Panama Mission Trip: The Jungles

Here’s my last installment, one well overdue, on my mission trip to Panama. Our trip was a week long.  The first several days we focused on inner city ministry.  The last several days we had the privilege to go into the jungles of Panama and present the Kunas, an indigenous people group, with the message of hope, love and redemption through Christ. We did this through the “Freedom” skit along with interpersonal ministry.  We had a blast getting to know several families and playing with many of the children in the village.

To give you a better perspective of our experience in the jungles I asked Daniel Smith, a Kuna with an awesome family history, to write up a brief summary of how his people first encountered the Christian faith.  It is a fascinating story and only a glimpse of their rich history.  In Daniel’s words:

Around 200 years ago, most of the Kuna population moved to the coast in northern Panama. Those that stayed behind inhabited villages around what was then the Bayano River (it became a lake in 1979 when the government dammed it).  Most of the population lives in villages on the coast of Panama.

It is in the coastal villages where the history with evangelical missionaries gave rise to Christianity among the Kuna as we know it today. A missionary from New England, Anne Coope, came to the village of Nargana. There she opened a school with reluctance from the village, but with the full support of the chief. Many of those children were sent to American boarding schools in the USA. These were the seeds that were planted for the mission work to expand. When many of the children came back, they came back as professionals. However, one of them came back as a missionary: Lonnie Iglesias. He is considered the father of missions among the Kuna. He opened the first church in a Kuna village: First Baptist Church of Ailigandi. He also sent many children to Christian boarding schools in the States so that they would come back and share the gospel with the rest of the Kuna population. Many of those kids came back as adults and opened several churches along the coastal villages (among them, my maternal grandfather). It is through this exchange, then, that God’s work expanded.

When all this was happening, the villages around the Bayano Lake remained pretty oblivious to this spiritual awakening. It was about 35 years ago when Christian Kunas tried opening churches in the Bayano area, without much success. Now, there are 4 churches in the area (one of them being Ikandi), but only after many years of prayer. We praise God because more and more villages are showing willingness to listen to the gospel and openness to God’s Word. Please continue praying for this.

April 7th-9th, 2010 – Our team had the distinct pleasure to stay with the Kuna people in the Ikandi village where we had an incredible time experiencing their culture.  The Kuna’s live very simple lives, most still hunt and farm for their meals.  They live in straw huts with no electricity or running water.  There are no cars, no TVs or iPods, no local movie theater or internet access.  My cell phone didn’t even get reception; and I have an ANDROID! In fact, the only way to their village is by canoe on the Bayano river.

We arrived, unloaded and immediately received word that a Chief from another village within the Kuna tribe had invited us to perform the drama “Freedom.”  Most of us were, or perhaps just me, sweaty, hot, tired, irritated and on the verge of snapping if someone touched us.  Okay maybe not that bad but we were definitely out of our comfort zone.  This village was about an hour and a half away and we just arrived from a two hour trip.  Needless to say most of us were begging for AC and dreading another canoe ride.

Our students, sorry our missionaries, being the troopers that they are pulled their pants up, tucked in their shirts and delivered an amazing drama for several hundred young Kuna students.  It was amazing!  Most of the student sat at the foot of a hill watching the drama.  During one of the dragon scenes our missionaries roared at them and they all jumped in fear and ran up the hill.  It was hilarious and just rejuvenated all of us from the heat exhaustion.

When we completed the drama they asked for an encore.  Our young missionaries again delivered a passionate drama that just painted the Love of God through his Son that pierced the hearts of many young Kunas despite being exhausted.  We are called to preach the gospel till all nations have heard. Our young missionaries knew the mission at hand and represented well.

Through Christ all things are possible.  Whoa, that’s so much easier said than lived out…