Well, here I am in a place where God can use me. We are now at 9,000 ft. and going 501 mph. heading for Panama City, Panama. We made it thru the airport ok. The cases of medicine and all of our music equipment caused quite a few heads to turn. Doug did not trust my advice on going thru the metal detectors, and his shoes set them off. We all got seated ok and we have plenty of space to spread out and relax. I totally expect Miracles on this trip. In my personal study, God has been leading me to see how his miracles and works will follow those that set out to fulfill His great commission. God confirms His word through His works.

We are in for a very busy week, 04\06\03-04\12\03. John Faunt is a missionary in Panama. He is also the founder of The Last Call Ministries. He moved to Panama about a year ago, and he has planned quite a few busy weeks for ministers in the past year. This is going to be the first for him, and us, for a band. On this trip are Servant, which is Mike Waldner on bass guitar, Doug Brown on lead guitar, Pat Warren on drums and vocals, his wife Michelle Warren our sound guru, Leslie Crum lead vocals, and myself Dennis Parham on rhythm guitar. Also are Last Call ministers Rubeana Hoard, who also writes songs and sings some of them with us, and the Johnson family, Rev. Xavier, Rev. Angela, and their children Javier, and Jira.

I pray that each set of eyes that I look into, I will see Jesus in them. I also pray that I will see what God’s will is for me to serve them. Rev. Steven Usry, our pastor at Harvest Point church recommended John 17. It is the Lords prayer, not the one that we are used to saying, “Our Father who Art in Heaven”, but the prayer that Jesus prayed on the night of His betrayal. May the Lord reveal to us to pray as He did.

Monday, April 7, 2003

We arrived in Panama City to find the favor of the Lord as we headed from the plane into a beautiful hot sticky Panama night. Customs stopped others but allowed us to pass on thru. John was waiting with a truck for our equipment and a van for us. It turned out to be a pretty bumpy ride to the orphanage where we are staying. We settled ok, and headed for bed. Doug read some New Testament scriptures as we dozed off to sleep. It is amazing that we are on the outskirts of Panama City, but the sounds of the jungle and nature are all around us.

We awoke early to the smell that was outside of our room, it was not the breakfast smell that I was hoping, but something that was pretty foul. I decided to investigate and as I went outside I followed a young boy that lives in the orphanage. He had a bucket of feed, and went into a large chicken pen that is about 30 yards to the side of our dorm area. They are only about a week old. The pen is brand new. The orphanage is trying to not only raise chickens for food, but to sell them to help support their other needs. We sat on the front porch and began to write new songs while we were waiting for John.

John arrived and took us to see the Panama Canal. It is pretty neat, but smaller than I thought that it would be. After some shopping and another good meal ( mealtime makes it worth the trip, lots of exotic fruits served in numerous ways) we headed for Templo Puaode Jacob, which translates to the church of Jacobs well. I think that it is a part of the Church Of God. Pastor Ricardo Jiminez is a young man of God that serves with a passion. He is a very good steward of what God has blessed him with. Many of the people of this church were waiting for us. They were very busy building a stage for the night’s event. It was a VERY HOT day, I was impressed with their efforts. When we went into the sanctuary all of the people stopped what they were doing to welcome us. The Elders and Ladies hugged and kissed all of us. Truly this is the spirit of love that Jesus desired for us to live in. "Greet your brother with a heavenly kiss" has now taken on a meaning of truth in me. There are about 90,000 people that live in that area, wall to wall houses as far you can see. They were going to go door to door to minister and announce that there was going to be a service that night with American ministers and music. We decided to go with them, so I brought my guitar and Doug brought his harmonica. We went down the streets singing and playing music and ministering door to door with the congregation of Templo Puzode Jacob.

The Service went very well, the people show up with the expectation of seeing God. God blessed our efforts to lead praise and worship and the people responded as though there were no language gap. Rev. Xavier gave a wonderful message on Shadrach, Meshach and Abednigo while John interpreted. After the service we headed back to the orphanage, and settled for the night. As I was taking my shower ( really it was more like a water drinking fountain and just as cold), I felt something pinching my leg. My eyes were soapy so it was difficult to see, but as I reached down to swat the bug off, I realized that it was a scorpion! I immediately thought of Paul and the snake. I was not afraid, I knew that our trip would bring about attacks of many kinds, and God would give victory in every one. Finally at midnight, we laid down to sleep. Doug is continuing his tradition of reading the scriptures to us as we drifted off.

