Nations Will Worship Ministries

School of Gospel Contextualization web page!

nationswillworship@yahoo.com (John and Kristina Henry) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:05:00 +0000

Hi all,

thanks to some of my friends, we finally have the new YWAM Panama website up which has the SGC page on it. Go check it out! Click _____________HERE_______________

Fall Newsletter

nationswillworship@yahoo.com (John and Kristina Henry) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:55:00 +0000

Dear Friends,

Thank you for all of your prayers and support over the last few months! God has indeed been faithful.

September, among other things, was filled with finishing up the filming for our ongoing documentary project, which we hope will be done with editing by this January in time for team season here at YWAM Panama. Natalie had a great opportunity to go with John up to a village to help with this one day.

We also had the opportunity to take some trips to Piriatí to work with our Emberá friends to help with their radio program to reach their people in the vast expanses of the Darien jungle. For more about this project see www.ñlkjadsfijñoijw.blogspot.com.

In October, our family took a trip to New Jersey with the dual purpose of visiting a small church that supports our ministry as well as spend some time with Kristina's extended family, including Natalie and Asher's Great-Grandma.

And last week, John just got back from a 6 day trip to Bogotá, Colombia to facilitate at an international conference that was focused on the unreached people groups of the world. Thank you so much to those who gave to this trip. John helped facilitate a track at that conference that led to the creation of a network of Latin Americans interested in the EthnoArts, which is using the heart expression of a people group to communicate the Good News to them in a relevant way.

Now, back at home, we continue to plan for the School of Gospel Contextualization this March. We solicit all of your prayers to bring the right students in for this school. Up until now we still don't have the minimum of students to financially run the school. Please pray with us that, this week, more students will apply. We want to see the unreached touched with the Gospel of Jesus Christ by those equipped in this school that He has put on our hearts to create!

Natalie and Asher continue to grow, giving joy to both of us. We love them so much. We are also excited to have Kristina's mom with us visiting until December!

Please pray for:

-Asher's health (he has had a cough for many weeks now)

-The School of Gospel Contextualization

-A newer vehicle (ours is in and out of the shop more and more)

-For a movement to grow around the network created in Bogotá

May God bless you as we enter into this holiday season.

Your Friends,

The Henry Family

Emberá Radio Project

nationswillworship@yahoo.com (John and Kristina Henry) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:47:00 +0000

We just wanted to give you an update about an upcoming ministry opportunity. For the last 3 years now, we have been working with a certain Emberá village called Piriatí. The church in this village represents one of the main congregations of the only Emberá-led denominations of Panama. This is the church that we did our first song-writing workshop with, recorded our first c.d., and from which another Emberá village composed the dance that we filmed. We love these brothers and sisters in the Lord and have always looked to how we can partner together.

Last week, our family took a day trip down to Piriatí to start up communications again after not having worked with them in a while. Our good friend, Tulio, also accompanied us to meet our friends there. Tulio works with us as staff on Project Sounds of the Jungle here at YWAM Panama, and who is also an Emberá leader who we really feel called to raise up and sow into. When we introduced them they all started speaking in Emberá and I had to kindly ask if they could speak so that I could understand. What came out was a kind of Emberanish, of sorts. With the Spanish I know and my limited Emberá, I could get the gist of what they were talking about.

They are working on a project to record a 17-lesson chronological Bible study. This study goes from Genesis to the end of the Gospels in story form. After each story, a practical application, that applies to the Emberá as a people is implemented. Their vision has been, for some time now, to record these lessons in Emberá and put them on a radio program that will reach all of the Emberá native areas, even into Colombia! They have raised the money among themselves for this project but do not have the resources to record at their church. The radio station will allow them to record at the station, but this is lengthy and costly trip for them. Our idea, then, was to record the lessons for them and put them on all on one CD and then bring it down for them in one trip.

The next week, we went back to record these lessons and bring them to the radio station. We are excited about the fact that the Emberá will hear Bible teaching in their own language, maybe for the first time ever! This opportunity is right up our alley. We really have been feeling that our call here amongst the indigenous is to support and disciple the church, and help them in their felt need as well as encourage them in using evangelism and training that is uniquely indigenous. Our end goal in this, is to finally see an indigenous-led movement that does not rely on outside missionaries to keep it running. We are already seeing glimpses of this, and for this we praise God!

