By Andrea Crocker

A Tapestry of Providence

The plane landed in Ohio in 1996, and the mission team members returned to their homes, eager to tell their families and church family how the trip had gone. Mark Mavar, a fireman from Mentor, Ohio, had traveled with the team to do construction work at a Christian camp in Panama. As the weeks passed after the Panama trip, Mark understood that, though he had left Panama, Panama had not left his heart. He carried his burden to his pastor, who urged him, “Well, Mark, pray.”

As Mark prayed in Ohio, a Christian was praying in Valle Dorado, a town near Panama City. This man was beseeching the Lord for someone to come to where he lived and start a church. In January of 2002, missionaries Mark and Carol Mavar landed in Panama with their four children and 18 suitcases to begin a new life.

Six months later, a group of young people arrived at Word of Life Camp in Bejuca de Chame, the camp Mark had helped build 6 years earlier. Among the eager teens was a 17-year-old high school senior from a devout Catholic family. David enjoyed reading the Old Testament and had begun to question some of his beliefs. God led him to attend a week of Christian camp with a friend who had invited him.

Mark did not yet speak fluent Spanish, but he began to go out in various neighborhoods to meet people and share the Gospel. He was praying for the Lord’s direction as to where to focus his efforts toward planting a new church in Panama. His brother in Christ in Valle Dorado continued praying.

While Mark evangelized and watched for open doors for church planting, God was at work in David, the teen from camp. David writes in his testimony: “I attended the camp, Word of Life, where [an] Argentinian missionary . . . shared the gospel with us and invited us to accept Christ as our Lord and Savior. That day, July 27, 2002, knowing that I did not deserve to go to heaven, I repented of my sins and believed in Christ as my only and sufficient Savior. I still remember a card with the following verse, which they gave me that day: ‘For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light’ (Psalm 36:9). After that, the Lord has been transforming me.”

As God’s Spirit was transforming and sanctifying David, He was leading Mark to His perfect place for starting a church. Mark and his son Caleb surveyed Valle Dorado, and Mark thought, “Hey! This is the area.” The work was slow at first, but God did bring Raquel and her daughter to salvation. A Bible study with these ladies grew into a small group that would later form “Grace Church” in Valle Dorado.

One day, at a house in Valle Dorado, there was a knock at the door. An athletic man in his mid-forties with an American accent stood on the other side. “I want to invite you to a new church we are starting here in Valle Dorado. We will be meeting in the house next door every Sunday. But I want to assure you we won’t be playing loud music or causing disturbances.” After the American left, the family in the house was determined to see about this church next door.

The first Sunday the church met, the next-door neighbors were there. They continued to come many Sundays after that. The neighbor then explained to Mark that he had been praying for years for a church in his area, and God put one right next door!

A brother in Panama began praying for a church. God heard his prayer and sent Mark Mavar to build a camp. Working at the camp, Mark no doubt prayed that God would use the camp to change lives of campers who would someday hear the Gospel preached there, and later Mark and his family fervently prayed for godly men to lead the church they had planted. Mark and his Panamanian brother, without realizing it, were praying together for David. The teenager who came to Christ at Word of Life camp six months after the Mavars landed in Panama was installed on April 25, 2021, as the pastor of Grace Church in Valle Dorado.

What we see of the beautiful handiwork God is weaving in Valle Dorado is certainly only a tiny representation of a splendid tapestry of providence yet to be unveiled.