How are you?
Good I hope!
I apologize again for taking so long to get another blog up.
I'll try harder
I’m not the best at processing thoughts, I’ve found.
When something awesome happens I want to think about it, but id almost just rather sit and do something that requires no brain power.
I procrastinate thinking…if you will.
Something I am praying will change.
SOON PLEASE
As for me….
I am doing so well.
I cant even begin to explain what I have been through….been able to be a part of...in the last few weeks!
But alas…ill try!
Where do I begin?
Last time I updated I was getting ready to leave to go stay in the Ngobe tribe up in the mountains for 8 days.
The Ngobe people. They are so beautiful. So unique. So quiet and reserved. So unreached and so marginalized. They are agriculturists and are for the most part self-sustained. We went to the indigenous reserve known as the Ngobe Bugle Comarca (For the record Ngobe is spelled with the umlaut like in the title, but I will not put that in every time i spell it :). Anyways... All we really knew on our way was that these people have never really been photographed. Not with permission or professionally. So we drove on a bus for 6 hours to do so….with their permission. After the bus ride we hopped on the back of pick up trucks with make shift seating and ascended into the mountains.
The
Trucks
Looked
Like
This:
We went higher and higher. Above a layer of clouds…and another
The higher we got, the worse the road got…until it was totally unpaved and ridden with holes. Also as we went higher, we got further from tribes who had been exposed to the outside world. We went further than any YWAMer has ever gone before (dun dun dun)
I have never felt more excited for anything in my life as when we were driving up that mountain. That may be a bit of an exaggeration. But seriously. This would be the first time I was doing what I joined this program to do.
Photograph people, but most importantly show them God's love and share with them Jesus' story.
His redemption.
I mean REALLY. Thats what its all about isnt it? Stories. And how God's love and perfect plan and will and grace are intricitly woven throughout every persons life. So not only do I want to share Jesus' story, but mine as a testimony too. And I want to hear the stories of the people I meet. And tell them they are God's child who he loves and wants the best for.
They are redeemed in Him.
They are not alone.
Their stories are important.
Sorry. Tangent.
Anyway....
back to the excitement..
The anticipation was gripping me. Of meeting these people who are so unique and unbelievably gorgeous and sharing the love of God with them. I felt Jesus’ love and sacrifice for these people strongly with each passing minute…every stray Ngobe we passed on the road was beautiful.
Not to mention the scenery. It was incredible. The air was cool…for once. And to think these people live up here in this beautiful place…maybe knowing God and thanking him for the beauty…but many not knowing the sacrifice Jesus made so that they may be free to love and share and hope.
Their cares and worries are so different than anything I have ever thought about…
Ill get to that in a bit.
We arrived at the village we would be staying in Cerra Flores, and met the Ngobe pastor who had invited us to come. His name was Rafael and he had a wife and a 3 week old baby. We were shown our accommodations, a small church with a tin roof and a smooth concrete floor. Then we had a meeting with the pastor and he shared the needs of the Ngobe people with us.
I just want to take a moment to paint a picture of this time. The clouds had settled over the mountain we were residing on. It was incredibly foggy. We had one flashlight shining on the ground as the pastor spoke. As I looked around I couldn’t see 20 feet because of the fog. Then as it got darker….the fireflies started flashing. It was such a sight to behold. The dark outlines of a few trees…thick fog…little flashes of yellow light. There were so many it almost looked as if the clouds had glitter on them and were reflecting some peculiar and indiscernible source of light on us. It was quite the display. I was so taken in. Almost breathless. My heart jumped imagining what God had planned for us in our time here. I could feel his excitement in that moment.
I wrote in my journal: The fog rested silently on our shoulders and the fireflies twinkled in the night. It was a fairy tale.
When I tuned back in to the conversation (I tend to go off in daydreams and tune out things…leaving me confused…yeah, I’m that person) Rafael was talking….Literally as i tuned back in he said
“The fields are ripe for harvest”.
At this we all sorta gasped.
The quiet night became more silent…it was like we were struck with the fact we were really here…doing something. We could make a difference. He went on to describe his dreams to us around that little source of light. He wants to tell all the Ngobe people the Gospel. He once traveled to “the capital” of the Ngobe tribe called Tugri…about a 2 hour hike away…with his family. When he arrived he asked to enter and was refused because of his purposes of sharing about his religion. and his family waited outside the village for 3 days in the rain with no shelter, and was finally let in. He told many people about Jesus and many people were saved. He is truly a radical and God fearing man, it was so humbling to hear him speak of his passion for Jesus.
Seriously. In those surroundings.
Wow.
He shared with us some important things that night.
We found out that some of the problems that the Ngobe people face.
Poverty.
They have no money….
Can’t legally marry cuz it costs $20. Money they will never have. Men often take multiple wives. They have children very young.
Occult.
Mamatata is what it is called. It is a mixture of many different religions and is very dark. Primarily Animism and Catholicim.
Loss of Culture.
Many of the Ngobe have been exposed to the western world and as a result are losing their culture. Their children are learning the Ngobe language less and less. Alcohol is becoming a problem in more exposed areas. Their quiet reserved spirit is being lost.
Education is in Spanish…and worse...Latin people who have taught them Christianity said they could only worship in Spanish
These are some of the issues we discussed that evening, and as we went to bed that night I think all of us said prayers to ourselves that God would use us to make an impact on these people in this place in this time.
After gazing out the window at the fog and fireflies for a while, i drifted off to sleep.
........
The next morning I woke up just as the sun was rising and took a step outside. It was clear day. And God greeted me with this spectacular display:
I turned around to see the building I had slept in and saw this:
No joke.
And this is the view from where we ate our meals:
After taking in this scenery and having breakfast i met this adorable little girl, a daughter in the family letting us use their kitchen!
Just the beginning of the fabulous people I would meet in the coming days!
As the morning rolled on we discussed our plans for the day. We were going to spend out time meeting people around the village and hearing their stories and praying for them. And so we did just that.
The Ngobe people are VERY quiet. We were told to be quiet, don’t laugh our “American laughs.” HAHA. But seriously.
They are extremely reserved. The most conservative indigenous tribe in Panama. The women wear full-length dresses and the men wear slacks and button ups. They hardly ever smile. It was quite a challenge to smile at a kid and rarely get anything back but a stare. As a matter of fact they often cried at the sight of us white people.
Anyway, we were given permission to take photos so we took some and spent time with locals of Cerra Flores. We als invited the people we met to a church service we would have in the church we stayed in that evening.
The service was to be at 6.
5:00 rolled around and it started pouring rain.
Torrential downpour. It was insane. It didn’t stop either.
At 6 no one showed up and it started getting dark.
So we decided to start worship on our own with the other YWAM team that had come with us (music and worship DTS!).
8:00 the first people arrived. They walked in the rain with babies on their backs and all to meet us!
We got a candle and set in the middle of our circle. It was our only light source as more people started showing up.
Finally we had about 20 Ngobe people including the chief of Cerra Flores! He walked an hour in the rain to meet his visitors.
We had a little service. We sang How Great Thou Art in every language in the room- Ngobe, Spanish, English, Japanese, Korean, German, and Norwegian. It was amazing.
We had a little service where some of us shared our testimonies and some of the villagers did as well. I had an overwhelming feeling the whole time of God’s love. I felt that he was SO pleased with us meeting there and worshiping Him in our mother tongues.
At the end of the service we prayed for all of the people who had come to the service. A couple women recommitted their lives and their families to the Lord.
SO GOOD.
Then another amazing thing happened.
The chief (who is not a Christian) was touched by our little meeting and our passion for Jesus and preserving the unique culture of His people. It was clear as we spoke that we YWAMers were sincerely dedicated to bringing God into their lives in a way that didn’t ruin their culture. He could sense our heart and love for them.
And so he decided to dedicate 15 acres of land to YWAM in the nearby capital Tugri.
Yeah. It was a historic moment in YWAM :)
Overall? It was an amazing night. But things were just beginning.
...
