Here and Now

So, I see a recurring message in my blogs..."wow, it's been a long time." LOl. I wonder if I will ever be a consistent blogger. It's funny because I always get so frustrated when no one else is blogging! Maybe if I would lead by example?

I'm having a hard time uploading pictures right now, otherwise I would share some funny ones. Go ahead and check out our Picasa site: picasaweb.google.com/jon.heisterkamp. We have been keeping that updated with all of our photos.

Just so you all know, things are going very well here in Panama. I have been traveling a lot lately; but now I don't have to travel for work until April 15. During the time between now and then Heidi and I will be heading to Costa Rica to visit my host family and meet my host brother's new baby boy. He should be born any day now. I will definitely post pictures of that trip.

When we get back from that trip, Emily, Chuck and Allison will be coming to Panama to visit! No one from my family has come to visit us yet in Panama so this is a momentous occassion! (disclaimer: my parents were going to come to Panama in January, but I made them go to Peru instead). It will be a lot of fun to have them here and they can see a glimpse of what life in Panama is like.

I also was approved to go on furlough this summer. So we should be back in the States in time for the White Family Reunion at Camp Okoboji; we will be in the States until the end of July. And if any of you have churches that are looking to support a missionary, we'd love it if you would pass our name along and maybe we could do a presentation during July.

Thanks for reading!

Wow, it's been a long time since I've posted on here. I've wanted to post since I left Caracas in october, but I've just been so busy. And then we went home for Christmas to visit the famliy and I didn't even think of blogging.

So what's been going on since October? Well, I was in Peru doing some research with a team of 5 and planning out a mission trip that I will be leading starting this coming friday! My parents and their church are coming to Peru to help with some earthquake clean-up that is still left to do from the 7.6 richter scale quake that happened in August. Then I went to the Dominican Republic--on the way home from there I got sick. Must have been too much air time or something? I had a small cold, a sniffle before I left, but then my ears didn't pop when we were landing and I couldn't hear out of my left ear for almost a week. I was stuffed up, sneezy, runny nose, coughing and sore throat all through our time back in the states visiting our families, but now that we are back in Panama, I'm feeling a lot better.

I have to say that we are experiencing a little bit of culture shock this time around. Panama is very well developed country compared to most Latin American countries, but we've had a hard time adjusting to the way the medical system works here. The doctors may speak english but they don't show that they really care about you as a patient. I'll admit that we've only really had a few bad experiences with one or two doctors, so my ranting isn't fully credible. I just wanted to share that in our circumstances the two or three experiences we've had with doctors here in Panama have not been pleasant. Also, because our insurance is US based we have to pay everything upfront and then get reimbursed by filing a claim with our insurance company. I knew about this policy before we came to Panama, and I understand, but it's just another thing for me to worry about getting done. It sure would be nice if our company could get directly billed rather than me having to fill out a bunch of paper work!

Work is going well. I've been very busy with budgets and planning since we've been back home in Panama. In November I was budgeting for the next fiscal year which starts July 1, and we were planning for a pretty aggressive increase to the budget. But now I have to prepared for budget cuts during this fiscal year, because funding isn't coming in at the rate we need it to. So if you have an extra $1 send it in to LCMS World Mission!

Alright, I think this blog is long enough. I'll try to keep on top of things and write more soon! Remember...You're blessed to be a blessing!

Beautiful View in Caracas Venezuela

Here I am in Caracas, Venezuela. What do you think when you here the word "Caracas"? Do you think of poverty? Hugo Chavez? Socialism? This is only my second time to Venezuela, and I have to admit that I was a bit nervous/scared to travel here because of the "politcal issues" and the danger to American Citizens, due to anti-American sentiment, but so far I've had a positive experience. Granted I've been stuck in an office to this point in the trip reviewing expenses and dealing with property issues. But tomorrow night I will be travelling to Maturin, Venezuela to visit with National Church leaders and attend a church inaguaration on Sunday. I am looking forward to experiencing the more rural side of Venezuela. Even though we will be staying in a hotel in the city of Maturin, I will hopefully be able to visit a farm project where a LCMS missionary couple is working.

I'm staying at the mission office right now, which is also the house of Missionary Pastor Ted Krey. Pictured here:

I'm just getting to know Pastor Ted, but I think he is a good guy. He works really hard training young men to become missionary pastors. I met some of them the other night while eating homemade Hawaiian Pizza. We dug into God's Word and had great fellowship. A fun time was had by all.

Even though, things are going well here in Caracas, Heidi got sick the night that I left and went to the emergency room with a really severe headache. They gave her a morphine shot to take away the pain, and I told she had to stay home from work yesterday, which she did. From what I can tell when we spoke on the phone, she is feeling a lot better. I have to say I was a little upset that I was traveling when this happened. I wanted to be there for her. But our fellow missionaries in Panama, Arthur and Eva and Carissa took care of her. Thank you! I go back home on Wednesday, so I have a while before I get to see my family (Heidi and Sophie) again. Here is a picture so you can remember them too:

I will write more when I'm in Maturin, if internet is available! I hope you all have a blessed day!