Today is our second full day of ministry at the camp, and we
have a bunch of things planned for today.
We started the day the usual way – breakfast followed by
devotions, today we talked about the life of Joseph. We were challenged to see the difficulties of
life through the lens of the sovereignty of God like Joseph did. We talked about obedience, especially in the
area of forgiveness, as Joseph modeled with his brothers in Genesis 50 after
the death of his father.
After devotions, Matt and Sam headed to the chapel like they
did yesterday (interestingly enough, Matt talked with the kids about Joseph
today), and the rest of the team went to work digging ditches and
painting. Well, except for Jenny and
Leslie who took a shopping trip with Jose Luis to get supplies for chocolate
chip cookies – yeah, they are making them for the kids tomorrow! We worked all morning until it was time to
swim. Then we had a blast playing in the
pool with the kids.
Today, I actually joined the kids in the pool, so I was
throwing kids around, dunking a few, tossing a few into the pool… you know, the normal activity of being in a
pool. I picked up Genesis (one of the
girl counselors) and carried her to the edge of the pool. I asked the kids, “si or no”, and they
excitedly all answered, “SI”. No, I didn’t
throw her in, but I was thinking about it!!
I told the kids that I would throw the counselors in tomorrow… they
thought that was hilarious.
After lunch, we took the kids outside and took some pictures,
then we lined them all up. The counselors
and the team were standing on the balcony above where the kids were, and they
tossed water balloons at the kids. We
had scheduled a balloon toss game, so that was the introduction – the kids
loved it. Then we played the balloon
toss game. They loved it. At the end of
the game, we decided to let the kids have an all out balloon war – or at least
that was what I thought we had decided.
Instead, there was a coup in the group, and while I was telling the kids
what to do, Sam was telling them that when I counted to 3, everyone was
supposed to throw the balloons at me. I
liked this group before this, but now, I am not so sure… Seriously, the kids loved the opportunity to
get me back for throwing them in the pool.
It was a blast.
The evening consisted of the “discovering your heart” time again,
and the kids really responded to the lessons that were presented. We were able to hug on them and encourage
them. The ladies actually broke into
groups, and Lian said she talked with her group about what they did with their
dolls when they were younger. She said
she really wasn’t sure what that was all about, but they had a great time
talking. Sometimes we don’t know exactly
how we are going to connect with the kids, but if that opens the door – talking
about dolls it is…
After dinner we made our way to the woods for a
campfire. The counselors presented the
kids with songs and challenges to live a different life. They asked them if they would be interested
in receiving Christ, or committing their lives to Him, and many of the kids
raised their hands and the counselors went around and prayed with the
kids. It was a wonderful and tangible
time to see God work in the lives of the kids.
Our day closed with our evening wrap up. Sam shared his testimony and his story of
coming to AMG. Phil shared ice cream. We
really enjoyed that. Amy was wrestling
with the thought of leaving and wondering if her work here was fruitful. Phil reminded her that her time here is
critical for the ministry of AMG, and she needs to take home the things that
she has seen here so that others might know what God is doing and so they can
get involved as well. The fact that now
the team can pray more knowledgeably about the ministry of AMG Guatemala, Camp Canaan and the Matochos
center is critical for the success of each of these ministries.
Tomorrow is our last full day of camp, so the emotions will
be running high. We have a lot of
interesting things planned for the kids, so I pray that we have the time and
the energy to do all that we want to.
Which leads me to the fact that it is almost bedtime now… good night.
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