by kristylorfeld by kristylorfeld by kristylorfeld
by kristylorfeld
by kristylorfeld
by kristylorfeld
by kristylorfeld
by kristylorfeld

I got stopped by the police

My excitement started out on Sunday as I was walking to meet Izenith at the church in Balboa. As I was walking I got stopped by a police man. At least this was a traffic policeman and not one of the policmen who ride around on motorcycles with machine and shot guns. I'm not going to lie, I might have been a little frightened if it were one of those guys. At first I didn't really understand what the policeman was asking since my Spanish is limited and he didn't speak English. But then I heard the word "esposo." I started laughing because I knew exactly where this conversation was heading. He wanted to know if I had a husband. Is this quality police work in Panama or what? "No esposo," I replied, "pero tengo un novio." (No husband, but I have a boyfriend). Apparently since Jon is in the states, it doesn't really matter if I have a boyfriend here because the policeman continued to ask me questions...including where I lived and what my telephone number is. So I politely pointed in the direction of my house and told him that I didn't have a phone. So it was a little white lie, but it's not like I could understand him if he called anyways. The policeman continued to ask me questions and I think he was asking me out on a date! Ha...he didn't seem too find this conversation as funny as I did as I continued to laugh. But each time I tried to leave, explaining that I was meeting a friend at the church...he continued to ask me questions. After about 15 minutes I finally just had to walk away. So the day continued and it was a lot of fun as Izenith came with us to the church in Sora (a small city in the mountains). The church was celebrating its 5th year anniversary with a special service, games, food, fellowship, and a latin dance show. It was really neat to see a little boy get baptized in Sora on Sunday and another one the night before in Loma Cova. One of the games in Sora was called "greased pole." On top of this 25ft greasy pole was a flag. Using teamwork, the crazy boys were finally able to get the flag by standing 5 or so people high on shoulders. But there was a game that made me almost cry..."catch the greasy pig." It sounds like it would be fun...but it was pure torture for the pig. The whipped the pig and choked it so that it would be harder to catch. But all that torture didn't matter since a boy caught it within 3 seconds. All I have to say is, "GRRRR!!!" After a long day, we drove back and Izenith invited us in her house (after a detour in a random city). She lives in a pretty rough neighborhood where I'm told is very dangerous at night. But it was so fun to meet her family and I was able to have a good time seeing pictures and playing with her nephew. Other News:

• I got a new guitar! I was told that the last time this Mexican band, Mana, was in Panama, they played with my guitar. Well, I had no clue who Mana was, but Ruthie (who was with me) seemed very excited about it. I later looked up the band and it looks like they were a popular band in the 80's.
• In the past week I was able to spend 8-10 hours of my life with three computer guys who were trying to hook up my wireless router. As of last night, it works on my computer, but no one else's. So they will be back tomorrow. I didn't think a router was such a complicated issue. However, one of the guys, Luis (I think that's his name), said he'll start coming to my English classes.
• No salsa dancing this week. (Tear) The missionaries got together last night at Jaime and Thomas's house and Anselma cooked for us.
• I found out why many people have crazy names here that begin with "us." On the birth certificate, many mothers will just copy down a name they see on a cargo ship passing through. It may say "U.S. Navy." Therefore, the name of the child is "Usnavy." Of course it's pronounced different in Spanish.
• I can watch Prison Break online!!!! I've known this for quite a few weeks, but it still excited me everyweek.
• Since I had my letters stamped and ready to be mailed 3 weeks ago at the airport, just to find out I can't mail them...they will finally get to the U.S on Friday as I am sending them with Jon (our Latin American business manager who has been here for the last few days) and he will mail them from St. Louis.
• I'm hopefully getting a dog soon! I really want a cockapoo.
• The mission has a P.O. Box in Miami. It's cheaper and faster to mail stuff. Here's the address: Asociacion Misionera Luterana de Panama, Kristy Lorfeld, PTY 6813, 1601 NW 97th Ave.P.O. Box 025207 Miami, FL 33102-5207 USA

Newsletter

I sent my monthly Panama newsletter out last night. If you didn't receive it and want to, email me with "ADD" in the subject line. If you signed up to receive my newsletter, it may have been bounced back if I mistyped your email address into my address book...so go ahead and send me an email.

