Well, the last day was whirlwind to say the least. We began by heading out to the church to meet with Pastor Ricardo of Iglesia Bautista El Dorado. We talked through a lot of the things that we had learned so far and bounced ideas off of him and his team. It was very encouraging and very promising.
First, this is a MOMUMENTAL job...300k of Panamanian Chinese, very few believers. The language that most speak, Hakka (pronounced "Ha-KA'"), no one does ministry in because of the stigma attached to the language. The preferred language is Mandarin, the more respected language...why would anyone speak Hakka, even if we do, we won't own up to it and why would you attempt to communicate in it, even though that is the most communicative language to the 1st generation Chinese? See what I mean...a barrier. The other barrier is their work schedule...they are all workaholics. They rarely leave their shops, even for kids programs at school. School is the job of their children and working at their shop is their job. A 14-16 hour day is not unheard of and to keep that up for 7 days a week is normal. Big task.
We are looking at sending teams of people at least 4 times a year, possibly more...the opportunities are endless...literally. We have a lot of good ideas and have learned a lot, but this is just the beginning...and it is a beginning. Here's the thing...FBC Melbourne has NEVER done anything to this extent before.
Let this sink in...
We have adopted 300,000 people that don't know Jesus...let that sink in...300,000 people. We aren't part of teams that go to Romania or Nicaragua or Haiti...not part of other churches that help. In large part, as far as outside mission resource and support, we, as ONE CHURCH, are IT. Only us. That is a monumental responsibility and focus. We have NEVER done that before.
We have plans...we will need YOU. (don't look around, I'm talking about you...)
WE met an immediate outreach need by buying 2 ping pong tables to use in the activity outreaches to the Chinese students. Pastor Ricardo, Rick Furtney and I went to buy the tables...Pastor Ricardo doesn't speak much English...me and Rick, almost no Spanish. We took the time to "practice" on each other. I learned a lot...I habla mucho es Spaniol than the Po Quito me habla earlier....okay that's it. They were very appreciative, both Tomas and Ricardo.
While we were gone, the students from the school came over for an awards ceremony. This was special because there were actually parents that came...this is unusual. We made some good contacts and got some good info. We spent some time with the administration of the school and made some plans for next January.
We left there to meet the Tim Louderback (IMB missionaries), Audrey Tucker (IMB to college students) and Tina (another missionary with the ISC). They are mainly focused on Panamanian people, not Chinese, but it was a good lunch.
From there we went to the Crossroads Christian School to meet with Frank and Kelly Lee, who have some considerable experience with the Hakka and worked with John Mark, the previous missionary that did a lot of work here...his research has helped us a lot. It was VERY informative, but also troubling, because while we uncovered some opportunities, we also had some difficulties reinforced...it's not impossible by any means, but it will not be easy...so it must be God.
We are all reeling from the week...so much information...so much need...so much we need and CAN and SHOULD do as a church. It's all wonderful to "say" you adopted an unreached people group and to get a certificate, but now you actually have to take on the heavy burden for reaching them. This will be a LARGE change for our church, philosophically and resourcewise, in my opinion...but, we signed on, we got the paper and they are our responsibility.
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