Soto Family Ministry Update - September 2022

 

Hola!  We hope this letter finds you all well!

Here is our latest Soto Family Update, to let you know some of what we have been up to here! 

We sure have been keeping busy here with ministry, work, and school!  The kids recently finished their 2nd trimester of their school year.  Wow, time sure does fly!  I seriously think every day flies by faster than the days before.  🤦🏽‍♀️ The kids seem to be growing up so fast!  😭  Slow down time!!

After over 2 years, we were finally able to safely receive 3 Work & Witness teams since the pandemic began.  It has been so nice being able to serve alongside teams again! 

 

In June we thoroughly enjoyed our time with our Flint Central team.  This team focused on Youth Outreach and it was wonderful to see our dear neighbor youth/friends and others  interact with them through different  activities, like basketball, soccer, and working together at the Stoker Family Care project site in Tocumen.  They were without a doubt a blessing to us all here!  

 

Shortly after, we received our Joplin/Kansas district team.  Talk about hard workers!  We were able to work together on the Stoker Family Care project.  During their time here, we also enjoyed a Father’s Day activity we had planned for our dear neighbors.  We played father/son games together, the team shared testimonies, they prayed for the fathers and families of our neighborhood, and then we showed the movie “I Can Only Imagine” on the big screen at our community soccer field where the event was held.  It was such a special time!

At the end of July we received our awesome team from Hilliard, OH, which was made up of mostly youth.

Because our kids were on a 2 week vacation from school, we were able to join the team the entire time as a family!  I can’t tell you how nice and  encouraging it was to see our teenage daughter spend so much time with other Christian teens and having such good time!  Also Beban and Rosey met new friends and thoroughly enjoyed their time working at the project!  They loved digging in the dirt, painting, and sifting sand.  And Tammy most definitely enjoyed her English chatting time with the moms on the team!  😁 

                            

 

Due to the protests going on here in Panama at the time, we were not able to leave the city to work on the Tinajas Church project until a few days later than planned.  But God knows what is best!  The days that we were still here in the city, we had the opportunity to  get our dear teen neighbors (many of which are Lanny’s classmates) involved with the youth from the team and share games, testimonies, pizza, and of course work days together at the Stoker Family Care project.  Everyone enjoyed our time together!  Once the highways opened up, we were able to safely make our way to Chiriqui, over 6.5 hours away, to share time and work with the amazing church members of the Tinajas Church.  What a blessed time we had!  And the ladies sure fed us well!  😋 

            

The first evening in Chiriqui, we split up into groups and attended small group services in different homes.  This was a humbling and touching time.  On that Saturday evening there was a youth service we all attended.  It was a fun and special time for sure, with a special dance included!  

Our days were spent working on the project and also building relationships between the church and team members.  Remember, it’s “Work AND Witness.”  In our opinion, the “Witness” being the most important.  On Sunday we participated in a special baptism service in the local river and then shared pool time, pizza, and worship time with the church and team.  A great time was had by all!

Rosey met a special friend named Avery on the team.  It was so cute to watch them work and hang out together and also to see the love Avery showed to our precious Rosey.  We miss you Avery! 

Tammy continues her work as the NMI Coordinator for the Meso Central Field.  On March 27th, we organized and held a FB Live NMI service with the emphasis on “The Called.”  We included many missionary friend’s testimonies and also Lanny helped us make a video with focus on this emphasis.  She did a great job and we are proud of her!   You can check out the video at the end of our update.  In mid July, we held a special training for the Area’s district NMI presidents via Zoom, and that was a good time!

                                         

Eliezel spends many hours a week working at the Stoker Family Care project in Tocumen.  Our dream is coming true to have a facility where families can go to receive mental health help/counseling, medical care, music lessons, vocational education, and to have a sports outreach program as well.  It will definitely take a lot of time and finances to complete, but we have faith that God will provide!  To see this work begin, is such an encouraging answer to prayer!

Of course there are always emails, meetings, planning, etc that also keep us busy!  God is always faithful to help us in it all!  So we have certainly been busy here, but we are good!  

We are thoroughly enjoying or sweet pug puppy Emma Grace who joined our family back in April. She is 8 months old now and she couldn’t be more sweet or cuddly! 

In July we were able to get away as a family and spend a few days at a beach not far from the city.  Even missionaries need to get away every now and then!  😁   It was a very nice, relaxing, and much needed time away as a family, including Emma!

As always, we are so thankful for all of your support, both prayerfully and financially!  We certainly could not do what we do here without your support!

May God continue to bless you and yours!

La Familia Soto

Eliezel & Tammy

Lanny, Esteban & Rosey

If you feel led to support our family ministry here in Panama, here’s the link to donate:

https://give.nazarene.org/pledge/sotofamily

Soto Family Prayer requests:

-That we will always be the spouses and parents the Lord wants us to be.  

-That we do our best to lead and teach our children about Jesus.

-For our family, that the Lord will always protect us spiritually, mentally, and physically.

-We have a burden for our neighbors.  Please help us to pray for wisdom and direction with ways to minister to them.

-For our upcoming Deputation Tour plans this coming winter.

-That the Lord would give us wisdom, protection, and provision for all of the upcoming events and ministry trips we need to do throughout the next year.

-For the Lord to lead, make possible, and provide for Lanny to attend a Nazarene University in the US as she will be graduating high school in December 2023.

-We are very excited to start work at the new Stoker’s Family Care project, please pray that the Lord continues to open the doors and provide the funds we need for this project and that more teams will come and help.

-For the church in Panama, that God continues to bring a revival and a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit. 

 

The Call with Elianny