The assembly in Chiriqui - Panama
1- Dolega. (The assembly is in this town)Dolega is one of the 13 districts of the province of Chiriqui. It is a catholic town. Located between the two busiest places, Ciudad de David and Boquete, the people of Dolega work primarily in one of these places. We broke bread for the first time in December 2010. His grace has been abundant, and His help from the throne has maintained the testimony. Membership has always been small, and the Bible school for children and youth has been an encouraging work from its inception.
With the pandemic returned, we had two empty chairs of believers who died because of covid; it was very hard. On the other hand, we saw an awakening in others. The assembly meetings were better attended, the Sunday school kept up a good number, and some new children arrived.
We maintain a plan of house-to-house visits in the town with biblical texts and visits to believers to encourage them, conducting gospel meetings with their families.
Brother Tulio and Marlene live in a village near the assembly called Dos Rios. In their house, we have a gospel meeting every Thursday, attended by an average of 10 unsaved. Tulio and Marlene are in their 80s, but they work hard in the gospel and are a great help.
2-Boquete. El Salto About five years ago, a door was opened for us in this place through some children we met during a day at a secular school in the town of Boquete, and they took us to the farm where they live, 1,500 meters above sea level in the mountain. The farm owner has allowed us to have a space to give a Sunday school to the children, and we have also had some meetings to preach the gospel. Currently, about 30 people meet, most of them children in the summer, and at coffee harvest times. Then the number is almost double. We have seen fruit in salvation, which also encourages us to continue the children's work. Every Sunday, when we arrive about 10 minutes early, most of the mothers and children who attend are already waiting for us. Two young mothers with their children (Cristina and Aura) are faithful attendees every Sunday; even with the rain, they are faithful to arrive. We ask you to pray for them, their many children, the salvation of their souls, and the strengthening of their faith. Some teenagers also attend during our time there.
3- Ciudad de David. - (City of David.)
In the City of David (The capital of the province) lives a faithful sister who is in fellowship in Dolega. Lucy is 80 years old, and is one of the first fruits of the efforts of preaching the gospel in that city. Her heart is affected because of an illness, but she is a very joyful and enterprising woman. Every Sunday, she travels with her grandson to get to the Breaking of Bread. We have held gospel meetings in her house, where mainly her family attends. This year we have spent time in door-to-door literature distribution and open-air preaching. We are trusting God, to make the planting of the precious seed prosper.
Marcos & Sara Sequera and family
4- Extension: Indigenous peoples
The indigenous presence in the assembly is important: sometimes representing more than 50% of the attendance at the meetings. Several of them are in fellowship. Four of these believers have asked us to visit their relatives in the indigenous region where they all originally lived. So we have visited these places several times. We mention some of these places:
Cerro Cana is a place away from the national highway: only 4x4 vehicles can get there. Where the car leaves us, we walk for an hour going down and up some hills until we reach the destination. We have preached to relatives of two believers who live there, several times. An older man confessed faith in the Saviour this year, which has been very encouraging.
Piedra Pintada is another place away from the national highway; the car leaves us at a point where the road ends, and from there on, we walk along a path through vegetation, rivers and very beautiful landscapes. We pass through several communities until we reach our destination. There, we also preached on several occasions, and by the Grace of God, we have seen a couple and a man of about 50 years old, confess his faith in Christ as Saviour.
Boca Balsa and Naranjal is the farthest place we have visited. We walked 6 hours from where the car left us to visit the relatives of a couple of new believers. A man lent us his horse to carry the load, which was a great help for the box of bibles and biblical texts. We left literature in many places, and held several preaching meetings in the communities. In Naranjal, more than 50 people gathered without electricity.
Working in these places is exciting; the heart beats when seeing the need and interest. We recognize that physically we cannot attend so many places at the same time, so we only make these sporadic visits trying to give the best of ourselves in each journey. We trust that the Lord is the one who does His work as he wants and when he wants.
Our fellow workers, Byrne and Lois Foreshew, continue to work in the Vista Alegre area, taking care of the assembly and some foreign works. They have continued faithfully in the midst of the hard work there.
Autumn 2022
Written by Marcos and Sara Sequera - Panama