11-1-06

Hi,

Thanks so much for your prayers, they do have power before the throne of grace! As you know, I made presentation in Spanish at the church in Pedregel. This a suburb of Panama City. I think it went fine. Leonardo Quinton, the head of the Baptist Association in Panama City, said he would like to have us speak at other churches in the area about sponsoring new Chinese churches, so it couldn't have been too bad! With my dyslexia, it is very difficult for me to read out loud, so I must depend on my ability to do a presentation without a lot of notes.

This last Thursday, Francisco Yau and I went to Santiago again and had an excellent day! We made 25 visits and had 8 say that they would be interested in starting a Chinese Christian outreach, how if only I can get them excited about starting a self-sustained CHURCH!

Tomorrow begins the Independence Day weekend in Panama, so Francisco and I will leave early for Santiago and hope to be going the opposite way home against the traffic. We will be taking a new video with us for the outreach. We pray for the production of a Hakka language video of Jesus in the future.

William Ortega was here this weekend and I had him talk to Francisco about Church Planting Movement efforts in Mexico City. William is a church planter friend we did training with in Virginia last month. Sunday afternoon we joined the Chinese young men in an soccer outreach. I was happy to see so many adult friends working with the Chinese young people!

Pray for my dad who is hoping to get out of the hospital in Omaha. He had a low sodium level and is feeling better now.

Sunday night we heard the youth band at Crossroads church, it was great to hear Christine sing and her testimony.

How may we pray for you?

Cheryl and John Mark

11-13-06

John Mark & I visited three different Panamanian churches Sunday morning in the company of Leonardo Quinton, his wife Ibis & son Alejandro. In two of the churches we did a presentation of our ministry to Chinese Panamanians and in the third church, which was an indigenous Indian group called Kunas, we simply attended & enjoyed a tour of their facilities. We met for the first time this week with a new Hakka language helper named Wendy Li. Her dialect of Hakka is a bit different from that of our other Hakka teacher, Francisco Lee. Though a bit frustrating, we think we will be able to progress despite the differences. From a purely linguistic standpoint, it is really very interesting comparing them to each other & to Mandarin.

What is equally rewarding is helping another young Christian Chinese person begin to grapple with some of the issues involved in reaching her own people group and hopefully, beginning to plant a vision & commitment to getting involved herself.

That's about all for now. Take care. . .

Love,

John Mark and Cheryl Hansen

11-27-06

Your Gifts to Lottie Moon Christmas Offering

Here is one of those questions that people are afraid to ask. Maybe you have wondering about this also:

How do the Hansens pay for their expenses to do missions work in Panama?

As we have just celebrated Thanksgiving weekend (17 for dinner at the Hansens in Panama City!), Cheryl and I would like to again thank our supporters for providing for us. We are career workers with the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant group in the United States. Since its organization in 1845 in Augusta, Georgia, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) has grown to over 16 million members who worship in more than 42,000 churches in the United States. Southern Baptists sponsor about 5,000 home missionaries serving the United States, Canada, Guam and the Caribbean, as well as sponsoring more than 5,000 foreign missionaries in 153 nations of the world. Each Christmas time Southern Baptists take up a special offering for international missions work. It is called the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering (LMCO) in honor of a wonderful missionary to China from the last century.

LMCO gifts support your Christian workers in Panama and other parts of the world all year round. Southern Baptists gave a record $137.9 million to LMCO last year and are challenged to give $150 million this year. Read a few reports from our front line workers to see how much your gifts to Lottie Moon mattered this past year.
"Because of your selfless giving, thousands of copies of gospel films and tracts were distributed in Panama."

"Because of you, we had Bibles to share with seekers and new believers in the cities, towns and countryside of Panama"

"LM provided for our ministry needs on the field, including Bibles, tracts, VCDs/DVDs and travel expenses."

"Through your giving to Lottie Moon, I was able to be a full-time trainer and not have to have another job to support me."

"Selfless giving provided a house for us, school tuition for our daughter, money to travel about the area and make relationships with local people, money for language study with local teachers, materials to give to Chinese people who showed interest in the Good News, and materials to disciple new believers."

Thanks to all those who have sent money directly to the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention or gave through their local church to the Lottie Moon Christmas Missions Offering and the Cooperative Program.

We appreciate you soooooooooo much!

Cheryl and John Mark Hansen

12-10-06

Christine participated in the Christmas Cantata.



12-13-06

Merry Christmas 2006       What A Year It's Been!

We've learned a lot about the Chinese in Panama as we've visited in storefronts, homes, restaurants & malls. God blessed us with a Chinese coworker who has introduced us to many young adults & we've enjoyed getting to know them through special events & day tours. God also led us to another friend who has helped us develop DVDs, tracts and other evangelistic materials for distribution. Volunteers from the U.S. have come & helped us both in surveying our people group and in handing out evangelistic materials store to store. Latino coworkers have helped us in language study, in meeting Chinese children through Sunday school & soccer activities and by allowing us to speak about our ministry in Spanish language churches. We owe a great debt to our Chinese Panamanian friend who is teaching us Hakka. We thank God for the wonderful assortment of people that He has placed in our lives this year to help us get started. What a loving & faithful God we serve!

John Mark & Cheryl celebrated their 25th anniversary with a 10 day cruise to seven capitals of Europe. Without boring you with the details, we had a wonderful time! Nathan surprised & delighted us with his engagement to Amanda Morse. They came for a two week visit in August so we could "get to know" Amanda. They are both juniors in college this year & have set August 4th, 2007, as their wedding date.

Christine has had a busy year with youth group activities, singing with the youth band, student council, volleyball, dance and a formal spring banquet. She helped with backyard bible clubs in January during Christmas break (yes, December through March are the equivalent of summer break here in Panama) and again in July. We all attended our first Area Group Meeting (AGM) of missionaries in Guatemala this summer and shortly after, Christine spent two weeks in the States with family & friends.

John Mark & Cheryl had three weeks of training in Virginia in September & then flew back to Nebraska for a quick visit with family & friends.

May you be filled with joy as you contemplate God's tremendous grace in sending Christ, our perfect example, faithful friend & loving Savior.

John Mark, Cheryl & Christine Hansen

12-16-06

This morning we enjoyed a snow storm in Panama City! It was only 90 degrees. One of the men at Crossroads church hired a snow machine for winter fun! Christine and I got VERY wet and had a great time.

John Mark



12-25-06

Christmas Dinner!



12-29-06

It's fun to be in Panama during the tourist season. Frank Lee's sister and brother-in-law flew down from the States and we toured the old colonial part of Panama today. On the way down there they told us that President Carter was on their plane and greeted all the passengers. He is vacationing with all their kids and grandkids here this week. While touring today, Jolie/Pitt came through the area to visit the interesting sites. This was after they were on the causeway where Christine was riding bikes with friends! Oh, we live such a glamorous life, HA!

John Mark