HONDURAS Guatemala
EL SALVADOR
短宣分享
Tegucigalpa
2024 Panama Field Visitation Team Report
San Salvador
NICARAGUA
Managua
COSTA RICA San Jose
Panama City
PANAMA
JUDY CHENG God qualifies the unqualified. During the Covid pandemic I was bored and trying to learn something new, so I bought a ukulele. I had practiced by following video lessons to learn some basic chords and strumming patterns. During our trip a teenage girl in Panama needed some instruction on her newly bought ukulele and I was able to teach her some basic skills that I learnt. Through this I have experienced the promise that “My Grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness”. (2 Corinthians 12:9) KATHY MAK One of my goals of this mission trip to Panama was to be a pianist to support another teammate Rosina to start a worship team in the Chinese church at Penonome. When I arrived, Rosina showed me an electric keyboard with only 61 keys. It was not only limiting my playing range but also not responding to my touching consistently. As a result, the volume of my playing was sometimes too soft or too loud! When Rosina saw my frustration, she told me that there was another keyboard with 88 keys, but the adapter was missing. Next morning, when Anthony, Crystal and Rev. Chan went to buy groceries, they also tried to look for a suitable adapter for that 88-key keyboard. When they came 12
back with the adapter, I was truly grateful for their efforts! After plugging in the adapter, I noticed that there were 2 loose keys which produced a choppy sound “knock, knock”. After I practiced awhile, there were 28 loose keys! Even though I spent hours practicing, it still sounded terrible! That night, I couldn’t fall asleep. Amid my frustration, I asked God, “Why did You send me to Panama as a pianist but provide me with such a terrible keyboard? How am I going to set a good example to the newly formed worship team?” Right away, the Holy Spirit said to me, “Kathy,
you are not coming to perform but to bring people into worship!” In a flash, the passage 2 Corinthians 4:7 came to my mind, and I thanked God for reminding me not to rely on my own skills and techniques but totally on His surpassing power to play through these loose keys and bring people into genuine worship. That was my experience during that very Sunday worship! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. (2 Corinthians 4:7)
ROSINA WONG 陳樂怡 My duty was to teach a class which had no music background. Six young people came to the music training. None of them played a musical instrument. Their musical experience basically had been with nothing but YouTube. But they were keen and ready to learn. They have the capacity to understand and apply instantaneously. It was a piece of cake for them to grasp the music rudiments. It was such a joy to be among them. God’s gift was apparent: they carried naturally beautiful singing voice; they all had the natural ability to sing in tune and a strong sense of rhythm and ability to blend with each other. It was so touching to see them worshiping God as they enjoyed the singing, putting forth their heartfelt emotions into the music. God simply gathered those He endowed with musical gift plus a humble heart and brought glory to Himself as He called and enabled them to be worship leaders.