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1-2-07
Happy New Year! We celebrated by having another family, the Lee's, over.
J.M. & Frank (the dad) watched the Green Bay Packers game while the
rest of us, i.e. Kelly (the mom), Brendan ( the almost 10 yr. old), Christine
& I played some new DVD games that they had gotten for Christmas.
We played "Trivial Pursuit", "$60,000 Pyramid", "Family
Feud" and Spades. Kelly is a very competitive person so its always
interesting to play games with her! Christine had a lock-in at the church
that night that began at 11:00 pm We counted down the New year with the
folks in Times Square & then watched a few fireworks in various parts
of the Panama skyline. We had to pick Christine up from her lock-in at
8 am the next morning. You can imagine how much sleep they got!
J.M. had invited another couple with two preschoolers over to watch the
Nebraska game at 11:00 am Their two girls, ages 2 & 3, "helped"
me take down a few of the Christmas decorations from the tree! After they
left, it was time to head for the Lee's for a mid-afternoon dinner with
their family, which included Frank's mom & dad, his sister & her
husband, and another sister, her son & her boyfriend. After watching
"Cars", ( or in my case, sleeping through "Cars")
we played a bunch more games & then headed home. I was zonked.
We had to go to Immigration this morning to start over on our Visas. It
worked pretty smoothly today. We got 3 month visas that will, Lord willing,
be changed into year visas after three months. Then we begin the whole
process again next year. Tomorrow, we will go get new driver's licenses.
Each time we get a new visa, we need a new driver's license too.
Today, Christine had youth praise band practice, followed by walking with
a friend, followed by a movie. We will pick her up later tonight. Tomorrow,
she will begin preparing for next week's backyard bible clubs that they
will be doing in a number of different neighborhoods. That should pretty
much keep her busy until school starts again.
Much love,
Cheryl
1-8-07
Christine is having her party even as we speak! A group of her friends
from Crossroads youth group took her to TGI Friday's for dinner after
the backyard Bible clubs today. Now they are playing games and enjoying
the WONDERFUL cake that Kelly Lee made for her birthday. All her "aunts"
and "uncles" in Panama remembered her today also. She is having
a great time!
All for now,
John Mark
1-17-06
Christine sings with the youth praise band at the Crossroads youth group
Crossfire. As you can see her youth group is many different colors and
the speak both Spanish and English. She really enjoys her friends here.
She is a student leader this year.
John Mark
1-22-07
It's BIRTHDAY SEASON
As reported earlier, Christine went out for her birthday on the 8th with
a party afterwards. She was pretty pooped each night that week after doing
planning in the mornings & then outside backyard bible clubs in the
afternoon. She was pleased to be building relationships and sharing a
Christian witnessing. They had several decisions for the Lord.
John Mark & I helped with a Chinese children's, youth & young
adults activity on the 9th at an outdoor sports club. We each drove a
van load of young people to the "Club de Montaña" &
spent the day swimming, playing tennis, basketball, soccer, etc. with
them. We are VERY tired at the end of the day & were a little sore
the next day!
Amanda (Nathan's bride to be) e-mailed us that they were having to conserve
energy in the dorms in Kearney for a few days until all of the power was
restored or else they will have rolling blackouts in the area. Thankfully,
they both made it back to school with no problems. Nathan has been interviewing
for internships in the area.
We are putting together a new website. It is www.messiahproject.org/latin-chinese.htm.
Jonathan Kitchin is doing a wonderful job transfering information and
posting new information and pictures. We would love teams to consider
doing prayer walks with Goal 200.
In the last few weeks, we have been working with ethnic Chinese Christians
on how to develop and feel comfortable sharing their personal testimonies
and would love to work with other groups or individuals in Panama to do
the same. What we have found works well, is to meet for about an hour
and use a third of the time for training, a third of the time for practice,
and another third for accountability and encouragement. As was shared
at the Crossroads Family Retreat last weekend, we end up like the Dead
Sea if practice, accountability and encouragement are not part of the
training process.
Thanks millions for the thoughtful notes and "e" cards! We both
had great birthdays. John Mark made a piña colada cake for Cheryl
& we used John Mark's "48" candles from last year for her
birthday on the 20th. We attended a Franklin Graham (son of Billy Graham)
training event on Saturday morning and then all three of us went to TGI
Friday's for lunch followed by the movie. We took Christine to her friends'
house & then hung around the neighborhood for awhile, waiting for
them to make some plans for the evening (we assumed that they would need
a ride to wherever they were going). After dropping them off at the Mall,
we went out to the Causeway for some ice cream & then went for a walk,
enjoying the mild weather & pleasant breeze on the Causeway &
the pretty lights from the skyline & boats. We later picked up Christine
& took her back to her friends' house, where she spent the night.
A nice birthday, all in all!
Prayer Requests:
1. Pastor Edwin Martinez of the Bill Graham Evangelistic Association has
asked us to explore if there is any interest in providing counselor training
for ethnic Chinese people for the Festival de Esperanza (Festival of Hope)
at the Rod Carew National Stadium of February 22, 23, and 24. There is
a strong possibility that a number of Chinese-Panamanians will attend
this event and it would great to provide counseling in Chinese languages.
If there is an interest in seeing this people come to know the Lord, we
would be willing to organize the required training.
2. Joana Wong started a bible study at our house last Thursday night.
Please pray for people to come.
3. Franicsco Yau will be starting a bible study at our house on Wednesday
night. Please pray for God' will to be done.
4. John Mark has started meeting with Dave Ng on Thursdays. He says, "I
would like to study English, but spiritual things also."
5. Cheryl is continuing to develop several relationships in area with
Chinese young ladies, please pray for other contacts also.
Love you guys,
John Mark & Cheryl Hansen
1-22-07
Christine attending a formal party at the new school principal's home.
Panamanians often have formal parties and love to dress up!
Cheryl' birthday on January 20th
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