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Showing Love to the People of Panama
By guest writer Beverly Edwards Breazeale
Our first experience on this year’s trip was in being delayed on the runway at the Greenville-Spartanburg Airport due to the weather. We knew that, if we didn’t make that flight, we wouldn’t make it to Panama, so we started to pray. When we did take off, we saw two beautiful rainbows, and we knew that was God’s promise to us that we were going to make it.
Patty Kerns and I made cakes the first morning there, because we were going to have a ‘Happy Birthday, Jesus’ party for the children. Some of them had never had cake, and they loved it. For the children all week, we told stories of the birth of Jesus, His life, death, burial, resurrection, and the plan of salvation.
Each day, we would serve the children peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, cookies, fruit, and Kool-Aid. They were so grateful to have that, because many of them had only rice, if they had anything. We served the women hot meals during the week, and they would take their plate of food home and feed their whole family from what would be one serving for us. We gave out shoes to the children and the mothers, and one day we took their blood pressure and did ‘ask-a-nurse.’ One woman was diabetic and had not been able to buy insulin. The missionaries, Pastor Allison and Gayle Holman, took us to the pharmacy, where we bought insulin and syringes, without a prescription. The woman’s daughter said, “Thank you. I can never repay you for what you’ve done.” Pastor Holman told her, ‘Thank Jesus, because He is the one who provided it for you. You can repay Him by serving Him.” The next day, they were in our service. That was an answer to prayer.
One day, we gave every woman who came to our service a bag of beans and rice. This would probably feed our family for a day, but it would feed their family for a week. With the beans and rice we had left, we went out to the community and gave to the poorest of the poor. That was a true experience, to be able to go out into the community and feed them, too.
We would usually have a Bible story, something that would go along with the lifestyle teaching for the day. We shared the story of the woman who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears and dried his feet with her hair and anointed his feet with ointment. Then, we washed their feet. That was a humbling experience, one that I think every Christian needs to experience. They could not believe that we would sit on the dirty ground and wash their feet. Their feet were just as I think Jesus’ feet would have been in his day. Their feet would be very dirty, as they walk barefoot, or, if they do have shoes, they’re flip flops or sandals. Also, from a medical standpoint, we wanted to see if they had any problems with their feet.
Washing the people's feet was a humbling experience.
One morning, I had planned to share with the women the story from the Bible of the woman with the issue of blood, but God had given Patty a Scripture out of Hebrews that morning, and, as she started to read to us, I said, “I need to let you do that today, because God has given you that, and the ladies need to hear it.” Eleven women made professions of faith that day. One of the men with us had gone out on the street and led a man to Christ, so we know we had at 12 public professions of faith that day.
In the middle of one service, a lady named Maria came forward and asked us to pray for her, because her husband had died. She said her heart was hurting. We started praying for her, and, one by one, all of the women came to us. That was not something we had planned; that was the Holy Spirit taking control of the service.
Maria had two precious little girls. Because they could not afford an apartment, they lived in an abandoned building, which was very unsafe. There was no running water, and nothing to cook on. We began to pray for God to show us a way that we could get her out of this abandoned building. We thought we would be able to pay for a few months’ rent and maybe some groceries and furniture for her. We discovered that, if she had $300 to buy land, the government would give her $1,000 to start building a house. It would be a block house, not what we are accustomed to here, but it would be a home. For two Wednesday nights, our church had taken a special offering, and we were able to give $1,000 toward the woman’s house. Another church also gave $1,000. We were able to leave $2,000, which meant her house could be completely built, electricity could be hooked up, and she could get furniture.
She was really excited about having a house, but, when we told her she would be having a stove for the first time in her life, she was so excited to be able to cook for her children. I thought, “Don’t ever let me complain about having to cook. At least I have a stove to cook on, and I have a sink and can turn on hot water and wash my dishes.” She had none of that. She told us that, even though she had fallen on hard times, she was not going to desert the church, because she knew that God was the only answer to all of her problems.
Maria's daughters
Patty shared Scripture out of Hebrews about how a Christian marriage should be. Often, the men there drink and are very abusive, and the women are made to work very hard.
With the children, we would have a type of Vacation Bible School. We would share a Bible story and do a craft with them. One lady on our team had a motorized car with a little mouse inside. The children had never seen a remote-controlled car. That’s how she would get their attention. She would tell them stories and have games with them. One day, she taught them a song, Jesus is the Lord of the Jungle, and the children sang it for their parents.
It costs $50 plus $20 for a uniform for a child to go to school in Panama. That doesn’t sound like much money, but they don’t have any money, so it’s hard for them. We were able to leave some money for some to go to school.
On a previous trip to Panama, we had gone into a dangerous neighborhood, because Pastor Holman wanted us to minister to some people who would not be able to come into the city for our services. As we were walking down the street, a woman jumped out in front of me, and I recognized her as being demon possessed. I told her to step out of my way in the name of Jesus Christ, and she did. Along the way, we met a crippled woman, a blind man, and a deaf boy. God was putting all of these people before us, and we would give them tracts and talk to them through interpreters.
