Meet the Guna-Yala
“[You, Jesus] . . . have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation.” (Rev. 5:9 NKJV)
THE VENUE
Situated along the Caribbean side of Panamá lies the Guna-Yala Comarca. This Comarca is comprised of 365 islands, 49 of which have “communities,” and on those islands live approximately 101,000 Guna-Yala. While five communities reside on the mainland, the majority of the Guna-Yala live on these islands and travel to and from the mainland via small boats. According to the Joshua Project 5-10% are Christian and 2-5% are Evangelical.
How can we take the Gospel to this marginalized people group?
THE APPROACH
Christianity Ministries, Inc. has been granted the unique opportunity to present the Gospel to the Guna-Yala. While entry into the Guna-Yala Comarca is restricted, via permission from the Caciques (tribal chiefs) as well as MEDUCA (Panamá Ministry of Education), we have been handed an open door of opportunity. To optimize space, most schools in Panamá have two sessions, a morning session with a group of students, and an afternoon session with a completely different group of students.
1. During the day we invite the people who live on the surrounding islands to assemble on the closest “community” island where their children attend school. There, we will demonstrate how a simple water filter can take the water that they collect for drinking water and make it potable. We call this our Buckets of Living Water initiative and it is a powerful way to present the Gospel to those who do not know Christ as their personal Savior.
If you are not familiar with this initiative
2. Concurrently, our team of children’s workers present a VBS-style presentation to both the morning and afternoon sessions via:
a) The Wordless Book,
b) Bible stories,
c) character stories,
d) puppets,
e) crafts, and
f) snacks.
An invitation is given at the end of each presentation.
If you are not familiar with how our Children Lead the Way initiative works
3. we invite the entire village back to the school at night where we set up and present “The Jesus Film” dubbed in the Guna language. We call this our Projecting the Gospel initiative. As you can readily see, it’s a full day of saturating the community with the Gospel.
THE MISSING INGREDIENT – YOU!
What are you waiting for? The captain of our little boat has arrived. We’re waiting on you to climb aboard so that we can go! There are 49 stops to make and 101,000 Guna-Yala who are waiting to hear the Gospel. Are you on board? With your help we can make it happen!
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