One more detail is the trip that we are planning in partnership with this church. Tentatively in January, a group of our YWAM staff and the youth of this church in Piriatí are planning to go on a big outreach into the middle of the jungle in the Darién Gap. This is where most of the Emberá people natively live. Our goal will be to share the Gospel in culturally relevant way, through music, dance, and storytelling. We will also be promoting the radio show and the songs that were recorded in the traditional style. The YWAM staff will be mostly indigenous. I am planning on going, but my friends say they will paint me dark brown so that the police who don't let foreigners within 40 miles of the Colombian border for "safety" reasons, won't notice me. No, I will be careful, and they will go without me if I can't go past a certain point.

Please pray for the success of the recording trip(s) and for further excitement to raise up among the young Emberá for the things of God.

Thank you again for your support and prayers of our ministry! We couldn't do any of this without you.

Your friends,
The Henry's

Ethne '09

nationswillworship@yahoo.com (John and Kristina Henry) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 18:38:00 +0000

WRAPPING UP THE SUMMER

Dear friends,

Thank you for all your prayers and support of our family and ministry this last summer. It has been one of our most fruitful and busy summers ever. God is so good. He has expanded our work here in Panama and opened up so many more opportunities for ministry among the Ngöbe, Kuna, and Emberá.

Our trip to Kuna Yala was very successful. Together with the School of Worship, we ran a song-writing workshop, some teaching on worship, and recorded a number of songs. If you are interested in having the recordings, just write me a quick note. I also got to make a connection with a leader of the Batptist Kuna church as a whole. He is a musician and was right on-board with everything we were about.

While there, we also got to learn a lot more about the Kuna culture and religion. It astounded me to see how much Animism, New Age, and even Free Masonry was mixed in with their traditions. This knowledge will help us with future ministry among the Kuna. Check out some pictures of our trip here: Kuna Yala trip

ETHNE '09

Some of you may remember in our paper newsletter that we sent out, when we mentioned a certain group that we were involved in. It is an international network called Ethne-to-ethne. John was invited last October to form a team of 3 other EthnoArts specialists that will present at the organization's conference that happens every 3 years. This is the only conference in the world that is focused solely on Unreached People Groups.

John will help present how the use of indigenous arts is a key method to evangelizing these unreached people groups. The conference is to take place on November 1-4 in Bogotá, Colombia, right next door to Panama. After a full summer, this trip is above and beyond our normal finances. We felt that we should make this need known and want to ask you to pray about giving towards this trip. We need to raise $600 for a plane ticket, food, and housing.

Natalie and Asher continue to grow and we are blessed exponentially every new day. Kristina is doing an amazing job with them both, even on 4-6 hours of sleep every night (between nighttime feedings and nighttime potty runs)

We pray many blessings on all of you this September.

Your friends,

John and Kristina

August Newsletter

nationswillworship@yahoo.com (John and Kristina Henry) — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 20:35:00 +0000

Dates Change

nationswillworship@yahoo.com (John and Kristina Henry) — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 20:13:00 +0000

Hey everyone,

Thanks for all your prayers and support for the launching of the new School of Gospel Contextualization. Well, after prayerfully considering the fact that many of our interested students are not able to attend the school this September, we have decided to move up the dates to March 2010.

There is still lots of time to think about attending. If you have ever done a DTS or are doing a DTS and think about being involved in any kind of cross-cultural ministry, please consider being part of this school. Spread the word.

Your friends,
John and Kristina Henry

We've been Podcasted!

nationswillworship@yahoo.com (John and Kristina Henry) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 23:33:00 +0000

Hi everyone! Recently a long-time YWAM'er who has a heart to make known the need for contextualizing the Gospel using Oral storytelling contacted us for an interview. He started a Podcast a few years ago for things of this topic. He found out about our School of Gospel Contextualization somehow and wanted to know more.

If you want to hear it click here. It will give you a little better feel for what we are doing here in Panama. Please pray with us that the right students will apply for this school. God Bless!

June Newsletter

nationswillworship@yahoo.com (John and Kristina Henry) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 02:43:00 +0000

TEAMS, TRANSLATING, TODDLER, TEENY BABY
These last few months have been filled with variety. We led a team of University students on a short-term outreach to the village of Errebache among other places in the Republic of Panama. Going to Errebache always gives Natalie a chance to “go native” and get muddy with all the other kids.

Our pastor and good friend, Rick Benjamin came down to teach a week on the Bible at the DTS (Discipleship Training School) that goes on twice yearly at the YWAM center. We had the privilege of translating his teaching as well as taking him around Panama. We had some great talks, especially over ice cream (an Alaskan staple).