Tuesday, April 8, 2003

Up at 0500, and packing to head to David, Panama, which is about 444 kilometers west of Panama City . As we loaded and headed out, a white dove blessed us with a flyby. The bus was first class, our driver Ivan is well educated and loves the Lord. We stopped in Chiledie, (I think) for breakfast, and Santiago for lunch (man I love the food here!). We arrived in David 8.5 hrs after we left. The bus ride was long, but we had a great time. John ministered to me about the miracles of Jesus feeding the thousands with only a few loaves of bread and a few fish. I learned to look for the leftovers. We stayed at a nice hotel in David. Doug and I shared a room (only $17.00 each). The air conditioner was kicken' and the Hotel restaurant was first class. We cleaned up and went to an Assembly of God church, Ruebena De Vino. Pastor Manuel Grier is not only the pastor, but also the head of the Assemblies of God in David, which has 35 churches. Praise was awesome, these people come to worship. The younger ones are full of energy. There is so much that we can learn from these beautiful people in Panama. Ruebena preached and John translated. We arrived at our Hotel at 11:30, we were in such a God “high” that it was hard to get to sleep. Since I roomed with Doug, he read some New Testament before going to bed, how sweet :)

Wednesday, April 9, 2003

Up at 5:30, that is most of us were up at 5:30, Leslie and Ruebena decided to sleep in, (mistakenly believing we have more time before we leave) so we had to herd them out to the bus, which, by the way, lost it’s air conditioner last night as we were heading to David. We drove a short distance to a junction, where we met up with Pastor Manuel, his son and a Doctor. We rounded up some jeeps at a local gas station and chartered them for a ride into the jungle. The ride was only about 45 or 50 minutes, but the dirt road was pretty rough to say the least. Michelle stood up to look at the surroundings and hit her mouth on the roll bar during one of a few million ruts in the road. Her lip swelled pretty quickly. In the other jeep (really they are 4wd trucks with bench seats in the bed with a roll bar) our bus driver, and dear brother in Christ that we have grown fond of, got sick from the rough ride and had to barf over the side.

We arrived to our village Chiriqui and unloaded the medicines and walked to the trail through the village, down a steep hill to the schoolhouse. the village uses the school for a community area with stoves (outdoors grilling really) and waters, which is stored in a large container. We quickly grew fond of the children and enjoyed playing with them. We gathered into one schoolroom and played several songs for the children. Doug did double duty on guitar and harmonica, Pat played his hands raw on the tambourine and I also played the guitar. I was blessed with the opportunity to preach on Matt 31. Ivan recovered enough to interpret the service. Mike led us in an awesome prayer that completely blessed me. Leslie is hanging in there pretty good with all of the singing that she has done so far. The children fell in love with Michelle. She seems to have that effect on them. They go crazy playing with her.

While we were enjoying the children and feeding them candy (Ruebena found out that it could be dangerous to be the last adult left in the room with a full candy bag) , the others were setting up the clinic. Many mothers of ALL ages brought their children for a checkup and medicines. Most of the diseases are easily treated with common medicines that go to waste in the U.S. The village women fed us fresh fish and coconut milk. We left far too soon. We enjoyed being with the native Indian people. I am looking foreword to returning soon. We saw quite a few U.S. Army reservists on the road going back. They were building schools and clinics for other villages. The need is so great here, and it felt good to give and to see our own military giving as well.

Once we made it back to the main roads and picked up our bus, we ran into a group of reservists from Ohio. We had a few moments to talk to a photographer reservist from Columbus, Ohio. His name is Johnson, and he was at the last few days of his 2-week adventure. He said that there are numerous projects that the reservists are doing, but the need is still so great.

Tonight we are going to be playing in Santiago, Panama, we are very tired and drenched with sweat, but we need to make good time if we are going to make it. The bus is pretty hot without an air conditioner, but the breeze coming from the windows felt good. We thought that we could get some rest, but the images of the people that we had just served were at the forefront of our minds. After a quick bite at Kentucky Fried Chicken in Santiago (seems pretty weird huh) we headed to the church.

As tired as I was, pulling into this church was uplifting. I could feel God moving in this place. I immediately felt excited and expected great things to happen. God’s anointing on not only our band, but also on the ministers that went with us seemed to be heavier each time that we served. As we entered the church we noticed many people kneeling and prostrate, praying and weeping before the Lord. They made their prayer closets in the most private places that they could find, but were not at all ashamed of God, whom they serve with great flavor and passion. It was a pretty large church, but as most churches here, there was a roof, but the sides were wide open. The stage and pulpit areas were well covered as well as an office area at the rear of the church, The sides were completely open with a fence protecting it and a pretty high roof. This allowed for a welcome breeze and for the sounds to carry for miles. This was the Santiago Church of God. Pastor Freeman led this congregation.

We quickly changed and even had time for deep prayer, which up until now we were usually running so close on time that we had just enough time to set up without even a sound check. Many times we were showing up after the service started and set up while the offerings were being collected. I felt great about this luxury of time. The church praise team opened with a few songs (they were great!) and then Rev. Angela Johnson brought a great message about expectations of Gods promises. John interpreted and after the message, he asked for the church praise team to play for an altar call. This was the first time that we were able to participate in the altar call here. They play very up beat music as opposed to our usually slower music for altar calls. John invited all of us ministers to come up front and pray with others, I was not expecting what happened next.

Suddenly God’s Holy Spirit filled the church and within a few seconds the entire church, children as well as elders, erupted in spontaneous movement. The church was dancing in the spirit, we even joined in as we were praying with others. It was absolutely beautiful I had never experienced anything like that. I wish our churches could let their pride down enough to experience it. Nothing in this world can compare to being completely in the Spirit of God. We were truly immersed in His Holy Spirit. It was so awesome to see my very best friends letting their guard down and moving with authority and freedom of the Spirit. This lasted for about an hour. We were so drenched in the spirit that for the 4-hour ride home we praised God in prayer and song for most of the ride home. We have only been here for 3 days, but we have grown so much and had experienced such a great anointing of God. Glory to the most high God!! halleluiah!!! Praise His Holy Name!

Thursday, April 10, 2003

We arrived at 3 am, and were up at 6am. Believe it or not, we made time to read a scripture as we went to bed. Today we are going to a prison on the Panama Canal. Michelle is not feeling very well and we are going to John’s house to allow Javier and Jira as well as John’s son get some rest, so Michelle will be recovering for a few hours with them.

The prison here was pretty different from ours. The guards check vehicles entering the compound, but once we parked, we just went right in the gate to the prison area. We were in the court yard area and there were prisoners all around us, but no locked gates to keep them in. The prisoners are left pretty much to fend for themselves. They have their own system of how things are run, and they even have their own shops and market area. I was told that some even carry their own weapons. This prison is very unique, it sits on the Panama Canal, and you can see large ships pass by on the backside of the compound. We set up in the pavilion, which was only an area to keep the sun off of us. There was a sound system there, but it was about what you may expect from a prison like this. Rev. Mike preached a message on The Lord’s Prayer, and I could see in the faces of the prisoners how deeply God’s word touched them. Pastor Patterson interpreted, he is a friend of John, and a true servant of God. After the service we prayed with every one at least twice. We quickly headed out and gathered our group and headed for the next church.

By this point, we are very tired and I've lost track of where we are. We are at a very small church deep in some town. The building is in pretty bad shape, but the music equipment is very old and very well used. The drum set had one cymbal, which is tarnished black and has a huge chunk missing. As we played the soundboard kept clipping and we would lose sound, this happened to Doug during a guitar solo, and he just had a good time with it. The strange thing was that these people kept praising God no matter what happened. I felt completely transparent and was able to praise God deeply with them. They were beautiful. I know that God had to be pleased with the pure hearts of this church. That is a common theme of all of the churches that we have gone to so far. I feel so unworthy with the materialism that is a part of our churches in the States. Rubeana preached a fiery message on Psalm 37, Pastor Patterson interpreted. Once again during the altar call God poured his spirit upon us. His mercy and grace are so deep, they truly endure forever. The entire church ended up coming forward for the altar call. The band members once again did not play for the altar call, but we prayed for all that came. Once again the church erupted in dance. It is so glorious. We got in bed by 12:30 and Doug read us scriptures as we drifted to sleep.

