The African Planter

I really likes this article, it was really interesting. It was good to hear all from the point of view of the Pastor.
I think there was a lot of important points in the article, for example when he talks about Americans coming with an agenda and just doing what they say they are going to do without asking the people what they think about it.

Also he says that americans say that they are going there to do something that will make your life better but as he said that doesn't happen in 2 weeks, so we can't be thinking like that we need to get to know the place, build a relationship, etc.

When he talks about the interchange, that americans go to Kenya without knowing anything about the country so it is a very deep culture shock and that make's the trip more about them instead of what they came to do. Thats why I think it's really important to research or know about the place your going because that way you are prepared for what you are going to experience.

When he says that americans can't hold their tonge, I think thats really true and wee need to listen not just give our opinion but also hearing theirs and respect what they say, because it's not about us, it's about them we are serving them.

So I think those were probably the most important ones even thoug they were a lot of interesting things in this article.

Jahango Fair

Well I wasn't able to be there during the entire fair but from what I saw, the Jahango and the Kenyan culture are very similar:
Music and dancing are very important in both cultures, both of them struggle with poverty and economic issues and also, they have a really low porcentage of Christianity.

I think that the Galvez family will have a lot of challenges, for example:
- They will have to learn a new language.
- They will have to get used to the tipe of living in Jahango.
- They will have to get used to the different food in Jahango.
- They will have to adapt to their culture, traditions, clothing etc.

Challenges...

1. I think that being a servant and serving are different because if you are serving its probably just a moment thing or something you are probably not doing from the heart and as i said its just something of a moment, but if you are a servant it means that you serve with your heart and you are always triying to serve.
About the assumption "We cannot truly serve those we do not know & love"
It relation its that if we are going to be servant we nned to love and know the people because that way we are going to be serving with our hearts.

2. The question that I want to get more insight into is ¿What does it mean to be a follower of Christ?
I chose this question because I really want to be a follower of God and I want to learn everything I can to be this. And if im a real follower of God then I can share the gospel to the people and I can truly be a servant.

I hope that in this trip I can truly be a servant and I can really help and serve the people in Mancora in every way I can.

Experiencing Life at the Margins

The idea that surprised me was the one that talked about the american churches being involved in missions overseas.
This surprised because it's amazing that christians with a lot of power in the chuch won't go to see what's happening in other parts of the world, and I think thats not right because if they are saying that they love missions that we should support them, then he should also go and see what's happening.

An idea that I think will aply to us is the one about being in the center.
We are to mancora, a small town but just because it's small or not as touristic as other places doesn't mean great stuff can't happen in there, in fact as it says on the round trip material JESUS was not crucified in the center he was crucified outside Jerusalem, so even if Mancora is not the center great things can happen and great people can come from there.

An idea that i think won't apply is the racism.
I think that racism won't be a problem because Peru is also a latinoamerican country like Panama, so there's not much difference in the people, however it is a different culture with differnet traditions but i don't think that there will be problems with racism.

Commitments

I don't disagree with any of the commitments because I think there all necesary for short - term missions.

I feel strongly about the commitment that says
" WE WILL stop thinking of short-term mission trips as a service to perform and see them as another expression of a seamless life of missional living that includes giving and receiving. It’s a time to learn. When we’re with brothers and sisters from another part of the world, let’s spend less time thinking about how we can tell everyone back home what we did for them and more time finding out what they’re truly facing and getting their perspective on how we can help".

I think this is really important because if we don't really understand what they are facing and how we can help, it wouldn't make sense to tell the people what we did for them.

I also feel strongly about
"WE WILL as a group take the time to step back from the situation we’re in to see what’s going on by scheduling time for planning and reflection".

I think we need to take time to see what we are doing and to reflectionate because this will help us keep focus and it will help us to think about what would be better to do and what we shouldn't do.

Our indiviual and team preparation will be characterized by our team unity, our desire to serve the people, our commitment to the mission, our interest in knowing and expiriencing God more and in our desire to be like Christ.

summarizing

I'm already changing in the way I think about mission because of the sessions we are having and I think that's really good and that it would really help me in all the missions trips i will go to.
I hope that in this trip I can learn how to threat with different cultures, how to truly serve them and to be able to share my faith without any difficulties. Also I would like to truly be a servant of God and to dedicate my life to him. Finally I want this to help me grow more in my relationship with God and in my spiritual life.

Objectives

I choose objectives 1-4, 2-2 and 3-1

1-4: I hope that I can learn a lot about this so that I can keep giong to short-term missions or other trips like this without having so many prblems an to really acept the other cultures even though they are a little different than us.
2-2: I would love to be able to share my faith in Cristh and it would be awesome to use all my unique abilities and gifts to serve the Lord so that I can keep growing in my relationship with him.
3-1: I think it is extremely important to be able to work on a team and do a good job, and if we learn how to do this that would help me a lot in my life.

Outcomes

I feel strongly about the idea that says "The world is hungry for Jesus, and there are so many ways we can be Jesus to the world".
I think it's really important for us, christians, to be Jesus to the world and to share the gospel in any way we can.
It is important for christians to know this because a lot of them don't share their faith or help non-christians to get to know Jesus because they think they can't or that they don't have a way to help them, but as this is saying there are many ways to do it.

Assumptions

I disagree with the one that says that We cannot truly serve those we do not know and love.
I think we can serve people even if we don't know them if we have the initiative to do it and they're willing to listen. I know that if we know and love the person it would be a lot easier but i think even without those things we can still serve.

I strongly agree with the 1st assumption that basically says that doing missions is showing who God is and how a group of people that obeys God looks like to other people. I agree with this because i think it's extremely important to act like followers of God and if we don't do this the people in Mancora would'nt listen to us and apreciate what we do because we wouldn't be an example.

I completaly agree with the assuption that says:"Our mission trips usually assume we have something to offer the churches and communities we visit, but there is much to learn from them as well". I think a lot of times we think that since we are the ones going there, we're the ones teaching or showing stuff to them so we don't pay atention to all the stuff we can learn from them. I think that what we need to do is don't think about ourselfs being better or bigger than them but to interact get to know them so that we can also learn a lot from the people in Mancora.

Also I strongly agree with the second assumption that says that we must not go to this trip to do something we aren’t already doing in here. We need to follow the word of God serving and sharing the gospel to people and if we're not already doing this it's most likely that we will not do it in Mancora either. What we need to do is starting to share the gospel here in panama(if you're not already doing it) so that we can do it even beter in Mancora.