Today we head back. We’ll leave the camp pretty early in the morning, and fly out of Panama City at 10 to arrive in Newark a little after 4. Thanks for all your support and prayer, we can’t wait to share what God’s done over the last week with you!

Our last day in Panama! Today we’ll be cleaning the camp and helping them out with anything they need as they prepare for an Easter conference. Hopefully if we finish cleaning in time we’ll be able to hike the neighboring mountain or do other “crazy things” as Mirko Delibasich (one of the missionaries we’re working with) promised us. Pray for energy and a good attitude as we do some low key behind the scenes ministry.

Today is our day of tourism. After visiting some local schools and giving them the school supplies we have left, we’ll head to the Panama Canal to check it out. After spending the morning at the Canal, we’ll grab some lunch and head to the markets for a little shopping and sightseeing. As it gets dark we’ll head to the Cuna Indian tribe to go to their night church.Pray for safe travel and a fun time together as a group

Pulling out of Chepo and heading toward our final destination. On the way we’ll stop by an orphanage and hang out with the kids there. The guys will try to head to a prison and visit with the inmates. This will probably be a crazy day emotionally because the situation that these kids are in is not good. The orphans will be very happy to see us (but maybe that’s because we’re bringing them candy…), and it’ll be a great time playing soccer and other games with them. The ladies on the team will paint nails and do hair, and we’ll give the girls at the orphanage fun hair things to keep. After the orphanage we’ll hit the beach for a little bit in the late afternoon. It’ll be good to relax a little after several days of running around, and it’ll be nice to cool off in the Pacific! Tuesday night will find us at the Word of Life camp and in real (ish) beds!
Pray for safe travel and compassion for the orphans

Chepo again, hanging out with the kids and such. More coloring and hopefully some soccer or volleyball or something. We’ll also try to put ourselves to work helping out with any manual labor needed around the village.
Pray for energy and good interactions with each other and the villagers.

Church in Chepo in the morning, then we’ll head out to visit the Piriati Indians. We’ll travel by dugout canoe to their village, and there we’ll do similar things that we did in Chepo. We’ll definitely play with the kids, probably explore the village a little, and look for interesting wildlife. As we interact with the Indians we’ll show God’s love through our service and our friendship. We’ll have church with the Piriatis at night, and that’ll probably involve having a group member or two share his or her testimony. After that we’ll hop back in the canoes and head to Chepo for another hot night in the church.
Pray for safe travel, energy, and health as it’ll be our second day in the heat. Also pray for the breaking down of language barriers and the ability to minister to (and be ministered to) by people who are very different than we are.

Today we’re flying out! Flight at 8, and we’ll get in at noon (2 EST). From the airport we’ll grab a quick lunch then head straight to Chepo. In Chepo we’ll play with kids in the village and visit with the older Panamanians as well. We have candy and coloring books, as well as balls and games. We’ll be available to help out with anything in the village, but today our main focus will be working with the kids. Chepo is a very poor area, but the villagers have an incredible heart for God. We’ll be able to give rice and flour to all 20 of the families, which will help them out immensely. We’ll sleep on the air mattresses in the church at night. Luckily we’ll be tired, because it’ll probably be hot in the building with all the fans off (Chepo turns their generator off at night, so no power while we’re sleeping!).
Pray for energy, safety, and fun, as well as a spirit of service and eyes opened to see the hearts of those that are less fortunate materially than we are.

The Triumph of Wawa

After some delicious Wawa our fun filled adventure continued into New Jersey, where we were greeted with some great pizza and warm hospitality by the Meyer family. It has already been a great time and we're excited to get down there tomorrow.

-Jordan

Seriously, Mr. WaWa?!

We just got in to Becca's house and we're enjoying the pizza and sweet home of the Meyer's!

Our trip started out a little later than expected due to some last minute Wal-Marting, along with some other tomfoolery by fellow members Jordan Malenke, Andy Gerber and Luke Johnston. After dividing up the luggage, our team split into 4 cars: the partymobile (Bryan Wetstone, Tim Steffins, Andy Gerber and Kjersten Whiting), the speed demon (Shannon Page and Bethany Waters), the tic-tac-toemobile (Luke Johnston, Garrison Moore, Joanna Lawson and Amanda Deer) and the hang-manmobile (Jordan Malenke, Betsy Dewey, Jamie Lorah and Becca Meyer).

Halfway through the trip, we stopped at a Wawa to pick up some food/refuel but, while comparing it to the much superior Sheetz, were politely asked to "take our conversation outside." A little after 10 we arrived at the Meyer's house, where we were treated to the Meyer's hospitality in the form of pizza, sweet tea, and chocolate chip cookies. Currently, our group is playing some Wii and talking about our past week of tests and homework and the next week in Panama. Were all tired from this week but so far excited about this trip. Well see how energetic we are when we wake up at 4 to get ready to head out to the airport.

Buenas Noches y vaya con Dios amigos

~Bryan

Friday:
Leaving today! After 3 and a half months of planning and preparing it’s finally time to head out! Today we leave the school at 3 and head to Becca Meyer’s house for the night. We have over 25 lbs of candy, a lot of t-shirts, and all our stuff to pack in 3 cars and an SUV, then we’re off on a seven hour drive to southern New Jersey. Tonight we’ll get in and pretty much go to bed because we’re heading out at 4:30 tomorrow morning to get to the airport on time.
Pray for safe travel and a good night’s rest, and excitement for the trip!

Gearing Up

This is our first post on the blog for the trip, and we're very excited to realize that we will be in Panama in a little over a week! It seems like just yesterday that we had our first informational meeting, and now we're already talking about the specific details of the trip.

Make sure to check out the sweet concert that the Society of Communication and Aesthetics is putting on this coming Thursday in Ket Rec from 8 - 11 pm. Great time to enjoy live music, art and food for FREE. All donations will gladly be accepted to benefit our trip.

We are going to try to update this blog throughout the trip and post pictures as they come.

Please continue to pray for last minute details, getting through the academic week, and an ability to focus on the real purpose of this trip.