Today's Lesson

Earlier on today, while assisting a friend of mine, pastor of the church in Rio Hato, whose car got broken in the middle of the street, I remembered what the Scripture says about how all things work out for the good to those who love Him. Anyone would have rightly consider lack of luck, been through a distress situation in the middle of a dangerous neibourhood in the night, with most of his family living 10 hours away. J.C. called a friend of his and me to assist him, and while I am trying to get a cheap tug car service, what I saw really moved me. Pastor J.C. witnessing a homeless in a corner despite the fact that he himself was in the middle of a difficult situation, and his friend also witnessing a half-drunk man not too far from him, and in between the wrecked car right in the center of the street. The enemy perhaps intended bad for J.C. but what he didn't know was the his trick was not enough to stop two men of God from sharing their faith to others with joy and peace of heart.
Suddenly, while I was still trying to get a cheap crane to come over, a very friendly cuban lady stopped by and without asking if we needed help, she stepped out of her vehicle and start giving instructions on how to proceed. She recommened us to push the car an abandoned gas station 25 meters away, pay a few dollars to the security guard to keep safe the car till tomorrow morning, and have the mechanic fitter come over first thing in the morning and end of story. So we did, she even offered her car to pull J.C. wrecked car to the abandoned gas station. This, was not other thing but the hand of God, providing right then right there for our need.
Lessons? Even the aparent bad things are opportunities to turn them into good and glorify God; if ungodly people have the courage to step down from their cars to assist perfect strangers in the street, why would you and me who profess the love of God would not do the same and even more?
Something to think about.

To Give or not to Give a big deal

Earlier on today, several people included a senior pastor, a youth pastor a ship captain, a businessman and myself had a meeting in one of the shopping mall of the city. As we were seated near a coffeeshop, talking and figuring out the details of this massive christian campaign in Rio Hato that we intend to have in two weeks from know, a timid young guy suddently interrupted our conversation and approached our table. Almost like whispering he began mumbling asking for something I barely understood at his first attempt. Quickly and without being obvious I studied the facial expression of my friends and noticed that they were annoyed by the sudden interruption. Once we all learnt what this young guy was up to, our attitude changed from being annoyed to confusion more like not knowing how to react or what to do. The young man timidly explained that he was robbed while riding a bus in the city and his wallet was taken away, leaving him without documents and pocket money to pay for his bus ticket to the country side where he lives. He explained that he was trying to collect the ten bucks needed to pay for his bus ticket.
Often, when we are alone and someone comes to beg for money we are quick to judge them by their physical appearance or clothing and sometimes we politely and some other times, contemptuously we refuse them away. We readily find hundreds if not thousands of excuses and reasons to calm down our conscious when we refuse with giving money to the needy. I learnt from Dad and a neighbor to give since early in life, but there is always the doubt of how often, when not to, and so and so. Just last sunday during Bible school at church, there was this huge discussion among the peers how wise was to give to the needy people. Some had the position that the streets were to dangerous to be lowering the car's window to give money, some others defended that most of the homeless people begging for money on the streets were drug addicts, or alcoholics some others stated that there were the lazy people who would send children to the streets to beg for money for them and the list is endless. The other side, including the teacher, explained that the Bible commanded us to give with a cheerful heart without judging, for only God can see the intentions of a man's heart. A girl in particular, stated that right before stepping out of her house, she would trust her life in God's hand and that she would not be walking in the city with a fearful heart, but rather with a joyful spirit which proved to come in handy even while helping people she would not know.
One of my friends reached for his wallet and handed him out a dollar bill and soon after myself and one of the pastors followed his action. He said thanks to us and right before leaving, the other pastor also gave him one dollar but not without warning him that he better be telling the truth, for we were all people of God and that tricking people of God would only bring ruin to his life. At this point, I thought it was going to end this sudden interruption so that we could continue with our business, when the same pastor rapidly changed his approach to the young guy and asked him if He had Jesus in his heart to which the young man timidly answered that he was a catholic already. In just a matter of seconds, the pastor shot a burst of biblical truth and witnessed him. He just seized the momentun and the Holy Spirit came upon that table with all of us sitting in there. The youth pastor asked him if he wanted to accept Jesus in his heart right there right then, and he accepted. What a moment, what a moment. He repeated the prayer of faith and then we prayed for him. I can not describe the feeling and the solemn atmosphere in that place on that table near the coffeeshop. It was the Holy Spirit himself that had just manifested through the youth pastor. What an example he set right there in front of the rest of us, the way he understands that every opportunity no matter where no matter when is the right opportunity to do what we as christians, followers of Christ are meant to.
Now I come to think about it, the reason of our meeting was to discuss and plan the details for the upcoming evangelistic activity and we were so busy doing so that we almost lost the perspective and the opportunity to witness right there and right then to someone that God sent purposedly to our table to test the intention of our hearts.
What a lesson ! ! !
Giving a message of hope to someone who is requesting bread to calm his hunger, without meeting his need is not enough, for God not only fed the multitude spiritually, but took the pain of feeding a whole bunch of people. Giving a piece of bread to a hungry man just to make our conscious feel in peace, without witnessing him and clearly conveying Jesus's love for him is not enough, for God always took care of the spiritual need before the physical need, for a healthy and wealthy man without God is just as sick and needy as a homeless.

