the

SHIELDSfamily
March 2017

Third generation missionaries church planting in Panama

www.missionsbeyond.com

When we sent our last newsletter, Ethan had just returned from a hiking trip to the Our newsletter was
village of Cerro Venado. Door to door evangelism is a bit harder than normal when you emailed out today on our
have to hike through mountains just to reach each house! new laptop! The old one
Carlos & Ethan and the group met Carlos and Loida at one of died after eight years of
Loida the first few homes. They then decided to lead Ethan to service. We appreciate the
generosity of Bible
each house and introduce him to the people. Carlos holds Community Church.
the keys to the local school building and said that we We also recently have
could use the building for services any time we want. gained a new supporting
Praise God for open doors! church and an increase in
It is summer time/dry season here in Panama so it support from another
WBS church. God is greatly
has been a flurry of activity lately. VBS is being held
providing for all our needs!
in village after village. Ethan has been preaching
regularly at the church in Piln and in other villages.
He also preached for the regional youth group night and helped with the repairs to
the church building and roof in the village of Tugr. In the next few weeks, Ethan
New will be helping teach a two day seminary class for some of the
stove local pastors. He will be preaching a two day mens meeting too.
Julia
We recently received exciting news about
the land for the hangar!
More details to follow next month!

Pastor Evaristo is the
pastor of the church in
Guayabal, the area Ethan
hiked to in the fall. Pastor
Evaristo told us that his wife,
Maya, was attacked by bees
and subsequently has
asthmatic issues that make
her sensitive to smoke. This is
a big problem when the
family cooks over a wood fire
and has no electricity. But
now through the generosity
of some friends in Texas,
Maya has a new gas stove!
We recently made the six hour trip to Panama City to
pick up our missionary residency visas. Everything was
already approved and we simply had to appear in person
for pictures and signatures. Unfortunately, the immigration
office misspelled our last name and we could not get our
visas. We are still waiting to hear back from them.
Washington Township Baptist Church heard about the
situation and sent some money to help cover our expenses
family
for the next trip. Even better, the youth pastor and his wife
delivered it in person! Marshall and Charlotte Landry
visited for a week and we had a wonderful time. friends
Beths parents also braved language barriers and
international flights to meet Julia and spend time with us.
We all thoroughly enjoyed our time together and look
forward to the next visit!

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Support Address : All Points Baptist Mission PO Box 977 New Philadelphia, OH 44663 | Ethan Shields in memo line