Our Mission: How You Can Help

Friends,

We are leaving for Panama in about two and a half months. We need your help!

For both of us to go, it will cost about $4,600 including airfare, room and board on the island, and other travel-related costs.

We also would like to purchase our plane tickets within the next two weeks, which will be the best time to buy them before the price skyrockets.

 Jessica and I are trusting that we can raise enough for our plane tickets (about $1800) in approximately two weeks. Can we do it? Nope. Can God do it? Absolutely!

Please pray for us! And consider joining us on our journey and partnering with us to bring the Gospel into these remote regions of Panama.

Some very specific ways you can help:

• You can send or give a check to Jessica or I, made out to either one of us or Big World Ventures. (Although if it is made to Big World, we cannot use it to pay for flights).

• You can donate directly to Big World Ventures online at : http://neverthesamemissions.org/donate/ using a credit card and filling in either one of our names in the Missionary Name box.

• There will possibly be a fundraiser or two coming up sometime in November. You should definitely come to those. :)

• Pray for the people of Panama, that their hearts would be open to the Gospel, and that God would do immeasurably more even than what we could imagine.

• Pray that the Lord will provide for us in an extraordinary way.

We are so excited to share our adventures with you as we travel!

Rachel and Jessica

Our Mission: What We're Doing

Road through the Guna Yala Mountains to the San Blas

Hi everyone!

Let us tell you a little bit about what will be doing when we head off to Panama this Christmas.

We will begin our journey probably late on the 26th of December. The flight to Panama is about 7 hours from Southern California, so hopefully we can fly during the night and then arrive in Panama somewhat early on 27th. The whole team will be arriving throughout the day on the 27th, so we'll take most of that day to rest, meet each other, and get everyone ready to go.

Then we'll travel to the San Blas islands! This involves a 2-hour drive through the mountains followed by an hour or so long boat ride out to them. We will have one island that we stay on, and we will travel to a couple of different islands throughout our time there to do ministry.

On the islands, we will do some toy distributions for the kids, and hut-to-hut ministry with the adults. The toy distributions tie into the fact that it is indeed Christmas time when we go, and they are a great way to show how many gifts Christ has lavished upon us, but in a more tangible way. We will also be going to the homes of needy families on the islands, praying for them, talking with them, and bringing some food to them. Pastor Morris, the pastor we will be working with, oversees a whole bunch of islands as their pastor - about 20 islands, if my memory is serving me well. He may have some other things in mind that he wants us to help with when we arrive as well.

Playing with the kids is a big part of what we do, and it is a huge deal for them. Family dynamics on the islands are often very complicated, and the kids are eager for someone to play with them, to hold them, paint their faces, give them piggy back rides, and let them know they are loved. It is such a blessing to be able to take the entire morning and just play with them and show them how much we care about them - and that God cares about them even more than we do.

These people are so desperately in need of love and Christ's grace and love for them. Only around 3% of the island population is Christian. We are getting the incredible opportunity to go and show them the love of Christ in a tangible way - through bringing food, gifts, laughter, prayer, and playing.

We are so excited to bring you along on this journey with us!

Rachel and Jessica

Introductions: I'm Jessica.

Hello!

I am Jessica Sparks. I am 20 years old and currently working part time while attending Folsom Lake College completing my general education classes, so that I can transfer to a Christian university. Some random facts about me is that I love the cold and especially the rain. I have been a vegetarian for 2 and a half years now and this mission trip to Panama will be my first time out of the United States. 

My first mission trip was when I was 16 years old. It was a week long trip to the San Francisco/ Oakland area in 2010. On that mission trip, we went somewhere new each day and worked with a different organization that helped the community in a different way. We worked with the homeless, kid's summer camp, a long term care hospital, a local food bank and a soup kitchen. We spent time with so many people and it was awesome to be able to share God's love and grace with everyone.

I will be honest, for me personally that trip was challenging. I was doing a lot of things outside my comfort zone at the time. But because of that, my relationship with God grew so much during that week. Those seven days made a huge impact on my life.  After that trip it started the process of me becoming more and more interested in getting involved in missions and eventually I decided that I wanted to make it a big part of my life, which is why I am now pursing an education to be able to plan and organize mission trips as well as regularly go on mission trips.

I met Rachel at Vintage Park Community Church and through the years we have become really good friends. The two of us even ran a girl's bible study for a little over a year before she moved away for college. Rachel and I both have a love of missions, so we have naturally talked about them and our experiences. I had mentioned to her that I would love to be able to go on more mission trips although with work and school I never had any time that would allow for it.  Earlier this month Rachel told me that while praying and thinking about this mission trip for herself she kept thinking of me and wanted to then invite me to go with her. I immediately knew I wanted to go. I had heard stories of her past mission trip there and I just knew I would love to go. After praying about it I just knew that I had to go. 

I have never had to fundraise for a mission trip before, but I have complete peace and trust that God will provide. I am so excited to be going and am even more excited to see how God will work through Rachel and I this December into January. I can't think of any other way I would want to be starting off the year 2015 then to be serving God in Panama.

Jessica Sparks

Introductions: I'm Rachel.

Hi everyone!

I'm Rachel Bicha. I am currently a freshman in college, studying English at Biola University. I really love writing, my favorite kind of cereal is Lucky Charms (although lately I have been eating a lot of Frosted Flakes), and the longest time I have spent traveling in the car in one day was 13 hours.

Let me tell you a little bit about myself and how I got involved in missions. I went on my first missions trip to Ecuador when I was 15 years old, and I went back the following year to Panama. We spent two weeks in and around Panama City, and a third week on a group of islands called the San Blas Islands.

About a year and a half later, I finally got the chance to go back, and it was incredible. We were able to see some of the same people again, and go to new islands as well. The chance to reconnect and follow up was amazing. 

Somewhere around a month or so ago, I found out that a team would be going back to the islands again this Christmas. I didn't think much of it, because I "knew" that I wouldn't be able to go with college, fundraising, and all of those kinds of things - I didn't think that it would all be able to fit together and work out. The only problem was ... I couldn't get the idea out of my head! Little things would pop up all the time reminding me of Panama, and I'd start thinking about it. Songs I'd hear... a purse someone was carrying... something someone said... finally I started praying about it, and the dates worked, the timing worked.. long story short, I am going to back to Panama, and I am so excited!

I still knew that fundraising would be difficult and the timing would be harder with school involved, but I am trusting God to provide and I know that He will get me to wherever He has called me. I am also so excited to be bringing along a friend, Jessica Sparks! This will be her first international mission trip, and you'll get to hear from her next.


                              
After that first week on the islands in 2012, I fell in love. The people, the culture, the kids, the weather - I loved it. We saw God working in those people in incredible ways on that trip, and on the next trip, even more so. Each time after I've returned home, I knew I just couldn't wait to get back.

I am so excited that God is giving me yet another opportunity to return to these people and these islands, and I can't wait to see what He is going to do there this Christmas. I know that he has something amazing planned, and I am humbled and honored that I get to be a part of it! 

Can't wait to bring you all along for the journey!


Rachel