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The language spoken by the people on the island is Kuna,* as well as Spanish by many of the villagers. The children in school there are also learning English, little by little. Our group of 29 consisted of 17 high school youth and 12 adults. We had three major objectives for our trip; to conduct youth camps for island teens and to hold daily Bible school sessions for the children of the island, as well as to conduct a pastors' conference for pastors of the local islands and the mainland. The Mulatupu Baptist Church was the "central" location on the island for the activities all week. The Baptist Church has 200 in membership, which is a very large church for the San Blas Islands. It is reputed to be the biggest church-similar to a Hoffmantown of the islands. Our activities were very well attended!! We had approximately 150 children in Bible school, many of these kids were not Christians. Despite the difficulties of working through interpreters, we worked diligently to show love to the kids as well as teaching them about Jesus through songs, crafts and games! Our youth conference was conducted daily by Paul Herzog, our childrens pastor at Hoffmantown. He had the teens laughing daily at his skits and humor over the pseudoactors he used from among our troupe!! Yet the Scripture he covered daily with the teens was heard and they learned how to live as Christians in their world of old traditions/witchcraft, etc.
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Dale Coffing, Hoffmantown's Adult Ministry Pastor, conducted the Pastors' conference. Approximately 12 pastors came for the seminar, some with their entire families!! Three pastors hiked through the jungle for 8 hours to attend the seminar, and had to leave on Saturday AM in time to hike back to their jungle village to conduct church on Sunday!! All of these pastors must work at a "job" full time to support their families, as the churches are not able to support them or pay them a salary!! These men gave up their daily earnings and time in order to grow in the knowledge of discipleship/church leadership/and preaching skills. Their whole hearted devotion to Christ is inspiring!! The high school kids were troopers in enduring the climate and long hours spent working with and loving on the children of the island. The adults survived also--the jungle climate is a vast change from the New Mexico dryness!!
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The hand of God was present with us all week-we could feel the presence of the Holy Spirit giving strength and courage to us as we loved the people and talked about the Lord, learned to give of ourselves in any way possible to assist them in their struggle to survive in that environment. Yet the love they returned to us was the most touching and surprising to me; these Kuna's showered us with care and concern all week, they invited us to their homes and fed us, gave us presents, and shared their lives with us. It was very humbling to receive gifts from these people who have so little, yet their lives are happy and content with what they have. This trip has been an incredible experience for my life.
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I encourage everyone to work with the Lord in mission work. There are so many lives and hearts to touch for our Lord, all around us!! I hope to travel on many more, as the Lord leads. Please consider what the Lord would like for you to do to carry the Light into the World..................Matthew 5:16