The next day we did a little more local ministry and then later on in the day we were presented with two options. The next 5 days could be spent in Cerra Flores focusing on the villagers there even though most of them have heard the gospel…or we could hike to Tugri to see the land that was donated, pray over it, but most importantly share the love of Jesus with people who haven’t received it. Tugri is a land where no white people have ever been, and the Mamatata cult is the dominating "religion". Without much hesitation we decided to take option 2.
So the next morning we packed as lightly as possible and set out on what would be the most physically challenging thing most of us had ever done. We hiked for nearly 6 hours, mostly uphill, through the mountains. The whole time I kept thinking to myself…God…I am doing this for you and you only. You had better use us in this place we are going or I’m going to be mad. Although, it was beautiful, and I couldn’t help but sing worship songs which made the hike a little easier.
This is where we stopped to eat lunch.
I took this picture there:
The girl has a purse on her head that is holding a 3 week old baby. Yes she hiked exactly like that for 5 hours.
and this is just part of the beautiful hike...
Thats the trail we walked on :)
When we arrived in Tugri we were shown our accommodations. We stayed in a tiny hut, but it was the nicest they had because it had a tin roof and a concrete floor, which was never smoothed out after plopping down the concrete. But I didn’t mind it. There were animals everywhere, no toilet, and a faucet for a shower out in the open. But it was so beautiful so I really didn’t mind.
What we learned over the next few days was that the Ngobe reside mostly in the mountains in western Panama traveling back and forth between Costa Rica and Panama freely. There are Ngobe people scattered all throughout the mountains, they estimate about 20,000 of them I think. What was interesting is we were talking to some of the ladies we met about the Embera people (another Panamanian indigenous tribe that another team is working with that are located in eastern panama) and after talking for a minute we realized they had no idea who we were talking about. They have no concept of any outside world at all besides their own people.
So as you can imagine us photographing them was quite a shock.
Many people didn’t want their photos taken because they had been taught to believe it takes away their soul, and so of course we wouldn’t photograph them.
Many people said yes and then would stare into the camera with the most confused looks. But it was great when I'd show them the photo…that got a smile out of them. It really was about the only way to connect with the language barrier. Show them their picture. Smile, Laugh. Ive always heard laughter is special...for whatever reasons.
I believe it now.
It heals.
Many people would ask why on earth id want to take THEIR photo. Id tell them…its cause you are beautiful. And God loves you and I want the world to know that.
(On a side note we got the names of the people we photographed and their permission to use their photos in a publication if we wanted to.)
While we were in Tugri for those few days I got the opportnity to take photos, but I also got to spend time with pastor Rafael praying for people, and seeing a few people give their lives to the Lord! It was SUCH a blessing.
These are some of the people I met.
Estefan. Had the greatest smile, and cutest giggle. Grandson of the man who owned the land that was donated (he is pictured below as well as his wife)
and another family we met. The mom got the kids all dressed up for us :) they were really shy but so sweet. They loved having their pictures taken. and they were utterly intrigued by us
like in many third world cultures, kids take care of kids as single moms or both parents work in the fields all day.
I love to let kids take pictures of me. They are so delighted and feel so privileged...they say something that i imagine goes like this "really?! I CAN TOUCH IT?!"
Did i mention they carry babies in purses that they hang on their HEADS?!
SO CUTE.
One of the days after going around meeting people and praying we had a meeting with anyone who wanted to come, and translated stories to one another, english to spanish to ngobe, and visa versa.
In some cases Norwegian to English...and so one :)
Jo Yngve from Norway taught us a song in Norwegian
And we got the privledge of seeing a Ngobe traditional dance.
I wont go on too much longer, but the days we spend in Tugri ministering were amazing. That first day and the days that followed had a lot of firsts. Like this dance, it was the first time foreigners saw and video taped this dance. We also got to see a Ngobe “battle” for the first time ever. We recorded Ngobe music for the first time. We wrote and recorded Ngobe worship songs. All they had ever been taught were in Spanish.
Our goal was to emphasize that they must embrace their culture and hold on to it. We stressed that the second they lose their language they lose their culture.
They are going to start schools with classes in Ngobe, Lord willing Ngobe speaking teachers can be found (prayer point!).
