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A mixed team of 12 men, women and
youth from Portland (OR) Christian Center
(PCC) returned the end of March, giving two weeks to
block the first floor of the Phase 2 housing
building. In addition to a commercial kitchen,
pantry, laundry and storage area, the Phase 2
building includes 10 guestrooms, each with its own
bathroom (See the floor plan below). The second
floor of the Phase 2 building will provide an
additional 14 guestrooms.
This small PCC crew was extra
special. We often talk about an anointing over
preachers and others in ministry. But if there ever
was an anointing over a building team, this group
had it! The Panamanian crew worked alongside the PCC
team, mixing mortar, cutting rebar and forming and
pouring bond beams. This allowed the PCC team to
focus on laying block. The team was able to complete
more than three-quarters of the block work on the 10
guestrooms. During their 10 days of work they were
able to lay over 5,000 block. The Panamanian team
has continued working on the building in the last
several weeks. They are just now finishing the final
block work ahead of another team that will be
arriving on June 15th to work on the electrical
wiring.
Both the PCC and Panamanian
workers gathered together each morning for a time of
devotions and prayer. Daniel, one of the teens on
the PCC team, translated from both English to
Spanish and Spanish to English. This devotional time
helped to bond the two teams together and we believe
the Lord honored our prayers for protection and
strength!
The PCC team worked a full two
weeks, but took the weekend between off to rest and
tour. Saturday morning, we crossed the isthmus of
Panama to visit the Gatun Locks and Visitor Center
for the Panama Canal. The new visitor is elevated
and provides a breathtaking view of the bay and
entrance to the Canal. We had the team over to our
apartment at the end of the tour day.
On Sunday we visited three
different churches that have schools. Our first stop
was to visit the Jehovah Jireh Church. After a
beautiful time of bi-lingual worship and a greeting
from the church, we toured the school facilities.
Three different PCC teams participated in the
construction of both a two-story building (2000) and
a four-story building (2007 and 2008). There are 651
children and youth, kindergarten through 12th grade,
attending this school! Our last church to visit was
the Good Shepherd Family Church. Pastor Julio
welcomed us into service. After service concluded
members of the church visited with team members that
were a part of the school and church construction in
2000 and 2001. More than 800 children and youth,
kindergarten through 9th grade, attend the Canaan
Good Shepherd School.
Thank you, Dave (team leader),
Jim, Sherry, Terry, Vi, Steve, Arlen, Nate, Joyce,
Emma, Daniel and Joel, for your hard work. You have
been our anchor in this project and we couldn’t do
it without you! God will use your investment in the
Latin America Resource & Training Center and
multiply it to equip dozens of international and
national leaders and thousands of teachers and
directors who are reaching and training thousands
more!
PCC, we hope to see you back next
year! If so, the rooms that you building will be
ready for you! For now and for the coming weeks,
please join us in praying that the first floor will
be finished by the end of July. We have 35 pastors
and leaders from Panama and surrounding countries
that will be taking advanced studies for the whole
month of August!
We have had a great response to
our call for help that went out six weeks ago with
more than $20,000 given and another almost $10,000
committed. We still need at least $50,000 to
complete the needed guestrooms by the end of July.
Please help if you can. You can use this
direct link to access the project's
secure A/G giving page. Or you can mail your check
to:
Assemblies of God World Missions
LARTC Project 14925
1445 Boonville Ave.
Springfield, MO 65802
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