If today is any indication of what is to come...

WOW! Well, it is currently 3:00AM California time, or 5:00AM Panama time. Yes, Panama time. "I thought you were going to Argentina, Justin?" you might be asking. Well, we are currently in transit to Argentina but are spending the night in La Ciudad de Panama, Panama. How did we get here? That's quite a story.

Perhaps we should've seen the signs coming after how easily this morning went. Everyone was at the church on time (I was the last one there, and I was still there on time), we made it to LAX, had a great breakfast at Denny's (thanks Pastor Rollin), and were all checked in and ready to go on time. God had answered our prayers for safe and easy travel to Argentina. The flight from LAX to Atlanta went great, and we were able to have a great reunion with Wes after disembarking.

Then, we boarded for Buenos Aires. It was really cool because the guy sitting next to us is headed to Paraguay for a mission trip, too. He is a pastor in Iowa at another SBC church, so when I started to tell him about the IMB he already knew. SO AWESOME.

The flight seemed to be going well, until midway through Star Trek when we heard "if there is a doctor on board we need your assistance immediately." That's never a good sound. When followed by a "we need the AED immediately" it is definitely cause for discomfort. Turns out one of our fellow passengers suffered from a heart attack while 37,000 feet above Columbia/Venezuela. About an hour later, we were on the ground in Panama City, Panama. Which, yes, meant we traveled north an hour to get to a "safer" city.

While on the ground and stuck in the airplane, though, we had the opportunity to get to know our fellow passengers on the plane. Here's a shout out to Gaston and German. Perhaps they'll read the blog (we're going to be friends on Facebook soon).

Then, we found out that upon landing, radar systems on the plane had gone out and forced us to cancel plans to continue on to Buenos Aires. What a blessing, though, that God brought the plane down with all systems operational rather than us suffering a black out over the Amazon! Also, it turns out people on our plane were aware of our presence and were happy to hear we were praying for our situation. By 5:00AM, we were all checked into rooms at the Sheraton Panama Hotel and Convention Center.

God always promises to take care of us and never give us more than we can handle. Today's ordeal was a way of Him testing our flexibility and commitment to Him. Thankfully, we all stayed on focus, to the glory of Christ.

As you keep us in your prayers, though, please pray for more boldness. I know that many of us are finding it very easy to start conversations with people about our purpose for being here, but I, and some of my friends, are finding it more difficult to transition from talking about myself to discussing spiritual matters with others. Hopefully as we have more time with our friends from today tomorrow (we don't leave Panama until 4:00PM here/2:00PM CA time) God will give us opportunities and we will seize them.

I'm reminded of Ephesians 2:10, "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works that God marked out in advance for us to do." Truly, God has amazing opportunities already ordained for us to complete that go beyond our wildest expectations. He is amazing!

Thank you for all of your prayer, after today's events, I'm going to beg you, "KEEP ON!"

For His Renown,

Justin

P.S. I'll put some pics Jordan and I took of our hotel room up as soon as I get a better WiFi connection.