Mission
Newsletter - 2004
Raul and Betty Alvarado
Home Tel: (011)(507)315-0103
Office Tel: (011)(507)232-8833
Home email: alva2122@sinfo.net
P O Box 3003
Balboa, Ancon, Panama
Republic of Panama
http://www.geocities.com/iglesiabal/
Photographs
Beloved brethren in Christ,
We send you a fraternal greeting, wishing always that The Lord will continue blessing you abundantly.
My family is doing fine, thank God. Raul Jr. (17) is in 12th grade. He is applying to go to a Christian university in USA next year. Isaac (12) is in 7th grade, and Anayansi (8) is studying in second grade at Rainbow Christian School which follows the traditional school year in Panama that runs from March to December. Betty is working hard as the Director and a teacher at Rainbow Christian and continues collaborating with me in the work at the congregation in Curundu.
As always, we thank you for the financial and spiritual support you offer us to carry out the work of God here in Panama. The following is a report of some of the activities we have accomplished this year.
Accomplished Activities (January - December of 2004)
*Youth National Convention (February 21-24). 150 met in the city of David, Chiriqui to carry out this activity. Raúl Jr. and Douglas Ponce, who are our youth group leaders at the Church of Christ in Curundu, formed part of the group in charge of organizing this event.
*Evangelistic Campaign in Alton, Texas (April 2-7). The brothers in Alton invited me to preach seven evangelistic sermons during this gospel meeting. 22 individuals were baptized as a result of the powerful message of the Gospel. May all the Glory be for God!!!
*Conferences of the Isthmus (April 9-11). 350 members of the Churches of Christ of the metropolitan area of Panama City participated in this event. This took place at the old U.S. military base chapel located in Clayton. Our guest speaker was brother Pedro Batres from Nicaragua. Our goal for next year is to double the number of attendance.
*Restoration of the Church of Christ in El Espino, San Carlos. This community is located 75 miles west of Panama City. The majority of the members were not attending church and the few that were meeting were misled by a Pentecostal preacher. Since the month of March, I have been working in this town with two other brothers from the church in Curundu. As result of this work, we have managed to restore 17 brothers and sisters in El Espino. The first weekend of each month, I have been visiting the members and also evangelizing in this area. I preach every first Sunday of the month at this congregation. Four men are now functioning as leaders at this congregation.
*Married Couples Spiritual Retreat (May 14-15). 12 couples from the church in Curundu and from El Espino attended this activity. This retreat took place in Corona, at Carlos and Nancy Mack’s house. Corona is about 80 miles west of Panama City. Brother Raye Kramar from Escondido, California presented several lessons on Forgiveness In Marriage.
*Mission Trip to Santa Marta, Coclé (May 17-19). Santa Marta is a rural community located in the mountain area, west of the country. We invited brother Raye Kramar to evangelize in this community and to preach at the church in Santa Marta were poor peasants live. We shared the Gospel with the principal and five teachers of the only elementary school in Santa Marta. 200 children attend this school. We will continue to share the word of God with them. The principal has allowed the church to carryout activities with the children and young people of the community at this school. On Monday 17th at 10:00 p.m., we descended to the beautiful river of Santa Marta to baptize a young girl named Yarixa Gonzales.
*FriendSpeak Program (June 21 - July 9). A group of four teachers from the Church in Escondido, California came to the city of Panama to teach English with the Bible, using the books from Luke & Acts. 38 students received 15 hours of English classes each (an hour each, from Monday to Friday, for three weeks). Of the 38 students, 2 were members of the church; 26 were students of the Specialized University of the Americas (UDELAS) and 12 were residents of the community of Curundu Plain where the church is located. The classes took place in the Center of Intelligence and Language of the Americas (CILA), which is the department of English of UDELAS. The main purpose is to win these university students and our community for Christ. Haydee Gonzalez, who was one of our students, was baptized into Christ as a result of this program. Now, she is very faithful and active member in the church.
*Evangelistic Campaign in Pharr, Texas (July 18 - 25). I preached the Gospel of Christ this whole week in Pharr. The fruits of this work were abundant: 14 people were baptized and several members were restored to the communion with Christ.
