Day 6

Hola! me llamo Alex. Yo soy un hombre. Me gusta Manzanas. estoy alegre. Tu es muy simpatico. Donde Esta El bano. That's about all the Spanish I know (credits to my mission teammates and Duolingo for teaching me these few basic phrases), and seeing as how Panama is primarily a Spanish speaking country, I've had to face language barriers this entire trip. I have little to none of the skill set and qualities that good missionaries possess. I am introverted, not great with kids, poor at learning foreign languages, I'm not good at winging things, not to mention a lack of acting, art, music ability. At the end of the day though God still called me to Panama to serve in this short-term mission, just like how he called Jonah who wasn't even willing or particularly loving to Nineveh. In Philippians 4:13 it says that we can do all things through God who gives us strength, and through this trip I have began to understand that more. Despite all my shortcomings as a missionary God still has a role on this team for me. This trip has been quite the experience in learning humility as I take on a lesser role than my more qualified teammates and serve them as well as relying on God. Part of my responsibility was to come up with a VBS lesson and I modeled it after the Prodigal Son mixed with elements of the Lost Sheep/Coin as well as the story of Jesus Himself, it is told through the analogy of a disobedient frog and a forgiving zookeeper. It was really humbling to see how much I had to rely on my amazing and patient teammates, who God blessed me with, to help make it more suitable for our audience, and as a missionary who has been working with us, Susan, said it really required me to F.R.O.G (Forever Rely on God).

As far as today went, this morning we went to a church and ran a VBS program for some little kids. It was tougher than our usual program because there were more kids than we expected and they were a lot more energetic and aggressive. We sang songs (I'm sure someone has mentioned this already, but Merry has been doing an amazing job with the song segments for our VBS as well as worship), did our Frog skit, made paper bag Frogs, played Games and made balloon animals for them. In between we also gave them piggyback rides and played with the kids.

I want to thank everyone who has been praying for this trip, God has really answered our prayers requests and then some. Despite the fact that rain was expected on a daily basis, we have not been caught under any rainfall and have not been inconvenienced by the rain and despite a lot, a lot of sweating have been able to serve in the heat and humidity. We have developed a lot of love for one another on the team through all the opportunities to bond at the Score International facilities. Gifted translator have been present when needed and language barriers have been overcome. We have had many opportunities to show God's love to the people through sports ministries, VBS's, games, etc., and have not lost anyone despite our best efforts to lose Liz (Just Kidding).

Julie won't let me use my email so I'll post it here instead. Hey Mom, Dad, and Ashley! Just wanted to let you guys know I'm doing well and have grown a lot in my relationship with Christ and look forward to telling you more about the trip soon.

Chris Lee with Gloria

Chris Lee at Lunch

Chris Lee doing impromptu sports ministries