CBA was one of the special stepping stones God has used in my journey through life. The desire to serve God in some full-time occupation continued to increase though the two years I was able to attend CBA. Since I wasn’t a dorm kid, I know I missed out on a lot of the excitement others of you had, but I have special memories of many other events. Choir and triple trio practice, programs and trips were high lights, as well as the Junior and Senior plays. The Christian faculty also influenced me to continue my walk with the Lord and later attend a Christian college. Grace College of the Bible, now Grace University, in Omaha, Nebraska, was my next stepping stone. For three years I did have the opportunity to learn a lot about dorm life! It was great living in “old main” as well as studying the Bible. I was also privileged to be part of the Grace Choral, so again music and tours were special events. Of course, meeting my husband, Eugene, was another very important step in my life. I believe it was the first or second day at Grace that we met. Being from the farm at Hooker, Oklahoma, where you just pull so your mail box opens, hadn’t prepared me for the complicated dials on our mail boxes at college…. but Eugene came to my rescue and showed me how they function! Soon after that we began to date. I majored in Bible with a minor in Christian Education and Eugene was a mission’s major with music minor. When Eugene told me he was interested in going to some foreign mission field, I felt that God was using this as another step in His call upon my life. During my Junior year, Eugene went to LeTouneau College in Longview, Texas, to get a degree in missionary technology, and at Thanksgiving we were engaged. Our wedding was July 22, 1972, so I was a married student for the last year at Grace. It was a fun, but busy year with studies, having single college friends over for meals, as well as choosing a mission board. We chose Gospel Missionary Union (now Avant Ministries) as our sending agent, but we had no idea where God wanted us to minister. Eugene was interested in doing more of a support ministry and Panama needed a maintenance man for their campgrounds, as well as host and hostess for the mission’s small guesthouse. After candidate school in Kansas City, Missouri during the summer of 1973, God provided friends, family and several churches to take on our financial and prayer support. We were off to language school in Edinburg, Texas, by January, 1974. Rio Grande Bible Institute is both a language school for missionaries, as well as a seminary for Latin students, so we were back in a Bible school setting. Learning Spanish was our main job, but we found time to entertain lots of Latin American students and loved them, their music, food and dedication to the Lord. We also had great missionary neighbors who are still some of our best friends and supporters. During our summer break, we took a bus to Mexico City and then flew to Panama. It was so special to see where we would live and work and get acquainted with the country and people those months. We drove back to Texas in our new 1974 Toyota pickup, studied another semester and again traveled the Pan American highway back to Panama in February, 1975. Our little Toyota pick up and we have been serving here in Panama ever since! I tell people that if Eugene gets “promoted to heaven first”, I may bury him in that pickup!! Our principle ministry has been to administrate and maintain Camp El Amanecer (Sunrise Camp) for the past 29 years. Few missionaries are able to live in the same house for as many years as we have! The main disadvantage is that we haven’t tossed things like you would if you move every several years! The camp is located 15 miles west of Panama City and has 75 beds, with 2 duplex dorms for men and one large dorm for women, a large kitchen and dining area, an open air chapel, swimming pool, basketball/volleyball court and large open areas for soccer, etc. We also have a three-bedroom guest house (please let us host you here soon!) and several homes here on the 7-acre property. GMU came to Panama in 1953 and purchased this property several months later, so it has a very special place in the memories and lives of many missionaries as well as nationals. Many have made decisions for Christ here at camp El Amanecer. Besides the administration and endless maintenance worked involved in a tropical country with 80 inches of rain per year (the humidity rarely drops below 80%) and stubborn termites, we have been involved in many other areas of ministry. This has included being youth sponsors, Sunday school teachers, helping with music and serving on the governing council at Templo Biblico Ebenezer, our home church here in Panama. Eugene is a member of the national camp committee and I serve on the Christian Ed. Committee, which involves ordering DVBS and Sunday school materials, giving teacher training courses to new Sunday school teachers and helping with seminars and retreats. Eugene enjoys showing videos on the big screen in any church or school that invites him. He is also the mission’s treasurer and field director at present. Through out the years, we have had numerous work teams as well as individual summer workers from the U.S. and Canada help us. We usually do the major part of the work it takes to organize these groups. Personally, I enjoy being hostess very much and like to have company. Somehow I have gotten myself into baking many cakes for various occasions. Usually they are simple, but I have made several for 15th birthday parties, weddings, etc. I enjoy reading and cross stitch projects, but most of that takes place on home assignment (furlough). Although many things and activities seem to repeat themselves in our lives, there have been several events we will never forget. During the first years in Panama, there was tension over the Panama Canal, and then the Torrijos/Carter Treaty was signed. After that, the property of the Canal Zone and the Panama Canal were gradually turned over to Panama. We also lived through the years of the Noriega dictatorship and the U.S. invasion of Panama in 1989. Those were very tense days, but the Lord continually protected and we have never felt strong anti U.S. feelings directed towards us personally. Last January our mission celebrated its 50th anniversary of work in Panama. Eugene and I had the major part of planning and carrying out the 3-day celebrations with former missionaries who returned to Panama, the national pastors and the national churches. It was a big task but very rewarding. The greatest joy we have experienced in these years is when we have the honor of leading someone to Christ, or when we see the changes He is making in the lives of Panamanians as they turn the control of their lives over to the Lord! God has blessed us with two precious children. Alicia Dawn was born in 1977 and Robert Anthony in 1979 here in Panama. Both have dual citizenship, which has been a plus when it came to paperwork! Both received Christ as their Savior on Thanksgiving Day (but different years) – isn’t that something to be thankful for?! I am not a home-school mom, but God provided Christian schools for our children to attend here in Panama. Later both attended Grace University in Omaha. Alicia graduated in 1999 from the cross culture ministries program (during which time she spent 6 months in Mail, Africa), worked for a year in Omaha, and then served in Avant’s media center in Malaga, Spain. The center provides correspondence courses for the Arabic world, and prepares radio and T.V. programs. Alicia was the treasurer. After her 2 year term was over, she decided to return to Spain under Avant Ministries, but on loan to Agape Spain (Campus Crusade). At present she is in Malaga working with university students. Robert finished the two-year Bible certificate program at Grace, and at present works full time nights for a professional cleaning business in Omaha and attends UNO (University of Nebraska at Omaha) several nights a week, working towards his CPA. Special family trips though the years have made for great memories. Those have included Orlando, Florida; Eleuthera, Bahamas; Washington, DC, and last year to Spain, the Rock of Gibraltar, Morocco and London. My parents retired from the farm at Hooker around 10 years ago, and now live in Weatherford, Oklahoma. We miss spending more time at Hooker, but are glad that they are near my brothers and still keep very active. I would love to see each of you at the 35th reunion, but this isn’t our furlough year! I am very thankful to Orel, Susan and others of you who arranged a small reunion at the Italian Restaurant in Oklahoma City some years ago, and also for changing the date of the 30th reunion, so Eugene and I could be with you. It was also a joy to see some of you briefly at the 100th anniversary this past September in Corn! God bless and honor each of you as you seek to honor Him. Hebrews 13:20 and 21 have become very meaningful to me recently. “Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.” Wynette "Balzer" Kliewer - 2004