We also got to see the land for the YWAM base…it was beautiful:
me and one of the few Ngobe pastors (not Rafael)
Our team praying over the land. The land goes from where we are standing to the evergreen treeline below us.
I'll throw in a picture of Rafael and his baby girl for good measure :)
As we prayed over the land a few people committed to helping get it started.
The 15 acres of land that was donated was originally saved for tourism when a road was put in…so it is prime land. There have been plans to continue the road from cerra flores to Tugri, but it hasn’t happened yet. I am beginning to think they should never build that road.
Why?
When we left the Ngobe in the high mountains (the hike back only took 3 hours cuz it was downhill!) we got a sort of culture shock in the Ngobe village we went to for the medical outreach. There was trash everywhere. Almost no one spoke Ngobe. Many people were very loud. We saw what the road through the village did as western influence overtook their culture. It was so hard for those of us that had spend the time in the mountains.
My heart years to preserve the beautiful traditions and culture of the Ngobe. The people I met up in the mountains will always be close to my heart and in my prayers. Pray for them…that their culture would not be lost. That their language will be preserved.
The medical outreach was not bad by any means. We met up with a team from CT who set up a clinic in a school in the province Cameron Arriba…two hours down the mountain from Cerra Flores (the first village we stayed in)
For three days our team worked alongside them to help organize the patient flow, assist in the Pharmacy, care for children, cook meals for the medical workers, take photos, and pray and love on people. It was quite different yet really awesome to assist a medical team of about 20 (Doctors, Nurses, a Dentist and a Pharmacist) see 2,000 patients in three days!
I do not doubt that God used us there as well as in Tugri and Cerra Flores.
Some photos from the Medical outreach:
All in all the Ngobe experience is something Ill never forget. The smiles. The culture. The unique traits of these wonderful people. God really revealed His heart for his Ngobe children to me and I saw them in a way that made my heart explode with love.
I hope that this entry touched you a little and you could experience some of what I did thru my photos.
Thank you for reading.
Much love and Ngobu Madimiga (God Bless you in Ngobe)
Cambria
Good I hope!
I apologize again for taking so long to get another blog up.
I'll try harder
I’m not the best at processing thoughts, I’ve found.
When something awesome happens I want to think about it, but id almost just rather sit and do something that requires no brain power.
I procrastinate thinking…if you will.
Something I am praying will change.
SOON PLEASE
As for me….
I am doing so well.
I cant even begin to explain what I have been through….been able to be a part of...in the last few weeks!
But alas…ill try!
Where do I begin?
Last time I updated I was getting ready to leave to go stay in the Ngobe tribe up in the mountains for 8 days.
The Ngobe people. They are so beautiful. So unique. So quiet and reserved. So unreached and so marginalized. They are agriculturists and are for the most part self-sustained. We went to the indigenous reserve known as the Ngobe Bugle Comarca (For the record Ngobe is spelled with the umlaut like in the title, but I will not put that in every time i spell it :). Anyways... All we really knew on our way was that these people have never really been photographed. Not with permission or professionally. So we drove on a bus for 6 hours to do so….with their permission. After the bus ride we hopped on the back of pick up trucks with make shift seating and ascended into the mountains.
The
Trucks
Looked
Like
This:
We went higher and higher. Above a layer of clouds…and another
The higher we got, the worse the road got…until it was totally unpaved and ridden with holes. Also as we went higher, we got further from tribes who had been exposed to the outside world. We went further than any YWAMer has ever gone before (dun dun dun)
I have never felt more excited for anything in my life as when we were driving up that mountain. That may be a bit of an exaggeration. But seriously. This would be the first time I was doing what I joined this program to do.
Photograph people, but most importantly show them God's love and share with them Jesus' story.
His redemption.
I mean REALLY. Thats what its all about isnt it? Stories. And how God's love and perfect plan and will and grace are intricitly woven throughout every persons life. So not only do I want to share Jesus' story, but mine as a testimony too. And I want to hear the stories of the people I meet. And tell them they are God's child who he loves and wants the best for.
They are redeemed in Him.
They are not alone.
Their stories are important.
Sorry. Tangent.
