Jovenes Conectados – Connected Youth (sounds better in Spanish!!)

Our theme this year for camp was Jovenes Conectados or Connected Youth in English. It doesn’t sound very cool in English but it was very effective in Spanish. Mike was the speaker for the second week of 12-14 year old teens. We divided the campers in to four teams – Twitter, Yahoo, Google, and Facebook – for game time and small group counsel time.

In the first two camps of teenagers we had 152 campers. We saw 9 teens accept the Lord as Savior (two of those I was privileged to lead) and over 40 other decisions were made. Our church in Junín sent 8 campers to these camps and many of them made personal decisions for the Lord.

Now we have the last camp to go. The hardest one of all. The most numerous camp of 8-11 year olds.  It is a lot of work and the noise level triples!! It’s probably the most fun camp because children of this age are so tender and loving and don’t have many inhibitions. They play their hearts out and are very open to listen to God’s Word.

Pray for our camp season that what we are able to sow the churches here in Argentina will be able to reap all year long!  Sandy

Old Times and a New Year

I know I promised pictures of the construction but we have been put on hold for a little while as we wait for our windows to be made and the glass to come in.  But, it's all in God's good timing.  Camp season is quickly coming and that takes up 4 weeks of our summer!!  I am happy to say that God blessed above our expectations and provided the funds to order all the windows and doors!  It's so exciting to know that it won't be long now until we will finally be able to have regular meetings in the church's own building and also to collect on all the promises of visitors when we inaugurate.

The last few days have seem liked old times for us.  Our son Michael was able to come visit for about 13 days.  It feels like he had never left for college.  Once again we have had our house full of young people just hanging out! But, reality is approaching too quickly.  In a few days we will be taking Michael back to the airport to say good-bye and to send him off, far away... 


We are so extremely excited about  2011!!  Sometimes I just can't get my mind around all the things that I know the Lord has in store for us!  And I'm not even considering the things that are unexpected.  It's going to be a great year!


I'll try and post about our camps that are coming up. We have 3 of them in a row so it may take me a week or so to get caught up.


Have a blessed 2011 everyone!!


Sandy

A season for giving

This is the season for giving. I finally decided this year to bake a little and share with neighbors and family who attend our church. Result - 2 mothers visited for the first time and we also had several children who were first time visitors!


Mike gave by helping a pastor friend build on to his house. Result - A national pastor and his family will soon be able to move out of the church and in to their new home!!

It is a blessed thing to give. May we all be reminded to give during this time when we remember the ultimate gift God gave to us - His son, Jesus Christ.

What will you give today?

Merry Christmas everyone!!  Sandy

Hope

Love that word!!  I'll tell you why in a minute but first I wanted to show you some faces of hope.

These are a few of the children that we are so privileged to have the opportunity to teach about our Lord Jesus Christ.  At times it is so easy to get discouraged in our community which is filled with lack of commitment. So much apathy and selfishness make it hard to reach those in our town. But I look at these young faces and can't help but have some hope that God's Word will get a hold of their hearts so deeply that it will break the chains of "self". 
This time of year always makes me think of the passages in the Bible that relate the events leading to the birth of Christ. I was reading in Luke 1 when the angel was speaking to Mary about her conception and of Elizabeth. I love verse 37 which says "For with God nothing shall be impossible." For me, that is the definition of hope. All my efforts and failures don't even matter because nothing is impossible for my God. If that isn't hope, I don't know what is! 

Welcome to our Spot!!

Hello!!  I thought I would never figure this thing out! I've wanted to have a blog for a long time but actually was a little afraid of it! But I finally gathered myself together and made myself face my fear. I sat down today and decided I was going to get it out there no matter what, and here we are! 
I thought to keep us more up to date with our friends, family, and supporting churches it would be good to post weekly tid-bits... so here goes. (I'll give it a try anyway!)


This past Sunday we had an end of the year breakfast for the 
Sunday School.  Almost everyone was there and we had a great time! We presented the children with a notebook of all the work they did this year along with a New Testament.  You should have seen the look on some of their faces! They were so excited about the New Testaments. Most of them said they don't have a Bible in their homes. Mike taught the lesson and gave an invitation at the end. We were so excited that 3 of the children accepted the Lord as their Savior!

Next week I'll try to have a construction update for you. Keep praying for progress in the construction of the church building and for our church family during this transition period. To God be the Glory!!