Missions News: Outreaches

Suzy Krumroy, who works with her husband in Panama, is a missionary with a difference:  She was born in the Darien jungles of Panama, adopted by a Christian family in the United States, and has now returned to minister to the very people that gave her up over thirty years ago.

 "When I was born," she explains, "my mother realized that she could not keep me.  My father was not her husband and babies born to this sort of relationship were usually not claimed by their fathers.  And this was the case with me.  At that time, any babies that were not claimed by their fathers were often taken to the river and drowned."

However, this was not to be her fate.  "Missionaries who had recently passed through the village volunteered to care for any babies who were not wanted, and my mom remembered this.  At about two months of age, my mom gave me to these missionaries."  The missionaries then arranged for her to be adopted by a family in the United States looking for a litle girl to adopt.

She grew up in a Christian family, and her family let her know very early on where she had come from and her family's name in Panama.  "Deep inside," she recalls, "I always knew I was supposed to go back to where I had come from as a missionary," and when she was nineteen years old she saw a commerical by "Teen Mania" ministries recruiting missionaries for short term trips all over the world.  One country in particular caught her attention:  Panama! 

On her first trip back to the Darien Jungles of Panama, Suzy became acquainted with the land of her birth.  "It was quite beautiful and I felt at home there," she recalls.  It was not long before Suzy would return for a second trip, and it was during this trip that something truly miraculous took place.

"I was in a village somewhere in the Darien talking with the chiefs when, with the help of a translator, I was asked why I spoke English so well yet could not speak Spanish or Kuna."  It was clear that Suzy looked just like them, but it was also clear that she had been raised elsewhere.  

Suzy told the villagers her story, and when she gave them her family name, they told her that they knew her family and that her family was located by a bridge that she had crossed a number of times with her missions team.

As her team left the jungle, they made one more stop at this bridge, and moments later Suzy stood in front of her cousin and uncle.  There was a tearful reunion, and a fantastic surprise:  Suzy's uncle informed her that her mother lived in a village about an hour up the river!

Just one week later, Suzy was reunited with her mother.  "There really are no words to describe meeting my birth mom and my sisters at the village.  I just remember how beautiful she was and how she grabbed me in an enormous hug and we both cried until we had no strength left. " 

Through a translator, Suzy spoke with her mother about her life in the United States and whether she was happy there.  "It was a defining moment in my life," Suzy recalls.  "Suddenly I became consumed with the fire and passion to reach the Kuna with the Gospel" -- a passion that continues to this day.

Before leaving the village, Suzy and the missions team presented the gospel, and when Suzy gave the altar call, her mother and sisters came forward to accept Christ!  Suzy experienced the unspeakable joy of leading her own mother and sisters in a prayer to receive Christ.

On a trip the following  year, Suzy had the opportunity to meet her father.  "During this trip, I was much more nervous because I did not know how my father would receive me," she recalls.  "Would he accept me as his daughter after all these years?" 

The nervousness disappeared when Suzy and her father met for the first time.  "Not only did he accept me as his own, he informed me that he had given his life to Christ and deemed it a miracle from God that I was standing before him!"  And when it came time to leave, Suzy's father did not want to say goodbye.

Suzy has since made many return trips to the Darien jungle, and on each trip, she has been able to visit with her birth parents and spend time with them.   "During each encounter I am reminded of the sacrifice my mother made and how God turned it around for His glory," she says.   "There is no limit to the love that God has for his people, and He will literally go to the end of the Earth so that no one should perish."

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The International Faith Telegraph
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