Panama Mission Trip

Going to the store with friends

Christy Mahon, Carly Cloud, Theresa Olona, & Me in old Panama.

Well, I made it back alive. Back from Panama and back into the real world. It was incredible! Here's how it went down:

We flew to a small island that literally had only a strip of concrete on it. From there we took a canoe to Mulatupu, another island where we stayed. When we pulled up to the dock there were 250.324-09er million kids (no really). Two or three took our hands and walked us to the mission house. We jumped right in, one of the kids on the team pulled out some Frisbees and we started throwing them around with the kids. That night we had a service as well as every other night. The next morning we started a VBS (vacation bible school) for the kids. We had children as small as two years old all the way to fifteen years old. We set up three different stations -- Recreation, Crafts, and Bible Story. The kids would rotate from group to group the craft would tie into the story and rec. was a blast. At night we slept in a hut strung with hammocks -- only four feet from the Ocean. High waves actually hit the wall of our hut. Part of the deal was that we got to take the hammocks home.

We had three translators that spoke both English and Kuna some of the kids had learned some Spanish at school so we could talk with them a little bit. A few of the kids would pick favorites. I had two kids that followed me around, Benjamin, he was nine and Waldo, he was five. Ben took me to his house one day and I got to meet his parents, they gave me two mangos and the most delicious pineapple ever.

The day before we left we took ten or eleven people to be baptized on a deserted island. It was beautiful, we got to do some snorkeling there was an awesome coral reef and it was full of fish.

The day we left we had to be at the airport ( on the first island we came into) at 6:30 a.m. I had said good bye to the kids the night before and didn't expect to see them again. But Benjamin had other plans. Just by looking at him you could tell he had just rolled out of bed. He came to say good bye wearing nothing but his underwear!

Thank you for your support and God bless!

Tyler Hudgins

Me with Benjamin (9).

Me & Lamencio(5). 

Waldo (4)and  Benjamin showing off.

Benjamin on his way to the store.

Waldo the ladies man!

Billy Linaham and friend.

This is a "Bread fruit." When it's fried it tastes like French Fries!

This is the bridge that spans the Panama Canal.   

This is a painting on the wall of a store. In the 16th or 17th century the Spanish committed genocide against the Kuna Indians.

The church was upstairs and the girls on our team slept down stairs.

Claudio Iglesias 

The girls after showering in the rain.

 got makeup?

The kids are hoping that I'll bring pastia (candy in Kuna) out for them.

Lamencio and his mom.

Mandy Herzog with friends.

This is where I slept.  It's about 3 feet from the water.

Every one is hungry for dinner.

Ben and his mom.

The parking lot.  These are fishing canoes made from a single piece of wood.

This is Ryanelo (15).

I'm not sure what river this but its a river some where in Panama.

This is a deserted island- we did baptisms on the other side of it. 

The women set up this as a kind of store to buy all sorts of hand made things.

This was one of about five stores on the island.

Tyler Luster with Ben and Carlos.

WALDO WITH A FAKE TAT ON HIS HEAD!

Tyler x2 + Waldo

This is the water outside the front door of the hut I slept in.