The “Academy of Music” in Panama, led by Cathy McMullian and her husband Neal, a retired North American couple, finally was able to open its doors after a 17 month wait due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
On August 14, a team of 6 teachers and one administrator of the new Academy of Music received 52 students, youth and adults, at the Iglesia del Nazareno de Río Abajo facilities, with the support of the church’s pastor, Amable Polanco.
It all started three years ago, after a missionary trip to Panama that Cathy and Neal made with students from Olivet Nazarene University. The McMullians felt that the Lord was placing in their hearts the desire to move to Panama to serve Him in something new. “At the time we didn’t know what He had in mind for us to do,” Neal said, “but over the years, He had prepared us in different areas.” Neal had taught music in public schools and universities. Cathy worked with children and with college students. “God was preparing us for something new,” Neal said.
This is how two years ago the McMullians moved to Panama to work with Carlos de la Cruz, Superintendent of the Central District of Panama, to develop a music academy for the Church of the Nazarene in Panama. Neal said this academy aims to develop musical ability in the church and allow for greater offerings of praise and worship to God.
The McMullians’ local church, Gathering Point Church of the Nazarene, worked hard to help them raise funds. Through those gifts and other blessings, they were able to purchase instruments and equipment for the Academy of Music, and were finally ready to begin teaching in March 2020, “But God had other plans,” Neal said, for the week that they had planned to start, Panama closed schools and established a quarantine. “Covid-19 seemed to have put an end to our plans. But, as the Waymaker song says, ‘even when I cannot see, you are working.’ And God was still working,” Neal said.
This delay gave the McMullians an opportunity to improve their Spanish and learn more about the new culture. It also allowed them to develop good relationships with many people in Panama. They learned to move around the city more easily and made new friends who later became teachers at the academy. “In many ways, the guidance of God’s hand became evident,” Neal said.
“The Academy of Music has been a response from God to the need to develop musicians and worshipers in our churches in the Central District of Panama,” Pastor Polanco said. “Today we see the great blessing of having a place where you can prepare for worship ministry.”
Students go to the Academy of Music once a week for three hours. Last week the academy registered just over 70 students from 10 to 70 years old.
“We don’t know where this path will take us, but we do know that God has a plan and our job is to take the next step. We are comforted by the fact that God goes before us, and more importantly: ‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future,’ Jeremiah 29:11,” Neal said.
Source: Neal McMullian
