taxi for two...

12.30.2010

What a great day its been! Again i say, whoever says that this isn´t the rainy season is out of their mind....i think every season in Panama should be called the rainy season!
We spent our morning working on VBS and things for LaGloria before we made our way to Chiquita. What anticipation!!!! Kerri and i were praying that it wouldn´t be a downer after being so excited to visit....and we weren´t!!! As Joel as the tour guide, we saw how they brought the bananas in from the plantation and cut them off, send them into the water, sticker them, weigh them, and box them for shipment. amazing....
We also found out there are 21 ¨plants¨ in Changuinola and almost 1000 boxes of bananas go out a day at each plant....over 21000 bananas!! and the biggest bananas come from Changuinola...Joel wanted to make sure we knew that!! What a great trip to see where a few of our dear Panamanian friends work...and where some of our bananas come from! very cool!!!

(okay...so kerri is waiting for me to finish and so she is drawing pictures for this little girl. she drew a cow and the little girl in spanish pointed out that she forgot the utters....duh kerri!) :o) funny!!!

anyways...kerri and i are working very hard as the team leaders, making sure everything is perfect for everybody....well we forgot somebody today....oh my! we had to take two trips to the plantation in Mendosa´s suv. so the first group had 6 people and when it was our turn we had 5 people and weren´t really thinking about missing anyone....jeremy had even said that we had a lot of room in the car....
so as we were waiting for everyone, karen renner drives up in a taxi right next to the other load of people...it still didn´t occur to us that she had been left, we just thought they didn´t have enough room. anyways, while touring the plant she proceeds to let us know that she was upstairs in the church taking photos and came down to see we had already left...and left her! oh my!! what terrible leaders we are....(kristen gives us a D- today!)...if only we had our trusty missionary, Eliezel....we will somehow blame him!! :o)

we worked a bit more on the church until it began to rain! everyone is so excited at the relationships we are forming here with some new people. we were able to see some familiar faces today also. we are headed for dinner and then church (church here is tuesday and thursday instead of wednesday).

please be in prayer (and fasting, if you will) with us for our dear friend, Silvia. She has been extremely stressed and had very high blood pressure and chest pains today. She went to the hospital, accompanied by Marianne, and they have sent her home to rest. She was suppose to preach tonight and was very disappointed that she will not be able to. Jeremy will be preaching in her behalf....

also kerri and i received a message from our dear friend Juan Manuel, Manny as some of you know him as....he had something very disturbing and scary happen to him and his family. They are all fine, but please continue to pray for them also....

love to you all....

Kerri would not make a good fruit...

12.29.2010

Greetings!
Is it just me or does it not seem possible that Christmas was 4 days ago? I can´t believe it...but Changuinola is still decorated with trees, window paintings and greenery...just like in the States. Its kind of funny....
anyways....today was our first work day on the church. of course we woke up to rain. We were told it wouldn´t be the rainy season, but then discovered that just because they tore out the rain forest to create Changuinola doesn´t mean its not the rain forest, so....its rainy!
Today´s work consisted on sanding and priming the railing...it doesn´t seem like a whole lot, but we finished the job along with some odd and ends...
Joel came to visit us at the worksite and confirmed our trip to Chiquita. we are super excited to be able to go there tomorrow. kerri and i are secretly hoping for a gift shop...we´ll see....
The weather is sticky, but not as hot, so we aren´t complaining by any means! we´ll take it! We went to visit the Kuna Indians today, unfortunately Fresca and Elvis were not there and will not be back until after we leave...but we were able to see LaPidia and Fresca´s daughter. and of course get sized for our bracelets...that is MOST important!
Cabot greatest excitement for today (along with Jeremy, myself, Kerri, and Marianne) were the purchase of the shoeshine boxes....yes, as a souvenir, we bought the shoeshine boys´ boxes!!!
We are anticipating the great New Year´s service with our Panama church family...what a party it will be...they warned us of how loud it could get....Our dear friend Silvia has also invited us over her house for an after party...we are so very excited!
We are praying that all is well with you in the States and please continue to pray for us here doing God´s work in Panama....God bless you all....

CHANGUINOLA!!!!!!!!

12.28.2010

Greetings from Changuinola, Panama!! We are so very excited to finally be at our "home" for the next week!
After breakfast at the seminary and a beautiful double rainbow we left for our excursion to Panama. Our bus ride to Changuinola was pretty much uneventful...Abel, our bus driver and his brother, Leo drove us through the rainforest to get here. The rainforest was....well.....rainly! :o)
Of course we had to walk across the "trusty" bridge by sharing it with 18 wheelers and others. Charlotte received a shoe shine by a boy named Wilbur, so we had Cabot Wilbur get his photo with him. He even had a Superman shirt on....
We arrived to Changuinola to find more rain and some new signs, businesses. Those who have been on the trip will be glad to know they have a new pizzeria in town!! Just down the road on the way to the church...needless to say, there will probably be a food review coming up! :o)
We had dinner and church service with the church people. There are many new faces in the church! Praise God!! Pastor Nieves and family were there along with Silvia, Lesbia, and several others.
We will begin work on the church tomorrow morning. Our work will consist of sanding and priming/painting the railing, painting some of the bottom floor (bathroom and office), and making a cement slab to the entrance of the bottom floor and then tiling it. They also will be getting windows for the upstairs.
We have many plans for this week, including a Chiquita tour!! Please continue to pray for our group and we will continue to pray for you as we ring in the New Year!!!

Adios!!

BUENOS DIOS....

12.28.2010

Good Morning! It is a sunny, cool morning in San Jose today. We arrived yesterday afternoon to very cool and rainy weather so the sunny is definitely a refresh!

Flights went well (lost some luggage, but received them this morning!) and Eliezel with our trusty bus driver met us at the airport. After lunch (PIZZA!), we spent the day relaxing, napping, and walking around the seminary.

We received some bad news when we arrived....our wonderful missionary Eliezel will not be traveling to Panama with us this time. There was another team that arrived here last night who needs his assistance more than us...we were extremely sad (a bit upset!), but what a compliment to know that he trusts us enough to allow us to go ahead without him. A lady from the church arrived last evening to travel with us.

We will be eating breakfast this morning and then heading that way....a 7-8 hour bus ride!!

Please continue to pray for us as we travel and the work that is ahead of us in Changuinola. We are so very excited to reunite with our Panama friends!!!

Here are the names of the people on the trip....maybe you can pray for us by name?

Jeremy McLaughlin
Rebekah McLaughlin
Cabot McLaughlin (especially him....he's been sick! :o( )
Kerri Manis
Karen Wenger
Kristen Cook
Jama Pyle
Sheila Baker
Marianne New
Anna Shreves
Karen Renner
Darrell McKnight
Charlotte McKnight

we will continue to update when we can, hopefully with photos also! :o)