1. PHONE
We have been almost 11 months without a phone in our house. If we would have known that, we would not have moved in. All along we have been told "two weeks" every two weeks. It actually looks closer now, so we would appreciate prayer that the sub-contractor would finish line installation so that the numbers can be assigned so that an installation team can come out and hook us up!
2. CHILDREN'S MINISTRY SEMINARS
We are Directors of the national Children's Ministry with a committee of five dedicated and talented lay people. In the months of March and half of April each Saturday we will be in a different part of the country, splitting up the districts along with my national Children's Ministry committee members, holding seminars. The purpose of the seminar is to form a local Children's Ministry committee at each church. The purpose of each committee is to fulfill our ministry theme: "children reaching children." The initial thrust of children's evangelism will be for Saturday May 9 when we plan to equip 500 children in about 9 regions to go outside the four walls of their churches and reach 1000 children with the gospel.
Pray for the leaders who will come during March's seminars and pray for the Christian children who will be our evangelists in May and for the unsaved children who will receive Jesus. Pray for evangelistic tracts and materials to use in the outreach.
3. DUIMA: NEW TEACHER & ACCREDITATION
Our head teacher, and our friend, Vielka Acosta, has decided not to return to Duíma this school year. The new head teacher is Elma de Lieser. Please pray for God's guidance in moving the school forward and grace in adapting to rather primitive living conditions. This unpleasant surprise was followed by a very pleasant one: please read on.
The new LACC school in Duíma is beginning it's second year shortly. There were several obstacles to receiving government approval as a recognized grade school, and all but one have now fallen. The last step was for the Ministry of Education supervisor of the area to inspect the school. God worked it out that our new teacher and the new supervisor were friends since high school. That's the pleasant surprise! He will be sending in a favorable report. Pray that all the paperwork will pass quickly to provide the accreditation recognition.
4. NEW LACC SCHOOL IN CHIRIQUI GRANDE?
Last weekend I visited Chiriquí Grande in the province of Bocas del Toro. It's on the Atlantic coast near the Costa Rican border. People live by and on the sea. Our AG church is literally over top of the ocean water. Tide doesn't rise more than a foot or so. Being a port town it attracts extreme wickedness and sinfulness. prostitution, drugs, alcohol, and abuse are rampant. A typical family has 5-6 children, all from different fathers, and the current man at home beats the ones who aren't his.
I went with Presbyter Johnny Saucedo and many members of his church who are interested in missions, and many who currently help run the Duíma school, plus the Doleguita LACC school. Our Pastor in Chiriquí Grande, Ernesto Chavez, is willing to offer his church and move out of his parsonage to start a new LACC school here. The need is very great, but we want to study the situation more in detail with demographic reports to compare with other areas.
Please pray for God's wisdom and leading in where to reach out next to Panamá's children. If we have God's wisdom and leading, we know we'll have His provision too.
Kirk Antonio Jones