Summer Camp
The last 2 weeks of June we hosted junior and senior camps at a local campground in Quisqueya. We had 18 kids the first week and 20 teens the second. The campers came from 3 groups: our church in the batey, another local Baptist church (Iglesia Bautista Evangelica en Ramon Santana - IBERS), & Josiah’s House.
One of my favorite parts of both weeks was our “quiet time” each morning. For a while now, these kids have heard us talk about having a quiet time reading the Bible and talking with God but didn’t really know what that looks like, never having seen a real-life example. What a privilege it was to take a few minutes to explain in more detail what a quiet time is and to see them sitting on their beds reading the Word!
Another highlight was, of course, the teaching of God’s Word. This year's theme was “Fishing with Jesus,” and the name of Jesus was truly exalted as our co-laborers from IBERS, Rachel and Ruth, taught 6 excellent lessons on His majesty and uniqueness. Every evening, Michael preached on the idea of following and obeying Jesus using the story of Jesus calling of Peter from Luke 5.
I think my favorite time, however, was the lesson response time during teen camp. After each lesson, we divided into 3 groups to discuss what we just learned. The first day, the concept of discussion seemed a bit foreign to most - few campers responded and those that did gave superficial “churchy” answers; but by the third and fourth days, I saw my group begin to open up and become more transparent, allowing us to discuss some of the challenges and struggles that keep us from following Jesus with our whole hearts. I was so encouraged to hear several of the believers share things that they want to change in their walks with God and areas in which they want to grow.
The two weeks of camp were definitely great and there were so many blessings for which to thank the Lord, but I wouldn't be giving you a true picture if I didn't share the fact that there were a lot of hard things too. From the "little" struggles like dealing with discipline issues to the larger distractions like losing power every night just when chapel was supposed to start or (once the power was working again) being attacked by a bazillion mosquitoes during the preaching, the enemy did his best to keep our focus off of the Main Thing. The hardest thing of all, however, was watching several teenagers admit that they do not have a relationship with Jesus Christ, hear the Gospel very clearly presented multiple times, and still say at the end of the week "not yet." Please join us in prayer that God will continue to be gracious to these teens and once again mercifully speak to them and draw them to Himself.
