Dinner Date Turned Roommate

“Hey so she just told us she can’t cook for us because of her accident” 

It probably doesn’t seem like this text would completely change the course of our month, but it absolutely did. 

This month is our Ask The Lord month here on the race. That means that coming into Panama, we weren’t teamed up with any ministry host. Instead we are encouraged by our leadership to prayerfully ask the Lord where He wants us to serve this month and what He wants our ministry to look like. 

After time spent in prayer, we had several doors open and several people to make contact with in Panama. After reaching out to them all, there seemed to be one contact that seemed very promising. 

It was incredible to be honest. We were just a few days out from coming to Panama and we had someone to pick us up from the airport, a group that would possibly be needing help throughout the month, and a place to stay for our first week being in Panama. What more could we ask for? 

We land in Panama, say our “see you laters” to our squad, and head to find this guy who said he’d pick us up from the airport and take us to where we’d be staying. 

We walk out of the airport and into the blistering sweaty heat that Panama has to offer. And instead of being met by one guy, we are met by a whole slew of people all very anxious to meet us and talk to us (oh and did I mention they spoke English?! Truly a novelty out here)

After several minutes of chit chatting, the group dwindles and is down to the four of us and four others. They help us get our bags to their vehicles and all settled in (they even bought drinks and plantain chips for us, how kind?!) Then they ask if they can take us out to lunch. Which was met with an obvious yes after a long travel day. 

After we got some food in our system, this group also helped us get SIM Cards and even took us by a grocery store. All such simple tasks, but oh so kind of them to help us out. 

Then we headed to where we’d be staying for our first week of Panama. We got to the apartment and unloaded our bags but immediately something just felt off to me. I wasn’t sure what it was, but it just wasn’t right. 

I didn’t have too much time to ponder it though because I was just dropping my stuff and then heading to a clinic with one of the girls on my team. The group that picked us up from the airport took two of us and the other two girls from my team stayed behind and got settled. 

We were almost to the clinic when I got the text: “Hey so she just told us she can’t cook for us because of her accident” 

It was almost as if R read my mind. She leaned over and asked “now do y’all have plans for dinner” 

“No actually we don’t anymore”

“Oh it’s not a problem don’t you worry we won’t let y’all go hungry” 

Thank goodness. I didn’t know why these random strangers were being so unbelievably kind to us, but I definitely appreciated it. 

R got to talking to P and P decided that they would just have us all over for dinner at the place they’re staying, that way we didn’t have to worry about it. 

As we were sitting around their table, it felt like home. Which doesn’t make any sense. We didn’t know each other before a couple hours ago, but that didn’t seem to matter. We all were just sitting around, sharing our lives and stories together (with a little bit of joking sprinkled in there) and it was the first time in five months that I felt at home.

I looked around to my other three teammates and said “I just feel like I’m at” 

“Home,” they all cut me off. 

It sounds crazy to feel at home in another country surrounded by strangers, but it’s true. 

After dinner, P and R drove us back to where we were staying. As we were driving, my mind was racing as I was trying to figure out how to circle the conversation back around to something P had said earlier in the night. Earlier he had mentioned that if we’d be more comfortable, we were more than welcome to stay with them. And based on the same ‘home’ feeling we all had while being there, we would’ve been crazy to not take him up on the offer. 

Eventually the conversation circled back around to it (thanks God) and we were able to voice that we all would be much more comfortable staying with them, than at this other apartment and the very next morning they picked us up again, but this time, for good. 

The past few days have been really difficult to process. It sounds crazy but it has been really hard to accept all of their love and allow them to serve us the way that they have been. I almost feel like I don’t deserve to be treated like this. After months of being on the field, it’s hard to accept things like this. These strangers met us with open arms from the very beginning. And it has been very obvious that the Lord has been guiding and directing both of our teams to be together during this season. 

The amount of thankfulness I have towards the Lord for providing in this way and to this group for accepting us with open arms is overwhelming. It still doesn’t feel real to be completely honest. But it just goes to show how good God is and how the body is supposed to function. 

We have been here for 5 days now. And it still feels like home. We pray and worship together, we joke around together, we get our nightly (and sometimes hourly) lesson on all things southern (three of the four people from their group are from North Carolina) (some of the lessons have included: the proper pronunciation of the word ‘oil’, how to make gravy from scratch, what Apple Butter is, SPAM Biscuits, etc.)  

I will forever be grateful for this group and their willingness to serve the Lord and us. 

I will forever be grateful for our dinner date that turned into us all being roommates.