BIBLE CHURCH
OUR HISTORY
Journey with us through the story of our church, shaped by faith, community, and a shared commitment to serving others.
Our Journey To Our Divine Purpose
After much prayer and 2 preliminary visits to the country of Panama, Stephen and Wanda Wood moved to Boquete, Panama, August 2nd 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. Juan 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 orthopedic 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.