Rodeo Viejo

I am going to tell a few of the stories that I had a chance to journal on my last trip to Panama. They are stories where I was privileged to see the hand of God and I believe that they can be encouraging to you too.

Today was our first day in the village and it was low key due to the massive amounts of rain that has fallen for the past 12 hours or so. We were not able to be a mobile as we wanted to be because the roads and paths are literally rivers. About mid morning we decided that we came here to do a work so went got dressed in all the rain gear that we could and headed out. Rain gear, for the locals that means a large trash bad at best.

I started walking with my translator Aaron and 4 other believers down this muddy trail while our mud boots began filling up with water. Aaron and I were getting to know each other since we had never meet nor worked together. I wanted to make a relationship with him before we reached the first home where we were planning to share the gospel. After about 30 minutes and being totally soak i found out that Aaron was born into a Catholic family, goes to a local University, has never been on a camping trip like this, and he had know idea that a person could have a personal relationship with Jesus(God). He said that he knew that is what he needed and has known that for a while but he had no idea how to do that. I began to ask him some questions, really I was trying to talk him out of this right now because I didn’t want it to seem as though I talked him into salvation or praying a prayer during our first conversation. I couldn’t! He was almost begging me to share with him how you start a real relationship with God. So, we stopped right there in the rain and mud and I shared with him how he can talk to God, and God can actually start working in his life. His eyes lit up and I asked him if he wanted to talk to God right there. He said, “Here? You can talk to God here? and He will come in to my life and forgive me, here?” I told him that he could do this anywhere and anytime but he said he wanted to right there and right now. I stopped the other men that were with us and shared with them our conversation. We lead Aaron in a simple prayer and a huge smile took over.

I hope that this is going to be a great week of disciplining for the guy and a great start to his personal relationship with God. I could go home happy right now!