Plans for Colombia Trek 2010 begin

In the past few weeks I have been in touch with missionaries from Cartegena and Medellin Colombia in preparation for Colombia Trek 2010. Lord willing, we will be venturing south for two weeks sometime in the summer of 2010 with a group from the US. We will join other team members from Medellin and be spending one week in that city and another week in the vicinity of the coastal city of Cartegena. In both areas we will be working with the local missionaries to help with their ministry to the needy children and peoples of the region.

Please pray for me and the work of Mission Trek - that God would lead and guide us to have effective ministry for Him where ever we serve. Check out this video from the Cartegena area working with Youth With A Mission on the Island of Terra Bomba in the city of Bocachica:



Andrew Burnett
Director
andrew@goodimpressions.us

P.S. If traveling to Colombia and working along side local Colombians to reach people for Jesus sounds like something you would like to do, contact me.

Panama Trek Wrap Up 2009

This years Panama Trek was a real blessing on many levels. Here are the high lights from this years trip:

Week One: 5 of the 7 of us arrived on Saturday around noon. We were met at the airport by the Cabezon's and stopped by a shopping mall for lunch and essentials (Panama telephone cards, etc.) then headed for the YWAM (Youth With A Mission) Base, located about 15 miles from Panama City. That evening we had an orientation time and learned more about the personal testimonies of Alex and Jennifer. Jennifer came to Panama over 10 years ago for a 6 month DTS (Discipleship Training School.) She fell in love with the people and the country of Panama and decided to make it her home. She has been on staff with YWAM ever since. About 7 years ago Alex Cabezon was also doing a DTS and one thing lead to another. A couple of years latter they got married and together they serve as YWAM missionaries to the indigenous peoples of Panama.

On Sunday our team helped out teaching a children's Sunday School class and Daniel sang the offertory in the service. Check out the video for more details.



On Monday our team went out to San Antonio, an indigenous village where Alex's mother lives. We worked that afternoon on the construction of her new village home. Monday afternoon Richard and Linda arrived and joined our team. That evening we got more orientation about the trip to Rio Hondo on Tuesday.

Tuesday we left before sunrise so we could meet the boat and use the tides to arrive at our destination during high tide. We traveled by van for about 2 hours then transfered our stuff to a 28 foot Panga Boat at the Port in Chepo. We then took the 3 hour trip down the Chepo River, out into the Pacific Ocean, and back up Rio Hondo to the village. Rio Hondo (Deep River) is a beautiful village located on a river. There are about 300 people who live there, most of them are indigenous Waunaan Indians. Alex, our leader, is also Waunaan, and he was especially eager to meet these people that he had heard were his relatives.



We stayed in the village for three days. During our time there we helped with a construction project, had two afternoon Bible Clubs with about 80 - 100 children from the village. As it turned out, most of the kids from the school came to the club where they heard stories about God, Creation, and Jesus. We even showed the Children's Version of the Jesus Film in Spanish. We also had sports activities where the village children whipped up on our team in soccer.

On two of the evenings we went to the church service and had the opportunity to share testimonies, do a drama, and even taught the people a new song. Check out the video for more details.



On Friday we returned by boat to Panama City. Saturday we had a break and did some sight-seeing. We visited the Panama Canal and toured the Colonial section of Panama City. Check out the Video for more details.



Week Two: Early Sunday morning our team and the Cabezons headed for the airport and the one hour flight to Bocas del Toro, island region to the North and West along the Caribbean Ocean. In Bocas, we met up the Kim and Dale Kapsar, who would be our host during this week of ministry with the Ngobe people, the largest indigenous people group in Panama. That afternoon we settled in and began to help the Kapsars who too had just arrived from the States a couple of days earlier.

On Monday we met with the teacher at one of the local schools to discuss the consturction project - building a restroom for the school. We also did some clean up and fixing up at the house and Dave worked on the Kapsar's boat, replacing some of the floor boards that had broken during their absence.

Tuesday was a day off, while we waited for materials and supplies to arrive. Part of the team went to Bocas del Toro town and the other went for a hike on Bastimentos. Wednesday morning we had the final meeting with teachers, parents, and political leaders and made final decisions and plans about how the project would be done. Wednesday afternoon we visited another village and school. Our wonderful Children's team, Richard, Linda and Lyndsey decided to have a Bible Club there upon the teacher's eager invitation. Check out the video for more details.



Thursday and Friday construction progressed at one school and "tree house" building at the Kapsar's while the children's team taught at the other school. Check out the video for more details.



Saturday we all headed back to Panama City in the early morning. That afternoon we did a little more touring in and around the city. That evening we had a great time going out to dinner with the Cabezons and several of the other YWAM staff with whom we had served during the previous week. Check out the video for more details.



I think the addition of our Children's Team was the high light of this years trip. It seemed that where ever we went, there were children eager to learn more about the Good News of Jesus and our Team was ready to fill that need.

