The July special offering will go to Mission Panama, which is a GBGM (General Board of Global Ministries) mission in central Panama. First Church has sent medical mission teams there the last two years and in 2019. Last year, our team saw and treated over 550 patients. Mission Panama has two in-country Methodist missionaries, David and Cindy Ceballos, who among other work coordinate all the mission teams coming there. In congregate, these mission teams provide medical, dental, and vision services, construction services for churches and homes, and Christian programming for children. A new project this year that Mission Panama is taking on in its service area is the building of a bridge across the Bulaba River. Schoolchildren must cross this river every school day, and just in the last year, eight schoolchildren have drowned trying to cross that river. I, Jim Michel, have led the three mission teams to go there, and I endorse Mission Panama as a very worthwhile mission organization for this special offering.
