Ministry in the Capital
Next week the family is taking a trip back to Panama City. "But I thought you just left there!", you may say. Yes, but we have been invited back to various ministry opportunites. One is an Ethno-Arts workshop within a Woünaan indigenous community with our good friends, Alex and Jennifer Cabezon. We hope to work with the church to develop culturally relevant methods to communicate the Gospel to their own people such as traditional storytelling, dance, and even lullabies.
We also have an invitation to teach in an Emberá community with our other good friends, Tulio and Norelia Rosales . We will also be leading worship at our old church. We look forward to getting together with old friends, two of which are Ngäbe and are moving towards adopting 4 orphaned children, adding to their 6 existing children. Please join in prayer with us for them.
At the end of our eventful trip—for the first time—John's mom is coming to visit. We will drive her back to Chiriquí, where we live, to spend a few weeks. Please pray everything goes smoothly and for safe travels. Stay tuned for a ministry report.
In other news, the Amazon trip mentioned in our last newsletter has been postponed until January, but the dates are now official. Also, John has been invited through ALDEA to present and share at multiple missions networking conferences in the next year. If you are in the position to donate miles or support the minstry with one time gifts for these trips, it would really help towards givng the next generation of Latino missionaries going to the unreached world the keys to effectively communicate the Gospel.
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 New Long-Term Vision
The last year has been a long lesson in hearing the voice of God and taking steps in obedience, not necessarily knowing exactly where we were heading, nor the significance of these steps. In order, what we have heard from God and the steps we have taken have been the following:
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Began to branch out from Ethnomusicology and see the need to couple social change with our existing ministry, particularly with the impoverished Ngäbe people
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Took steps to attend online university to study Rural Development with a concentration on Indigenous Knowledge (though I wasn't exactly sure what that degree was for)
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Took steps to move to where the Ngäbe people live
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Began working on our own, apart from the organization we were with (which allowed more freedom to do the ministry God has placed on our hearts)
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Became director of Ethno-Arts organization
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Moved closer to the Ngäbe people
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Began to learn the Ngäbe language
I would like to share a testimony about how God has finally given us a glimpse into His purposes for these steps. I will try to be as brief as possible. If you are interested in the future of our ministry please take the time to read this, as we will be referring to it in newsletters to come. SCROLL DOWN TO THE NEXT BLOG POST TO READ.
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Family Update
Many exciting things have been happening in the Henry family over the last couple of months. Kristina has been working closely with her mom in fundraisers in Alaska that have really helped with unforseen expenses that have come up. Thank you to all who have bought jewelry or donated garage sale items! Kristina is really trying to enjoy Titus in his baby phase as much as possible. It's such a joy.
Natalie has learned to swim, ride a bike, and is loving Kindergarden. She is growing in her Spanish abilities and loves her friends at school. Asher is an adorable and loud 3-year-old with everything that comes with it. :-) His favorite pastimes include, picking up ants, picking mommy flowers, and urinating in the grass. Titus crawls everywhere, gets into trouble, and lights up our lives with his 6-toothed smile. John is faithfully continuing with his Ngäbere lessons, now able to speak like a 2-year-old Ngäbe boy, a big complement indeed!
Moving to the mountains of Panama has given us a chance to enjoy new types of adventures as a family, like hiking, going on walks without collapsing from heat exaustion, and swimming in cool streams. Nearly every day we thank God that we are given the opportunity to live out what He has called us to do, ministering with the people He has placed on our hearts, and in such a beautiful surrounding.
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