My First Five Hours in Panama - July 2012
Panama City, Panama
June 9-16
I
left for a seven day mission’s trip to Panama along with seven others from the
Last Call Ministries. We left Atlanta,
GA, around 5:45pm on Saturday, June 9, and arrived at the Panama Airport around
7:30pm, CT. I found myself separated
from the team and placed under arrest in an immigration holding area around
7:45pm. Welcome to Panama,
Preacher! The problem was that the
country of Panama has an immigration law that says that all passports must have
at three months or more before they expire to enter the country. I had only one month left on my
passport. So I am sitting there with
three other strangers and the police who ignored me. After an hour someone from Delta came to
inform me that I would be leaving on a plane back to Georgia at 7am in the
morning and until then I would be staying where I was-in the immigration
holding area. So I told him that I had
medical issues and that I had not eaten any food in over seven hours. This man seemed unconcerned with my troubles. About 15 minutes after he left I began to
praise Jesus. I decided to trust in the
Lord and not in men. This female Delta
employee came and asked if I needed anything.
I asked her for some food and water to take my medicine with. Then I asked, “Excuse me, Patricia, if you
should die right now do you know if your soul would go to Heaven or Hell.” She paused for about 25 seconds and finally
said, “I would go to Hell probably.” So
I began to witness to her about sin, righteousness and the judgment to come. Right then she made a decision for Christ and
repented of her sins.
So
now friends, I am really having Church, praising the Lord like Paul and Silas
in Acts 16. Then I hear one prisoner tell
another prisoner, “Oh listen. He is calling on his God.” I sang, preached, and praised the Lord to
anyone and everyone within earshot.
Patricia returned with a toasted cheese sandwich and two big bottles of
water. Praise God! Now I could take my meds. She left, but not before she saw how we
praise and give God the glory in the USA.
By
now it is about 11:45pm and I have decided that I am going to try to praise the
Lord until 7am (when I am scheduled to fly home). Then the chief immigration officer shows up
and points to me indicating that I am to follow him. I am thinking that they have gotten tired of
hearing me these last few hours and now I am heading for a place worse than
this. I found out later that the wrist
beads that he was wearing indicated that he was a Cuban witch doctor. As he led me back to the front of the
immigration area, someone else handed me back my passport and pointed to the
front doors to go. Great, I thought to
myself. 12:00 midnight in Panama and I
don’t know who to call or how to locate the mission team. So I started doing the same thing I had been
doing for the last few hours. I walked
to the doors praising Jesus in Spanish (that’s all I know in Spanish). When I got to the doors, there was Josh, a
young man who acted as our interpreter last year and is the head of the Last
Call Ministry. I sure did feel the
Lord’s blessing on me at that moment.
Josh introduced me to the man who Jesus had used to secure my release,
Assistant Pastor Patterson who was also a senator in Panama. He had called and spoken to the National
Immigration Director and requested that I be allowed to stay in the country
with the team to finish my work for the Lord.
Now in Acts, God had sent Paul and Silas an earthquake to set them
free. For me, the earthquake came in the
form of a man named Patterson.
Seven
days later, when I arrived back at the airport to fly home, I see Patricia
again. She is surprised that I had gotten
to stay. I asked her if she was still
trusting in Jesus and she replied, “Yes”.
She sent me an email two days after she made her decision for Christ.
The email subject line simply said, “Jesus in my heart.”
My
faith was tried so hard during this trip, but I heard the Lord speak to me
telling me that I needed to submit to God, resist the devil and he would flee
from me. I saw many miracles on this
trip and when I was being held by immigrations I knew that I had to stay in the
spirit, not the flesh. Halleluiah
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Super Bowl 2012 - February 2012
Indianapolis newspapers said that there were over 140,000
people in town for the Superbowl. Between Friday night and Sunday night I
believe that I saw each one of them. Some maybe twice. The city had
suspended the open container laws (alcohol and beer drinking in public).
I think everyone I saw had a bottle of beer in their hand. One girl was
toting a half full bottle of whiskey. The streets were jammed packed
full of people. It reminded me of Mardi Gras where every other person is
half or fully drunk. At times the streets were so packed nobody moved.
That was just on Friday night. It drizzled all day Saturday, but we were
out on the streets for eight hours despite the rain. Sunday after
attending church service we were back on the streets again. This time
the weather was cool but
dry. We moved as
close to the stadium as possible. The brothers I traveled with were bold for Christ. We passed out hundreds of tracts.
On this trip, five people repented of their sins and turned to Christ. Friday night a mother and daughter, Saturday a woman and a man, and Sunday a young man who was a vender around the stadium. As I was praying with the vender, he shouted out to God, "Thank you Lord for sending this man to me at this time!"
We left just before the game actually started and headed home. Thank you for your support and prayers.
On this trip, five people repented of their sins and turned to Christ. Friday night a mother and daughter, Saturday a woman and a man, and Sunday a young man who was a vender around the stadium. As I was praying with the vender, he shouted out to God, "Thank you Lord for sending this man to me at this time!"
We left just before the game actually started and headed home. Thank you for your support and prayers.
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2011 Ministry Report
January 1, 2012
From the streets of Atlanta
to the hills of Jasper, GA, to a wedding in Kansas City and the jungles of
Panama, glad tidings of Jesus have been proclaimed far and wide. We here at the Gospel Messenger CHURCH are
very excited to report to you that in the year 2011, we have prayed with 421
people the prayer of repentance. As an evangelist, I am so humbled by
this. But at the same time I want to
shout from the rooftops an encouragement to all my brothers and sisters that if
I can do this, then they can too. Praise
the Lord!!!
Thank you for your prayers
and support to this ministry.
Zachary Baxter
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My Missions Trip to Panama - July 2011
I WAS BLESSED TO BE ABLE TO GO WITH THE LAST CALL MINISTRY FOR 7 DAYS TO PANAMA CITY,PANAMA.SAW AND EXPERIENCED
SOME HOLY GHOST ACTION.WE WENT INTO THE JUNGLES OF PANAMA TO VISIT
THE CUNA INDIANS .THERE I SAW 50 PEOPLE REPENT AND TRUST IN JESUS AS
THEIR LORD WOW PRAISE THE LORD.AND WE ALSO WENT AND PREACHED AT
1.WOMAN'S PRISON. 2.TEEN CHALLENGE. 3 HOME FOR ORPHANS. 4. 6 CHURCHES
AND OPEN AIR PREACHING IN DOWNTOWN PANAMA CITY.IT WAS A GREAT TRIP SAW
52 PEOPLE GET SAVED PRAISE THE LORD.SORRY I AM LATE IN POSTING THIS
EVENT I WILL TRY BETTER IN THE FUTURE.
