Jennifer and Alex Cabezon

This is Panama!  Here you can see the province of Panama. Currently we live on the YWAM base just north of Panama City (near Las Cumbres). Chepo is about 2 hours east of Panama City, just before you get to lake Bayano.  As you can see, it's on the main highway. Chepo is a mainly latino community, but it has a large Wounaan population.  There are two Wounaan congregations there.  It's a stopping off place on the way to the Darien province, and the destination of those coming in from the coastal communities.  Many come to Chepo to study, or find work. It's really an ideal location for us. We can live in a community with Wounaan, where we can do daily disciplship, and also been in a central location where it would be easy for us to travel to the more remote communities. We hope to find a decent rental house, or perhaps one that we can rent to own.  So we are in the process of looking into a house and those other details of moving.  There will lo...

We aren't leaving Panama, or YWAM, just moving closer to where our vision is. For many years now we have served the indigenous people of Panama, mainly through short term outreaches, and by helping teenagers go to school, through our "Home" program, or "Hogar" as we called it around here. It was amazing and challenging experience to disciple young people up close and personal, living with us 24 hours a day, getting to teach them, and invest in their lives. It's also been exciting to see many of them go on to university, start their own families, and continue walking with God. Who knows that the next 20 years hold for these young people? As we prayed about 2012, both Alex and I felt that it was time to put the "Home" program aside for awhile, that God wanted us to focus on something else. Through prayer, seeking counsel and prayer from people we respect both in and outside of YWAM, we felt it was time to move into a Wounaan community. We had ...

In Panama, Christmas is.... The coming of summer - time to go to the beach! The end of the school year and time for summer vacation.  Also graduations. Time to paint your house. Crazy traffic.  And even more craziness in the toy stores. Staying up till midnight to greet Christmas, then celebrating with a midnight Christmas dinner. For us foreigners who foolishly go to bed early on Christmas evening, it means waking up at midnight to the fireworks also set off to greet the coming of Christmas. Lots of festive trees brought down from Canada and sold on every corner. Crime levels peak: got to get those Christmas gifts under the tree somehow. Christ freely celebrated in every public place and venue.  No need to wish "Happy Holidays". Nativity scenes left with an empty manger until the 25th, when Christ arrives. Special Christmas treats: apples, grapes, nuts, tamales, and breaded nut bread (rosca). For us, a mixture of Panamanian and American traditio...

Saturday afternoon found us right on time for a rainy season down pour. We were at the shores of the Chagres River, right where it opens into the Canal.   The opposite side of the river was shrouded by a blanket of white.   The roar of the rain wiped out all other noises. Thankfully, this downpour also found us under a roof.   We were waiting for a boat to cross over to the community of San Antonio.   We waited, wondering how anyone would venture out into the rain.   Slowly, a canoe came around the bend of the wide river, revealing two men on their feet, rowing towards us.   Alex's Dad had come to get us.   He and the other oarsman were soaking wet. "Now that's love." commented Alex, as the canoe touched land.   After scooping out a good amount of water, we carefully embarked.   I couldn't help but noticing the large hole in the front of the canoe. I have traveled in the same canoe many times, but I don't remember the hole in th...

This past Wednesday Abigail, Carolyn and I were visiting San Antonio. Our friends Chris and Vanessa Collins had a visiting group who wanted to learn more about how YWAM is reaching out to indigenous groups in Panama. Abigail was motivated by the fact that we would get to see "Abuela" and "Tatooi" (grandma and grandpa). Carolyn just wants to make sure she is going wherever we are going. It was a sunny day as we crossed the Chagres River where it opens in the Panama Canal. Our driver, Alex's cousin, manuvered through the water plants, and brought us up to the slightly sinking dock. Abigail and Carolyn ran up the give Abuela hugs, since she was waiting at the dock for us. The Collin's visiting group enjoyed the visit, and a taste of Indigenous culture. I tried to sum up in 20 minutes or so the work we have been doing with the indigenous and also what our vision is for the futre. This was much easier since Alex and I have been working or family mi...

I thought I would take a moment to highlight one of our fellow staff. Mireya is from Honduras. She was a student in our January DTS and is currently serving on staff. Two days a week she visits a girl's home. I thought I would share part of her newsletter and some photos taken there last week when Mireya, Alex and other staff visited the Home to help with maintainence work. Here is an excerpt from her latest newsletter: I arrived at this orphanage with the desire to be a blessing to whomever I met there, be it the staff of the teens who lived there. My main idea was to begin a ministry with the teens in the orphanage, “Hogar Mi Milagro” (Home: My Miracle). There live 21 children and teens from the ages of 9 to 17, all facing difficulties and problems in their home lives. Their home is now this orphanage, which gives them a roof over their heads, and food, but it’s not a place where their voices are heard. Listen to them was exactly what I wanted to do, each Tuesday and Thurs...

Sometimes a simple conversation can spark ideas. Alex had just such a conversation last weekend when he was hanging out with Wounaan friends and family, supporting a church youth group (I wrote a little about this in the last post). He was at a home, sitting around and talking with family and friends. The hostess' oldest son, Irving, was doing poorly in school, and in their usual frank manner, the family was discussing the situation. He had failed several classes his last report card. His mother was threatening to take him out of school and send him to the country to live with his grandfather, helping him on the farm. If it sounds pretty drastic to you, please realize that most of the parents of Wounaan kids in school now never finished their own schooling, and THEIR parents didn't go to school at all. So schooling is not a historical value, and is seen today as a means to an end: getting a better job. Most parents from indigenous communities make huge sacrifices to see th...