Panama: A village in a volcano

El Valle is small community nestled in the lush crater of an extinct volcano. We enjoyed the shopping and some local treats. Joe and Sharon suprised of group of Kunas with the fluency with the Kuna language. They drew quite a crowd of curious Kunas who were selling some of

their wares at the local market.

Panama Fishing

My Brother Joe has bragged for the 25 years about the incredible fishing of Lago Gatun (the lake formed by the Panama Canal.) He has claimed that the reason you come back to shore is that you are quite simply tired of catching fish.

Obviously, I written this off to brotherly hyperbole. But I now confess to all who read this blog.....My brother Joe was right! So Joe, his son Ben, and I went fishing.

We hired a local guide with a flat bottom boat and something that looked and sounded like an outboard motor. He took us way out into the lake. He knew just the right spots to drop anchor.

We were fishing for peacock bass which run the size of our large mouth bass. At times all four of us would have fish on the line. At one time I had caught keepers on 4 consecutive casts. I simply made my cast with no bait on my bare hook. I caught my next keeper.

I am proud to say that I caugth the first and largest fish of the day. Obviously I have it pictured here.

This lake not only serves as the canal for huge ships, but also commerce for may of the locals. This is just one of many dugout canoes we saw on the lake.

Here is Arsinio, ourguide. He preferred the name Cholo. This name actually means half-breed, but to him it meant a man with a boat, which was a good thing.


This is a typical boat we saw on the lake.

Here is one of the boats cruising along full of passengers.

Our Panama trip: the wordy version

We have long dreamed of visiting Panama where Joe and Sharon, my brother and his wife, lived for the better part of 25 years. That is now a wish we can cross off our list. Some have asked us what our best memories are now that we’ve returned. Here is our answer.

Early in 2007 we decided this was the year to go. Joe and Sharon would be there in December and we planned to be at their side. We also discovered that we would have the opportunity to spend the better part of 4 days with the four boys of the Challinor family. The Challinors are planting a church with Naso tribe in the highland area of Panama. We hope to see a lot more of the Challinors in the years to come.

We fell in love with their boys: Michael, Daniel, Robby, and Andrew. Those boys love the Lord, are quick-witted, fun-loving, and tough as nails. We played games, played soccer on the beach, made a movie, and enjoyed studying the word. We learned about their frontier-style life.

I took this picture of their feet one evening when their folks had made them clean up to go to a restaurant. They were all scrubbed up so nice. Just when I was framing the picture I noticed that I'd never seen their feet so clean. So I opted for this shot.

We met some of Joe & Sharon's Kuna friends. The Kuna tribal group is one of Panama indigenous peoples. Found in the most inaccessible rainforests on earth in a section called the Darien Gap. No road has ever passed through this region connecting Central America to South America. Its terrain, its remoteness, and the desire to deny any Southern power a road to attack its northern neighbors have conspired to keep this land unpenetrable.

It was in this context that Joe and Sharon moved in the Kuna village of Morti in 1981 alone, but for their young family. Not found on most maps even in 2007, Morti was accessible only by boat. Alone in the village with no knowledge of the language, they desperately needed a Kuna friend. The first to befriend them at was a young man named Arnulfo. He taught Joe to hunt, helped build their first house, and over the first two years helped Joe and Sharon learn the strange Kuna language. Eventually, Arnulfo became a believer, was/ leader in the new Kuna church, and eventually all of Arnulfo's family became believers. Arunulfo's oldest son, Teobaldo, is now about 26 years old and has developed into the one Wycliffes best bible translators in the Americas.

It was our rare privilege to meet Arnulfo and his whole family including Teobaldo and his pregnant wife and two kids. Between our limited Spanish skills and Joe & Sharon's fluency with the Kuna language, we were able to chat about all manner of things including a few good natured jabs at my brother Joe. At the end of our visit in their tiny home we prayed together as brothers in Christ. What a precious moment to meet a man into whose life my brother poured his life and subsequently the saving love of Jesus.

We met another hero of the faith when we met Marcelino and his twelve year old son, Mordecai (yes, a bible name.) Marcelino, a Kuna believer from the San Blas Islands off Panama’s Carribean coast, is a man who literally stepped into the gap. That gap was where the husbands of three families serving a Kuna village of Pucoro in the same region as Joe and Sharon. Through the passing of seven years: of unattainable demands of the kidnappers, strong but futile FBI efforts, and many many false leads, the men were pronounced dead in 2000 without ever recovering the bodies. Since that time the Panamanian government has called the Darien Gap off limits to all, other than the native groups. IN 2000 Marcelino Stood and proclaimed that the blood of those men would not be spilled in vain. He moved his young family into the very village were the men were taken. With no financial support, living on only what he could grow and hunt, he moved into that danger zone. In spite of much persecution, many dangers and hardships, there is now a Kuna church in that village. We met Marcelino and his son who had just completed grade six. Just as we chatted as with Arnulfo, we got to know Marcelino. We prayed. We recognized each other as brothers. What an honor.

Secondly, we experienced some great things. We stayed, not in the bush, but in the small town of Chame west of Panama City on the Pan-American highway. Our first morning we awoke to the crow of roosters. We thought that was quite cute until we discovered that the sound of crowing roosters never ends: morning, noon, and night. Roosters were in everyone's yards. Roosters roamed the streets. Roosters seemed like they were everywhere.

Another curiosity was that no house or business seemed to have hot water. Only one handle on any faucet. Even in the big city, nice restaurants didn't even have hot water in their restrooms.

We went to a small village called El Valle which was located in the crater of an extinct volcano.

We visited the Panama Canal and watched the huge ships pass through. We even got to check out ourr family history against those who worked on the canal. We found 22 Goodmans.

But, as far as pure excitement, I would have to claim my fishing trip on Lago Gatun as tops. This is the lake that was formed in 1912 to form the canal. My brother Joe, for the past 25 years, has bragged about the fishing there. Well, he was right. In four hours we caught over 130 keepers ranging from 1 to 4 lbs. From 8am to 1pm the catching seemingly never stopped. Of course, I caught the first and the biggest. Our Cholo (the local guy with a boat and motor) knew just where to take us from spot to spot. Lago Gatun has over 600 miles of shoreline.

I'll be posting photos to our blog and will also be putting our stuff on Snapfish.