Two Pastors Desire to Show Young People the Love of Christ and the Gospel by Building Them a Playground
Summer 2022 Update: Jon's recent trip to Central America provided his first opportunity to meet Pastor Ismael Diaz and his wife, Yorleni. This project has been underway for some time, with setbacks from the pandemic and some land development hiccups slowing down progress. The primary building part of the project is complete, with a kitchen and meeting area (in the background below) added on to the apartment building adjacent to the playground area to be developed.
The playground itself, adjacent to the building you see pictured below, needs a significant amount of fill before it can be leveled and have playground equipment installed.
FALL 2021 Update: Midway through the summer months, which is Panama's rainy season, and with work on the playground already in progress, Pastor Abdel Salomon Hay Rios was taken away by COVID-19. However, Pastor Ismael Diaz continues the work.
Current progress in photographs:
Original Post: Pastors Ismael Diaz and Abdel Hay Rios are working together with children who live in the poverty-stricken El Chorrillo neighborhood of Panama City, where more than 500 children live.
Their mission is to bring them to the Lord and disciple them. Currently, these children have no suitable place to play games and entertain themselves.
These pastors, who have been provided a piece of land in the El Chorrillo neighborhood, want to build a playground to provide these little ones with a safe place to have fun.
The neighborhood where Ismael and Abdel serve is adjacent to an area dominated by gang activity, related drug use and a high teen pregnancy rate. It is our hope and belief that through the work of pastors such as Ismael and Abdel, the children who grow up in such an environment can be influenced by the love of Jesus and give their lives to the Lord at an early age.
The plan is to build the playground on the space Pastors Ismael and Abdel were provided, including construction of a blank wall upon which they can project educational films and videos.
Showing the love of Jesus to these children is important in the development of these lives into tomorrow’s teen and adult disciples of Jesus.
Facts about Panama
Population: Four million, half of whom live in country’s capital, Panama City
Casco Viejo, which means “old town” in Spanish, is a neighborhood within Panama City that is a UNESCO World Heritage Site with several old ruins; it is also the first European city built in the Pacific Coast of the Americas in 1519
El Chorrillo, the impoverished neighborhood within Panama City, is next door to Casco Viejo
While Panama is regarded as a high-income economy, it is still home to significant income and resource inequalities
Panama does not have a national law for an overarching child protective system
Jungles cover 40% of Panama’s land area and are home to many tropical plants and animals, some not found anywhere else in the world
FUN FACT: Panama’s highest point in the country, Volcan Baru, is the only place in the world you can see the sun rise on the Atlantic and set on the Pacific
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