taking to the streets in panama city

This past Saturday night we took to the streets with the girls and a few guys from our DTS. Our goal was find and share the love of Jesus with the prostitutes in Panama City. For those that are unfamiliar with the situation in Panama City regarding prostitution I'll give a quick class.

As far as we know and have observed prostitution is legal in Panama. It is not legal to sell anyone into prostitution but it is legal to be "self employed". Most prostitutes in Panama are not from Panama. Most come from Colombia or the Dominican Republic or the rest of Central America. There is a visa for women coming to Panama to work as dancers or prostitutes.

So we set out to do something that we haven't done here in the city yet. What we found was very educational. We have a contact that prays for the women every Tuesday and Wednesday at the public health clinics in the city. Those are the days that they are required to get checkups. She confirmed to us an area in the city that we had already been thinking about. This area isn't like you might think. It's not dark and scary. It's not dirty. It's not the dark alley ways like you might see in some places. It was a very nice place. It was clean. It was safe. One thing that caught our attention was the number of single white males in the area. This area is very upper class and touristy. The biggest draw is a large hotel and casino that lights up the area. It's very well known that all you need to do is be a white male inside or outside and you'll be solicited by several girls.

The approach we took was a method used by many. The girls from the DTS were the primary ministers that night. The guys hung back in prayer and kept an eye on the DTS girls. The girls handed out flowers with Bible verses attached to all the women that they saw. It was great to see the looks on the faces of the women and even the men who were with them. This was the first of hopefully many opportunities to share the love of Jesus in this area. Vanessa is already planning upon our return to go to the clinics with our contact on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Please be praying for the people that were ministered to, the men and women who have truth in their minds now.

stepping into the next step

Stepping into the next step

Well it’s September and and on top of trying to find the time to celebrate 3 years of marriage we’re also anxious about where God is taking us in life.

First things first. The DTS is going great. We have been blessed with a very mature group of young people who have come here to Panama with open hearts to experience God. It’s also been a blessing to grow closer to them and develop solid relationships . Please be in prayer as they continue to know God throughout the next months.

As many of you know we were working in the city with a group of photographers. Well they’ve moved on but they left plenty to follow up on. They were able to open many doors for future inner city work, especially in the areas of prostitution.

As was mentioned before we’re celebrating 3 years of marriage this month! Noah is growing up fast and we’re running out of space! Right now we’re blessed to be about to house and car sit for a family that works here at the YWAM base. Sadly Chris has only been able to enjoy the bed because of being in Costa Rica for a week with the DTS and then getting sick half way through the last week of teaching. Hopefully this will be a better week.

Many of you may be aware of our burden for cities. This is something we feel that God has called us to do and for the last three years we’ve been trying to figure of how, with success and failure. Recently we sat down with our leaders to share our hearts for starting ministry full time in Panama City. Over the past months we have felt God pushing us more and more to focus totally on the city. So we shared that with our leaders here and after discussing it we came to the conclusion that our next step should be living there. So in 2010 we move downtown! We’re not sure how this will work out because we need to up our support substantially in order to pay rent in the city. We also plan on buying a building that can act as a YWAM center. We have one in mind and are praying and asking God how he wants us to act on this.

We are planning a trip to the USA sometime in December so we’ll be able to visit and share more of God’s dreams that He’s given us for Panama City!

Blessings,

collins family

June/July

ywam promo

YWAM Panama DTS Outreach 2009

May Newsletter

april update