Inviting Friends to Church

I don't remember the exact statistic that I learned in one of my outreach classes, but it's somewhere between 66-80% of people in the US that do not attend church have never been invited. I start out with that statistic because it's overwhelming and sad. As Christians it's so easy to talk about Jesus with fellow Christians (which is good since fellow Christians help us in our faith walk), but sometimes we are afraid to invite our friends, family, and neighbors to church because we're afraid we might offend them. I don't know about you, but if one of my Muslim friends were to invite me to an Islamic Mosk, I wouldn't be offended. Even though I may disagree with the faith, I may just jump at the opportunity to learn more about his or her religion so that I may better understand where my friend is coming from in faith discussions. So maybe we invite our friend to church, and they say no for whatever reason. It happens, but do you really think we offended them? Maybe they just couldn't go because they already had plans, so the next time you invite them, they just might say "yes." But maybe they also will say "yes" right away. Maybe you're friend is searching for a hope or love that they have never experienced before. By inviting them to church, they just might experience Jesus for the first time in their life and it will probably open the doors for more discussions in the future. Today I had an amazing opportunity to experience church with a 22 year old young woman, Izenith, who was experiencing church for the first time in her life. Izenith is one of my students in my EFL class at Balboa Church. She speaks very little English and I speak very little Spanish, but last Thursday during our break I asked her if she attends church. She told me no, so between my broken Spanish and her broken English, I invited her to church and told her that I would sit next to her. She didn't seem too excited, so I didn't think she would come. However, to my surprise, I entered church this morning and Izenith was there! I don't know if Izenith was ever invited to church before, but I do know that I took a chance and invited her. The Holy Spirit did the rest, waking her up this morning and helping her step outside of her comfort zone to attend church. I ask that you would keep Izenith in your prayers. I don't know what she believes, but I pray that God would use me and the other Christians in Panama in any way so that she can know Jesus Christ as her Savior.

Pictures

If you want to see more pictures...check out my picture website at: http://community.webshots.com/user/kristylorfeld

Your prayers help!

I just want to update everyone who read Monday's blog. If you read the blog, you know that I was having a rough couple days...feeling unqualified to teach and frustrated with the language barrier. While I know that I will still have days like that, things have gotten a lot better. Instead of teaching this past week, I was able to observe Pastor Henry teach the English classes, which have helped me get used to the class. The rest of my Spanish classes this week have also gone smoother. I feel like I'm actually learning more. This week was very busy, so I'll just give a few highlights from the week! On Tuesday I went to the church in Loma Cova where I made some great new friends. Let me tell you, I can communicate in Spanish fairly well with 4 and 5 year olds on the playground. I'd be all set if only everyone in Panama had a 4 year old vocabulary. I think I found my salsa dancing partner that I've been searching for on Wednesday night. The missionaries went over to Ruth's house to learn some salsa and meringue dance moves. Since I'm the only missionary without a husband...I was stuck dancing with the instructor for most of the night...oh darn, a dance partner who actually knows what he's doing. After our Spanish class, we went to see the Panama Canal. It's one of those really neat things to experience, but after about 5 minutes of seeing a boat going down the lock slowly, it was enough. But then a man with a camera wanted to interview me, but decided to stop the camera after finding out that I'm now living in Panama as a missionary. I think he hoped I would say that I came to Panama as a tourist just to see the canal. It was probably some promotional video being put together to build another lock. After the canal I went over to a woman's house from the church to have a Bible study. I thought that it was going to be an adult Bible Study, but to my surprise, there were kids all over the place. Fifteen kids and seven adults live in her house (which from what I could tell is smaller than my apartment). I later found out that awhile back, a group did a VBS right at her house...which attracted about 50 kids from the community! After a long day, I really enjoyed the night. We sang songs after I was attacked by a mob of kids as I got out of the van. Then Pastor Henry gave a message and we prayed. THEN...the kids put on a little dance and poem show. I wish you all could have been there. These kids have some moves! Thank you so much for your prayers...they have made all the difference!

Feeling Overwhelmed

I've been so overwhelmed the last couple of days. I actually had a breakdown last night. It seems as if all of the Panamanians have high and contradicting expectations of me. I was told by my English class in Balboa that they want me to use a grammar book and give them a placement test today (both of which has never been done in the past). I just received the grammar book yesterday and after looking at it, I started to panic. The class choose an intermediate to advanced book while the classes that I will be teaching are beginning to intermediate. Basically in 24 hours the class wanted me to write my own placement test, which can only be done after planning the next 10 weeks. AHHH! I'm still trying to get used to the culture...getting to know the streets and the people and the churches (I've only been to 2 so far). Luckily, Pastor Henry said he'd take over the class this week to observe and start planning. I'm feeling unqualified to teach these classes...I have no degree in teaching English...or in teaching in general. Chris, the missionary that had the position before me went to school to teach English as a second language. I feel as if I'm going to be a disappointment to the people here. I start to panic and worry whenever I start thinking about teaching...I'm totally out of my comfort zone on this one. There's a reason why I never wanted to become a teacher. It's funny how God has different plans. On top of all of this, I'm in intense Spanish classes 3 days a week. Today I just wanted to cry when I got to class. Since the class is fully in Spanish, I got totally lost. I feel like the stupid one in class that just doesn't understand anything while everyone else understands. I have to keep on reminding myself that the other missionaries in my class have been here almost a month longer than I have...and I've been here less than a week. Even though most of the Panamanians are patient with my lack of Spanish, I just want so badly to communicate with them. My brain just seems to be on overload right now. I guess I'm experiencing a little bit of how many immigrants feel when they come to the United States. The difference though is that I have a huge support system both in the States and in Panama, while many immigrants do not...but still have to find work, a place to live, friends, go shopping for food (sometimes you think you're getting one thing just to find out when you open it, it's another...like when I thought I was buying generic coke but was really buying beer.) etc. many times without much money I know that once I get the hang of all of this and can communicate with the people, I will sit back and laugh at how frustrated I'm feeling now. I just pray that this frustration will go away soon.

