Where has the time gone?

Hey everyone! Hope you are all doing well and enjoying life. I am doing well here in Panama. I can´t believe that I have been here a month already. It feels just like yesterday. Anyway, things are good and I am pretty busy here in Tocumen. I will be heading out to Wacuco in a little bit less than a month to start on the water projects. Right now I am helping the Parish of San Pio in Tocumen with many different things.

There is going the be a procession this Saturday to celebrate the feast day of San Pio, so my friends and I are organizing it and getting everything ready. The procession is going to have two ¨andas¨ which are like altars with the crucified Christ at the front and San Pio following. This is to show how San Pio tried to follow the example of Christ and to put the focus on Jesus. The procession starts at the current church of San Maximiliano Kolbe and finishes where a new church is going to be built in the area where I live in Tocumen. So, it is a lot of work, but it has been very good organizing it and helping out the priest here in anyway we can. As are the priests in the US they are very overworked.

I am also helping out with a youth group in my neighborhood. This week we have had a ¨Novena¨(or prayer meeting) ever night with the teens as a meditation and preparation for Saturday. There are a lot of good kids here in Tocumen that need an outlet and a fun time with a good message, because there are a lot of problems here with drugs and gangs. So I am just happy to be a part of it and to try to help out in any way possible. Really, I don´t do much to help because there are leaders here already that are doing some good things. Mostly I try to support their efforts and help organize the teens in our area. It is mostly like networking and just being there with them. It really does feel like I am not doing anything except going to meetings and listening to them. But, I guess that is what is needed and I am just glad to be a part of it. Please pray for these leaders here and teens as well that are struggling to get this youth group going to give some good options for the youth.

Today my fellow missionaries and I went to check out this language school in Panama City. We are going to be taking classes there starting next week. These classes are to help us progress faster in learning Spanish and I am looking forward to learning more intesively. It is going to be hard to have my Spanish scrutinized, but it will be good. I have already learned a ton from just being here and conversing with so many different people. It is still hard to constantly be thinking in Spanish, but it is much better than when I first got here.

Thanks so much to everyone for your emails and comments on my blog. I love to hear how everyone is and to be able to keep up with your lives as well. So, please dont feel like you are bugging me. I would love to hear from you. I may not be able to respond directly due to a lack of internet access, but I´ll try. Thanks for reading! Paz y Amor, Todd

Here is a photo of me, Luis, Father Larry, Nathan and Laura before a celebration when we first arrived in Panama. The celebration was for the anniversary of the church in Tocumen. There was dancing, song, food and other fun things. Good times.
















This is a picture of the outside of our house in Tocumen. We live on the street Aguadulce (sweet water) in the urbanization, La Siesta. Our neighbors here are wonderful and it is one of the safer areas of Tocumen.