Jack & Suzy Krumroy

Suzy’s amazing testimony!

Suzy with birth Mom and Dad

I was born in the Darien jungle of Panama in 1976.  When I was born, 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 my 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.  From there I was given to another missionary couple who knew of a family in the states who was looking for a little girl to adopt.  The rest is history!

My family in the States raised me in a Christian environment and always told me to be proud of my Kuna heritage and let me know early on where I had come from and my family’s name down in Panama.  Deep inside, I always knew I was supposed to go back to where I had come from as a missionary, but it wasn’t until I was nineteen years old that the vision began to take shape.  Shortly after turning nineteen, I observed a television commercial for Teen Mania ministries who was recruiting teams to send out on short term mission trips all over the world.  One country listed caught my full attention: it was Panama!!  Soon enough, I was carrying my bags up the walkway of Teen Mania in Tyler Texas. 

I did not find my birth parents on that first trip into the Darien with Teen Mania.  However, that first trip got me acquainted with the land of my birth.  It was quite beautiful and I felt at home there.  It was on my second trip a year later that I got to meet my birth mother and her side of the family.  I was in a village somewhere in the Darien talking with the chiefs when, with the help of a translator, was asked why I spoke English so well yet could not speak Spanish or Kuna.  I looked just like one of them, yet it was plain that I had been raised elsewhere.  So I told them that I was adopted when I was very young and that I knew my family’s last name.  Upon giving them my family name, the look I received will forever be burned in my memory.  They told me that they knew this family, and that they were located next to the bridge at Lago Bayano; a bridge I had crossed several times during my previous trips.  As we left the jungle with my teammates, the bus made a stop at the bridge and the translator got off to try and locate someone from my family.  Moments later he reappeared on the bus and asked me to follow him.  At that moment, it was as though time stood still.  There in front of me stood my cousin and uncle.  After a teary reunion, my uncle, with the memories my mother giving me away still etched in his heart, told me that my mother lived about an hour up river.  We would need to use a boat to get there because of the village’s remote location.  So a date was set for me to return a week later with another team to go to my mother’s village. 

There really are no words that best 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, I was able to have a conversation with her and she asked me many questions about my family in the States, and if I was happy there.  This was definitely a defining moment in my life and suddenly I became consumed with the fire and passion to reach the Kuna with the Gospel.  Before leaving the village, I had the honor of giving an altar call after a presentation by my team.  Much to my delight, my mom and sisters all came forward to receive Christ.  I got to lead them in prayer to accept Christ.  I realized, as we left that village that God had set me aside for a specific purpose; to return to the land of my birth and reach them with the Gospel.  The doors were suddenly thrown open, and the revelation sent shivers up my spine.

I was able to meet my birth father the following year during another Teen Mania trip.  During this trip, I was much more nervous than when I met my mother because I did not know how my father would recieve me.  Would he accept me as his daughter after all these years?  The trip up river to his village was a difficult one taking about eight hours.  Once there, I found out that he was one of the sub-chiefs of the village, which just made me all the more nervous.  However, all the nervousness disappeared after meeting him 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.  After spending some time in his village, my father did not want me to leave when it came time to say goodbye. 

I have been on many more trips to the Darien in the years that followed.  In each trip, I have been able to see my birth parents (my father less often due to the difficulty of the journey up river) and spend quality time with them.  During each encounter I am reminded of the sacrifice my mother made and how God turned it around for His glory.  There is no limit to the love that God has for His people, and he will literally go to the ends of the Earth so that no one should perish.  I am honored to be a part of his plan for the Kuna!

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