Voices from Panama
David Jeffers: how we came to Panama
5:43
David Jeffers tells how he and Joellen came to Panama. Their move in 2004 and the friendships that followed helped set years of outreach in motion.
Transcript
Read in English
Automatically transcribed from the audio; may contain errors.
it is incredible when I look back. I mean, it's just monstrous how you can see God's hand in.
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.
You know, they basically, you know, wanted to know what seminary school I'd gone to, none.
You know, what training have I had, none.
You know well how many mission trips I've been on none, you know, well, so you see where this is going, you know
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
It just took off like a rocket sled. I mean the needs were huge and
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
We started in another program and we did have family move down for a while and stay with us
You know and Halef and Ron have been coming out every single year
You know that we've been here and that's been just a monstrous support
So anyway, the faith thing is is you could just looking back you can see God's hand
Moving in this and the property that we found we couldn't afford the property
But the guy sitting in the boat next to me, he was going to look at another one and said,
well, I'll buy the other half.
That's just the start of it.
I had to sell my business and my home, and there were one unit, because I was a coffee
roaster on a acreage in Arlington, and I had to sell it without a real estate person,
and so I started just kind of talking word-of-the-mouth, and I told guys that this needs to be in
your will you know so bring me a buyer in 30 days we had three buyers for the
place you know and it just goes on and on I mean because you can my feeling here
is that the whole time I've been here is I've been so busy trying to keep our
head above the water fixing things building things creating things stuff
that you stop and there's this and you see God working all around us you
you know, bringing teams and, or getting to Iran and Aleph here, you know, and that support
that was there that I took for granted, you know, then, but looking back, you know, that's
what helped us survive, you know, for a long time.
Because when we first moved here, you know, we land on this beach and we were met by
six Indians that, you know, we didn't speak their language, we didn't have any water,
we didn't have any shelter, we didn't know if they wanted us here, you know, it
It was pretty intense, you know, and we just left everything.
We'd sold our home, our business, left our family, you know.
What we had was in six plastic totes that were at our feet here, you know.
So, God's been faithful.
And you were in a small group.
Yeah, right. That's where we met Alif and Ron, was in a small group.
And later they told us when they learned, you know, because they were the ultimate missionaries, right?
You know, and they were like, you know, they're true brothers.
They just looked at us and knew we were totally crazy and this was loony and we didn't stand a chance,
but they also knew that God was involved, you know, and thank God God was involved.
Yeah, they acted years later, right?
Yeah, right.
you know and that's the other thing is five years past and the economy shifted
things went really bad for us I mean we ended up losing most of our income in
town we're barely so barely sustaining ourselves we had bought some investment
properties that weren't paying off and this was a great success here but it
was constant the Indians were here all the time we had no privacy we had no you
You know, we tried to create barriers and that didn't work, you know.
Anyway, Joellen had just recovered from dengue and we're just trashed.
And again, through a set of miracles, we were going home for a while, you know.
And then this property sold because Bruce and Donna heard that there was going to be a resort built here.
I don't know where that came from, but God, you know.
And so they bought this property from us.
That gave us enough to re-stabilize it back in the states,
you know, we bought an apartment building.
So the story is that we basically got thrown off a horse.
We weren't going back.
I mean, we weren't going back.
And Alif, he was tenacity, wasn't listening to me,
you know, and I told him no three or four times.
He should have known better, you know.
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
Because you know been back every single year
It's been great. It's been great. Yeah, it could be a little bit hard-headed sometimes.
That's just an understatement. Yeah, but that's that's as great as yeah. Yeah, I won't make you talk anymore.
Oh, right.
Read in Spanish · translation
Draft translation of the automatic transcript; may contain errors.
Es increíble cuando miro atrás. Es decir, es impresionante cómo se puede ver la mano de Dios en todo esto.
Yo no tengo nada de especial. Recuerdo que, al venir aquí, quería vincularme con un grupo y una organización grande.
Básicamente querían saber a qué seminario había ido. A ninguno.
Qué formación tenía. Ninguna.
A cuántos viajes misioneros había ido. A ninguno. Bueno, ya ves por dónde va esto.
Así que vinimos aquí. Nuestro gran plan era simplemente servir al pueblo [nombre poco claro] y averiguar cuáles eran sus necesidades.
Y aquello despegó como un cohete. Las necesidades eran enormes.
