Get me out of here!
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If she’d had a radio to call for a plane, Sharon Goodman would have been out of that Kuna village in a heartbeat. She would have left the thatch-roofed hut with the dirt floor, the naked tribal children, the dug-out canoes, the muddy river and the boisterous women in colorful, hand-stitched blouses.
And Sharon had many good reasons.
Privacy isn’t valued among the Kunas, so the people "visited" and watched Sharon and her husband, Joe, night and day. Language learning was harder and taking much more time than they had ever dreamed.
A handful of tribal men wanted to force the missionaries out of the village, so for days the villagers heatedly discussed this, finally resolving the issue with a village-wide vote in favor of keeping the missionaries.
But then their ministry partners left the tribal work. Following that, Joe dealt with hepatitis for three months. Sharon missed her oldest child, who was boarding at the mission’s elementary school far away. And she had her hands full in the village with a preschooler, a toddler and a new baby.
Surrounded by the ever-present Kuna people -- but still only able to speak and understand their language like a child -- Sharon was lonelier than she’d ever been.
Yes, if she’d had a radio, she would have packed up her children and flown away. But the Panamanian government wouldn’t allow them to have a radio, and the next plane wasn’t due for weeks. She was stuck there in that village.
But even in their darkest moments, the Goodmans knew God had led them to Panama and the Kuna people. The Lord has closed doors on other ministry opportunities that had seemed available to them, yet opened the door to them to work among the Kunas. And when missionaries from other organizations wanted to work there, God put obstacles in their way.
"While we didn’t know if there would ever be any believers, we knew that God had put us there and hadn’t told us to leave," she said.
Yet that didn’t guarantee smooth sailing.
Language learning happened in starts and stops. Work was delayed by Joe’s hepatitis, bouts of giardia (from contaminated drinking water) and a life-threatening blood platelet problem for Sharon. Trips to the city for doctor’s appointments, handling of paperwork, or to visit with their son at school, though all necessary and good, also slowed progress.
"We went in with such high hopes . . . and it was way different, slower, longer," Sharon recalls.
Four years later, it was time for the Goodmans first home assignment in the USA. By now they knew the Kuna language, but the Bible teaching hadn’t begun yet. Sharon remembers feeling like they were, "limping home from the battle with nothing to show for it."
But the beginning of the Goodmans’ second term was more encouraging. They lived in a wooden house by the airstrip, instead of in a pole hut in the village with constant "peekers." Another NTM missionary family, Jerry and Joyce McDaniels, were their co-workers in the village. Sharon and Joe could now understand and speak the language more proficiently. And they had good relationships with many of the Kuna people.
Finally, near the end of 1987, after more than six years of living in the Kuna village, Joe practiced evangelistic Bible lessons with his two best tribal friends. They listened and the Holy Spirit worked in their hearts. Both of the men accepted Christ. After all the long years of studying and praying and building relationships, after all the days of loneliness and frustration and sickness, the work had paid off. Two Kuna men had believed. Now Joe was ready to begin teaching the entire village.
But that went slowly as well.
Whenever the village leaders called a business meeting or work project or their own religious meeting, Bible teaching was postponed. When Joe did resume teaching, he had to review what he had already taught. Both the teaching and reviewing had to be done very carefully because the Kuna people had never learned in a formal, traditional way before. So he taught slowly off and on, as the village schedule allowed, all that year and into the next.
But the Goodmans reminded themselves that God had brought them to Panama and that every detail would work out in His timing, not theirs.
Then in the spring of 1989, Joe and Sharon moved out to the city temporarily to help with NTM leadership needs. Joe continued to write Bible lessons in Kuna and send them back to the tribe in the same plane with the McDaniels’ groceries. Then Jerry would teach them.
Finally, in the summer of 1989, while the Goodmans were still away in the city, Jerry completed evangelistic Bible teaching and about a dozen Kuna men believed and were saved.
Joe and Sharon had planted and watered seeds through years of hard, lonely work. But God allowed the McDaniels alone to harvest the initial "crop" of believers. Sharon smiled and nodded her head, saying, "It was all God’s timing." The Goodmans were excited to finally have a group of believers in the village, and looked forward to moving back and discipling the new little church. As time went on, more Kuna men, as well as women and children, also trusted Christ as Savior.
By 1994, Joe and Jerry were training Kuna men for church leadership and began gradually turning over the teaching to the Kuna believers. In early 1996, the Kuna New Testament was distributed throughout the village. As they read and studied their own New Testament, the believers asked questions day and night. "They were at our house even more then!" Sharon said with a laugh.
Fifteen years after their arrival in Panama, Joe and Sharon were living among a growing, thriving little church. And though they and the McDaniels had to leave in 1996 due to guerrilla activity, the church is still thriving, and even sending out Kuna missionaries to other villages.
Sharon is glad she didn’t have a radio back in the early 1980s. She’s glad she couldn’t call for a pilot to come rescue her. Instead, she got to see God rescue the Kuna people.
Editor’s note: The Kuna people of Panama have two distinct groups with their own dialects: San Blas Kuna and Border Kuna. The Goodmans worked among the San Blas Kunas, and the Border Kunas were ministered to by the Tenenoff, Mankins and Rich families.
