Salt Creek Outreach - Bocas del Toro Region

We had been in the Bocas Region for a few days working with the Kapsar Family at the YWAM Base on the isle de Bastimentos. Sunday we got situated, then Monday and Tuesday it rained hard so we did some excavating and poured half of the basement floor at the ywam base (all work done by hand - including mixing the concrete!). Wednesday we did most of the work on installing the water system at a neighboring village and we had plans to go back the next day, but the weather turned beautiful so we all hopped in the Kapsar's Panga Boat and headed out to the eastern end of Bastimentos.We stopped for gas along the way, the guy siphoned the gas out of 55 gallon drums into 5 gallon buckets, then used a smaller bucket to ladle the gas into our gas tanks - something else! Then across the bay and into the mangroves. Salt Creek was pretty big in comparison to some of the other villages we had seen. It was spread out over several hundred acres with a school in the center of it all. First we talked to a local Pastor and prayed for his eye - which was badly infected. He suggested with take the children's coloring books and Bible story books to the School and see if the teacher would give them out to the students. The local school serves children up to 8th grade and had 175 students.

On the way to the school we stopped by a local craft shop where we found two men having a bible study. Another gringo (he was a property manager of some vacation homes in the area) had come by the village and was sharing with the local artisan about Jesus. We chatted a bit and went on to the school. When we arrived, most of the kids were gone but we talked to one teacher and the principal who assured us that the materials we had brought would be given to the children.

On the way back to the base several of our group went snorkeling, Andrew even tried his hand at spearfishing but we had to settle for buying a few small lobsters to augment our dinner fare! The local folks had been very friendly, they seem to be a happy people for the most part. We all agreed that we would like to come back to Salt Creek again when we were in the area.

Check out the Kim and Dale Kapsar's blog - http://www.agapeinpanama.blogspot.com/

Check out this video of the Salt Creek Outreach: