Friday started early...Katye, Caitlin and their translator, Anna, had to be at Sun Yat Sen (a very large and influential Chinese school - not the Christian one we've worked with before) at 8am to meet about having an Music and Arts Camp in January. They are not a Christian school, but are very connected and influential among Chinese society here in Panama City. They left about 30 minutes before the rest of us left, and after their appointment, we all were going prayer walking in a Mall and surrounding businesses in the "new" China town in Panama City.
Katye, Caitlin and Anna met us at the church with very good news. Pastor Ricardo also went with them and they had great success. They were able to meet with the Head Principal, not just an assistant, and she was very open to the Music & Arts Camp. The college group from FBC Melbourne that came in July that did the basketball camp had done a good job with their end of things and had left us a great opening and reputation with them. Pastor Ricardo and the principal hit it off and she actually said that they have "summer school" (December - January is their "summer" time) going on and they would like to incorporate our camp into their existing program in the morning. That worked out very well and it was a slamdunk to really start the trip.
We met at the church...heard the great report and left to go prayer walking. Instead of going to the Mall in "new" Chinatown, Pastor Ricardo and Anna, our translator, took us to "Avenue B", the old Chinatown. Apparently, it is a dangerous place. We found out that Anna had only been there for the first time a couple of days ago and in 25 years of living in Panama City, Pastor Ricardo had never been. He said this was "no tourism" and believe you me, there were no other white people around here...definitely no tourists.
We prayer walked each side of the street, split into two groups, Larry and Pastor Ricardo headed the group and Ben Norton and I guarded the rear of the group as we walked. We had to take off our electronics and most jewelry and leave them in the van (another great praise story, btw...the van or busito, I mean) because the place was known for thieves that would snatch and run to steal things apparently. We stopped in a shop and Pastor Ricardo struck up a conversation with a shop owner about the location of a Buddhist Temple that was supposed to be near there. Pastor Ricardo walked off, telling our group to "aqui" (stay here) while the guy he was talking to showed him directions down the street. As we were standing there, a policeman in bulletproof gear and a few guns came up and starting asking us questions in Spanish. I was reaching to pull out my copy of my passport, but Katye understood that he was asking us if we wanted to go see the Buddhist temple. When Pastor Ricardo came back, he talked to the policeman and he said that he would guide us to it. We called the other group and headed out.
We started going down alleyways and side streets and then came to a door that led up some narrow stairs. If people would lag, our translators would call out for us to catch up and stay close...Some of us really didn't think things were too scary, but then others of us noticed that another policeman had circled in and was bringing up the rear of our party. We went upstairs and saw the Buddhist Temple, praying for the people as we went. it was a beautiful place, but honestly, for me, it really hit me how hard this was going to be...for an ornate place to be built in this tough area and to be kept so well...other religions really had a stronghold on the people here.
The policeman led us down the stairs and out into the street and told us he and the other policeman would take us down another street (Pastor had told them what we were doing and I don't know if they were believers or not, but they were very helpful). The policeman said that the name of the street meant "Leave if you can" (that's comforting)...it was extremely narrow and was filled with little shops a continuous row of huts with tin roofs in the middle of the street...there was only enough room for one person to walk between the buildings on the street and the shops in the middle of the street. We continued to pray and the policemen led us out on the other side and back down the streets to the market when were had parked the van a few streets away. The policeman said never come down there on Sunday, because Sunday is the day there are no police in the area...but we were safe. We really believe that God has big plans for that area and we are confident that He's already working in Panama.
Right now, it's late, and this blog entry is really long, so I'll stop here and I'll get back to you later on the next set of recaps...there's plenty more...good night.
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