When we returned, we began to pray before we started our service. Then, we looked up, and there was the blind man. I started to cry. There was the crippled woman. And the little deaf boy was there. Glenda McGaffic, who was with us on that trip, has a daughter who is deaf, and she wanted to communicate with the little deaf boy but discovered that he did not know sign language because he lived on the street. It was very hard for Glenda to leave that boy behind.
Two men carried to our service an older lady who could hardly walk. I was crying and said, “They’re bringing them to us like they did to Jesus. We can’t heal them, but we can show them the One who can.” That was a very humbling time, to see that God had allowed us to be a part of that. It wasn’t by accident that we were there. He had allowed us to be a part of His work. He could have done all of that without us, but he let us be a part of it.
On our first trip to Panama, we went to Vera Cruz, a church in the mountains. That first morning of our trip, we had about 30 children and about 20 women we had programs with. When we went back that afternoon, 200 children were there. We were going to do a Bible story about Jesus telling the disciples to cast their nets on the other side to get fish. Their craft consisted of three little foam fish and a piece of twine for them to tie the fish on. We were worried because we knew we had enough for only 75 children. But we did not run out of fish until the last child had some. In fact, the next year, when we were packing our crate, we found some foam fish, so God multiplied our fish. Patty also gave out goldfish crackers as the snack that day. She said, “I don’t know what I’m going to do when I run out, because I can’t stand the thought of one of these hungry children looking me in the eye for food, and I have nothing to give him.” The goldfish did not run out. There is no way to explain it except to say that God multiplied the foam fish and goldfish.
Another experience was when I was teaching first aid on a past trip. A lady there said that she had asthma, but someone had told her that, if she used her inhaler, her lungs would rot. With my having asthma, I was able to pull out my inhaler and explain to her the importance of using her inhaler just as the doctor had prescribed for her. With tears streaming down her face, Patty said, “God did that, because there were only two nurses, and you had asthma.”
The other nurse taught about breast health, as she had had a breast removed due to breast cancer. We took a rubber model so they could feel a lump. They had never had an opportunity to do that. We discovered three women definitely had a problem, and we were able to pay for them to have mammograms.
The first trip to Panama, we had 80 people in one day to come to know Christ. It was in the inner city. Women would be weeping as we shared the story about the woman with the issue of blood. We would let the Pastor present the Gospel. It was something to see people come to know Christ.
One of the days we were in the inner city, two men came in, and I felt they were there to cause a problem for us. At the door, we handed out paperback books of John. One of the men took one and began to read it. Sarah Reeves, who was with us, said, “I feel I ought to witness to him.” With an interpreter, she sat beside him and started telling him about how she led her son to the Lord when he was not much younger than he was, and he prayed to receive Christ. We found out later than he had been an ax murderer. The missionary told Sarah, “You have one on me. I’ve never led an ax murderer to the Lord.” So God used us in miraculous ways.
We had with us another dear saint who has since gone to be with the Lord, Bobbie Menchyck. She did whatever needed to be done. I think now the Lord must be rewarding her for what she did in Panama, for the lives that were saved in Panama. She was a great encourager for all of us, and, even though we miss her here on this earth, I know she’s where she has longed to be for a long time.
Even though the trip was difficult, and had a lot packed into it, in a very short period of time, I’d do it all over again in a minute, because it’s worth it. If only one person comes to know Christ, it’s worth it. And we know that there were 12 public professions of faith.
The people would welcome us with open arms. They would hug us every morning, and cry when we would leave. They couldn’t wait until our next visit. This time, they brought us all gifts. My gift was Jesus’ hand with an angel sitting in the palm of it. I will cherish that forever. It wasn’t the money that was in it, but just the thought that, they have nothing, but yet they wanted to share with us.
Every time we leave, I think, ‘How can we leave? We’ve only touched the surface.’
Carol Allen, one of the ladies who went with us this past time, told me, “I can’t forget it. How can you ever forget it?” I said, “You don’t ever forget it. That’s what makes you want to go back. You can’t forget it.”
But just as there are people in Panama, there are people in need right here in Easley. I think God takes me to a foreign country, out of my comfort zone, to teach me so that I can come back and do projects around here, too.
I think God has used each of my experiences to lead me to the next. I went twice in the 1980’s to Haitti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere. Being a mission surgical volunteer and counselor in a homeless shelter in Tulsa, Oklahoma was a great learning experience. Probably, if I had not earlier gone to Haiti, I would have been afraid to go to the homeless shelter. I think maybe God used that experience to make me have a heart for homeless people and for poor people. Even though I felt I grew up poor, I don’t know what it’s like to be hungry, to not ever have food, to have to eat somebody’s garbage to have something to eat.
One of my heart’s desires is to go to India one day. I hope that God will work that out in the future, for me to go there.
I hope to go back to Panama, because part of my heart is there. Part of my heart is still in Haiti, too. I think you leave a part of your heart wherever you go.
The above is an account of a mission trip to Panama led by Patty Kerns, Multi-Housing Missionary for the Greenville Baptist Association. Beverly Edwards Breazeale, a nurse, has joined the Greenville Baptist Association team for several years.