“For those of you who do not believe that God exists, this is proof!” These words, spoken in Spanish, echoed off the empty walls of a home with no beds to sleep on and no chairs to sit in. It was occupied by fourteen Venezuelan refugees struggling to make it in a foreign land. An older gentleman within this group of refugees reminded those questioning God’s presence during their foreboding circumstances, that our team was proof that God did show up. Indeed, God certainly led us to this group, and this was one of several instances that I felt as if we were walking on holy ground during our eight-day trip in Panama. On this particular day, we planned to deliver the food we purchased at a local store to this group of refugees; however, once we sat with them and saw the absence of necessities that most of us take for granted, we traveled back to the store to buy them some much-needed household items and more food. Incredibly, Christin, one of our team members, was so heartbroken by their living situation that she emptied most of the clothes from her luggage and donated them to the women. Most notably, aside from the food and necessities we left them, our presence with them lifted their spirits. No one had visited them in over eight months, and they felt nobody saw them nor cared about their plight.

Our time with the refugees was our last day of the trip, but the journey to Panama began long before we arrived. So much behind-the-scenes work went into this trip to create pathways for Life 107 to protect, reach, and restore in Panama. Yes, we wanted this trip to prevent human trafficking, one of the fundamental pillars of Life 107, but we also wanted to go deeper into the root causes while empowering women and children. Because of the patriarchal social structure within the indigenous group we planned to serve there, I knew gender-based violence (GBV) fueled the power imbalance and oppression that is fundamental to human trafficking. Indeed, at the core of human trafficking, the abuse of power is found – the basis of GBV. Therefore, I created a lesson plan on GBV for teachers, pastors, and anyone who works closely with youth to use as a preventative measure, to begin our long-term goal of turning the tide on the behaviors, traditions, and beliefs that undergird GBV within a region, community, and household.
With this in mind, the leadership at Manos de Fe, the Panamanian hosting organization, allowed me to present the lesson on GBV to their staff and once to parents and teachers at a local school. According to the co-founder of Manos de Fe, Julie, we were the first visiting team to address GBV in their community.

Manos de Fe is a Christian NGO that offers humanitarian aid through housing teen girls transitioning from orphanages or who have been mistreated, and functions a preschool, community school, and church. Manos de Fe has built relationships in northern Panama for many years, so we felt honored by the opportunity to partner with them.
Life 107 Executive Director, Demetria, and I created tip sheets for parents and teachers to protect minors from abuse and trafficking. Demetria also developed bears with biblically-based coping skills on their collars for children who have experienced traumatic events – in essence, to reduce the vulnerabilities of children to trafficking victimization and exploitation. I was able to distribute these bears to the children who live at Manos de Fe and to the school we visited, as well as disseminate tip sheets to the parents and teachers who attended the presentations on GBV. A big thanks to our translators, Nina, Brenda and Ivana, who prepared these for use among Spanish speaking populations and Brenda for adding (by the Spirit) a line to our teddy bear poem.

At the same time, I delivered copies of a children’s book in Panama that educates children on how to avoid human trafficking predators, written by Bren, CEO of Legacy of Hope International. The book has contact numbers for local agencies that can help children if they or someone they know are in danger. Copies of the book were left at the school and with the refugees we visited. Nina, the on-site director at Manos de Fe, translated the book into Spanish, and also sent copies of the book to Panama City.

Beyond the L7 initiatives to protect vulnerable children and women, we were supported by Manos de Fe to meet other needs during this mission. Ultimately, eight of us traveled to northern Panama to serve. Our compassionate team was busy each day following the Spirit’s guidance. When we visited the school, we arrived with a piñata, toys, and games for the students. Since it was Easter week, the students were in good spirits and enjoyed dancing, making crafts (such as slime), and feeling the love of our team. We visited an impoverished neighborhood in Volcán, handing out bags of groceries and praying with families. We also delivered a refrigerator to a vulnerable elderly lady whose home was half-eaten by termites. After performing a needs assessment, we cried and prayed with this woman and realized how much she was suffering. My daughter (A) was heartbroken to discover that this lady’s dog was near starvation because she didn’t have the means to feed it, so she insisted that we buy a 30lb bag of dog food – compassionately providing for an unexpected need.

While on-site at Manos de Fe, one of our team members, Cindy, who has worked with teen moms as an educator for over twenty years, brought the teen moms in the transition program several resources and gave a presentation on parenting. Our team also painted one of the cottages the teen girls live in; we finished the installation of an AC unit, repaired the water heater, played with the children, helped in the preschool, and baked with the teens.

Everywhere we went, we witnessed so much need, but we just continued to trust that what we did made an impact each step of the way! By extension, we were planting seeds and trusting in God’s providence. Working in the humanitarian sector over the years, I’ve learned that it is pointless to become discouraged over the tremendous suffering in our world but to trust that God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. This world is not heaven, so there will always be suffering here; regardless, if you make yourself available to God or “step in the boat,” so to speak, He will guide the sail by using your gifts to make an impact. Put simply, God will show you where you fit into the framework of alleviating suffering.
Thank you for supporting Life 107 as we create Pathways into Panama. If you would like to financially support future initiatives in Panama or if you are interested in joining the mission team for 2024, reach out at ComeAlongside@Life107.org.