Jennifer and Alex Cabezon

When we began to pray and plan for this DTS (we just finished our 3 month lecture phase), we know that same things would be different.  We wanted to make the DTS accessible for out students.  Two big challenges were the finances of our students, and the fact that many were in the university, or had their children in school and couldn't take a full five months off. One solution that fit our group perfectly was to put off the outreach until next year.  So we finished up the lecture phase just as the school year was beginning, and our DTS students were heading back to class.  Not only does this not disrupt their schooling, but it gives us ample time to pray and plan for outreach. Time which we knew we would need, once God started nudging us in the direction he wanted us to go. It started last year when we attended a meeting of YWAM leaders from all over the Americas and were able to meet several YWAMer who were working with First Nations people in North Americ...

My heart is heavy tonight as I think about tomorrow.  Many of our friends will be meeting in downtown Panama to protest the government's treatment of the Wounaan communities.  They are asking for justice, to be given rights to their land, so that they can defend their precious forests and their children's future.  They are asking for the law to be upholded. I know that much planning has gone into this day, and many have traveled from remote communities to support this cause.  And yet I know that humanly speaking, they don't have much of a chance.  The Wounaan estimate their population as about 15,000, but the government says they are only 6,000.  The law says they should be given rights to the lands where their communities are, and have been for years. But money is being made from the valuable rainforest wood that is being logged out of their land.  Some where, some one is benefitting from this, and so things are held up.  The Wounaan leaders ...