lunes, 8 de agosto de 2011

Family Camp 2011 - Best Camp Ever!

   We just keep repeating those words over and over to each other! At the camp, overall, there were about 100 campers. (20 children and more than 20 teens make up part of that number). In our class of 11-16 year olds there were about 20. A large number come from churched families. About 4 boys from 14-16 years of age came without belonging to any of the churches. Some of these fellows travelled over 8 hours to get to camp. (Can you believe it?) One of our greatest joys in ministry is answering questions like "Where´s Mark?" "Where´s Luke?". In our little church in Coslada, just about any one of our children is capable of finding books in the Bible thanks to the amazing team of children´s teachers we have. So you can imagine how fun it was to help some of those teens look up Bible passages. They read verses willingly. They enjoyed filling in their outlines each day. HERE´S THE BIG NEWS: On the last day of camp, I (Tammy) saw one of the 12 year olds reading his Bible during free time. I (Tammy) had a chance to ask one of the 16 year olds about his camp experience and he excitedly explained to me his plans to "keep on with the Bible and go to church". Does that excite you? It does us. We just got a big charge out of explaining how Heaven and Hell are constantly at war for each of their souls and the power of Jesus against all things we fear and all things that can have power over us. (Mark 4 and 5, Luke 12 were some of our passages.) We presented them with the gospel each day and challenged them draw close to Jesus in all of life´s situations. We feel strongly that God started working in some of their lives long before camp and we are praying for His continued work in each of their lives. One way He worked was enabling us to take 2 girls from Coslada with us for whom many of you provided a camp scholarship. They had a great time, made a lot of friends and were presented with some great Bible truths and their life applications. We wish we could tell you some of the details of their lives...a situation that causes us to wonder what God would really like to do if He were just invited in. Thank you for giving and for praying for them.

      Now that camp is over we are not slowing down...this week we have a barbecue and meeting at our house to plan for our September Bible Club for children. This is always a highlight of the year. From the Bible Club, we will be inviting the children to our biweekly AWANA Club and announcing biweekly Youth Activities. And so starts the school year!

      In October, we will get back to having the weekly Ladies´ Bible Study. For a couple years, Tammy have been leaning toward doing the Beth Moore study on Esther. Esther is a common name for ladies here in Spain and there is a bit of basic knowledge of the story so we think it would be a welcomed study even among the unsaved ladies who attend. The workbooks are availble here in Spanish. What we would love to do is be able to get a copy of the DVD set of Beth Moore herself teaching so that Tammy could use that in her preparation time. We know often a church uses teaching material and then places it in the missions closet for missionaries to then use. Could this be the case with your church? Would you contact Tammy if you know of a set someone no longer plans to use?

      We appreciate your prayers immensely and can see God´s hand moving. He definitly keeps motivating us, along with the entire Coslada church, to love Him more and serve Him wholeheartedly! We wish you could meet the dear brothers and sister we lock arms with here and that they could meet you- the prayer warriors who keep holding up our arms.