Picture Day!!

Beunos dias la familia y amigos,

As you can tell, the mission team has been picking up Spanish quite well here in Panama. This post will be consisting of mostly pictures rather than descriptive writing to mix things up a little bit. Hope you enjoy!

Our day started with a Americana breakfast and a van ride to El Cuope. We loaded the vans with numerous suitcases full of beanie babies, flip flops, and tshirts to hand out to the Santa Marta ninos (children).


Our means of transportation for the day was, to say the least, interesting. 2 groups of 12 amigos squished into the back of a pickup truck with numerous luggages was made for close bonding.

At the top of the mountain we stopped for a group picture. The scenery was breath-taking.

We then arrived at Inglesia de Christo in Santa Marta.
Chris, Abbey, Hayden, Mama Murrey, Stephanie, Jeff, Bryan, and Mallory sorted the flip-flops and got the tshirts and beanie babies organized for the kids. While everyone else played "Chicle, Chicle" with the kids. It was great fun!
















Our mission team has all fallen in love with the native Panamians :)
Many kids walked in barefoot to receive new shoes.
Chris was well loved by the children, and Stephanie helped them pick out their favorite color of flip flop while making sure they fit. Also, Mallory and Bryan found a new member of their family, haha.
And Heath bonded well with the kids while playing games.












The ride back down the mountain consisted of riding through streams, a downpour, tarps over our heads, watering leaking down our backs, and the Panamians driving us watching soap operas in their dry, air conditioned trucks.

The trucks took up to El Cuope where we hiked to a miraculous waterfall. Cliche as it sounds, God has made some great handy work. We had fun jumping into the mucho frio (cold) water, sliding down the moss covered rocks, and standing under the falling water, and the boys, well, acting like boys.





























During service Mallory, Abby, and Jameson gathered the kids for a fun time of coloring and games.

After showering and a quick nap we headed back to El Cuope to participate in the church service. We were glad to hear that Peto's wifes' surgery went well, and she will have a rapido (fast) recovery. Please keep praying for his family, and for Segrada and her family. We are planning on doing something special for her later in the week.


This blog entry has taken an hour, and we are exhausted. We have a long work day tomorrow at the church site and thankfully some of the younger El Cuope boys will be helping us out. Hope you enjoyed all of the pictures and thank you for the blog comments. They are always encouraging and funny to read. Keep them coming. We love and miss you all, adios!

Post made by: Kaitlyn and Abby
Pictures made available by: Mallory Manning and Abbey Jackson