Lasting Impact

The following story comes from the wife of a police officer that attended the 2011 Panama Police project:

“The impact of the trip to Panama still really leaves me in awe of the ways God works in lives.The “lasting Impact” of the trip is in some ways is really hard to articulate. As we made the decision to go to Panama & developed our presentations we were very focused on what we believed God had been preparing us for several years. The journey of God preparing us is a very long story. I will try to summarize.

1. Speak into peoples lives by identifying their felt need. For us this was through our lived experience as a police officer & a spouse of a police officer for 37 yrs. We asked God for wisdom & discernment to clearly articulate the unique challenges that marriages & families face in the police world and resulting “felt needs”, by telling our journey & how we have faced these challenges.
2. God uses ordinary people. It was an amazing process as God gave us insight to clearly identify the unique challenges (for relationships) that are universally understood in the police world, the importance of awareness of these challenges & how to share our journey weaving in God’s blueprint for marriage. We had an amazing group of like minded very gifted people offer to work with us through this process. What a blessing! We felt inadequate for the task and yet God walked with us & had been preparing us every step of the way.
3. Be faithful, persevere & trust in God’s timing & the journey of preparation He has for us. The opening comments of our talk I said “Unfortunately we do not speak Spanish, but I think you will find that we speak the same language when it comes to understanding of the unique challenges that police marriages & families face. The response following our talk was way beyond what we could ever have imagined. God showed us in incredible ways that our job is to “trust & obey. Obey by preparing well for what He asks us to do and then trust Him with the results!

We are still processing all that this trip meant for us and what the future holds as a result. We regularly have experiences that keep us very much aware of the needs in police marriages and the passion that God has places in both of our hearts to care for police families & marriages.
Not sure if this answers your questions.

I would like to what pieces of this you would use and how you will use it.
Thank-you again for your encouragement & support for us to go on this amazing trip!”