After much prayer and 2 preliminary visits to the country of Panama,
Stephen and Wanda Wood moved to Boquete, Panama, August 2 nd of 2018 for the purpose of starting an English-speaking congregation. They were
sponsored by First Baptist Church Bryan, Texas.

They spent the first month staying in Betty Gray’s casita in Palmira Abajo
while they looked for a house to rent and a car to purchase. The Wood’s
moved into a rental house in Brisas Boqueteñas on September 1, 2018.
Stan Sherwood, pastor of La Gracia Baptista Iglesia in Boquete, agreed to
allow the English congregation to meet in their building when it was not
being used for the Spanish congregation. Pastor Wood held the first
service (Bible study) at 8:30 a.m. on October 7, 2018, with 5 in attendance.
They continued to meet at 8:30 a.m. until May 2019 with attendance
fluctuating between 4 and 18 people.

Pastor Sherwood was already holding an English worship service on
Sunday evenings at 6:00 pm during this time. On May 26, 2019, Pastor
Sherwood asked Pastor Wood to be in charge of the English service at
6:00 p.m.

At that time the English-speaking congregation began having services at
4:00 pm for Bible Study and 6:00 pm for worship. This continued until the
last Sunday of September 2019. La Gracia had grown to the point where
there was no longer a time or space for the English group to meet in the
same building and a search began for a new location. 

A small building was located in Los Naranjos for the English group to meet.
The church was then named Hillside Baptist Church. The building was
completely bare and consisted of 2 rooms. The congregation responded to
workdays to paint and clean in preparation to hold services. Chairs, tables,
a projection screen and other needed items were purchased. A sound
system, camera and pulpit were donated by Ed and Debbie Wilson. The
pulpit was made by Ed Wilson.

The first service was held October 6, 2019 with an attendance of 17
people. Bible Study started at 9:45 am and worship at 11:00 and Sunday
evening services began at 5:30 pm. The church experienced a steady
growth with up to 41 people attending by January, 2020. This number
presented overcrowding of the little building and the church began
searching for a larger facility.
 

In early 2020, the church began the registration process which is required
by the Panamanian government for churches. Kenneth and Ana Dunton
generously agreed to pay for the services of a lawyer to complete this
process. This was a great blessing to the congregation and cut the cost of
registration just about in half. The first church officers were:
President/Pastor - Stephen Ray Wood, Vice President - Freddie Judson
Kimball; Secretary - Wanda L Wood, Treasurer - Frank Curtis Fore,
Parliamentarian - Dr. Fred Dale Minton.

After much prayer and searching, a larger building was located in the
shopping centre which houses Chop Sticks restaurant about 4 km south of
Boquete on the David highway. The first service was planned for Sunday,
March 15, 2020, but because of government orders during the Coronavirus
pandemic, services were canceled. Pastor Wood was able to send out a
podcast of the services with Frank Fore’s technical assistance.
The government allowed churches to restart services in their buildings
Sunday, August 9, 2020. The church was required to meet MINSA
standards in order to have services. Services could not be held consistently
every Sunday because of the ongoing spread of the virus.
As a result, a Bible study podcast on Wednesday evenings was also
added.
 
The church registration process was finally completed on April 27, 2021. It
took considerably longer than expected because of the pandemic.
The lockdown was removed on Sunday, June 27, 2021, and Hillside
resumed meeting again on Sundays at 11:00 am for worship. The pastor
continued to provide a Bible study by podcast each week. Rosemary Del
Carmen Cardova Castillo was the first candidate for baptism at Hillside,
and she was baptized on Sunday, July 4, 2021.

In December 2021, the government loosened restrictions and lengthened
the times that churches could meet. Hillside began having a Bible study at
10:00 a.m. on Sundays followed by worship service at 11:00 a.m. 
In mid 2022, more restrictions were finally lifted.

Several of the regular attendees at Hillside moved because of the
pandemic, including 8 families in 2020-2021 (mostly back to the United
States) and attendance for services fluctuated and growth slowed.  

In February 2022, the pastor started having a table at the Tuesday market
to advertise the church and invite people to the services. Some of the
ladies prepared baked goods to be given away.  This generated some
growth.

The Panamanian government finally lifted all Covid restrictions in
September 2022 including the wearing of masks and social distancing.
In August 2022, the Bothma family (Drs. Jaun and Celeste and son, Tobi)
from Canada joined Hillside. They are originally from South Africa but
emigrated to Canada in 1998. They loaned their piano to the church since
they did not have living quarters adequate to house it at the time. This
contributed greatly to the music program. A worship team consisting of Tobi
Bothma, Levi Pizon, Celeste Bothma and Michael Whited started leading
music in September 2022.

Pastor Steve Wood resigned as pastor of the church effective the last
Sunday of October 2022 (Oct. 30, 2022). He felt the Lord leading him and
his wife, Wanda, to return to the US. He planted the work here and felt it
was time to resign as Pastor. Another concern was that Wanda had
struggled with knee pain and lack of mobility since having a bacterial
infection in her knee in February 2020. After a hospital stay and being
under the care of several doctors in Panama with different treatments,
there had been little to no improvement and mobility continued to decrease.
She would be under the care of an orthopaedic doctor in Texas and surgery
was planned. The church voted to have Dr. Jaun Bothma take the
leadership of the church as the new pastor. He assumed the pastorate of
Hillside Baptist Church on November 6, 2022.

 

 

 

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