Local Youth Leaders Gather at the Cabezon's Home

 

Sunday May 11th, Jen and Alex hosted a gathering of local youth leaders. They come from several communities within an hour of Chepo, and all serve in Wounaan churches.

The afternoon was spent in prayer, worship, discussion and planning. Not only was there general prayer, but intercession for the youth and then everyone there prayed for each other. What a wonderful group of dedicated leaders, and how good it is to spend time together to encourage each other, inform each other of what God is doing in each group, and to pray for one another.

Our Leaders, Active in the Community

Sunday,  May 4th, Jennifer Cabezon was asked to interpret at Gamboa Union Church. This was her home church while she was a leader at the Panama City base, and she still loves to visit and see friends there. Nuevas Culturas volunteer, Steve Ganz (pictured here) was asked to give the meditation for communion.

Pastor Bill Wilbur has been an amazing encourager to both Jen and Alex, and everyone who comes through these doors.

Official Recognition of the Chepo Center

The first weekend in April, the team from Chepo attended the Twentieth Anniversary celebration of YWAM Panama. It was held at the Chiriqui center near Boquete.

We were able to share with the conference about our first DTS, and student Irma Cabezon, together with her husband Diogracio, shared about her experiences. We were also able to pray for the Wounaan people, who are confronted with the loss of their ancestral lands.

We were blessed to receive prayer and words of encouragement from our YWAM leaders, both of Panama and the Central American director. One of the words which was shared was that our group will be like a strong tree, planted in Wouaan land, but the seeds of the fruit will be planted in many nations.

We were also encouraged to follow with joy and perserverance, two characteristics which describe very well the Indigenous people of Panama! Alex and Jennifer were also officially commissioned as the leaders of YWAM Nuevas Culturas in Chepo. Now we are a WYAM site in Las Margaritas de Chepo, focusing on the indigenous peoples of Panama.

It was a time of blessing and inspiration , to hear the great things which God will do around the world. We had to time to remember God's faithfulness throughout time. We give thanks to God for bringing us here, and hope to see great things in the future.

Our First DTS, Training for Vision and Worldview

Our class and staff, seven Wounaan and two American students

We have been a busy group over the last several months. Organizing our first DTS was quite a challenge. We met in a home for our classes and meals. Our schedule was unique as we accommodated families with small children. Because of school and university schedules, we finished our class phase during one summer (Dec - Feb) vacation and will do the outreach phase during the next vacation.

One of our goals was to instill a larger vision, a sense of purpose and a global worldview. We had teachers from Panama, the US, Costa Rica and Canada. They were American, Wounaan, Costa Rican and Samoan. We watched as the students gained a new idea of their importance and value in the Kingdom of God.  Our outreach phase was birthed out of praying for the place where we can be effective. We all agreed on focusing on the indigenous peoples of the Pacific NW of the US and Canada.

Our teacher Mu'a Va'a from BC via Samoa, brought all the ladies Samoan skirts.

Our current activities are centered on building our team identity and raising funds for the outreach.  We are also in the beginning stages of planning our next DTS (Spanish only) for July of 2015.