Among all the ministry that has happened and is coming up these next few months, we had to pause to greet our newest addition to the ministry: Baby Asher. He was born May 8th, weighing in at 8lbs 11 oz’s. He is an easy baby and Kristina had a pretty easy recovery from the C-section. Kristina’s parents were able to come down to help take care of Natalie and the baby, make meals, do dishes, and paint our house. They were such a blessing!

VISION OF CHIEFS
This morning in our weekly YWAM intercession, God gave me a vision of an indigenous chief with arms tattooed with tribal designs, being raised up to lead. I felt this as a confirmation of the burden God has been giving us to raise up native leaders that would encourage the growth of an indigenous church that is alive and relevant to their people. We already see how God has intimately linked us together with three different families who have potential for great influence amongst their three respective tribal groups. Please pray for us as we strive to support and disciple these families on their journey towards affecting their people

BUSY SUMMER

This summer is filled with activity for our ministry. Starting this month, John has been asked to teach a six-part class on ethnomusicology in missions at a Panamanian missions training facility. This will be a stretch, both teaching on this subject at length and teaching it in Spanish. Please pray as he prepares for this class and their weeklong practicum at the end of the course.

Also, starting this month and going on until August is the busiest season of short-term teams that YWAM Panama has ever experienced in its 15-year history! There will be over 300 people from evangelistic teams, youth groups, construction teams, medical outreaches, YWAM school outreaches, and groups for special events and festivals that will be coming in and out of our small facilities! This is in addition to the 30 full time staff, plus families and the next DTS, which starts in July adding another 20-some people.

Kristina and I will be leading a YWAM School of Worship on their outreach for 2 months. We will take them to 3 different indigenous people groups and they will assist us in our ministry of Sounds of the Jungle.

We will also probably take on many other roles to help with all of the other teams that will be coming in. We have had many prophecies at the YWAM center lately that have been saying that these next months will be like the “perfect storm” of all the right elements coming together for God to bring amazing new growth to His Kingdom in Panama!

We will keep you all updated of all that is happening! Also, if you are interested in coming down to help at any time this summer, we would love to have you. There are so many opportunities to serve!

PRAYER REQUESTS

We so very much appreciate those of you who are so faithful to pray for our family and our ministry. It is the backbone of everything that we do.
Please pray for:
• Our family to adjust to its new size (especially for big sister).
• Our health in this busy season
• Raising up these indigenous leaders
• The ethnomusicolgy class
• God’s hand in all that we do this summer with the teams.
May God Bless you all as you serve Him this month,
In Christ,
John, Kristina, Natalie and Asher Henry

March Newsletter

nationswillworship@yahoo.com (John and Kristina Henry) — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 20:52:00 +0000

GOD IS GOOD…ALL THE TIME
God has been so good to us in the last few months. It seems like so many amazing things have been happening in our ministry, there hasn’t been time to write about all of them.

If you have been following our blog you have seen the dance that the Emberá people of Errebache composed to give God glory. Since that event we have taken 2 more trips back to Errebache with some short-term teams. Now, almost everyone in the village are Christ followers. Praise the Lord!!!

ERREBACHE
Meaning “hospitality” in the Emberá language, Errebache and its leaders have committed to being the first Emberá village that follow God and keep their traditional cultural ways. They also want to invite other indigenous leaders to come and observe Errebache as an example.

We are partnering with them in various projects. The dance creation being one of them, we are also recording a c.d. of their traditional music so that they can use the recordings as a source of income. They are also writing new songs about the Creator in their traditional way that will be used for evangelism purposes.

Apart from these projects, this July we will be partnering with another YWAM ministry called PhotoGenX. They are a group of professional photographers and graphic designers who will be partnering with Errebache to help them give the Emberá people a voice in the Panamanian government.
SGC
When we weren’t leading worship at a camp of 600+ teenagers, or leading short-term teams in villages and Panama City, the last month has been filled with preparation for the school that God has called us to pioneer.

The School of Gospel Contextualization has officially been approved by one of the two faculties needed to be an officially recognized school within the University of the Nations! The registrar assures me that the other approval shouldn’t take much longer.

We also got our first applicant (apart from current Sounds of the Jungle staff) for the school. This applicant is already working in a closed country within the 10/40 window. He believes God is sending him to our school to get the training he needs to communicate the Gospel to those he works with! This is so encouraging to us.

We almost have all the teachers we need as well. Please join us in prayer that God will guide just the right students who are supposed to be at this first school.
(See www.sgcpanama.blogspot.com for more information.)

HENRY FAMILY
Kristina is now 33 weeks pregnant and starting to get really uncomfortable. She still looks amazing though (Thank you God for such a beautiful wife!). Our due date is the 12th of May. More details to come next month.

