ON THE FLIP SIDE

One week ago I posted on this thing, feeling less than encouraged, sleep deprived, unable to focus, a little lonely, scared, and disheartened. I was short $10 000.00 needed to complete this year, and had been made aware of one too many support raising miracle stories, and wondering when my "miracle God story" was going to happen. Instead of being encouraged, I was jealous.I had spent maybe 10 hours in 10 days outside the walls of my apartment and was going a little stir crazy. A "good nights sleep" was lasting about 4 hours, and my coffee maker had broken to top it off! Instant coffee is brutal in the best of times, and from my point of view, I was dead center in the middle of the worst!

But, here I am one week later, posting from the same seat, alone in the apartment with my computer and worship music playing accompanied to those same muffler-less buses and I have a totally new outlook from where I was one week ago.

My ministry will always have different seasons. For as long as I am in ministry there will be ups and downs, there will days when all I see through the haze is spiritual attacks and days when nothing is clearer to me than God's glory. Today, I am able to see God's glory shining much much brighter than I could a week ago. And I wonder how I could ever miss seeing something so powerful it at all, and realize that I didn't miss God's glory, I just chose to over look it like it wasn't there at all.

About a week ago during a sleepless night I accidentally woke one of my roommates by singing in the middle of the night. I was singing a beautiful song by Hillsongs, Through It All. That night my song was a claim on a promise that we have from God, that He will never leave us, never forsake us, and see us through it all. The song goes like this.

You are forever in my life You see me through the seasons
Cover me with Your hand and lead me in Your righteousness
And I look to You
And I wait on You
I will sing to You, Lord A hymn of love
For Your faithfulness to me, I'm carried in everlasting arms, You'll never let me go

Through it all

Today I am sitting with a steaming cup of coffee from my new coffee maker, a purchase that I held off making until I knew I would be staying in Panama until my intern year is up. I still have more to raise, but I know that it is coming. It was a faith purchase. No one else in my apartment drinks coffee as much as me, so unless I stay, the broken machine would not have been replaced. I am trusting that the God who has provided thus far will continue to provide for me as He continues to see me through it all.

Late Nights...

It is 12:41am Tuesday February 19th. I desperately want to sleep, but it just won't come. I think I have committed myself to one more late night/early morning of support raising. Why can't I focus in the afternoon around say, 2:30pm...a much more civil hour. For some reason and I have no clue what that is, I am focusing better these days after the clock strikes 12 midnight.

Everyone else in the house has gone to bed, I am alone with my computer, some worship music, my Bible, and the sound of buses without mufflers rumbling down the street. I am sipping ice water and hot tea, wishing I had remembered to buy soy milk when I was out earlier, a bowl of granola would be awesome right now. Oh well, I'm not the hungry anyways.

In my head I am starting a list of everything I could be doing right now; cleaning my room, choreographing a dance, making soup, getting ahead on some reading, painting my toe nails...where is sleep on that list? Oh yeah...it isn't there.

My playlist has been repeating the same 20 songs for about 36 hours straight now...still not bored of them. My Bible is opened to Ezekiel, sometimes I find the Old Testament hard to read, tonight I am just not awake enough to get anything that I can apply to my life from it...I am going to read through some of Mark, focus on the red letters. I'll pick up where I left off in Ezekiel tomorrow.

Is this spiritual warfare? I don't know. But I know that I need to do my part to allow God to work so I can stay here in Panama. I have 146 emails to send to supporters in the next 24 hours. And darn it, I forgot to phone my Dad like I promised. Make that 147 emails.

OFF WITH A BANG

If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray, seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
– 2 Chronicles 7:14

It’s back to school and we’re back on campus!
(R-L: Steve, Trish, Jess, Jon, Lindsey, & Sarah)

6 Crazy Canadians
1 week
1 table
4 new Bible studies
Countless Bibles, Pamphlets, CDs, Explanations of Vida Estudiantil
1 NEW SISTER IN CHRIST!!!

Please stop whatever you are doing and take a moment to
Praise our Lord.
Praise Him! Praise Him! Praise Him!

To you, my family in Christ and partners in the Gospel; may God bless you. In your faithfulness to God, God has remained faithful once again to us and has not overlooked your obedience to Him. He has heard your prayers from heaven. He is forgiving sins; he is healing the land…one soul at a time. There is victory in the Gospel!

We have started off the year with a bang! For one week we blitzed the campus at Universidad Interamericana, surveying students about the Gospel, handing out free Bibles, DVDs with testimonies, sharing about the vision of Vida Estudiantil, generating exposure within the student population and sharing the Gospel.

By God’s grace, He has used this ministry to bring one more student into a personal relationship with Him. This is exciting always, but especially this time as this is the first student to come to faith since we have started our ministry at Universidad Interamericana, only a few months ago. What a miracle, what a blessing!

I have been reminded recently of how often people labor for the Lord for their entire lives and never see the fruit of their Labor while they are here on Earth, and it is not until Heaven that they see the results. What a blessing you and I have to see the fruit of our ministry. God’s word is real, God’s word is true, God’s word has a promise; “the harvest is plentiful” (Matt 9:37). As I walk around the campus at Universidad Interamericana, I am constantly reminded of how many students have yet to be counted in that harvest. I am surrounded by people who are entering into a stage of their life where they will have great impact regardless of where they go. My heart breaks, what if the message doesn’t get there fast enough? How can it get there faster?

We have surveyed 75 women you have indicated interest in Bible studies, but there are many more who have indicated wanting to know how they can have a personal relationship with Jesus. Imagine if all 75 showed up to Bible study, imagine if all 75 started sharing Christ with their classmates, and then, just imagine how abundant the harvest would be then.

I can’t do this on my own. My team can’t do this as just the six of us. But it remains, “the harvest is plentiful, and the workers are few”. Each new sister in Christ, like our new sister last week is a miracle, but as important as each new life in Christ is, we have come to Panama not just for the harvest, but for the workers.

As I look forward into the second half of my time here in Panama, I am praying that your legacy would continue on. I am asking God to provide not just a bountiful harvest, but the workers also to continue what you have started. Apple trees grow fruit year after year regardless of if someone is there to pick them. The fruit gets picked or falls off the tree and rots away. I want to leave Panama knowing that the seeds planted by God, through our partnership will not rot away, that they will be harvested, that the work will continue. It is our time not in the fields, but spent with the workers, training them, that is ensuring that someone will be prepared for the harvest years from now.

So how does that happen? Where do we go from here? I have once again included my mid year praise report and prayer requests to this update, as the year is still young, and the requests still the same petitions to our Lord. I would like to contact you within the week to reconnect and to chat about how we can ensure that no harvest gets passed by, and that there will be workers for many years to come here in Panama. I look forward to chatting and connecting with you once again in the near future!

God bless you.

Love,
Sarah