the Lord's work in Villa Alba
This week I have been away in the village of Villa Alba, a place where there is no electricity, no running water, and the only phones are a phone station in the center of town. I went with the Jovenes (youth group) to do a camp for the kids there.
This week leading up was pretty bad. We went from having 24 leaders to 21, from having several musicians who regularly lead worship to just one of our youth who plays the guitar. The list of logistics piled higher and higher as I realized more stuff needed to be sorted out. To top it off, I lost my bank card last Friday, literally the day before I was to take out a large sum of money to buy food. Fortunately I borrowed the money I needed off of a few of my roommates.
It was then that I realized I was having some serious spiritual oppression as I began to get discouraged. I had a feeling in the back of my mind that God had big plans in mind for the trip . . .if we could just get there.
Somehow we did get there. After a 5 hour delay Monday to pack and get some last minute stuff sorted out, we finally headed off. That night, our pastoral advisor, Milton, said that in order to share the love of Jesus with the kids, some of us needed to find it ourselves (since a few of our youth that went do not know the Lord). Right then, two of the people in the group entrusted the Lord. Out of our 21 leaders, I counted 17 people that I knew were Christians. This was the first night.
Over the next few days, we had 50 kids at the camp. In the morning, a few arrived half an hour early, ready for camp! The first morning, Milton asked if anyone knew the Lord, no one raised their hand. By the end of the camp, 16 of these kids entrusted the Lord. The ones that didn't left having a better understanding of the Gospel and through us, the Lord planted a seed in each of them that I expect will reap results further down the road.
Our three goals for the week were 1) to reach out to the kids 2) to reach out to the community and 3) to come together as a group and unify more. I can confidently say we achieved all three. However, I also have realized it will not be enough to do a camp once a year. Many of these kids live in non-Christian homes and probably will not attend church. So, I am currently thinking of having a time of worship and teaching at Villa Alba maybe once every one or two months. I know the kids will enjoy this.
The Lord definitely was working through us this week and it felt so rewarding to see these kids smile and have lots of fun.
This week leading up was pretty bad. We went from having 24 leaders to 21, from having several musicians who regularly lead worship to just one of our youth who plays the guitar. The list of logistics piled higher and higher as I realized more stuff needed to be sorted out. To top it off, I lost my bank card last Friday, literally the day before I was to take out a large sum of money to buy food. Fortunately I borrowed the money I needed off of a few of my roommates.
It was then that I realized I was having some serious spiritual oppression as I began to get discouraged. I had a feeling in the back of my mind that God had big plans in mind for the trip . . .if we could just get there.
Somehow we did get there. After a 5 hour delay Monday to pack and get some last minute stuff sorted out, we finally headed off. That night, our pastoral advisor, Milton, said that in order to share the love of Jesus with the kids, some of us needed to find it ourselves (since a few of our youth that went do not know the Lord). Right then, two of the people in the group entrusted the Lord. Out of our 21 leaders, I counted 17 people that I knew were Christians. This was the first night.
Over the next few days, we had 50 kids at the camp. In the morning, a few arrived half an hour early, ready for camp! The first morning, Milton asked if anyone knew the Lord, no one raised their hand. By the end of the camp, 16 of these kids entrusted the Lord. The ones that didn't left having a better understanding of the Gospel and through us, the Lord planted a seed in each of them that I expect will reap results further down the road.
Our three goals for the week were 1) to reach out to the kids 2) to reach out to the community and 3) to come together as a group and unify more. I can confidently say we achieved all three. However, I also have realized it will not be enough to do a camp once a year. Many of these kids live in non-Christian homes and probably will not attend church. So, I am currently thinking of having a time of worship and teaching at Villa Alba maybe once every one or two months. I know the kids will enjoy this.
The Lord definitely was working through us this week and it felt so rewarding to see these kids smile and have lots of fun.
posted by Jimmy Bollinger at
6:58 PM
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