If you would be interested in our new trip to Panama or Colombia in 2010, please get in touch with us. Contact Andrew Burnett, andrew@goodimpressions.us.

MTI helps a Youth Watersports Camp

During the last weekend of August, our Director, Andrew Burnett took the family boat to participate with Hinson Church's "The Cove 2009". Every summer the Hinson youth head out to Eastern Oregon for a great time of water sports fun and discipleship. This year Mission Trek provided the gas for the Burnett's boat. Several of the 2009 Panama Trekkers were also part of the camp staff, including Andrew, Lyndsey Walker and Daniel Burnett. During one of the teaching times we were able to show one of the Panama Trek 2009 videos and later have the opportunity to share with many of the campers about the work of Mission Trek International in Latin America. Contact Andrew Burnett if you would like to have him share about the work of Mission Trek International, (503) 256-2043.

Week Two Report - Bocas Del Toro

We finished up our trip to Rio Hondo and did some sight-seeing in the Panama City area before heading up to Bocas by plane early Sunday am. We would be arriving just a couple of days after our Hosts Dale and Kim Kapsar (pictured at the left) had returned from the states.

Our team helped them get situated, began a work project at a hearby school, held a Bible Club at another nearby school and continued construction on the "Treehouse", a multipurpose building just below the Kapsar's house on the Island of Bastimentos. Check out the videos, plus in future updates, we will have some reports from this years Panama Trekkers.

One big change with this year's team was having a group that can work specifically with children. Linda, Lyndsey and Richard were perfect in that regard. During our time in Panama we had the opportunity to speak to well over 100 children from 4 different indigenous villages.

Here are a couple of videos about our activities in the Bocas Region:





Check out all of the Panama Trek 2009 videos on Andrew Burnett's Youtube.com page: www.youtube.com/user/andrewaburnett

Week One Report from the Panama Trek Team

For our first week in Panama our team joined in the ministry of Alex and Jennifer Cabezon to reach out to a Wounaan village. Jennifer (pictured in the photo with her daughter, Abigail, walking to a VBS at an indigenous village in Panama) gives an excellent report about our stay at Rio Hondo on her blog http://www.cabezon.blogspot.com/ as follows:

Alex lead the group of curious Portlanders up the path towards the community of Rio Hondo (which means Deep River). They left behind the river, the water slowly going down as the tide went out. The boat that had carried them about 50 miles down the Chepo river and out over the Pacific ocean was now resting on a gravely bank.

I can't describe the scene from the perspective of the Americans present, since Abigail and I were safely at home, praying for the safety of the team and success in their mission. But I can tel you what Alex first noticed - the last names of the people in the village. The Wounaan determine relatives by last names. If someone shares you mother's or fathers last name, they are family. And as they were introduced to one person after another, he realized that the majority of the community go by the last name of Cabezon.

The team spent their time participating in the small church consisting mostly of the pastor's family and one other extended family in the village. They carried gravel up from the river in order to put a cement floor in the church and did a Bible Club for the kids of the village (over 75 attended each day). They showed the Jesus film, told Bible stories, did crafts and played soccer with the children.

When Abigail and I arrive at the banks of the Chepo river on Friday to pick the team up, I was eager to hear their observations. They had many, one of the being the remoteness of the community, and limited outside influences. They wondered, as I have heard many missionaries, both short and long term, whether they would be doing more harm than good if they continued to bring in those influences.

Wondering what Alex's take on this was, I asked him as we swerved in and out of Panama traffic in the YWAM van.

He said, "There are so few in the church, and so many lost. And they are all Cabezon's. How can I just leave my own family like that? We need to return." (Alex is a indigenous Wounaan Indian. His family came from Colombia to Panama about 40 years ago and settled in the National Park near the Panama Canal. Jennifer and Alex have been married for 4 years. They have one born child, Abagail, and another is due in January of 2010.)



More videos of the Panama Trek 2009 trip are available on Andrew Burnett's Youtube.com page - www.youtube.com/user/andrewaburnett

Through the Eyes of a Child

In these last weeks before our team leaves for Panama, two of our team members are hard at work to put a teaching program together for children. During our time in Panama we will visit at least 3 indigenous villages and probably more. Each of these villages have many eager young minds who will be fascinated about the visitors who are in their village. This is an excellent opportunity to tell them about the good news of Jesus. Pray for Linda and Lyndsey as they prepare for their assignment to teach these young minds about Christ in a meaningful way. There are barriers, both language and culture, that can hinder the presentation of the gospel. If you have any suggestions or know of any good approaches for working with indigenous latin cultures we would love to hear from you. Here's a short video showing a typical village scene with young children.

Here's great video about how one church shared the Gospel of Christ in the summer of 2008 in Panama.

Panama Trek Team - "Working our way to Panama"

Part of the team spent the day doing a home improvement project for one of our supporters. All of the money we made on this project will go towards our travel expenses for the trip to Panama in July. If you have a project you need to get done and would like to help our team, give Andrew Burnett a call, 503-256-2043.