Feeling Overwhelmed

I've been so overwhelmed the last couple of days. I actually had a breakdown last night. It seems as if all of the Panamanians have high and contradicting expectations of me. I was told by my English class in Balboa that they want me to use a grammar book and give them a placement test today (both of which has never been done in the past). I just received the grammar book yesterday and after looking at it, I started to panic. The class choose an intermediate to advanced book while the classes that I will be teaching are beginning to intermediate. Basically in 24 hours the class wanted me to write my own placement test, which can only be done after planning the next 10 weeks. AHHH! I'm still trying to get used to the culture...getting to know the streets and the people and the churches (I've only been to 2 so far). Luckily, Pastor Henry said he'd take over the class this week to observe and start planning. I'm feeling unqualified to teach these classes...I have no degree in teaching English...or in teaching in general. Chris, the missionary that had the position before me went to school to teach English as a second language. I feel as if I'm going to be a disappointment to the people here. I start to panic and worry whenever I start thinking about teaching...I'm totally out of my comfort zone on this one. There's a reason why I never wanted to become a teacher. It's funny how God has different plans. On top of all of this, I'm in intense Spanish classes 3 days a week. Today I just wanted to cry when I got to class. Since the class is fully in Spanish, I got totally lost. I feel like the stupid one in class that just doesn't understand anything while everyone else understands. I have to keep on reminding myself that the other missionaries in my class have been here almost a month longer than I have...and I've been here less than a week. Even though most of the Panamanians are patient with my lack of Spanish, I just want so badly to communicate with them. My brain just seems to be on overload right now. I guess I'm experiencing a little bit of how many immigrants feel when they come to the United States. The difference though is that I have a huge support system both in the States and in Panama, while many immigrants do not...but still have to find work, a place to live, friends, go shopping for food (sometimes you think you're getting one thing just to find out when you open it, it's another...like when I thought I was buying generic coke but was really buying beer.) etc. many times without much money I know that once I get the hang of all of this and can communicate with the people, I will sit back and laugh at how frustrated I'm feeling now. I just pray that this frustration will go away soon.

Loma Cova

So who would ever think that in Panama, I would be cold? I'm always cold in Wisconsin and Minnesota, but in Panama? I'm not surprised that many places in Panama have air conditioning because of the heat and also to keep out the constant humidity that does major damage. I am surprised however that the air conditioning is just as cold as it is in the United States. For most people, this may be good...but for me it's not. I think I spent the majority of Thursday with goosebumps. Today was a fun day. I was able to sit in on some of the music ministry being done here in Panama. I'm so impressed at how musical the people in the congregation are. Later on today I was able to go to the church in Loma Cova. I've never felt so comfortable in a church than I did at Loma Cova. The church is located in poor and somewhat traditional village...very different from where I am living in Panama. Many of the women were even dressed in traditional clothing. I absolutely loved the people...right away they were giving me hugs and kisses. I seriously think I met the coolest person alive tonight, Jazmin. This fifteen year old is full of spunk, I'll have to write more about her when I have more time. She's going to make me a purse and she asked me what colors I wanted it to be. I responded "chocolate y verde" (brown and green) She started laughing and told me that is a bad combination. I disagree...what do you think? One thing that I really appreciate about the church service is that everyone can be involved in playing an instrument, no matter how good they are. There was even one little five year old who brought is fake little red electric guitar so that he could sit with the rest of the group to play. It was so cute! On another note, thank you everyone for all of your support. I'm still in the process of sending out thank you cards. I had most of them done and was going to mail them out from the airport since I had an 8 hour layover to work on them...but when I got to the airport in Atlanta, I found out that as of August 25th you can no longer mail letters from the airport because of security reasons. I would think that since I had to go through security, letters mailed from an airport would be less risk. So anyways, your letters are coming. Keep sending me emails, updating me on your life. I miss you all!!!!