Spring break seems to be the right time to take a mission trip. That is doubly true when the mission trip participants are from Alaska. After a long, cold winter, it is a blessing to be able to travel somewhere warm and sunny to help others. This past March, 21 students and 20 adults from Amazing Grace Academy (AGA) and the adjacent Palmer Church traveled to Panama on a mission trip supported by Maranatha Volunteers International.
The group spent nearly two weeks helping the members of the Los Hatillos congregation by building a One-Day Church structure to be used for Sabbath School and evangelism, painting their existing church building, and holding a Vacation Bible School for the local children.
All the participants worked hard, in temperatures that regularly exceeded 95 degrees, in order to complete the structure nearly a day ahead of schedule. Besides working hard, everyone had the opportunity to swim and relax each day at the small hotel where they were staying in the town of Chitre, a few minutes from the job site.
On the final Sabbath, members of the local congregation were joined by the Chitre Church members, who had planted the Los Hatillos congregation, for a joyous celebration of song and prayer. The local congregation is already involved in outreach endeavors that they hope will fill up their church in a few months.
The Alaskan group returned home via Panama City, where they spent a day sightseeing before boarding the plane for the long flight home. Every participant felt blessed to have been able to participate in this mission adventure, and most of them are already making plans to go on the next AGA mission trip in 2018.
The AGA group hard at work adding walls to the One-Day Church.
New One-Day Church will be used for Sabbath School and outreach activities.
The Amazing Grace Academy group stands in front of the newly painted church, happy to have been of service to the people of Panama.