Anyway....
back to the excitement..
The anticipation was gripping me. Of meeting these people who are so unique and unbelievably gorgeous and sharing the love of God with them. I felt Jesus’ love and sacrifice for these people strongly with each passing minute…every stray Ngobe we passed on the road was beautiful.
Not to mention the scenery. It was incredible. The air was cool…for once. And to think these people live up here in this beautiful place…maybe knowing God and thanking him for the beauty…but many not knowing the sacrifice Jesus made so that they may be free to love and share and hope.
Their cares and worries are so different than anything I have ever thought about…
Ill get to that in a bit.
We arrived at the village we would be staying in Cerra Flores, and met the Ngobe pastor who had invited us to come. His name was Rafael and he had a wife and a 3 week old baby. We were shown our accommodations, a small church with a tin roof and a smooth concrete floor. Then we had a meeting with the pastor and he shared the needs of the Ngobe people with us.
I just want to take a moment to paint a picture of this time. The clouds had settled over the mountain we were residing on. It was incredibly foggy. We had one flashlight shining on the ground as the pastor spoke. As I looked around I couldn’t see 20 feet because of the fog. Then as it got darker….the fireflies started flashing. It was such a sight to behold. The dark outlines of a few trees…thick fog…little flashes of yellow light. There were so many it almost looked as if the clouds had glitter on them and were reflecting some peculiar and indiscernible source of light on us. It was quite the display. I was so taken in. Almost breathless. My heart jumped imagining what God had planned for us in our time here. I could feel his excitement in that moment.
I wrote in my journal: The fog rested silently on our shoulders and the fireflies twinkled in the night. It was a fairy tale.
Yeah. That's how it felt.
When I tuned back in to the conversation (I tend to go off in daydreams and tune out things…leaving me confused…yeah, I’m that person) Rafael was talking….Literally as i tuned back in he said
“The fields are ripe for harvest”.
At this we all sorta gasped.
The quiet night became more silent…it was like we were struck with the fact we were really here…doing something. We could make a difference. He went on to describe his dreams to us around that little source of light. He wants to tell all the Ngobe people the Gospel. He once traveled to “the capital” of the Ngobe tribe called Tugri…about a 2 hour hike away…with his family. When he arrived he asked to enter and was refused because of his purposes of sharing about his religion. and his family waited outside the village for 3 days in the rain with no shelter, and was finally let in. He told many people about Jesus and many people were saved. He is truly a radical and God fearing man, it was so humbling to hear him speak of his passion for Jesus.
Seriously. In those surroundings.
Wow.
He shared with us some important things that night.
We found out that some of the problems that the Ngobe people face.
Poverty.
They have no money….
Can’t legally marry cuz it costs $20. Money they will never have. Men often take multiple wives. They have children very young.
Occult.
Mamatata is what it is called. It is a mixture of many different religions and is very dark. Primarily Animism and Catholicim.
Loss of Culture.
Many of the Ngobe have been exposed to the western world and as a result are losing their culture. Their children are learning the Ngobe language less and less. Alcohol is becoming a problem in more exposed areas. Their quiet reserved spirit is being lost.
Education is in Spanish…and worse...Latin people who have taught them Christianity said they could only worship in Spanish
These are some of the issues we discussed that evening, and as we went to bed that night I think all of us said prayers to ourselves that God would use us to make an impact on these people in this place in this time.
After gazing out the window at the fog and fireflies for a while, i drifted off to sleep.
........
The next morning I woke up just as the sun was rising and took a step outside. It was clear day. And God greeted me with this spectacular display:
I turned around to see the building I had slept in and saw this:
No joke.
And this is the view from where we ate our meals:
After taking in this scenery and having breakfast i met this adorable little girl, a daughter in the family letting us use their kitchen!
Just the beginning of the fabulous people I would meet in the coming days!
As the morning rolled on we discussed our plans for the day. We were going to spend out time meeting people around the village and hearing their stories and praying for them. And so we did just that.
The Ngobe people are VERY quiet. We were told to be quiet, don’t laugh our “American laughs.” HAHA. But seriously.
