It has been over a month since the July mission team from Trinity United Methodist Church arrived in the country of Panama. Our team was composed of twelve people from Georgia, Florida, and, of course, Alabama. With the help of our guide Rhett, who has devoted the past 29 years of his life to fulfilling the call to Panama that God placed on his heart, we were able to connect with the men, women, and children of that special country in order to be a small part of continuing the mission there. During the course of our time in Cienaguita, Volcan, and Iempa, we had the honor of working (and playing!) alongside our Panamanian friends to assist them in building up their communities while sharing the story and showing the love of Christ. Doing mission bible school with the kids in Cienaguita, mixing mortar for the home of the camp director in Volcan, and learning more about the people I was serving and who were also serving me were parts of the international mission trip experience that I was prepared for. Of course, the aspect of the trip that I was least mindful of the majority of the time ended up being one of the most special parts.
On our last night in Panama City, all twelve members of our team gathered under a pavilion for our final devotional. We sat there together for the next half hour discussing how it was so natural and easy to have a servant's heart when overseas with people that you haven't encountered before, but how most of the time the true difficulty lies in finding that same heart and passion for selfless service again upon returning home. That was when it hit us: we were going home. Tomorrow. Back to jobs, back to deadlines, back to emails that merited responses and missed phone calls crying out to be returned. Back to the fast-paced lives that would pull us back into our separate directions-- directions that would require so much time and attention that it would be impossible for all twelve of us to all be gathered together again on this earth. Soon after this realization and the conclusion of our devotional time, our team leader Josh felt led by the Holy Spirit to have us pray over one another. As each person began thanking God for the person beside them, and as we prayed for what their futures might hold, it became clear that we were all drastically altered by our week of growing closer with the Lord and with each other.
Somehow, through countless hours of flights and bus rides (one of which included poorly-made fighting movies in Spanish with no English subtitles), singing "Te damos gracias..." before all of our incredible meals (most of the time cooked by sweet Paula), playing outside with the kids, intense games of Phase 10 and Mexican train, belting out a Broadway show for Rhett and everyone else within a five mile radius, the Great Snake Adventure (where Ed picked up three venomous snakes with his bare hands), spontaneous Zumba sessions, and filling up an entire quote book full of inside jokes (#onspotpanama #unemployed #crepesywarffles), we became a family. Though we had been brothers and sisters in Christ since the beginning of our journey, we would return home as friends.
As Josh concluded the prayer, I opened my eyes to look at our team- at my beautiful friends. Becca, Mary Dea, Lauren, Ed, Marlin, Ama, Grace A., Khadija, Kelsey, Matteo, Josh. The youngest (myself included) were 18, and our eldest was 87. We came from many different places, have many different stories, and each have a unique testimony; but in that moment, I could feel our unity. In His sovereignty, the Lord wove our unlikely paths together for the purpose of bringing Him glory and advancing the Kingdom. With this in mind, I reached over and grabbed Kelsey's hand, then Khadija's, and closed my eyes. Once the prayer concluded and I opened them again, we all sat in a beautiful circle of clasped hands; unified by our God and our mission. As we entered into a time of worship, tears filled our eyes. What was amazing about this was not only were we weeping because we were leaving Panama, or because we were leaving one another. We shed tears of joy because we know the Lord is coming back- because we know that a new Heaven and a new Earth has been promised. Because one day, we will all be singing "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty..." Because even when we get back to the US, we will still only be in this world, not of it. And because one day, we will safely arrive at home, together once again in Heaven, still worshiping the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the Almighty Lord who was, and is, and is to come.
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