Happy Mother's Day Mom

This is only the second time in almost 6 years that I get to spend "mother's day" in my country. The day before yesterday, we had a small preview of this important celebration in Panama and some countries in the central americas. The discipleship group my dad leads, prepared a surprised celebration for the mothers of the group and of course my mom was among them. My sister prepared a wonderful meal and me and my brother and her girl attended the meeting. It was lot of fun, after the teaching there were a couple of activities that we all enjoyed, but the one that really kicked off was my dad poetical performance. It was so much fun, and neither my siblings nor myself knew Dad could be that hilarious. I got it all in video so one day his grandkids will laugh as well.
Yesterday in the afternoon, while talking to my sister we decided that we wanted to sing a "serenata" today early in the morning "a common practice in latinamerica countries" and so my brother and my sister started practicing the words while I acompannied them with the guitar. We woke up at 2.30 Am and approached our parent's room very quitely with lit candles and roses and start singing a mexican ranchera out loud and then a second sweet mother's song. Mom was really surprised, I could tell by the look on her face on the dark room lit only by the dancing light of the candles, and she was very happy and touched, I could tell by the quievering tone on her voice. It was a great thing I reckon and am happy to have formed part of it along with my siblings.

Dinner Bon Voyage Celebration

Honestly, I could not have asked any more for a good-bye dinner, which was organized by my co-workers during my last days in the company. They really went out of their way to acknowledge my retirement and I feel very honored to have been part of the team. I knew they were up to something, because some of my friends just can not keep a surprise, lol. So I decided it was a good idea to surprise them rather than play the act of the surprised guy, so I walked in 10 min. before the set up of was ready. They were all "ohhhh"
Anyway, dinner was great, my favorite food was prepared, indian cuisine. I had a full plate of tasty and rich basmati rice with spicy but great shrimp and chicken curry. Dessert was just delicious, for I love tiramisu any day of the week, but this time it came with an orange sauce that just gave it a different touch. I even got a nice present from my collegues, this nice but very complicated watch which I still need to learn how to set it up.
After all this we had a movie night where we watched The Dark Knight, latest movie of Batman.
I guess this series of events will always remain in my mind, because after all, it has been five years of my life where hard and great moments I have experimented, and it all sums up in a great learning and shaping life-experience. And I want to conclude this lines with a phrase I heard from a friend of mine from Jamaica, who said "Wherever God leads you, He provides", so I am looking forward to the changes up ahead and hope to keep walking in God's way.

Final Chapter of a Carnival Experience

These past few days on board Carnival Ecstasy has been both sweet and bitter. Many friends, people who I've met over the years who know I will be leaving soon,makes it difficult for me to accept that it's time to say goodbye to this lifestyle, and at the same time it is bitter to know that I won't be seeing much of several of them in the near future.

Today I went through a wonderful moment when during the Employee Pin Award Ceremony I received my acknowledgment letter and a five-year gold pin from the Captain and Hotel Director's hand in front of a great crowd of fellow co-workers who like me were also being acknowledged for their five, ten, fifteen and twenty consecutive years of service to the company. Like the HD mentioned during his speech, "it is us with our commitment and loyalty to the company that makes this the biggest and most popular cruise line in the world" And I feel proud to be part of it. Now my time is over, or at least it is the idea and it is time to make space for the newcomers. Two weeks ago, the company decided to move the management trainee college program to Ecstasy, and so there are about 10 trainees who will be taking over in the months to come different ships. It's good to be able to teach to some of them some of the knowledge I've acquired over the years.
It is so sweet to know that I have succeeded and achieved much more than I thought I would during my stay in Carnival and it is sweeter to know that I will be going back to my country with full energy and lots of ideas and plans. Start from scratch, experiment life on land. My prayer is that wherever this decision takes me, I'd be able to listen God's voice and follow his lead. I am completely convinced that I've served my time in here, that I was meant to spend this time in Carnival, and that now is time to move forward. I know it wont' be easy, perhaps I can not realize the magnitude of it all, but I am willing to try it out.
I still believe I am not done with traveling, for it is perhaps something that I love so much, so I do hope and pray that there will be more of it in the future.
To all my friends around the world I thank you for the lessons learnt and the time spent.