They are extremely reserved. The most conservative indigenous tribe in Panama. The women wear full-length dresses and the men wear slacks and button ups. They hardly ever smile. It was quite a challenge to smile at a kid and rarely get anything back but a stare. As a matter of fact they often cried at the sight of us white people.
Anyway, we were given permission to take photos so we took some and spent time with locals of Cerra Flores. We als invited the people we met to a church service we would have in the church we stayed in that evening.
The service was to be at 6.
5:00 rolled around and it started pouring rain.
Torrential downpour. It was insane. It didn’t stop either.
At 6 no one showed up and it started getting dark.
So we decided to start worship on our own with the other YWAM team that had come with us (music and worship DTS!).
8:00 the first people arrived. They walked in the rain with babies on their backs and all to meet us!
We got a candle and set in the middle of our circle. It was our only light source as more people started showing up.
Finally we had about 20 Ngobe people including the chief of Cerra Flores! He walked an hour in the rain to meet his visitors.
We had a little service. We sang How Great Thou Art in every language in the room- Ngobe, Spanish, English, Japanese, Korean, German, and Norwegian. It was amazing.
We had a little service where some of us shared our testimonies and some of the villagers did as well. I had an overwhelming feeling the whole time of God’s love. I felt that he was SO pleased with us meeting there and worshiping Him in our mother tongues.
At the end of the service we prayed for all of the people who had come to the service. A couple women recommitted their lives and their families to the Lord.
SO GOOD.
Then another amazing thing happened.
The chief (who is not a Christian) was touched by our little meeting and our passion for Jesus and preserving the unique culture of His people. It was clear as we spoke that we YWAMers were sincerely dedicated to bringing God into their lives in a way that didn’t ruin their culture. He could sense our heart and love for them.
And so he decided to dedicate 15 acres of land to YWAM in the nearby capital Tugri.
Yeah. It was a historic moment in YWAM :)
Overall? It was an amazing night. But things were just beginning.
...
The next day we did a little more local ministry and then later on in the day we were presented with two options. The next 5 days could be spent in Cerra Flores focusing on the villagers there even though most of them have heard the gospel…or we could hike to Tugri to see the land that was donated, pray over it, but most importantly share the love of Jesus with people who haven’t received it. Tugri is a land where no white people have ever been, and the Mamatata cult is the dominating "religion". Without much hesitation we decided to take option 2.
So the next morning we packed as lightly as possible and set out on what would be the most physically challenging thing most of us had ever done. We hiked for nearly 6 hours, mostly uphill, through the mountains. The whole time I kept thinking to myself…God…I am doing this for you and you only. You had better use us in this place we are going or I’m going to be mad. Although, it was beautiful, and I couldn’t help but sing worship songs which made the hike a little easier.
This is where we stopped to eat lunch.
I took this picture there:
The girl has a purse on her head that is holding a 3 week old baby. Yes she hiked exactly like that for 5 hours.
and this is just part of the beautiful hike...
Thats the trail we walked on :)When we arrived in Tugri we were shown our accommodations. We stayed in a tiny hut, but it was the nicest they had because it had a tin roof and a concrete floor, which was never smoothed out after plopping down the concrete. But I didn’t mind it. There were animals everywhere, no toilet, and a faucet for a shower out in the open. But it was so beautiful so I really didn’t mind.
What we learned over the next few days was that the Ngobe reside mostly in the mountains in western Panama traveling back and forth between Costa Rica and Panama freely. There are Ngobe people scattered all throughout the mountains, they estimate about 20,000 of them I think. What was interesting is we were talking to some of the ladies we met about the Embera people (another Panamanian indigenous tribe that another team is working with that are located in eastern panama) and after talking for a minute we realized they had no idea who we were talking about. They have no concept of any outside world at all besides their own people.
So as you can imagine us photographing them was quite a shock.
Many people didn’t want their photos taken because they had been taught to believe it takes away their soul, and so of course we wouldn’t photograph them.
Many people said yes and then would stare into the camera with the most confused looks. But it was great when I'd show them the photo…that got a smile out of them. It really was about the only way to connect with the language barrier. Show them their picture. Smile, Laugh. Ive always heard laughter is special...for whatever reasons.