Natalie celebrated her 2nd Birthday earlier this month. She is non-stop energy and is talking up a storm. Wherever we go people ask “¿Hay un momento en que no está moviendo?” (is there a moment in which she isn’t moving?). We respond nope, not when she eats, not when she is watching a movie. She is always moving. She loves to sing as well which is already fulfilling a prophecy that she had in the womb that she would be a singer of songs to the Lord. We taught her “Jesus loves me” just the other day and now she always asks to sing it.

PRAYER REQUESTS

We so very much appreciate those of you who are so faithful to pray for our family and our ministry. It is the backbone of everything that we do.
Please pray for:
• Kristina’s pregnancy and the protection of this precious little baby.
• School of Gospel Contextualization students
• The new believers in Errebache
• For the health of our family.
May God Bless you all as you serve Him this month,
In Christ,
John and Kristina Henry

Dancing for Ancoré (The Lord)

nationswillworship@yahoo.com (John and Kristina Henry) — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 18:59:00 +0000

Errebache Trip Report

nationswillworship@yahoo.com (John and Kristina Henry) — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 18:52:00 +0000

Click on each page to read...

Video to come soon

nationswillworship@yahoo.com (John and Kristina Henry) — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 00:06:00 +0000

We are having some technical difficulties. Please check back on Monday

SGC Panama

nationswillworship@yahoo.com (John and Kristina Henry) — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 22:33:00 +0000

Hi friends, Please check out the temporary website for the School of Gospel Contextualization. Pictures and more info to be updated soon. Spread the word.

January Update

nationswillworship@yahoo.com (John and Kristina Henry) — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 21:45:00 +0000

Hi everyone! We hope you are all having a great 2009 so far. We certainly are. God has brought us so much vision and so many fresh ideas and direction! We have finally gotten to the point in our lives and ministry where we cannot do any of all that God has given us without the power of the Holy Spirit. I think this is where He wants all of us, all the time. We are very busy, but very excited at the same time.

LECHUZA
First of all the Lechuza song-writing workshop went great. We successfully conveyed the vision of using their traditional culture to communicate the Gospel message through their native music and dance. They have already started on two songs, and I will be going back within the next few months for follow up. If you want to see a short clip of that trip you can click on the video below.

SCHOOL OF GOSPEL CONTEXTUALIZATION

Big name, big vision, big impact. Over Christmas break, God gave us a huge leading to start a new school within YWAM and its training program, the University of the Nations. The school will prepare missionaries to communicate the Gospel to Non-western cultures. It will teach them to put the Gospel into the context of Oral-based peoples. If a certain people group can understand who God is and what He has done for them, with no other cultural barriers than we will begin to see the Kingdom of God grow like wildfire!

The school will be led by Kristina and myself and we will bring experts from all over the world to teach one of the twelve weeks of the course. We believe this is the way that God is leading us to multiply the vision He has given us both to affect the indigenous of Panama and equip the missionaries who will go out and reach the remaining unreached people groups for the Kingdom of God!

NEW STAFF FOR SOUNDS OF THE JUNGLE!
As our YWAM center is increasing in personnel, vision is expanding and more people are interested in working with the indigenous. God led Kristina and I to invite 6 other YWAM Panama personnel to be part of our Sounds of the Jungle ministry team. All of us are already working with the indigenous in various ways. Some of these people are actually indigenous themselves!

What we all share alike is a vision to bring the Gospel to the native people of Panama in a culturally relevant way so that they can develop an autonomous church. We all share the belief that God made their culture unique and individual on purpose and that only when they find their identity in Christ and who He made them to be, will they begin to see real change in their culture. Not just physical change, but spiritual renewing which changes them from the inside.

Our Sounds of the Jungle team will gather together monthly to pray, seek God's face and how we can be involved together throughout the weeks. We solicit your prayers in this.

ERREBACHE
Some of you may remember the name "Tulio" from our printed newsletter that we sent out. He and his wife are actually part of the Sounds of the Jungle team that I just mentioned. A short-term team who YWAM Panama was hosting went to Errebache, Tulio's village, a few weeks ago. Up until that point, Tulio and his wife, Norelia, were the only committed Christians in their small village. The team impacted their village so much that the 5 matriarchal leaders of the village, accepted Ancoré (Jesus) into their lives! What a great opportunity we have to go there and help give these new Christians some of the first portions of scripture translated into their Emberá language, and (with the help of Tulio and Norelia put these scripture portions to traditional music and dance!!!!! We will leave this weekend with Kristina, Natalie, and the Sounds of the Jungle staff. We will also bring along...

