Extreme Makeover: Parsonage Edition

I didn't realize it, but last week's Panama team was essentially a Jamaica team reunion four years later, sans three of those team members and with the welcome addition of mother/daughter Jane & Amanda. Talk about right time, right place - they were exactly what the ongoing Redeemer Lutheran Church parsonage renovation project needed at this juncture. 

First things first: worship. Rev. Arthur Rickman showed the team a video montage of the reno project thus far while we waited for members to trickle into the Lutheran Hour Ministries office (the Redeemer congregation's temporary location until, Lord willing, December).

It was there that the team met Marina (right), a local deaconess student who's been contracted to assist with short-term volunteers, for the first time.

We ate the sandwiches we'd packed in the van on the way to the Panama Canal. This was my view while the team watched the iMax movie and lingered on the viewing deck; it hasn't changed since July. 

The second stop on our DIY sightseeing bus tour was the coastal walkway known as the Cinta Costera for photo ops with this sign and Balboa (below), the first European to see the Pacific and the namesake of Panama's currency, national beer, and much more.

The team knew how to work hard AND play hard (OK, they started even before they got to working hard). 

Deaconess Griselda made dinner for us on four occasions, beginning Sunday. Despite learning at the canal that it was Diane's birthday, a little bird still had time to let Griselda know.

St. John's: a team after my own heart. Within minutes of seeing their worksite for the first time, 1st/2nd grade teacher Lauren had made a task list complete with names. I embraced "encourager," barely picking up a hammer all week. On Wednesday, Marina & I ran around to five separate hardware/building supply stores!

Make bunk bed: check. 

Three macro projects consumed the bulk of the week: gutting the kitchen, refinishing the church doors, and painting. 

It's Tuesday morning and paint is going on the walls!

Team door is making progress, too. 

It was also Tuesday that we got to see the inside of the sanctuary with its newly buffed floors. The national church president asked us to take our shoes off!

I truly didn't plan it this way - or notice until right this moment - but Tuesday was also Taco Tuesday! While we waited for our food to arrive, Diane read a note the July team had left for their successors. 

From Wednesday on, we ate at church in the name of PROGRESS. Barb and Jane came with me to pick up more McDonald's (the team's choice, honest!) than any of us had ever ordered at one time. 

Painting vs. staining the church doors was a hotly debated issue. Staining won out and *insert heart eyes emoji*. 

The first cabinet, a prefab wall unit, went up Wednesday afternoon. 

I loved lesson 13 of Rev. Raphael Voigt's study on Revelation as much as lesson 3. 

Team leader Tim, a contractor by trade, built new drawers as well as all of the bottom cabinets. 

Want to talk about a small world? We came home Thursday to a gift from a fellow Lutheran we'd met at our hostel earlier in the week. He first came to Panama on a church trip five or six years ago, during which he worked at Griselda's church and met her whole family. He's back in Panama as a Peace Corps volunteer and was in the city for a few nights because his parents were visiting. Neither he nor Griselda knew the other would be there!

Much to his chagrin I'd missed getting a picture of Tim carrying the granite slab with the sink cutout up the stairs, so I ran for my phone when I saw him & David hefting the solid piece. 

Team Kitchen. Their finished product is a work of art, unrecognizable from just a few months prior. 

Team Paint, too, crushed it. The neutral color gives off calmness and serenity when you walk in. 

After a few bites of Brazilian BBQ, no one was mad that I made them repeat the 30 min. metro ride to Los Andes for their final night in the country. 

Marina picked me up at 5 am, so I left the team in Pastor Rickman's capable hands for breakfast at the historic Café Coca-Cola. It's not ideal, and I'm envious I didn't get to go with them to be completely honest, but the team leader told me as I was boarding my flight to Lima that "the chicks have left the nest." They could have flown the coop Monday and made an impact; five days of their blood, sweat, and tears (mostly sweat and only tears of joy, if that) put things in a significantly better place for the next - and last? - group in February. There still work to be done, but the light at the end of the tunnel is that much brighter. I found a way to squeeze Grand Haven into my home service schedule, so next time the reunion will be on their turf!

Until next time, blessings in Christ!