Dear Friends,

Greetings in Jesus! If you'd like to read past issues, click on "Newsletter" at www.jonesjournal.org. This monthly e-Mailer includes updates on ministry, family, praise and prayer.

We did another “KidsQuest Lite” (one day crusade) in a small village of Coclé province called Pajonal. The van wouldn’t make it all the way up the muddy, rain-rutted road, so we got some help and carried all our gear. A cultural difference of note was that almost all of my Panamanian team took off their shoes and socks and proceeded to walk up through the mud barefoot! Now if you think about it, it *is* a lot easier to clean off your feet than to clean off your shoes! I still cleaned off my shoes.

About 150 kids waited patiently while we set up. They enjoyed an animated Bible story video. The vast majority responded at the altar call to receive the True Love that Jesus offers, that the clowns Ding and Ling, plus Ninja Tiger CJ and the Illusionist had spoken of. When I met up with our host pastor Seferino Quiroz at the following monthly minister’s meeting for the Central Zone, he told me that the church is still talking about the Crusade, and, more importantly for me, that many of the new children still coming! I’m sure the follow up editions of the PowerMark comic series are a good motivator.

We finished the month of September with a full three day KidsQuest Crusade in Rio Sereno, on the border with Costa Rica. In our e-Mailer for 2005-08 I mentioned the enthusiasm of the many leaders who came to a prep meeting. That preparation was evident to us from our arrival to the church, when we saw a full-color banner hanging across the street, with clowns Ding and Ling, plus Ninja tiger CJ, inviting the children. The church’s coordination in transportation was especially well done. They went out to the highways and the byways to fill God’s house. Total enrollment for three days was 613, with a high mark of 476 on Saturday evening. Not bad from a community of 4000 people!

As a reward on Saturday, I took our team across the border to San Vito, Costa Rica. It was a half-hour SUV-taxi ride. Here you see them in the central park, at a children’s fountain: Carolina, Juan Carlos, Fanny, Edilma, and Dallis. Please add their names and faces to your prayer list. You can see many more photos of the crusade in this month’s entry to our Photo Albums.

As part of Panama’s Assemblies of God Executives, Kirk went to Lima, Peru for CELAD/CADSA Summit. It was a first ever Latin-America-wide meeting of AG Executives to review doctrine, practice and strategy for our continents. Check out our Photo Albums for general pictures of Lima, and a separate album tour of the Museum of the Inquisition (might be a little too graphic for small children).

Please pray for our upcoming Children’s Ministries leaders Seminar in Santiago 15 Oct. Our zone Rep., Rigoberto Mitchell, is helping me to coordinate. I’m including here his Panamanian Profile from our upcoming print newsletter:

Say "Hello" to Rigoberto Mitchell. You've seen him featured in KidsQuest Crusades and Seminars we've done in the interior, especially in his hometown of Santiago.

Rigoberto shared with me that he was raised in an orphanage. That provides his strong motivation for Children's Ministries--he wants to give children the positive childhood experiences that he never had. Most important is that they know Jesus.

He's a real go-getter, never standing still. It's a privilege to try and keep up with him!

We would also appreciate your prayer for our Speed-the-Light car. Repairs and break-downs are way too common. It’s a growing expense, a distraction from ministry, and worry if it will get us where we need to go.

I feel like going in reverse age order on the kids this month, especially because it was a *special* month for Gracie.

She had her 7^th Birthday party with all her class riding bikes along the bank of the Panama Canal! Her teacher, Miss Thompson, took some wonderful pictures you can see here.

Also, Gracie was a flower girl in a wedding. At first she was *not* going to wear a frilly dress and fix up her hair. As the day got closer, she got more excited and actually enjoyed it. Our pictures are included in this month's photo album entry.

Celina recently learned from our maid Rosa how to prepare and fry up hojaldres. It is a common fry bread enjoyed across Panamá mostly for breakfast. We all enjoyed them.

Since Anthony entered Middle School this year, he and Dad had a Guys’ weekend out. We stayed at the AG campground, went to the beach (twice!), ate hot dogs and beans (twice!), went paintballing in the middle of the night, watched a movie, listened to Dr. Dobson’s Preparing for Adolescence tapes, and bonded. “It was pretty cool,” said Anthony.

Chloe took on a real challenge this her sophomore year: AP European History. It has been a stretch for her. She has hung in there reading, researching, and writing essays at a college level. Her teacher allows the students to rewrite and improve their essays until they get the grade they want. Sometimes that means three tries. She’s pictured with Celina at the wedding.

While he was still talking, some people came from the leader's [Jairus] house and told him, "Your daughter is dead. Why bother the Teacher any more?" Jesus overheard what they were talking about and said to the leader, "Don't listen to them; just trust me."

Mark 5:35-36 The Message

Our words of “Thanks” to you in closing are also an invitation that together we obey Jesus’ words, to just trust Him! Your faithfulness in giving, support and prayer, makes it a lot easier for us to do that. Hopefully our encouragement of what God is doing with Children’s Ministries in Panamá will help you too. Thanks and God bless.

Yours for Them,

Kirk for all

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