OUR MISSIONS PASTORS

Vince and Diedre Brassard, our long-time friends and missions pastors will be coming to visit tonight. We look forward to this week, getting to know them better, have them see what we do here, so they can take it back to our home church in Anchorage Alaska. We are also just looking forward to staying up late and talking.

MISSION ADVENTURES PANAMA 2009

One other huge thing that happens right after the Brassard's leave is a huge camp that we do every year as a YWAM ministry to get the youth of Panama fired up for foreign missions. Click here for more info. Kristina and I will be leading worship mulitipile times every day for the estimated 400 person crowd. I will also be going with Tulio to an Emberá village, leading a different group of Panamanian youth every day for 3 days, teaching them about cultural redemption and God's heart to reach the lost. Please pray for all the organization in this.

MISSIONARY MOMS
There is much more to say. Kristina is coming along in her pregnancy, the baby is growing and kicking up a storm. Natalie loves to talk and sing all the time. She is such a joy to our lives! Kristina is also leading a mom's group for all the young moms on the YWAM base. They get together weekly at our house and share their experiences as well as go through very good parenting books. They are also planning on ministering in Errebache, teaching on abstinence, and crisis pregnancy training. Abortion is very common in indigenous villages. They are hoping, with a little teaching and love, they can save babies' lives. More on this in the next newsletter.

Kristina is also involved in an expatriate moms' group that meets together semi-regularly. Krisitina is cultivating relationships with businessman's wives, international relations people, Smithsonian researchers who are from Austria, Israel, Peru, China, America, and other places. This just kinda happened upon us and is such a cool opportunity. Natalie is sure getting lots of cultural exposure.

Thanks for all of your prayers and support.

Love,
John and Kristina

Lechuza update

nationswillworship@yahoo.com (John and Kristina Henry) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 21:52:00 +0000

Worship for the Ngöbe People!

nationswillworship@yahoo.com (John and Kristina Henry) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 19:46:00 +0000

Project Sounds of the Jungle heads off again to the village of Lechuza where the Ngöbe people live. We are returning to hold a song-writing workshop where we will gather the Christians, young and old, and write songs to the Lord in the Ngöbe indigenous style and in their native language.

We will teach on the importance of worship to our creator with the music and language of our heart. We will also show the incredible impact these songs can have in the Ngöbe culture. Our plan is to record these newly composed scripture and worship songs in order to present them at an evangelistic culture celebration they will invite the community to next month

Many of the people of Lechuza have lost some of their traditional music. The church had given it up because they were told it was pagan and evil. The un-churched Ngöbes gave it up for Latino country music associated with drunken parties. After talking with the Pastor in Lechuza, however, he believes that their traditional music can

be redeemed and these songs would be a great vehicle to preach the Gospel to their neighbors that live in this lush mountain valley.

Please pray for the right people to come and participate in the workshop as well as Holy Spirit-creativity to flow from these believers as they compose these new songs to their Creator.

One Day

nationswillworship@yahoo.com (John and Kristina Henry) — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 20:49:00 +0000

Check out the amazing things God did in our latest trip to the mountains!

Click here to read the story.

October Newsletter

nationswillworship@yahoo.com (John and Kristina Henry) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 19:11:00 +0000

IDENTITY RESTORED CONTINUED…We’re still trucking along with our documentary project. We have had several great interviews, all with indigenous people who have a heart to keep their God-given culture and “seguir adelante” or “go forward” in their professions and influence. We are in the process of gathering all the film clips, pasting them together, and seeing what we still lack.

We plan on the last week of October going to a rural mountain village where the Ngobe (pronounced Noe-bay) people live. This is the poorest, least reached, and most numerous indigenous people group of Panama. We have yet to work directly among them because of the distance from our home in the center of Panama.

A professional videographer is coming down with a nice video camera to capture more interviews, as well as scenery shots for the project. Please keep this trip in prayer.

LEISHMANIA….WHAT???

Yes it is Leishmania here on John Henry’s epidermis. Two months ago while on the trip to the Buglere people group (that I wrote about previously on our adventures blog) I got bitten by what is known as a sand fly, but more resembles a tiny mosquito. It carries with it a bacteria called Leishmaniasis (Lesh-man-AI-a-sis). I have posted pictures (I didn’t want to disturb the general public) and a little more of the story on my adventures blog. Check it out, click on the sounds of the jungle adventures link on the right of this page.

YWAM CONFERENCE IN COSTA RICA On November 17th through 21st there will be a YWAM regional conference in San Jose, Costa Rica, being put on by Loren and Darlene Cunningham, the founders of Youth With A Mission. It’s a conference they try and do all over the world to bring many YWAM’ers back to the core principles and foundations that YWAM started out with. I’m sure it will be an exciting and refreshing time. Kristina has adventurously decided to accompany me on the 18-hour bus ride from Panama City to San Jose…with a toddler, and being 4 months pregnant! Please keep this trip in your prayers.

PAPER NEWSLETTER
We are working on our first ever real paper newsletter. We hope to have it mailed out within the next two weeks. PLEASE SEND US YOUR ADDRESS if we otherwise might not have it. We would love to send it to you.

PRAYER REQUESTS
We so very much appreciate those of you who are so faithful to pray for our family and our ministry. It is the backbone of everything that we do.
Please pray for:
• For this new pregnancy and the protection of this precious little baby.
• For the Identity Restored project.
• Conference in Costa Rica
• For the health of our family.

May God Bless you all as you serve Him this month,
In Christ,
John and Kristina Henry

September Newsletter

nationswillworship@yahoo.com (John and Kristina Henry) — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 22:21:00 +0000

NEXT ADDITION TO OUR MINISTRY God is always faithful to bring growth to our ministry, in opportunities, provision, and most recently the growth is happening in Kristina’s womb in the form of a new baby boy or girl! We found out just a few days ago that Kristina is 5 weeks pregnant! Praise God for this new blessing!!! We will keep you updated on all the details that come with this pregnancy.

IDENTITY RESTORED Our most recent project with Sounds of the Jungle is a collaboration of efforts to produce a short documentary. Our hope is that the indigenous would find their identity in Christ, who He created them to be in the context of their culture. Only then, we believe, will they be able to succeed in the world around them without letting go of their God-given identity. God is bringing this project together as we trust Him step by step.
For more information you can check out the project’s website: http://www.identityrestored.co.nr/

PRAYER REQUESTS We so very much appreciate those of you who are so faithful to pray for our family and our ministry. It is the backbone of everything that we do.
Please pray for:
• For this new pregnancy and the protection of this precious little baby.
• For the Identity Restored project
• For the presidential elections in Panama
• For the health of our family.

May God Bless you all as you serve Him this month,

In Christ,
John and Kristina Henry

New Blog

nationswillworship@yahoo.com (John and Kristina Henry) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 20:12:00 +0000

Hi everyone,

We have decided to create a separate blog to write stories of our adventures. This first entry is about the last trip to the mountains. It is rather long so we divided it into several parts. Check it out if you have some time.
http://soundsofthejungleadventures.blogspot.com/

August Newsletter

nationswillworship@yahoo.com (John and Kristina Henry) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 16:30:00 +0000

WHAT VACATION? This newsletter is long overdue; please accept our apologies. Our 6 week trip to Alaska was very productive, busy, and successful. John did some roofing at his old company. Kristina helped her mom with a few fundraisers and garage sales for the ministry. We also met with various ministry partners and potential partners. When we got back to Panama people asked how our vacation went, and we said: “What vacation?

BACK IN PANAMA We arrived in Panama and hit the ground running. There was a building team from the Young Presidents Organization. We were able to assist these teenagers whose parents represent the wealthy businessmen and C.E.O.’s of the world. We built a house and a community kitchen for an indigenous village that YWAM works with. It was a great experience.

ROLE SHIFTING Coming back to YWAM Panama, there had been much change in the weeks that we were gone. The director is taking an extended trip to the U.S. for health reasons. Now generally the Director of Operations, John, would have taken this place temporarily. But, since we were gone, they needed to make a decision. Two very able men from our leadership team stepped up to the task of the directing and administration of all the different ministries here at YWAM Panama. There was also a change in the accounting department, where Kristina was helping. Someone who has the training and desire to be in the position full-time has taken over that area.

So when we came back, the leaders invited us to begin to mainly focus on our ministry, Sounds of the Jungle, which, up until recently has not been big enough of a task to take up a full workweek. However, in the last few months, we have been asked left and right by indigenous leaders and other missionaries who work full-time among the different people groups to do song-writing workshops and teaching with the indigenous peoples!

Between Sounds of the Jungle and also leading worship for the YWAM Panama community we keep very busy. And the best part is, these are the two things Kristina and I have been created to do. This is where our passion lies and this is where we can be most effective.

John will continue to be on the leadership team and involved in that arena. Kristina has started a mom’s group for all of the young mothers on the base. They will be sharing questions, insights, and also pray for all the different ministries.

