Panama Part 2: Jehovah Jireh

   We see in the Bible that often times God is called Jehovah Jireh, “the Lord will provide.” This comes from the root word “to see,” that God would foresee our need of redemption. This name tells us God is willing and able to meet every need of His people. We first see it in Genesis 22:8 when Abraham says, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” We also see it later in that same chapter, when “Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, ‘On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.’” Abraham saw how the Lord provided for him. We also see in Acts 14:17, Paul says, “Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy.” Our God continues to provide. These verse continued to be a reminder throughout my month in Panama. They continued to remind me that my God provides. 

   I can look back on my life and see the ways in which God has provided. During Panama, the Lord showed me how He was providing in real time. Once we agreed that the Lord wanted us to go to the city of David, He showed us just how well He provides for His children. Like I said before we had no clue where we would stay or with who. But God was about to bless us in ways we couldn’t imagine. 

   One of my teammate’s, Amanda, mom had a friend, Rose, who was from Panama and offered to let us stay in her house for the month while they weren’t there. Her family even offered to drive us around during the month. How cool is God!? You could feel the team take a sigh of relief as we watched God provide our housing for the month. 

   Once we arrived in David, Rose’s brother and nephew picked us up from the bus station. We became a part of the family throughout the month and they were always such a joy to be around! One day we were walking around David’s city center, we felt led to walk down to a church to introduce ourselves. The pastor wasn’t there at the time, but some of his friends who were also pastors were in the area and spoke English. We ended up meeting with Tracy and Rafael, who actually lived in Dolega, the next town over, and were running errands that day. Tracy is from the States but Pastor Rafael is from Panama. Meeting them reminded me of how incredibly intentional our God is. It was such a random coincidence that one, they were there when we were, two, their friends just so happened to call them and three, they spoke English and we were able to communicate with them easily. Pastor Rafael and Tracy’s church quickly became one of God’s biggest blessings to us while we were in Panama. We got to be apart of their church family and they loved us well. Through this church we were able to help with feeding program, attend their services, and help with a VBS in an indigenous community! Yet again we watched in real time as the Lord provided.

   Throughout all of Panama, God continued to show that He is the God who provides. I want to encourage you to remember that our God provides and He will provide for you. God continues to give His people what they need. Our God is faithful and will continue to show up for us. 

   Thanks for reading part two of Panama, get ready for part three!