I believe it now.
It heals.
Many people would ask why on earth id want to take THEIR photo. Id tell them…its cause you are beautiful. And God loves you and I want the world to know that.
(On a side note we got the names of the people we photographed and their permission to use their photos in a publication if we wanted to.)
While we were in Tugri for those few days I got the opportnity to take photos, but I also got to spend time with pastor Rafael praying for people, and seeing a few people give their lives to the Lord! It was SUCH a blessing.
These are some of the people I met.
Estefan. Had the greatest smile, and cutest giggle. Grandson of the man who owned the land that was donated (he is pictured below as well as his wife)
and another family we met. The mom got the kids all dressed up for us :) they were really shy but so sweet. They loved having their pictures taken. and they were utterly intrigued by us
like in many third world cultures, kids take care of kids as single moms or both parents work in the fields all day.
I love to let kids take pictures of me. They are so delighted and feel so privileged...they say something that i imagine goes like this "really?! I CAN TOUCH IT?!"
Did i mention they carry babies in purses that they hang on their HEADS?!
SO CUTE.One of the days after going around meeting people and praying we had a meeting with anyone who wanted to come, and translated stories to one another, english to spanish to ngobe, and visa versa.
In some cases Norwegian to English...and so one :)
Jo Yngve from Norway taught us a song in Norwegian
And we got the privledge of seeing a Ngobe traditional dance.
I wont go on too much longer, but the days we spend in Tugri ministering were amazing. That first day and the days that followed had a lot of firsts. Like this dance, it was the first time foreigners saw and video taped this dance. We also got to see a Ngobe “battle” for the first time ever. We recorded Ngobe music for the first time. We wrote and recorded Ngobe worship songs. All they had ever been taught were in Spanish.
Our goal was to emphasize that they must embrace their culture and hold on to it. We stressed that the second they lose their language they lose their culture.
They are going to start schools with classes in Ngobe, Lord willing Ngobe speaking teachers can be found (prayer point!).
We also got to see the land for the YWAM base…it was beautiful:
me and one of the few Ngobe pastors (not Rafael)
Our team praying over the land. The land goes from where we are standing to the evergreen treeline below us.
I'll throw in a picture of Rafael and his baby girl for good measure :)
As we prayed over the land a few people committed to helping get it started.
The 15 acres of land that was donated was originally saved for tourism when a road was put in…so it is prime land. There have been plans to continue the road from cerra flores to Tugri, but it hasn’t happened yet. I am beginning to think they should never build that road.
Why?
When we left the Ngobe in the high mountains (the hike back only took 3 hours cuz it was downhill!) we got a sort of culture shock in the Ngobe village we went to for the medical outreach. There was trash everywhere. Almost no one spoke Ngobe. Many people were very loud. We saw what the road through the village did as western influence overtook their culture. It was so hard for those of us that had spend the time in the mountains.
My heart years to preserve the beautiful traditions and culture of the Ngobe. The people I met up in the mountains will always be close to my heart and in my prayers. Pray for them…that their culture would not be lost. That their language will be preserved.
The medical outreach was not bad by any means. We met up with a team from CT who set up a clinic in a school in the province Cameron Arriba…two hours down the mountain from Cerra Flores (the first village we stayed in)
For three days our team worked alongside them to help organize the patient flow, assist in the Pharmacy, care for children, cook meals for the medical workers, take photos, and pray and love on people. It was quite different yet really awesome to assist a medical team of about 20 (Doctors, Nurses, a Dentist and a Pharmacist) see 2,000 patients in three days!
I do not doubt that God used us there as well as in Tugri and Cerra Flores.
Some photos from the Medical outreach:
All in all the Ngobe experience is something Ill never forget. The smiles. The culture. The unique traits of these wonderful people. God really revealed His heart for his Ngobe children to me and I saw them in a way that made my heart explode with love.
I hope that this entry touched you a little and you could experience some of what I did thru my photos.
Thank you for reading.
Much love and Ngobu Madimiga (God Bless you in Ngobe)
Cambria
