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Dec/Jan Extreme Panama Praise Report Vol 3

e3's main mission is church planting by Equipping believers to Evangelize the lost so that we can Establish new churches. We are not a construction ministry or a humanitarian aid ministry, but we will utilize these ways of outreach in specific areas if it helps the main mission of planting a church. On this trip we had no set agenda to provide physically for the Ngobe people, but the Lord showed us the need, and gave us the resources to provide a meal, and a New Year's Celebration party (including pinatas)! This really opened up the hearts of the Ngobe people, especially the parents who saw us taking care of their kids and providing a fun time for them.

One of my team saw first hand how a little compassion can open someone's heart to listen...

"I joined the national leader [Moises Vega] and we wandered off into the village where we encountered a small boy trying to collect sun-drying cocoa beans before it rained. We helped him while unknowingly his mother watched. Impressed by our act of kindness, she invited us to her hut and shared some local cuisine with us. We planted the seed of friendship and invited the family to our main site the next day. She appeared the next day and I had the opportunity to share the EvangeCube [a tool used to share the Gospel] with her. I later saw her name on a tract, indicating a profession of faith in Jesus Christ."

Dec/Jan Extreme Panama Praise Report Vol 2

What a cool team the Lord provided for this trip! Only one had gone on a e3 trip before! 3 were from my home church, one of those from my personal community group, which was very cool! Two found the trip through the internet after hearing about e3 by word of mouth. The one veteran e3 person recruited two people from her area. It was neat to see how the Lord binded us together as a team! Even the Panamanian translators were from different parts of Panama, but we were all unified in the Body of Christ.

The Lord directed which people should go to which site and which translator should work with which N. American. And even though there were struggles along the way and things did not always go the way we thought they should. He was in control and grew us through our trials, and in our weakness He was strong!

The ground was hard in some of these areas, but seeds were planted. One of the cool stories I heard was of a women that was visited. They talked with her and shared with her about Jesus and they asked her if she wanted to pray to accept Jesus as her Lord and Savior, but the whole time they were talking she was expressionless. She did not respond to them at all and so they left. A short time later after they had headed back to their campsite this lady came to the edge of the campsite and said, "I want to pray to receive Jesus!" You cannot always see the kind of impact the message of Christ is making on someone, but as Isaiah 55:11 says, "...my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it."

There is also much power in the prayers of God's people as witnessed by one of my team...

"Juselino (Panamanian site leader) called Orluis (Ngobe translator) and I (Andy - N. American) up to put our hands on and pray for a man who was having trouble putting his faith in Jesus for a number of reasons. When we all began praying, the walls came down and he accepted the Lord. Seeing the power of prayer and a man's heart change because of the Holy Spirit and prayer was amazing. God was right there in everyone's heart. The smile on his face showed God was in his heart as well."

Dec/Jan Extreme Panama Praise Report Vol 1

I took a team of 9 North Americans to Panama on Dec 27, 2009 - Jan 4, 2010. We went into the Bocas del Torro region of Panama to work in three different jungle villages of Ngobe people. The three villages, Monte Lirio, Barranquilla, and Guabal, did not have a church. In fact only Monte Lirio had been visited by a team before (a year ago). This was ground breaking work for the Kingdom of God. Although as you know the Lord went before us and paved the way. We found in each village persons of peace to help us establish a new church in their village. Many of the Ngobe people are hungry to know more about God and His Word. Many had never heard about God before. Some responded quickly to the Good News while others will need more time to process this new information before the Lord opens up the eyes of their hearts.

We were able to share the Gospel 210 times to people in their houses, and another 1,001 times to people in group settings (children's meetings and evening meetings)! Praise the Lord! God then opened up the eyes of 93 individuals who prayed to receive Him as their personal Lord and Savior! Thank you Lord for letting us be a part in your plan! Please pray for these people, their follow-up, and discipleship.

In order to give you a glimpse into the people behind these numbers, I would like to share with you over the next few days some stories from the N. Americans on my team. This first story is from a young man. This was his first mission trip, in fact this was his first time even setting foot on an airplane...

