It will be no surprise that we were up early again to start
our day at Campo. Thankfully, we are
mainly getting enough sleep at night, however some on our team are feeling a
bit under the weather (mainly cold symptoms).
We are praying nothing will spread as we still have a good bit of
mission ahead of us.
We were again on our full camp schedule that starts with our
morning chapel time followed by our classes.
I’ve had some of our students sharing their stories as a part of this
time. We prepare to be able to share the
Gospel during our mission training, but for many, this is the first time they
will have shared in public, much less having to share through a
translator.
The children have really enjoyed the classes and as much as
we are teaching them, they are teaching us too.
We are learning more about their personalities, culture and faith
journeys in our time with them. They are
continuing to open up with us and allow us into their lives. It’s always amazing to me how we can come and
do our best through the language barrier, have some help from translators, but
really speak through the language of love.
It’s a continual reminder to me that the Gospel is best shared through
word and deed. And these kids are
watching… all the time. They are
watching not only how we are interacting with them, but also each other as a
team.
Since the “treasure hunt” was such a big hit with the
groups, we decided to do another competition that we called “the great
competition”… sometimes the more simple ideas translate better. But this was a survivor-style series of
challenges from the three-legged race, tug of war, to a buried dig, dizzy bat
race and more! They had so much fun
competing that we’ve decided to make this a staple of camp each year.
Our meals have been awesome and dinner was no
exception. We not only serve the food,
but deliver the plates to the kids. It’s
a honor to serve them and allow them to get as much food as they want – and
some of them take advantage of seconds.
This would definitely be a foreign concept to them at home.
At evening chapel, I had the opportunity to share out of
Matthew about the wise and foolish builder and ask them what kind of a
foundation they were building their life upon.
This led to a great opportunity to present the Gospel to them and invite
them to respond to Jesus Lordship over their lives. We are praying that those who responded to
the Gospel – the seeds would grow in good soil in their lives.
During our team time, we looked at the cost of following
Jesus as a disciple. We talked about the
danger of “deciding to make Jesus our
personal, Lord and Savior.” Not that
Jesus isn’t a personal God, because He most certainly is, but He is also not
definable by our desires, but rather revealed to us in God’s Word. I fear many of us make Jesus more palatable
by picking and choosing what we want to believe from God’s Word – we don’t want
a Savior that challenges our desires, leads us down a difficult path of
discipleship, convicts our desire to have more (materialism) and calls us to
die to our own dreams and plans and embrace His mission. These times being shaped by God’s Word and
our conversation in small groups have been powerful.
Pray for our day tomorrow as it is our last one at
camp. It’s usually an emotional time all
around. This has been a great camp so
far and we are praying for it to end in a way that directs everyone’s attention
to God to give Him the glory for the great work He has done!
No comments:
Post a Comment