Friday, April 11, 2003

Up at 6:30 am, Today we are going to go to a reformatory in the city of Cologne, and then off to 4 more churches, one in Cologne and 3 more in Panama City suburbs. We started by going to a church in a Panama City suburb. Pastor Carlos Navarro heads it; he is very busy and heads about ten churches in his denomination (Church of God). They run a school within the church, which has grown greatly in the past 6 years. They started with 2 classrooms, which have grown, to about 20. Children do not have to go to school in Panama, it is strictly a luxury. Families must pay for their children to attend a school, and must often choose which of their children can go. The rest will stay at home and work to help send their brothers and sisters. Bussing is also a problem, it costs about $30.00 per month to bus a child to school, as a result many children walk long distances to get to school. This church, Fuente de Aqua Viva, which is The Fountain of The Living Spirit. We were all very impressed with what we saw. Next back to our van and off to Cologne. In Cologne, a church runs the reform center. They are deeply devoted to God, and are good stewards of all that God has blessed them with. The reformatory, which is like a prison, is completely locked up and those in it are usually released from prison early to go to this facility. The church also operates a feeding center, where they feed about 200 adults and children daily. It is located on the north end of the Panama Canal, which is literally in the back yard of the reformatory. After touring the church and the feeding area, we walked down a steep hill to the reform center.

The conditions are pretty poor, but much better than prison. They also house mentally ill people as well as homeless. Panama does not have a social welfare system that helps them. We toured the center and met the inmates. We sang some songs and then were blessed as the prisoners lead us in praise and worship, their style. A very talented young man turned over a 5-gallon bucket and played his heart out to God while the others praised God and lifted up a joyful noise. I have learned so much from those that would appear in our eyes to not have anything to offer. I was then blessed to give a testimony and preach on a scripture from Isaiah 6. A prisoner that used to live in the U.S. interpreted. His name is Armando Williams. He still has family in the States. During the altar call we prayed for our new brothers in Christ. While John was praying for one man, a demon manifest itself through him. It turned out to be quite a long battle, but there were many of us to pray, and God gave victory to this young man. Praise to God, and His Holy Name.

We were running out of time, and had to cancel one church in Cologne so that we could get back to Panama City in time for the next 2 churches. We decided to split the group and have the ministers go to one church, and the musicians and one minister would go to another church. It turned out to be a great plan. The church that we went to was the same church that ran the orphanage. We also got to see our bus driver Ivan again. It turns out that his brother-in-law and his sister run this church. What a joy to see the children from the orphanage show up!! We had only had a few brief moments in our coming and going to see them.

The praise team for this church is very good, professional quality. We played, and it was very energetic. I think that having the kids there gave us a real charge. Xavier preached while John interpreted. Alter call was pretty cool, towards the end of the sermon, the church band began to play. I became moved and went up with them to play, they completely accepted me playing with them and we picked up a cool progression very quickly. Soon Doug joined in and we began to jam, I think that they were pretty impressed with Doug’s American style rock-n-roll soloing.

After the service, we had the pleasure of playing with the children from the orphanage. We gave them all of the gum and candy that we could find. We had to pick up the rest of our group and then head back to the orphanage, we played a little more with the children and then began sorting out the rest of the medicine that we brought over. That took us until 1:30, and we had to get back up at 3:30.

Saturday, April 12, 2003

The airport went pretty smooth, other than security having a problem with my suitcases. I had 2 empty suitcases, 1 inside of the other. They were used to bring the medicine to Panama. They were completely empty, but for some reason after I checked it, it caused some alarm. Security called me over, and brought up the bag and went thru it and x-rayed it over and over until they realized that it was empty. As I was boarding the plane, I was again picked for another search. It was quick and painless, then on to the plane and a 4-hour flight home.

The flight was uneventful, but I could not stop thinking about all that I had seen and experienced. I so much enjoyed staying at the orphanage, and I wish that I could have taken all of the children back. Katherine, our host, was so pleasant and went out of her way for us. All of the churches showed us so much love and taught us so much about serving God. I look forward to returning, which will be in July to help with a building project for The Last Call Ministries. It will not only house missionaries, but will have a kitchen and a large storehouse for supplies that are sent for the orphanage, as well as supplies for the Indian villages and the more humble churches. God has richly blessed us with this journey, and He has also blessed The Last Call Ministries thru the work that they have done in Panama.

I pray that everyone that may read this will enjoy this account of our journey. My hope is that you may be moved to become involved in serving God in whatever capacity that you can. I promise you that every time you step out in faith to give to God, and serve Him, YOU WILL BE GREATLY BLESSED. It is His promise. Jesus died to cover our sins, His blood shed for our redemption. When you accept that good news, and move out in faith to make Jesus the Lord of your life, then you will be walking with the favor of God and your every footstep will be blessed. It may not always be evident immediately, but you will see the results if you look for them.

The Lord bless you and keep you,
The Lord cause His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you,
The Lord lift His countenance upon you and bring you peace,
In the name of Jesus.... Amen