Today the team had an early breakfast at 7:00am in order to leave for the two schools we were visiting in Chame and Buenas Aires by 7:45am. Blanca cooked a delicious meal of eggs with sausage and toast while the dancers got their hair and makeup done by Lyly, Arodis, and Genesis. Loading up the vans, we drove about fifteen minutes and arrived at the first school. The puppet team set up the new puppet stage that we brought down for them from Illinois as the children started filing in. Before the performance, Jose spoke with the kids and got them excited for the show! We were having some technological difficulties, however; we are excited and ready to perform. During the dancer's performance the speakers that were playing the music kept going in and out, but the dancers continued to dance and power through the song. Thankfully, we had another speaker that worked much better during the puppet show. Afterwards, Juanpi shared more of the gospel with the students and then the rest of the team was able to talk with the kids. Many of the children were open to hearing the word of Christ and accepted Jesus into their lives. It was a great first performance and many people stepped out of their comfort zones to communicate and share with the students.

The second school we travelled to had a slightly older group of kids, however; Traci said that some of the students had never even seen puppets before! The presentation ran smoothly and while it became increasingly hot throughout the day, the team continued to selflessly serve the Lord through the teachings of the Bible. Similarly to the first school, we handed out bracelets and prayed with the students who wanted to accept Christ into their life. After the presentation, half of the team headed back to camp while the rest of the team stayed at the school and taught English to two classes. Once both groups were back at camp, we received a delicious Chili lunch from Blanca and her team in the kitchen. Around 2:30pm we began cleaning the camp for the arrival of a large group of children tomorrow morning for an overnight stay! Having some down time in the late afternoon, many of us took the opportunity to swim in the pool which overlooked a beautiful mountain. It was a refreshing way to cool off after a long day of hard work. Before dinner the student worship team practiced music while others played card games and hung out with the Panamanian missionaries. For dinner, we had rice with beef, plantains and coleslaw. To end the night, we had a nice time of worship led by the student worship team and Rueben. We also had time to debrief about the exciting day and listen to Cassidy and Wigun share their testimonies.

Today was the first day we were able to go into schools and present our dance and puppet performance that we have been working on for a while now. It was so exciting to see all the students enjoying the performances and listening to the word of Christ that we had the privilege of sharing with them. It is such a special opportunity to be able to go into schools and share the Bible because back in the United States you are not always given that opportunity. During the times in which we were able to interact with the children, I attempted to use my Spanish skills which was a very important moment for me as I was nervous about how well I was going to be able to communicate with them. I have been praying to God all week, asking him to give me the confidence and knowledge to speak to the children in Spanish and today I was shown again how powerful and present God is in our lives. Throughout this week I have seen God working through so many of my teammates and I am so grateful for the chance to come back to Panama this summer and experience so many amazing things.

-Emma Schatz

Hey, GCC! While you all listened to Pastor Chris preach, we had the opportunity to go to the Fowlers' church, La Iglesia de Refugio de Gracia (The Church of the Refuge of Grace) and hear John Fowler preach in Spanish. I found this especially cool and amazing because I was able to understand everything he said and learned a lot. We also sang in Spanish and were able to meet lots of the members of the Fowlers' church. There we also met Brodie who is here seeing Panama for the first time and is going to be a missionary in about a year, and she then joined us for the rest of the afternoon.

After church we went to a mall to eat lunch (I went to Taco Bell and got what they call a Socio Pack) and were able to walk through the mall (which was like a Spanish Gurnee Mills on steroids). We were able to interact with lots of people in Spanish and see lots of differences and similarities between here and malls in America. We then headed over to the Panama Canal and saw several barges and a yacht go through. We were also able to see a movie about it and walk through their museum, but we weren't able to get to the gift shop before it closed (sorry Mom).

After that we headed back to the camp, which was the best part of the day after the church. The reason I enjoyed it so much was because the van that about half of us were riding in had a Panamanian family (who help at the camp) and we were able to talk with them. Their names are Freddy, Claudia and their almost two-year old daughter Sami (only Claudia could talk some English). They taught us this custom where at about 5 pm (when the men return from work) they all share this tea like beverage called mate and let us try some. Claudia then taught us how to play a Spanish word game that we all played. We also played with Sami and taught her some English words.

Today was especially interesting/fun because of all the opportunities we had to speak in Spanish. We are also all safe, sound and alive.

-Micah