UUMC Panama Mission 2007
This will be the 12th consecutive year that University United Methodist Church will send a mission team to Panama and the seventh year we will work in Chiriqui Province, where we provide medical and construction assistance in support of the Methodist Church in Panama - Iglesia Evangelica Metodista de Panamá (IEMPA). While in Panama, we will be working to support activities through the office of the IEMPA Bishop in Panama City and will be supported in the United States by the United Methodist Volunteers in Mission.
The team will work in the communities of Bongo and Jacú and we will stay in a Methodist Church complex, called “Volcan Camp” in the town of Volcan, some 30 miles or so up the mountain from the Inter-American Highway. Volcan is located on the slopes of Volcan Barú, an extinct volcano in western Panama near the border with Costa Rica (see map). Bongo is located down the mountain from Volcan close to the town of Concepcion, which is on the Inter-American Highway. Jacú is located approximately 20 miles east of Concepcion, near the Inter-American Highway, and very close to the Costa Rican border.
Purpose
The purpose of this trip is to provide clinical screening services to the community of Bongo and surrounding areas, and to assist in construction and maintenance of the church in Jacú. Specifically, we will work in a Panamanian Ministry of Health clinic in the upland rural community of Bongo and continue construction of the Methodist church and a house in the coastal plain community of Jacú. We have also been asked to help construct a new house for a family in the community of Jacú to replace their present wooden house which has served well as a source of food for termites.
