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| The Crew and Freebie Wap, #1 in our hearts |
Panama, how we love thee. Today marks our third full day here, and we’re ready to get after it. Before heading out from Casa Paraiso this morning, we want to catch you up on what God’s been doing within and through our team over the past two days…
For us, the Panamanian lifestyle has been bookended by early mornings and late nights, a testimony to the non-stop pace we’ve enjoyed since touching down Monday afternoon. This morning’s blog entry will be a true doubleheader, with separate posts containing stories from our Tuesday and Wednesday adventures. We’ll pick up this post on Tuesday morning, which began with a team adoption and our first practice on a Panamanian diamond.
Tuesday, August 11
We kicked off Tuesday with our first breakfast at Casa Paraiso, enjoying the go-to combination of fresh fruit and cereal. Before leaving our home base, we were given the blessed responsibility of adopting a brilliant young coconut named Freebie Wap (more on him later).
From the adoption ceremony, we loaded up our transport bus with the necessary ingredients for a good practice and made a 20 minute trek along the canal to our practice site, Clayton fields. Our field, which was situated on a retired American military base, was made memorable by its gravel infield, bright blue back stop, old school bleachers, and lack of fencing (which made chasing foul balls a true errand). Conditions aside, we loved every second on our unique, new home and spent our two hours running through a light practice that included a little infield/outfield work and a solid hour of BP (batting practice) (shoutout to the BP arm of Chris Regan. And shoutout to our pitchers, who can hit like men). We shed about 754 gallons of sweat during Panama practice #1, but even the heat couldn’t keep the squad from enjoying a great morning.
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| Our Boy, the slugger |
**At this point, we would like to recognize a true legend, Freebie Wap. Born and raised in South Palm, Freebie was abandoned at a young age. He joined our team through Rio Missions’ Adopt-a-Coconut program and will be playing with us throughout the trip. Despite having no sight in his left eye, Freebie launched his first career home run at practice, a magical moment for us all. We will be posting pictures with Freebie throughout the week as part of a challenge from our friends at Rio Missions. Stay true to yourself, Freebie..we love you.**
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After practice, we raced back to Paraiso for a quick lunch with the softball team before loading up the vans once more. This time, our destination was not a field, but a large, two-story complex 45 minutes away in Colon. Our mission: to team up with Heart’s Cry Children’s Ministry and its founder, Matt Hedspeth, for a remodeling project. Through their ministry, Matt and his wife Misty share an incredible vision for the children of Panama. Their current endeavor involves reconstructing the complex into the Casa Providencia Orphanage, Panama’s first orphanage for special needs children. The Casa Providencia project remains an extensive one for Matt, as he and his team are still in the process of refitting the huge complex to meet the many different needs the orphanage’s tenants will have.
Upon our arrival at Casa Providencia, we split into teams and aided Matt with several small remodeling projects. Our tasks included powerwashing and cleaning dirty tiles, removing old windows from the top floor, loading a giant truck bed with discarded scrap wood, and chipping old paint from walls. The work was tough yet rewarding, and our four hours on site went by quickly. Being able to partner with Matt and Heart’s Cry on this project was something we cherished. Matt’s willingness to trust God and pursue His call to build a special needs orphanage was something that stood out to each of us. The daunting project remains months from completion, but as Matt and his team continue chip away at the task, they’re not only showing a faithful commitment and love to children deemed “unlovable”, but also impacting the people (yep, that definitely includes us) who come and witness a very real example of turning aside one’s desires to follow hard after God’s call.
Post-Providencia, we returned to our own casa in Paraiso for burgers, worship, and devos. After devos, we packed dontation bags for Wednesday, and most of us had enough energy left for a little midnight basketball. We went to sleep with the satisfaction and exhaustion that typically accompany a maxed-out day.
We ask that, as you finish reading this post, that you take some time to pray for Matt and the Casa Providencia project. Pray especially for funding and wisdom in remodeling. God is doing incredible work through Matt and Heart's Cry, and we were grateful to leave our handprint on their mission today.
1 Peter 2:9
In Christ,
The Fellas
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