A place that feels like home in another country with people that we just met. It was an invitation to dinner that turned to us being roommates.
Let me back up a minute here.
Leading up to leaving the DR we found out that our next month in Panama we wouldn’t have a ministry host. It would be an open month to go and do where and what the Lord leads us to, known as ATL(Ask The Lord) in the World Race world. At first I wasn’t to thrilled about it, not having a set ministry we would be working with, all the unknowns, trying to find food and lodging within our very small budget(trust me, I know cause I’m the treasurer so I’m the one keeping track of all the team funds ;p), knowing hardly anything about the country; wait I take that back, we knew a little coming in as I did some research on culture and such informing the whole squad with what information I found about the country as I am the squad culture coordinator(fun stuff!!).
As my team prayed and looked for connections we weren’t really finding anything until a few days before leaving the DR, a few doors opened up, we had secured a place to stay for at least the first week, and someone to pick us up from the airport; a missions group that had a few opportunities for us to partner with them for the month.
Upon arriving to Panama after a 24 hour travel day, we prayed together and then said our “see you laters” to the rest of the squad as we parted ways for the month. We walked outside to holy humidity!(Haven’t had that since summer days back in Ohio. Haha.), and to find P who had said he could take us to our hostel.
We were met by a group of people with friendly smiles all excited to meet us. After chitchatting a bit they helped us load our stuff into their cars and offered to take us to lunch to which we excitedly excepted! After lunch, they took us to grab a few groceries before dropping us off to where we’d be staying.
Upon arriving, unloading our bags and walking into the apartment something inside me immediately felt off, at first brushing it off as Liz and I unloaded our bags while Jamie and Kayla went to the clinic with P and R. Wondering what we were going to do for dinner as we were supposed to have dinner ready for us but didn’t.
After a few texts back and forth we get a text from Kayla saying “After we get done here we will come pick you guys up and all go back to P’s place and they’ll cook us spaghetti for dinner.” They had invited us to dinner at the Missionarys house his team was staying at. Before dinner P had mentioned to us that if we had felt uncomfortable at the place we were supposed to stay they would gladly make room for us to stay with them, confirming that we weren’t the only ones that felt that way.
Putting that conversation to the side but still having it in the back of our minds we sat around the table for dinner sharing about our lives and stories together, with some jokes in between. This place, these people, it felt like home. We had just met P,R, W, and G hours ago, but that didn’t seem to matter. My three teammates and I almost simultaneously thought and said “I feel like I’m at home”. For the first time in five and a half months I felt like I was at home.
After dinner and some conversation, P and R drove us back to the place we were staying. On the way the conversation circled back to us staying with them, P said he’d be back in the morning to pick us up to stay with them for the month.
And that’s how a dinner date turned to us being roommates.
These once strangers, now friends welcomed us in with open arms not knowing a thing about us.They have loved us and taken care of us soo well. It has been so cool to see how the Lord guided our paths to be together, to see the body of Christ coming together. I am soo overwhelmingly thankful for the Lords provision! After going, what feels like non stop the last five and a half months, I actually feel rested, after feeling like I hit a wall of exhaustion the last month(more on that in a later blog). The Lord knew what I needed when I needed it.
Ministry here so far has looked like time in prayer and worship together, church, going to Indigenous villages, driving through the city praying, and various other things.
You’ll find us praying and worshiping together, laughing, and cracking jokes, sharing stories, some heartfelt others funny.
It’s so cool to see how strangers become like family in such a short amount of time when you’re serving the Lord together, that’s the body of Christ.