*Youngfriend Program (July 27 – August 4). A group of eight young people (6 adolescents and 2 leading adults) traveled from Rhode Island to Panama City to teach English using the Scriptures. We carried out different spiritual and recreational activities for the teens at the church building in Curundu. Besides having biblical discussions in English, we had a youth camp during the weekend (July 30th – August 1st). 36 youth participated in the program. The majority of the participants were non-Christian teenagers. Elvia Restrepo, a 18 years old university student, decided to be baptized the last day of this activity.
*XVI National Conference for Women (August 14). 146 ladies met together at the church building in Curundu to celebrate the 17th Annual Women Conference. The guess speaker was Nancy Armas de Rosas. She came from Ecuador to teach lessons based on The Woman's Role in the Church. Most of the participants were members of the churches of Christ in Panama, but there were some non-Christian ladies who participated in the different activities of the program. One of them responded to the invitation to obey the Gospel of Christ and was baptized at the end of the conference by one of our brothers who were serving the food.
*Local Youth Meetings (September – November). Since the month of September, we started having different activities for our youth group the second and fourth Sunday of each month. After the church fellowship, we have a youth devotional and recreational activities every second Sunday. On the fourth Sunday the youth visit the hospitals and the shelters and serve the poor children, the elderly, the sick and needy people.
*Congregational Fellowships (September – November). The local church in Curundu has fellowship the second Sunday of each month: On September the 12th we had a fellowship only with the local members. On October the 10th the whole church in Chepo visited us to worship and have fellowship together. They went door knocking with us to invite the whole community of Curundu to what we call a family evening. On November the 14th, we visited the church in Chepo (located at 50 miles east from the city) to worship with them and to invite the neighborhood to the evening worship.
*Bible studies in the homes. We have Bible studies in the homes of non-Christian families every Tuesday and Thursday. Presently, we are studying on Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. with Luis and Monica Higuera, and on Thursdays at 10:00 a.m. with Efrain and Midori Barrera and at 7:00 p.m. with Luis and Mitzi Nieves. We also began a series of Bible studies in the homes of two members who live in key points of the city. These two studies are being conducted simultaneously on Saturdays at 5:00 p.m.: Brother Elio and Serafina Vergara, who are collaborating with us in Curundu, are responsible for one of these Bible studies, and Betty and I are conducting the other class. As a result of our home Bible studies, we baptized Antonio Watson who had more than 20 years listening to the Gospel.
*Curundu Rainbow Christian Bilingual School (March - December). We began the school year with 30 students that are distributed within the levels of daycare (6 children), pre-kinder (4), kinder garden (5), first-grade (11) and second-grade (4). Presently, our staff is composed by a principal, four teachers, a teacher assistant, a secretary, a janitor, an accountant, and a part-time nurse and Psychologist.
The 2004 school year will end on December 10th. During this school year we have accomplished the majority of our goals. In addition to meeting our yearly budget, we were able to obtain eight new computers for the computer lab, and purchase new air-conditioning units for the main auditorium. Our teachers completed their educational goals in all academic areas and our students responded successfully. Some of the activities we accomplished this year were: Our school fair and our Family Theater Afternoon (with the funds we raised we are putting together our school library). On November 26th all of our students participated in our annual school play, “Jungle Book”. Our last activity will be on December 10th, we will be having our kindergarten graduation. Some of our students will be presenting Panama’s traditional folk dance, and we will be ending with a native Panamanian cultural evening. The attendants will have the opportunity to learn about Panama’s three main Indian tribes, their food, clothing and traditions. During this school year we also obtained our legal certification from the Panamanian School District for grades Pre-K through 9th grade.
One of our goals for next year is to raise funds to build a new school building because we do not have any more classrooms available. The church has the property. We just need funds to expand. Please keep this goal in mind. Pray for The Lord to open a way for this need to be fulfilled. The Lord has continuously blessed this effort for four years and we trust He will continue to provide a way for the school to function.
The work we are doing in Panama has given good fruits and we trust that for the next year, 2005, God will give even more fruits. Please continue praying for my family and me. My prayer is for you to continue collaborating with this good work that is being accomplished in our beautiful nation. We thank you very much for participating with us in extending the Kingdom of God in the Republic of Panama.
In Christ,
Raúl Alvarado
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