Simon and Lavonne Challinor Serving the Lord in Panama among the Naso people 
This past weekend I ran in a half marathon (13.1 miles) along with my sister-in-law and two friends who are students here in the Missionary Training Center in Durham, Ontario. We started training back in February even though the weather was often very unfavorable. Because we ran so early in the morning, if it had snowed the previous night the sidewalks would still not be shoveled. Initially, the hardest part was just getting out of bed in the morning to meet my running partners.
After training for 12 weeks the race day finally arrived. We left home very early in order to arrive with time to pick up our registration packets, attach timing chips to our shoes, and figure out where we needed to be when the race began. As we waited for the start signal so many emotions went through me; nervousness, excitement, anticipation, fear, and a bit of amazement that the day had finally arrived.
When the horn blasted to begin the race I was pushed forward by a mob of other runners. The pace was fast, but excitement and adrenalin kept me moving. Initially, I lost track of my running partners in the hundreds of other runners. As the miles passed though, the initial excitement and adrenalin rush slowed down, and the middle miles became a matter of just putting one foot in front of the other and keep moving forward one step at a time. Eventually, I found my running partners, and we encouraged each other to keep going. Along the way spectators cheered us on. Other runners passed us, but we had to set our own pace and keep moving forward. As we neared the finish line we could see our families cheering us and that gave us our final boost to quicken our pace and cross the finish line strong.
As I thought about running the half marathon, it reminded me somewhat of our years with the Naso people. I vividly remember the excitement, nervousness, fear, and anticipation before we moved into the village to begin the Naso work. Simon and I had completed our missionary training, finished Spanish study, and then felt God leading us to work with the Naso people. We prayed, planned, and packed in order to move into the village. In the beginning everything was very exciting and fast paced. It was very demanding physically, spiritually, and emotionally as we studied culture and language, raised our family, and continually tried to build relationships with the Naso people.
As the days, months, and then years passed, we entered into what I would call the “middle miles” of our ministry with Naso which is where we still are today. We have a strategy ( finish line) we are working towards, and we need to keep “putting one foot in front of the other” to see it accomplished. Often it feels like we are not moving ahead very quickly and it is easy to get discouraged, but unless we run the “middle miles” we cannot cross the finish line. Please pray for perseverance as we go back to Panama this summer and continue living and ministering among the Naso people. We want to see the believers grounded in God’s Word as well as more people come to understand God’s plan of salvation.
As a side note, I would like to mention that our co-workers, Andy and Lori Keener (Wycliffe) are almost to the finish line in their “race” to see the Naso Bible translation completed. They have run the “middle miles” well and will soon cross the finish line strong. Please pray for them.