Colombian guerillas crossed the border and kidnapped Dave Mankins, Mark Rich and Rick Tenenoff in 1993, and killed them in 1996, although there was not sufficient evidence to reach that conclusion until 2001. The San Blas Kuna believers have continued the work among the Border Kunas and today there is a church among each group.
And Sharon had many good reasons.
Privacy isn’t valued among the Kunas, so the people "visited" and watched Sharon and her husband, Joe, night and day. Language learning was harder and taking much more time than they had ever dreamed.
A handful of tribal men wanted to force the missionaries out of the village, so for days the villagers heatedly discussed this, finally resolving the issue with a village-wide vote in favor of keeping the missionaries.
But then their ministry partners left the tribal work. Following that, Joe dealt with hepatitis for three months. Sharon missed her oldest child, who was boarding at the mission’s elementary school far away. And she had her hands full in the village with a preschooler, a toddler and a new baby.
Surrounded by the ever-present Kuna people -- but still only able to speak and understand their language like a child -- Sharon was lonelier than she’d ever been.
Yes, if she’d had a radio, she would have packed up her children and flown away. But the Panamanian government wouldn’t allow them to have a radio, and the next plane wasn’t due for weeks. She was stuck there in that village.
But even in their darkest moments, the Goodmans knew God had led them to Panama and the Kuna people. The Lord has closed doors on other ministry opportunities that had seemed available to them, yet opened the door to them to work among the Kunas. And when missionaries from other organizations wanted to work there, God put obstacles in their way.
"While we didn’t know if there would ever be any believers, we knew that God had put us there and hadn’t told us to leave," she said.
Yet that didn’t guarantee smooth sailing.
Language learning happened in starts and stops. Work was delayed by Joe’s hepatitis, bouts of giardia (from contaminated drinking water) and a life-threatening blood platelet problem for Sharon. Trips to the city for doctor’s appointments, handling of paperwork, or to visit with their son at school, though all necessary and good, also slowed progress.
"We went in with such high hopes . . . and it was way different, slower, longer," Sharon recalls.
Four years later, it was time for the Goodmans first home assignment in the USA. By now they knew the Kuna language, but the Bible teaching hadn’t begun yet. Sharon remembers feeling like they were, "limping home from the battle with nothing to show for it."
But the beginning of the Goodmans’ second term was more encouraging. They lived in a wooden house by the airstrip, instead of in a pole hut in the village with constant "peekers." Another NTM missionary family, Jerry and Joyce McDaniels, were their co-workers in the village. Sharon and Joe could now understand and speak the language more proficiently. And they had good relationships with many of the Kuna people.
Finally, near the end of 1987, after more than six years of living in the Kuna village, Joe practiced evangelistic Bible lessons with his two best tribal friends. They listened and the Holy Spirit worked in their hearts. Both of the men accepted Christ. After all the long years of studying and praying and building relationships, after all the days of loneliness and frustration and sickness, the work had paid off. Two Kuna men had believed. Now Joe was ready to begin teaching the entire village.
But that went slowly as well.
Whenever the village leaders called a business meeting or work project or their own religious meeting, Bible teaching was postponed. When Joe did resume teaching, he had to review what he had already taught. Both the teaching and reviewing had to be done very carefully because the Kuna people had never learned in a formal, traditional way before. So he taught slowly off and on, as the village schedule allowed, all that year and into the next.
But the Goodmans reminded themselves that God had brought them to Panama and that every detail would work out in His timing, not theirs.
Then in the spring of 1989, Joe and Sharon moved out to the city temporarily to help with NTM leadership needs. Joe continued to write Bible lessons in Kuna and send them back to the tribe in the same plane with the McDaniels’ groceries. Then Jerry would teach them.
Finally, in the summer of 1989, while the Goodmans were still away in the city, Jerry completed evangelistic Bible teaching and about a dozen Kuna men believed and were saved.
Joe and Sharon had planted and watered seeds through years of hard, lonely work. But God allowed the McDaniels alone to harvest the initial "crop" of believers. Sharon smiled and nodded her head, saying, "It was all God’s timing." The Goodmans were excited to finally have a group of believers in the village, and looked forward to moving back and discipling the new little church. As time went on, more Kuna men, as well as women and children, also trusted Christ as Savior.
By 1994, Joe and Jerry were training Kuna men for church leadership and began gradually turning over the teaching to the Kuna believers. In early 1996, the Kuna New Testament was distributed throughout the village. As they read and studied their own New Testament, the believers asked questions day and night. "They were at our house even more then!" Sharon said with a laugh.
Fifteen years after their arrival in Panama, Joe and Sharon were living among a growing, thriving little church. And though they and the McDaniels had to leave in 1996 due to guerrilla activity, the church is still thriving, and even sending out Kuna missionaries to other villages.
Sharon is glad she didn’t have a radio back in the early 1980s. She’s glad she couldn’t call for a pilot to come rescue her. Instead, she got to see God rescue the Kuna people.
Editor’s note: The Kuna people of Panama have two distinct groups with their own dialects: San Blas Kuna and Border Kuna. The Goodmans worked among the San Blas Kunas, and the Border Kunas were ministered to by the Tenenoff, Mankins and Rich families.
Colombian guerillas crossed the border and kidnapped Dave Mankins, Mark Rich and Rick Tenenoff in 1993, and killed them in 1996, although there was not sufficient evidence to reach that conclusion until 2001. The San Blas Kuna believers have continued the work among the Border Kunas and today there is a church among each group.