David Jeffers: how we came to Panama
Automatic audio transcript; may contain errors.

[0:00] it is incredible when I look back. I mean, it's just monstrous how you can see God's hand in.

[0:09] I mean, I'm no special. I mean, I remember coming down here and wanting to connect up with a group and a big organization.

[0:18] You know, they basically, you know, wanted to know what seminary school I'd gone to, none.

[0:23] You know, what training have I had, none.

[0:25] You know well how many mission trips I've been on none, you know, well, so you see where this is going, you know

[0:32] So so we came down here, you know our our big plan was just to serve the Guami people find out what their needs were and

[0:41] It just took off like a rocket sled. I mean the needs were huge and

[0:47] We spent the first, you know like I talked earlier trying to figure out what would work best and you know when things didn't work

[0:53] We started in another program and we did have family move down for a while and stay with us

[1:00] You know and Halef and Ron have been coming out every single year

[1:05] You know that we've been here and that's been just a monstrous support

[1:10] So anyway, the faith thing is is you could just looking back you can see God's hand

[1:16] Moving in this and the property that we found we couldn't afford the property

[1:21] But the guy sitting in the boat next to me, he was going to look at another one and said,

[1:25] well, I'll buy the other half.

[1:28] That's just the start of it.

[1:30] I had to sell my business and my home, and there were one unit, because I was a coffee

[1:36] roaster on a acreage in Arlington, and I had to sell it without a real estate person,

[1:43] and so I started just kind of talking word-of-the-mouth, and I told guys that this needs to be in

[1:50] your will you know so bring me a buyer in 30 days we had three buyers for the

[1:56] place you know and it just goes on and on I mean because you can my feeling here

[2:06] is that the whole time I've been here is I've been so busy trying to keep our

[2:10] head above the water fixing things building things creating things stuff

[2:14] that you stop and there's this and you see God working all around us you

[2:20] you know, bringing teams and, or getting to Iran and Aleph here, you know, and that support

[2:27] that was there that I took for granted, you know, then, but looking back, you know, that's

[2:33] what helped us survive, you know, for a long time.

[2:36] Because when we first moved here, you know, we land on this beach and we were met by

[2:40] six Indians that, you know, we didn't speak their language, we didn't have any water,

[2:45] we didn't have any shelter, we didn't know if they wanted us here, you know, it

[2:49] It was pretty intense, you know, and we just left everything.

[2:54] We'd sold our home, our business, left our family, you know.

[2:58] What we had was in six plastic totes that were at our feet here, you know.

[3:04] So, God's been faithful.

[3:08] And you were in a small group.

[3:10] Yeah, right. That's where we met Alif and Ron, was in a small group.

[3:15] And later they told us when they learned, you know, because they were the ultimate missionaries, right?

[3:22] You know, and they were like, you know, they're true brothers.

[3:26] They just looked at us and knew we were totally crazy and this was loony and we didn't stand a chance,

[3:32] but they also knew that God was involved, you know, and thank God God was involved.

[3:41] Yeah, they acted years later, right?

[3:43] Yeah, right.

[3:44] you know and that's the other thing is five years past and the economy shifted

[3:50] things went really bad for us I mean we ended up losing most of our income in

[3:55] town we're barely so barely sustaining ourselves we had bought some investment

[4:00] properties that weren't paying off and this was a great success here but it

[4:07] was constant the Indians were here all the time we had no privacy we had no you

[4:14] You know, we tried to create barriers and that didn't work, you know.

[4:17] Anyway, Joellen had just recovered from dengue and we're just trashed.

[4:26] And again, through a set of miracles, we were going home for a while, you know.

[4:32] And then this property sold because Bruce and Donna heard that there was going to be a resort built here.

[4:39] I don't know where that came from, but God, you know.

[4:41] And so they bought this property from us.

[4:43] That gave us enough to re-stabilize it back in the states,

[4:47] you know, we bought an apartment building.

[4:50] So the story is that we basically got thrown off a horse.

[4:57] We weren't going back.

[4:58] I mean, we weren't going back.

[5:00] And Alif, he was tenacity, wasn't listening to me,

[5:05] you know, and I told him no three or four times.

[5:10] He should have known better, you know.

[5:12] Then he's got a ticket bought for us and it was fabulous, and I really appreciate ALF for getting us back on the horse

[5:22] Because you know been back every single year

[5:26] It's been great. It's been great. Yeah, it could be a little bit hard-headed sometimes.

[5:33] That's just an understatement. Yeah, but that's that's as great as yeah. Yeah, I won't make you talk anymore.

[5:42] Oh, right.