" The greatest memory I had was the first time I presented the EvangeCube (a Gospel presentation tool). God allowed me to be calm and think clearly. The man I was talking to seemed like he was really trying to grasp what I was telling him. After I had finished, the man told me he wanted to be saved and I was just amazed at how easy God made it for me to lead him to Christ. It made me start to wonder what had been holding me back from sharing the Gospel earlier in my life."

Asia Travels - 2009

July 9-25 I will be traveling to Asia. Please keep me in your prayers as I am heading over to accomplish a few objectives. First I am meeting with new contacts to talk about future ministry possibilities, I will also be setting up a trip for next summer with a current contact, and lastly I will be joining up with another e3 team to minister to the people through training, prayer, evangelism, and discipleship. While working with this team I hope to pick up even more ways to help advance His kingdom in Asia!

I will definitely need your prayers for open doors, soft hearts, the Father's guidance, and protection from the evil one.

I was planning on bringing a team with me for the first week of my trip, but the team was not coming together. I was getting discouraged. Then I received an email from my contact saying that they could not handle a team at this time, and I realized God's hand was at work from the beginning! He did not allow the team to materialize because it was not the right timing (His timing). I do however feel He would have me go and set things up for a team to go next year.

I will email you a prayer calendar before I head out on the 9th.

In other News:

*Sorry for the lack of updates. I need your prayer support but yet if you don't know what is going on you can't be as focused in your prayers. Sorry!

*I have been talking with more people interested in what God is doing among the nations and specifically through my ministry with e3 and inviting them to be a part of my ministry team by praying, giving, and/or going. The Lord has given me a great response so far, Praise Him! Thank you to all the new ministry partners that have joined on recently. With these new funds I am able to continue my ministry and start to be more prepared for what God has in store for me in the future. Pray as I am continuing to raise up new ministry partners. I am at 77% of my new financial goal. I am targeting Thanksgiving as the date I am shooting to hit 100%.

*This blog and the emails that point you to it are the current ways most of you follow me. The email list system I use is sometimes unreliable because of tight spam filters. My ministry is in process of installing new software that will hopefully overcome this issue, and might change the way I communicate with you. In the mean time those that use FaceBook or Twitter you are welcome to look me up and follow me on those (my user name on both is crittertruax or just search for 'Chris Truax'). I will post on those whenever I update this blog.

All glory, honor, power, to our heavenly Father! Who was, and is, and is to come!

Go with me or ask others to...

First, pray to the Lord of the Harvest to raise up workers for His harvest fields. Matthew 9:38

Second, did the Lord impress upon you to go? How about going with me on a trip to East Asia on July 9 - 18?  The cost is $3800, which includes airfare, lodging, in-country transport, food, tools and materials.  We train you in everything you will need to know. 

Third, please talk to or pass on to me any names the Lord placed on your heart while you were praying about workers.  Church Friends, Pastors, Co-workers, etc.

The nationals are getting ready for our team and they are excited.  Now all we need are ordinary people to listen to the Spirit's prompting and say, "Here I am Lord, send me!"

Time is short on this trip, so sign up now by emailing me at chris.truax@e3partners.org.

Stay tuned for information about a Fall or Winter Extreme trip to Panama!

Panama Update 2

Unfortunately the Panama trip that was supposed to be heading out this weekend is not happening.  We had to cancel for a few reasons, but the main one turned out to be a way to help our Panamanian believers.  That's right canceling turned out to be a help to our National Directors because they had 3 trips all coming in about the same time and felt overwhelmed with all that was needed to prepare for them.

The good news is we were able to redirect all the trip participants onto other trips.  So they will still be able to be used by God, and grow in the knowledge of God thru their cross cultural exposure.

I am in the process of reaching out to more friends and sharing the vision of e3 in order to grow my ministry team.  Please keep this in prayer.  I am also planning out my summer trips.  I hope to do two to East Asia (wink, wink), and one to Panama.  If you individually or your church are interested in being used by God internationally, please email me so I can talk to you more about making an international trip an easy reality.

Thanks for your prayers!