of us are now enjoying the “senior” discounts that Panama offers (much younger age than in the US)!

For upcoming ministry, in addition to the AD Kids workshop end of the month, please pray with us for the Assemblies of God Annual Business Session. All Panamanian ministers gather to vote for national leadership, receive national reports, and seek the Lord for a move of God to guide the future of our movement. To that end, we welcome as special speaker the pioneer missionary who began the AG work in Panamá, Rev. David Godwin. We missionaries will do election tallying again.

For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

Hebrews 4:12-13 (NIV)

With gratitude and appreciation we ask the Lord to richly bless you!