A Partnership I Was Reluctant to Embrace

My husband, Mark, and I sat entertained as EFCA missionaries for GlobalFingerprints in Panama, Matt and Angie Johnson, chatted with us on a video call. We listened as they described their local church and the toucans and sloths they sometimes spotted in trees along the road. Mark and I’d been included in the call mostly for our commitment to missions, but also for my Spanish-speaking skills. I didn’t understand much about GlobalFingerprints and how the Johnsons served, but they seemed like people we wanted to know. 

“Would you consider going to Panama if Hope Church took a trip?” our local pastor in Iowa had asked. Maybe, I thought. But Panama seemed a little out of my comfort zone. Were the tropical forests filled with poisonous snakes? Could you drink the water there? I didn’t know, but when COVID paused international travel, I soon forgot all about Panama. 

After travel bans lifted, core leaders from our church visited Panama to form a partnership with a small church Matt and Angie helped plant alongside GlobalFingerprints. Hope staff returned, brimming with affection for Panama and its people. I watched their trip summarized in a video but wondered, what could this tiny church supply to our church to ensure a healthy partnership?  

A growth spurt 

Meanwhile, in a little mountain village, with the help of Matt and Angie and GlobalFingerprints, a community of Christ-followers gathered in a local church that began with three people and grew to include 60. Here was a chance for our church to encourage them as they thrived. Soon after, Hope Church launched the opportunity to sponsor a child—to help fund a child’s health and wellbeing through GlobalFingerprints.  

Forty-one children needed sponsorship and Hope families responded quickly. For those who hung their child photo on their fridge and exchanged letters and cards, Panama became more than just the name of a country on a map. 

A connection 

The connections only grew deeper. In the church café, a staff member hung a wooden map of Panama, commemorating the partnership. In addition, Hope Church helped raise money to build a concrete floor so the church in Panama might have their own café area. Simple fundraising began during our Vacation Bible School week, and the kids, delighted, brought in quarters and dimes to contribute. 

What especially drew the children at Hope to feel connected was the VBS craft—a picture-holder made from concrete with a paperclip, propping up a tiny photo of smiling Panamanian children standing by their tiny church. This building, of rough stucco with a tile roof edged by palm and banana-leaf trees, was now familiar to Hope families.  

At this point, I'd stopped considering traveling to Panama. Others from church had taken an interest, and my Spanish-speaking skills were rusty. But then my husband, Mark, jumped at the chance to go. 

A friendship 

Six months later, Mark prepared for his first mission trip to travel with the fourth group to visit Panama. A team of seven people rode three hours in the church van on a winding, snow-crusted road to fly out of Chicago. The van didn’t have snow tires, didn’t have all-wheel-drive, and I was apprehensive to share Mark with Panama. The sending felt risky. Unnecessary. Extravagant. 

But in times of desperate worrying, the Holy Spirit reminds us of the good news to which we are called. We are called to love and serve others because God loved us first (1 John 4:9-10, 19).  

The Panama church lavished hospitality onto Mark and the Iowa team. A volunteer cook served beef stews and lentils, full lunches each day, to thank them for leading a VBS program for their youth. The VBS children had practiced and sang “The Blessing” in English upon their arrival. Many of these children had walked a mile in tropical humidity just to participate. 

One local family gave their harvest of mandarins from a backyard tree as a thank-you gift. Matt and Angie, along with the local pastor, Ulises, and his wife, spent the days with the Iowa team, sharing stories after lunch. They reclined in hammocks and sat in chairs on the concrete patio, built three months ago, funded by both churches. 

Each afternoon, Mark helped with church-building improvements. While mixing mortar to stack concrete blocks for a wall, a local man, Ariel, taught Mark how to use local tooling for construction projects. The four days they worked together, Ariel and Mark lifted bricks onto metal rebar to form additional rooms onto the church building.  

Meanwhile, the two men formed a friendship. Mark says Ariel’s joy spilled out when speaking of his family, his church, his community, drawing them to share conversations even though they had to use hand motions and Google translate to communicate. Mark and Ariel have stayed in touch. They send messages across 3,000 miles, furthering a friendship that transcends hometowns and thrives on an identity found in Jesus. 

A healthy partnership 

When people from Hope talk about the mountain village in Panama, I see in their faces how a healthy partnership has formed. A shared camaraderie of two cultures expands as more visits continue. But what about the rest of us? 

I would love for Ulises and Alma or Matt and Angie to visit us in Iowa. To hear them speak about Jesus and the growth of their Panama church. But for now, I recognize a growing partnership with Panama in my own heart as Mark and I cook a Panamanian recipe—beef stew with lentils—and Mark texts a picture to Ariel, who sends back a short video clip of him and his wife.  

The healthy partnership shows up locally when I hear church staff say, “We know Ulises and Alma certainly pray for Hope Church Dubuque” and how this might spur us to pray for their growing community. The partnership takes root visibly in the handmade gifts that multiply and hang next to the wooden map of Panama in the church café. 

I’d like to visit Panama someday too. Retracing details from this story helped me acknowledge steps that built the healthy partnership, and how my hesitation underestimated the gospel working in and through believers and churches that Christ loves. 

Whether it’s fear of the unknown or fear of the cost, barriers and objections crumble when we remember the goodness and vastness of God. A cross-cultural partnership may display God’s glory and draw people to him while also bolstering the faith of those in both communities. EFCA churches across the U.S. should consider how they might participate.  

Spurred by God’s grace, Hope Church sought out a place for our community to form a relationship, knowing it would be a process for affection and unity to be established. Perhaps the people in the small mountain village felt reservation at being paired with us. But this partnership spurs both our faith and theirs as we endeavor to live for the same Jesus we love.