6/16/06

Please pray for a party we are planning for this evening at our home in Panama City. We are inviting several Chinese youth people that Francisco Yau knows in the area. Most are not Christians and we are looking for opportunities to share the good news of Christ with them.

I have attached a photo of Win White, a recent volunteer from Summit Church and Francisco Yau. I have also attached a picture of a Chinese young lady we met and her monkey friend.

Francisco has just added 120 more customers to his paper route, so now he has nearly 250 customers from Colon to Panama City. Please pray for his opportunity to witness to these many Chinese families.

Christine is hoping to work with a VBS next week here in Panama City.

The dreaded OPI's (Oral Proficiency Interview) are sometime during our AGM (Area Group Meeting) in Guatemala July 10-15. No specific time has been set yet. John Mark says his main problem is conjugating the verbs correctly. He's also trying to use at least some sentences that require the subjunctive conjugation so that he can advance at least one level in his evaluation. We really want to meet these requirements so that we can move on to (probably) Hakka study, which will require that we learn both a romanticized script for it and simplified Chinese characters as well. Pray that we'll have clarity of mind and fluency of tongue. Cheryl & I usually have the opposite problems. I talk fast but don't take the time to analyze what I'm saying, which includes the verb conjugations & the all of the agreement that should be happening between articles & adjectives & nouns. Cheryl, on the other hand, is so aware of everything that should be happening grammatically in the sentence that she talks in slow motion or is correcting herself every few words.

Nathan is learning a lot about working an 8 hour day & how far $7.00 an hour goes toward filling up the gas tank on his grandparents' 1997 Lumina. However, as Nathan would say,"It's all good!" These are experiences he needs to have!

Talk to you again soon,

John Mark and family

Francisco Yow & Win White (a recent volunteer from Summit Church)

Girl with monkey on her shoulder

6/17/06

Hi,

I have seven 3'x3' ground level concrete flower boxes going up the slope of our backyard along the fence line. I planted a few old favorites that were available here, like marigolds, moss rose and vinca. In the others, I'm experimenting with some very common stuff from Panama, most of whose names I don't know! I do know that one of them is jasmine, which is more of a shrub, with a white flower. Another has a willowy drape to it with a red flower, one has purple flowers and the last box has several houseplant types of greenery growing in it. Outside our bedroom windows, in the shade of the palm tree, we planted a row of impatiens of different colors. They seem to be doing well there. I don't have to water since it rains buckets most days during this season. Every couple of weeks I pull weeds out of the flower beds. That's about the extent of my gardening these days. Christine went out with me to weed the flowers a couple days ago & was grossed out by geckos& insects. Remember though, that she has a VERY low tolerance for bugs and reptiles of any kind. She has not yet gotten used to the geckoes that scamper around the house at night. My only fear is accidentally stepping on one when walking through a dark room!

We are spending three hours a day right now in Spanish study. We're hoping to be able to put that behind us after our area group meeting (AGM) in Guatemala in July (10-15th). During the AGM we will be tested again orally to see if we have continued to make progress. If they are happy with our progress, we can begin to study a Chinese language (probably Hakka).

Our coworker, Francisco Yow, is planning a recreational outing for a group of young adults that we have been cultivating friendships with. The outing will be a trip to Isla Grande on the Colon side of Panama on June 25th. You can pray that many of these young people will be free to go on the outing and that it will be a great opportunity to get to know them better and share more of our lives and faith with them.

Christine is relaxing so far & enjoying sleeping in. She took a girlfriend to the beach overnight this week, saw a movie one night and had a sleepover with another group of girls another night. She may complain of being bored but she's really not doing too badly! We went shopping with some friends this afternoon for a Father's Day gift for John Mark. So far, he's picked out some pajamas and a shirt. He also has been wanting a blender to make juices & shakes. We're still looking for just the right one! Next week Christine is supposed to help with a vacation bible school (in English) in the mornings. She says she will begin studying the Nebraska Driver's Manual sometime before she heads for the states.

The cruise to Europe is becoming more imminent in our minds as the dates approach. We will be leaving on July 18, one day after Christine heads for the states. We'll actually arrive in London on the 19th and do a little touring there with our friends, the Morrows, until the cruise begins on the 21st. The cruise itself will take us to each of the ports and then we decide if we want to tour on our own or join tours organized by the cruise ship. We have chosen to join four of the ship's tours in Bruges/Ghent, Belgium; Rotterdam/Gouda, The Netherlands; Hamburg/Schwenn, Germany; and Paris/Rouen, France. We're going to try to do Oslo and Copenhagen on our own. I'm going to try to eat smart on the cruise but they are legendary for stuffing you with food 24/7. We will fly back to Panama on the 31st, with a brief layover in Newark, NJ. Christine, Nathan & Amanda are due to arrive on August 2nd.

