Jones Journal e-Mailer for 2011-03

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Dear Friends,

Greetings in Jesus!

If you'd like to read past issues, see Newsletters. This monthly e-Mailer includes updates on ministry, family, praise and prayer.

In late February Pastor Roy Rhodes brought another team to Panama to support the annual Ngobe (Guaymí) conference. They participated in preparing the Convoy of Hope donation, helped with crowd control and pencil and coloring paper distribution with the children’s ministry, and Roy preached and taught the pastors class.

As I reported briefly on Facebook, there were over 4500 in total attendance for the week. Many walk 2-3 days to get there! We ministered with our Panamanian volunteer team twice daily to 750-800 kids, shown here doing a worship wave side to side. A record number of 202 new believers were baptized in the river on Thursday! I was privileged to baptize about a dozen children from that group.

I include this little picture from my phone (forgive poor quality) as a special shout out to Lorraine Couch and Children’s Ministries at Imperial Faith AG. They contributed toward the memory verse color sheets and pencils. Thanks guys!

With the team from the US we visited the Latin America School just up the mountain road in Duíma. Pastor Cesar (pictured here) gave us a tour showing the improvements and spoke of plans to increase English and computer literacy. The school is thirteen years old, just like his eldest daughter Ana Sarai, and has grown to 168 students ending the year in December. Classes just started again after the Ngobe conference. If you are interested in sponsoring a child from Duima, or any of our LACC schools, call 800-289-7071 or visit www.lacc4hope.org.

You may recall how we joke about our kids not getting snow days, but rather riot days off from school. Well we were fortunate to miss out on protests by Ngobe Indians (none of our Christian brothers or sisters participated) in the very area where we were ministering. Their complaint with the government was over a new law allowing copper mining in the mountains that they fear will be harmful to their health and way of life. The law has since been set aside following several days of closing down the Interamerican highway, among other major roads. The Panamanian team traveled back to Panamá City later than we did and ending up sitting for ten hours on the highway right next to where the tear gas canisters were lobbed and rocks tossed. No serious injuries were reported.

We ask you to join us in prayer for a very special leader and friend here in Panamá. Julio Valdés is a veteran pastor, director of our Bible schools, missions committee chairman, and AG National Secretary. We have featured him as a Panamanian Profile in a past newsletter. He is the driving force behind the annual Ngobe conference. He couldn’t be there this year because he is in the hospital pending surgery to repair a ruptured vein, and then have a kidney transplant. He is in stable condition and receiving dialysis, but desperately needs a touch from the Lord. We appreciate you praying with us.

Our coordinator Rigoberto Mitchell in Santiago is also promoting the International Year of the Child for 2011. He has been also distributing the resource material we had compiled on CD for the seminar on the Year of the Child. The central zone of Panama may have a small number of churches, but there is a growing interest in reaching and discipling this generation of children.

Last month was the annual Ordination service. I am so pleased and proud of our team members Dallis Quińonez and Manuel Miranda who were both ordained this year. Manuel is pictured with his wife Maribel.

Chloe is bringing a team of nurses and students from Evangel University & Cox College of Nursing to Panamá in a couple weeks to host a medical clinic, visit hospitals and university medical schools, plus minister in the orphanage that Yvonne has been visiting. We appreciate your prayers for safe travel, effective ministry, and that God would speak to each of the team members.

Celina has been tutoring two younger students. One student got an A on her last test, which made Celina feel a real sense of accomplishment.

Anthony and his Fas2Rass cayuco crew competed last Saturday. They won their category, shown here in the water after the race and on the awards podium. Next competition are the sprints end of March, followed by the big Ocean2Ocean race 15-17 April.

Gracie is in between sports at school so she has been joining the exercise conditioning program twice weekly after school. She continues with violin lessons, and piano/keyboard in middle school worship band.

In mid February we sent out our Year-end Thank You letter. We try to thank each and every one of you who give generously and sacrificially. If you have been giving toward our ministry and you did not receive a letter, please let me know so we can correct that. It has happened before. If you would like to begin supporting our ministry, let us know and we can give you simple details to get started. Thanks to all who pray for us. We really need and appreciate that.

In closing, from my daily Bible reading this week this short little verse jumped out at me. Paul gives us an inspired motto to live by.

We want to live well, but our foremost efforts should be to help others live well. (1st Corinthians 10:24, The Message)

Yours for Them,

Kirk for all