Al principio, como dije antes, pasamos tiempo tratando de averiguar qué funcionaría mejor, y cuando algo no funcionaba…
Empezamos otro programa, y una familia se mudó aquí por un tiempo para quedarse con nosotros.
Aleph y Ron han venido todos los años
desde que estamos aquí, y eso ha sido un apoyo enorme.
En cuanto a la fe, al mirar atrás se puede ver la mano de Dios
obrando en todo esto. Encontramos una propiedad que no podíamos pagar.
Pero el hombre que estaba sentado a mi lado en el bote iba a ver otra propiedad y dijo:
«Bueno, yo compraré la otra mitad».
Y eso fue solo el comienzo.
Tuve que vender mi negocio y mi casa, que estaban en el mismo lugar, porque yo tostaba café
en un terreno en Arlington. Tenía que venderlo sin un agente inmobiliario.
Así que empecé a correr la voz, y le dije a Dios: «Esto tiene que estar dentro de
tu voluntad, así que tráeme un comprador». En treinta días tuvimos tres compradores para
el lugar. Y así siguió, una cosa tras otra. Mi sensación aquí
es que, durante todo este tiempo, he estado tan ocupado intentando mantenernos
a flote, arreglando cosas, construyendo, creando, haciendo de todo,
que cuando te detienes ves a Dios trabajando a nuestro alrededor,
trayendo equipos, haciendo que Ron y Aleph vinieran, y todo ese apoyo
que entonces di por sentado. Pero al mirar atrás, eso
fue lo que nos ayudó a salir adelante durante mucho tiempo.
Cuando nos mudamos aquí por primera vez, desembarcamos en esta playa y nos recibieron
seis indígenas. No hablábamos su idioma, no teníamos agua,
no teníamos refugio y no sabíamos si querían que estuviéramos aquí.
Fue bastante intenso. Lo habíamos dejado todo.
Habíamos vendido nuestra casa y nuestro negocio y habíamos dejado a nuestra familia.
Todo lo que teníamos estaba en seis cajas de plástico, aquí a nuestros pies.
Así que Dios ha sido fiel.
Y ustedes estaban en un grupo pequeño.
Sí, así es. Conocimos a Aleph y Ron en un grupo pequeño.
Más adelante nos dijeron, cuando se enteraron, porque ellos eran los misioneros por excelencia, ¿verdad?
Son verdaderos hermanos.
Nos miraron y supieron que estábamos totalmente locos, que esto era una locura y que no teníamos ninguna posibilidad.
Pero también sabían que Dios estaba involucrado, y gracias a Dios que lo estaba.
Sí, [frase poco clara] años después, ¿verdad?
Sí, así es.
Y luego pasaron cinco años y la economía cambió.
Las cosas nos fueron muy mal. Terminamos perdiendo la mayor parte de nuestros ingresos
[palabras poco claras] y apenas podíamos mantenernos. Habíamos comprado algunas propiedades de inversión
que no estaban dando resultado. Aquí todo había sido un gran éxito, pero
era constante. Los vecinos indígenas estaban aquí todo el tiempo y no teníamos privacidad, no teníamos…
Intentamos poner límites, pero no funcionó.
En fin, Joellen acababa de recuperarse del dengue y nosotros estábamos agotados.
Y, otra vez, gracias a una serie de milagros, pudimos volver a casa por un tiempo.
Después vendimos esta propiedad porque Bruce y Donna habían oído que aquí iban a construir un complejo turístico.
No sé de dónde salió aquello, salvo que fue Dios.
Así que nos compraron la propiedad.
Eso nos dio lo suficiente para volver a estabilizarnos en Estados Unidos.
Compramos un edificio de apartamentos.
La historia es que, básicamente, nos habíamos caído del caballo.
No íbamos a volver.
De verdad, no íbamos a volver.
Y Aleph, tan persistente, no me hacía caso.
Le dije que no tres o cuatro veces.
Debería haberlo entendido.
Entonces nos compró los pasajes, y fue fabuloso. Le agradezco muchísimo a Aleph que nos ayudara a volver a montar.
Porque desde entonces hemos regresado todos los años.
Ha sido estupendo, de verdad. Sí, a veces puede ser un poco terco.
Eso se queda corto. Sí, pero eso es lo bueno… [frase poco clara]. Ya no te haré hablar más.
Muy bien.