Our organization has scheduled us to be in training sessions at the Missionary Learning Center in Rockville, VA from September 9 - September 30. We have asked if we can extend that period by one week so we can fly back to Nebraska to see family & friends. That means that we'll be in Nebraska from October 1 - 7. Sunday the 8th we'll fly back to Panama. Christine was adamant that she didn't want to miss that much school so she will be staying with different friends here in Panama during that time.

That's about all of the excitement from this end.

Later. . .

Cheryl

6-24-06

Wow!

What a busy week for us. Thanks for praying for our meeting last weekend. We came away from it with a sense that we should continue to research which media vehicles will work best at reaching and connecting with the Chinese in Panama. Audio, video, print, internet....which means should we use? We had conversations this week with, and are working with John Grey of Zebra Publishing on a Hakka language audio/video presentation. We also talked about print and internet options. Please pray that the rest of our Hakka study materials arrive from Taiwan soon.

Last Sunday it was good to be back working with the Chinese youth Sunday school class at the Panama Chinese Baptist Church here in El Dorado. As part of the World Cup fever we played a soccer tournament with a soft ball of tape/paper inside the class room. Poor Luis was on a team with Cheryl and I. I managed to score at least one goal for the other side......

We had a couple of first time visitors and Amilcar Fernandez shared a full gospel presentation in Spanish with the group. We are praying for fruit from this opportunity and are thankful for teenagers like Anyi who have been such a help to us in our ministry and are interested in sharing their faith with others. Pray for us as we search for the best direction to go with this ministry in the future.

We also met with Mark Andrews, Terry Marks and Allison Holman in separate meetings to discuss and encourage the new English church that is starting in Arraijan.

We are continuing to prepare for our oral Spanish exams two weeks from now. John Mark & Cheryl are working on verbs, articles, pronouns, prepositional phases....etc. etc. We are currently doing 15 hours a week of private tutor and yes, John Mark is writing out his homework. We met with Mary Mangrum this week to talk about working through a language and cultural orientation process with our next Chinese language study. We hope to be able to move forward with the blessing of regional leadership into other language study whether it be Hakka or Cantonese.. pray that is goes well.

We got an e-mail from our research partner Dr. Jim Slack this week. Jim wrote, "Over the past six weeks I have been going through the survival and healing process from emergency retinal surgery to repair a hole and a tear in my left eye's retina. It is healing for which I praise the Lord." This could explain why we have not heard from him for a while! He continues to be so encouraging to us and the ministry in spite of his busy research and writing schedule and his recent health concerns. Please pray for him and the Slack family during this team of healing.

We are planning a meeting next week with Pastor Ricardo Fernandez, Francisco Yau, Amilcar Fernandez and Aurora Moreno about starting a Chinese outreach with the prayer and support of Iglesia Bautista de El Dorado in the near future. We are so grateful for the prayers and support of this great group of people. Please pray we keep Christ at the forefront of our thoughts and plans.

Francisco Yau now has about 250 people on his Chinese paper route and is thankful for the work and the opportunity to share Christ with these many Chinese families in and around Panama City.

Christine had a good week at Vacation Bible School with Iglesia Bautista de Fe in La Boca. She helped with the crafts and food. I think she was kidded-out by the end of the week though. The kids like her because she's funny & a straight shooter, but she doesn't coddle them at all or let them get away with much. Last night she helped a friend of ours, Kelly Lee, sand down & repaint a bed frame. Kelly is a good example for Christine in seeing how you can redecorate by renovating what you already have. She is very creative & always has lots of ideas of things she wants to try.

Tomorrow JM & Cheryl will spend the day with a group of young Chinese people on a day trip to Isla Grande & maybe Portobello. You can pray both for mental stamina for us, because it will be exhausting for us to stay in Mandarin all day (they will use Mandarin with us and Hakka with each other) and for opportunities to share about our faith in Christ. Francisco Yau is organizing this outreach adventure.

Finally, please remember us in your prayers as we make travel plans for the rest of this summer and fall to other parts of Latin America, Europe and different parts of the United States.

Again, have a super day. . .we appreciate you!

Cheryl and John Mark

6-26-06





The first picture is of John Mark and Cheryl on the old "mule" used to guide ships through the locks. The second photo is of Felicia, Kendy and Jenny with Cheryl at the observation platform at Gatun Locks. We had a good day with the group of nine Chinese singles, though not pointly evangelistic. We are planning a meeting at 8:00 PM on Wednesday night to discuss ministry plans with the leadership at Iglesia Bautista El Dorado.

John Mark