ADVENTURE IN THE MOUNTAINS

Shortly after arriving back in Panama I (John) found out that I had to make an emergency trip to the mountains of the interior of Panama. There was a delicate situation that required myself and another staff member to hike to a remote village to talk to the parents of one of the children attending our “Hogar” boarding school for indigenous youth. So with one day’s notice I packed everything I thought I would need and headed out. (I will take some time this week and write a full account of my adventures if you would like to read it). 16 hours of hiking later we arrived at the village and everything went well. We even got to talk with the pastor of the church there of the Buglere (Boog-LEH-deh) people group and set up a potential song-writing workshop with their people in September. More on all this in the next newsletter.

PRAYER REQUESTS

We so very much appreciate those of you who are so faithful to pray for our family and our ministry. It is the backbone of everything that we do.
Please pray for:
• For Kristina and I to begin to adjust and thrive in our new roles.
• For our future song-writing workshops and ministry trips to the jungles and mountains.
• For the health of our family.

May God Bless you all as you serve Him this month,

In Christ,
John and Kristina Henry

nationswillworship@yahoo.com (John and Kristina Henry) — Mon, 05 May 2008 16:32:00 +0000

Check out "Our Pictures" for pics of the trip.

May Newsletter

nationswillworship@yahoo.com (John and Kristina Henry) — Mon, 05 May 2008 15:39:00 +0000

TRIP TO THE DARIEN JUNGLE: Our trip to the village
in the Darien went very well! Thank you so much for all your prayers they were very much felt. I have written a special report that you can click on and read here on the blog site for those wanting to read in more detail about our trip.
After over 12 hours of rough travel, we arrived at the village. We felt literally, like we were at the end of civilization. We really were, at least for about a few hundred miles until some towns in Colombia.

During our trip we recorded 4 songs in the Wounaan language and traditional style. The church is also very excited about writing more songs and using their dances and other traditions to praise Hewandam, their Creator. Who, according to Wounaan tradition, sent His Son to create the world and mankind. Talk about a key to the culture huh? We tentatively plan on returning in the fall to do some more recording and even filming.

VISIT TO ALASKA: After much prayer and consideration, we are taking an unexpected trip to Alaska. We will be arriving May 20th and coming back to Panama on the 4th of July. Some of our reasons for coming back are to connect with supporters and the ever-changing and growing congregation of our home church. Kristina is also looking forward to helping her mom in our fundraiser garage sale that they are putting on. If you are in Alaska and would like to get together with us while we are back, please write us a soon as possible so that we can meet with as many of you as possible. We are also very excited for many of you to get to know Natalie for the first time.

PRAYER REQUESTS: We so very much appreciate those of you who are so faithful to pray for our family and our ministry. It is the backbone of everything that we do.
Please pray for :
• The Wounaan church; that leaders would rise up from among them to ignite their passion to evangelize the lost.
• For all the YWAM Panama ministries that will be experiencing one of their busiest times of the year, while we are in Alaska.
• For all the preparations that need to be made before we leave.
• Our family as we travel with a rambunctious toddler.

May God Bless you all as you serve Him this month,

In Christ,
John and Kristina Henry

March Newsletter

nationswillworship@yahoo.com (John and Kristina Henry) — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 17:19:00 +0000

MISSION ADVENTURES PANAMA 2008… was a huge success! Although we didn’t receive the number of participants we had expected, those who came were profoundly impacted. They left with a newfound burden for the nations and a realization that they too could go and carry the light of the Gospel to the unreached.
One special night really impacted me personally. About 20 of the YWAM staff dressed up in ethnic clothes representing all different nations. They were all holding an un-lit candle. Then, one by one, the participants came forward and lit the candle of one of the represented nations. We then had one of the most intense times of intercession for the nations that I have ever been a part of. We prayed for the spiritual bondages of Islam to be broken while symbolically laying our hands on a veiled middle-eastern women, we prayed for disease and spiritual darkness to be lifted off of a traditionally dressed African man. Something was being broken in the spiritual world. God’s hand was being moved. Kristina and I had the privilege to lead worship twice a day during the training phase of the camp. We had many unforgettable times of leading these passionate youth into the presence of God. During the outreach phase, 13 different teams went out into the central part of Panama and evangelized for 4 days. There were over 350 people who came to know Christ as their personal Savior as a result of these outreaches. Praise God and thank you for your prayers.

ALWAYS BUSY As we’ve mentioned in past newsletters, it seems that there is never any real “down time” around the YWAM Panama office. No sooner had the Mission Adventures camp ended that we had begun preparation for the new Doulos Christian Academy that God has led YWAM Panama to start. The vision is to not just run a Christian School, but for it to be an open door in which we can minister to the mostly unreached Chinese community of Panama that represents 10% of the national population. Education is very important to the Chinese as they see the public schools as below par. This is just one way that we are beginning to reach out to the Chinese in Panama. The school will also serve the Indigenous Home Program, as well as missionary kids. So Kristina and I joke saying that Natalie will grow up learning English, Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin Chinese, Haka Chinese, Emberá, Wou Meu, and Buglere (Indigenous languages).

SOUNDS OF THE JUNGLE Since the song-writing workshops that took place in October and January, Indigenous Christians and even Mission agencies have been almost begging us to do “one of those things” or “something like you did in Piriatí” with them. We would like to solicit your prayers as to the direction and next step that we should take with this ministry that appears to be being blessed by God in an awesome way. Right now we are planning on printing lyrics and labels for the CD’s recorded in January, and then distribute the CD’s in the Darien Jungle where the majority of the Emberá people live. There is also a strong possibility that we will do a similar work with the Wounaan people group, a close cousin to the Emberá. Thank you so much for your prayers and support of the ministry.

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY NATALIE! On March 12th we celebrate our beautiful daughter’s very first birthday. I feel so grateful to all of you who, one year ago helped us financially in the hospital costs for the C-section delivery. We are also thankful for all of you who have sent baby gifts and encouraging advice as we were/are growing as unsure, first-time parents. I only regret that many of you have not had the pleasure of meeting her yet.

Well, in addition to celebrating the completion of her first year, we are celebrating the fact that she took her FIRST STEPS on Feb 29th! We are so proud! We are also celebrating that her grandparents (Kristina’s parents) have come to visit for the month of March. We look forward to showing them more of Panama and spending long nights together playing Mexican train dominoes. We’ll send cake-face pictures of Natalie after her birthday.

May God bless you all and have a happy March. Please know that none of what we do would be possible without your sacrificial prayers and giving. Thank you.
Your friends,
John, Kristina, and Natalie Henry

Feburary Newsletter

nationswillworship@yahoo.com (John and Kristina Henry) — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 18:41:00 +0000

Biyabua Ãcôrẽ: “Thank you God!” in the Emberá tribal language. The Emberá recording project was a great success! One never knows what to expect as always. For example, we thought we were going to record 5 songs that had been previously written during the last workshop we had in October. There were only a few people attending last week that had been in the previous workshop, so we improvised. One of the Emberá woman leaders suggested that we write some new songs instead. She said they didn’t have any songs for children or songs of welcome in their language. They split up into groups and got to work. 3 new songs were created and recorded. Also, 9 translated choruses that are regularly sung in the church were recorded. With the 5 songs recorded in October, the final album contains 17 worship songs to the creator in the Emberá language! Lyric sheets and album artwork are in the process of being created.

This August we hope to form a ministry team and take these c.d.’s into the Darien Province of Panama where most of the Emberá people live. We had a great time partnering with our friends from Proskuneo Ministries. It was wonderful to work with them and get to know their hearts for ministry.

THESE SONGS WERE IN US: Reflecting over what these traditional songs mean to her people, a young Emberá woman, Raquel, shared:“When I first heard these songs I wanted to cry and I didn’t know why. Then I realized that these songs were in us even though we didn’t know them.” Like thousands of indigenous cultures around the world, the Emberá are slowly losing their culture. Here in the village of Piriatí, many of the children do not speak the language and most of the adults do not remember their traditional music. There were several elders present at the workshops who helped bring these songs to life. Recording these songs not only will communicate the Gospel in a culturally relevant, heart-touching way; but it will help preserve a culture, to be passed on to the next generations.

PANAMANIAN MISSION ADVENTURES: Here at YWAM Panama, we are gearing up for a historic event. For the first time ever, young Panamanians are crossing denominational lines and gearing up for Mission Adventures 2008. It is a 10-day event where YWAM Panama is providing teaching and training for short-term missions and then the expected 400+ young people will break up into groups and do mini-evangelistic outreaches all over the country of Panama. Kristina and I will be in charge of leading worship for the event. We hope many young Panamanians will get a heart for foreign missions and we will begin to see many sent out as missionaries. Please pray for this event that will take place the 14th-23rd of this month.

Have a great month and may the Lord bless you in everything you do.
Your friends, John, Kristina, and Natalie Henry