Redeemer Lutheran Church

Looking forward to a week ahead filled with blessings and meaningful moments!

Meet this week staff: Nicole from Costa Rica and Melissa from Panama! We’re excited to serve together this week and see all that God has in his plan.

We arrive safe and sound! Ready for this week serve in Panamá with the Iglesia Bautista de Lídice.

This morning, we joined the church for the Bible study, where we were reminded that God gives us value and that we are His masterpiece. It was such an encouraging time to reflect on our identity in Christ before gathering for the worship service.

During the service Pastor Will shared a message from Revelation 7:9–12, reminding us that we were experiencing a small picture of verse 9: "every nation, tribe, people, and language" worshiping the Lord.

It was a beautiful reminder that no matter what language we speak or where we come from, we are united as one family in Christ.

This week we will be visiting homes and distributing food to families in the community. In the afternoon we purchased everything we needed to prepare the food bags and then spent time intentionally praying for every family we will be visiting.

We know that this will be a tangible reminder that God cares for every family.

Yesterday, we visited our first home and had the opportunity to meet Eliza's family. We shared stories, prayed with them and delivered a food bag as a gift from God.

They also invited us to celebrate Eliza's 50th birthday. We sang "Happy Birthday" in both Spanish and English making it a joyful and memorable time together.

One of the greatest blessings of this trip has been experiencing the incredible hospitality of the local church. In the evening, we shared dinner with the youth and spent time playing team games that helped us get to know one another.

Even though we speak different languages, we experienced the unity that comes through Christ. Laughter, conversations, and genuine fellowship reminded us that the Gospel brings people together beyond every language and culture. We are grateful for the friendships God is allowing us to build.

Yesterday we had the opportunity to begin the week by visiting families in the community, sharing the good news that Jesus loves them and reminding them that He faithfully cares for every person.

One of the most meaningful moments of the day was meeting an elderly couple who deeply touched our hearts. Even in the midst of their health challenges, they welcomed us with genuine joy and kindness. Their faith and hospitality were a beautiful reminder that God's love is evident in every season of life.

Every home we visited welcomed us warmly, allowing us to experience more of Panama's culture, listen to their stories, and pray for their needs.

We are thankful for the privilege of partnering with Pastor Moises and his church as they faithfully reach their community with the hope of the Gospel.

Over the past few days, the team has done an incredible job. God has been moving through everything they've been doing.

After all their hard work, it was the perfect time to enjoy an ice cream night as a well-deserved reward.

Today in the morning we had the opportunity to visit the Lídice Health Center, where we sang and prayed for everyone who was there.

Our visit to the health center gave us the opportunity to share sandwiches and oatmeal with the patients, administrative staff, and doctors.

Everyone was so grateful and happy.

In the afternoon we started painting the walls of the church's fellowship hall.

At the same time we painting another part of our team visited a local family. It was encouraging to see God working through both opportunities to serve the community.

At this home, Vivian, a 4 year old girl asked us to sing a song. We sang "The Goodness of God" in Spanish, and it became such a sweet and special moment.

We made a new friend his name is Coco!

He is full of joy, always ready to play and has so much energy. He quickly became part of our day and brought lots of smiles and laughter to the team.

We finished the first wall of our project!

This morning we went at Hernando Bárcenas School sharing with around 200 children. We sang "Jesus Loves Me" in Spanish along with some other songs in English.

The children learned that Jesus chose His disciples because He loved them and saw something special in each of them.

In the same way He is still choosing us today.

We finished another wall of our painting project. We're getting closer to completing it!

In the afternoon we played soccer with some of the young people from the community. It was a great opportunity to build friendships and have fun together.

The soccer gave us the opportunity to share the Gospel with the young people from the community. We handed out cookies and juice as they listened to Pastor Will share a message about God's love.

It was a meaningful time to planting seeds of faith.

Jesús is a 14 year old boy with great soccer skills. Soccer gave us the opportunity to connect with him.

We had the opportunity to share God's love with around 30 young people.

During our Rec Day we hiked Cerro La Cruz where we enjoyed incredible views from the top. Afterward we visited El Palmar Beach.

It was an amazing day filled with God's beautiful creation, rest and time together as a team.