Back in America

Wow! What a whirl wind of experiences since the last post! First, I would like to thank each and everyone one of you for praying throughout our time in Guatemala, and also for rallying down and praying for our final service on Thursday night.

The final service on Thursday night answered all of our prayers and changed the lives of every single person involved. We had the final altar call of the week, and almost every single seat was empty from the boys coming up to accept Christ, and for some to re-new their walk with Christ. Seeing the huge crowd of boys as well as our USA team members and Champions in Action team members smashed in between the chairs and the stage brought tears to our eyes as we witnessed the spirit move and work throughout the service and bless our lives as we truly experienced the result of God's handiwork through each of us during the week. We were all praying and trusting in God for a miracle, and I do believe we witnessed that miracle. All of the prayer and planning leading up to the trip, all of the prayer and sweating during the trip, and all of the bonds we created with each of our groups by showing them who God is and how great His love is for each of us, really paid off. We don't have the official count of those who were saved--or renewed their faith--but out of 100 campers, I think its safe to say that at least 90 campers--maybe even closer to 95--prayed the sinners prayer and accepted Christ into their lives and will forever be changed. Praise God! Hallelujah! Amen! And every other word of praise and worship you can think of!

What is also so amazing about God and accepting Christ is that it can change you almost instantly. In one instance, one of the campers in my group--Gato, nicknamed for his cat-like eyes--was the one boy who throughout the week was always a little bit too cool for school. He seemed like he was paying attention, but always seemed not not be invested or paying attention as much as the others nor was he actively as engaged as the others. However, on Thursday night after he had accepted Christ, it was as if all barriers of coolness had been broken and a HUGE smile lit up his face for the rest of the night and the rest of the camp. He also later volunteered to speak in our post-service meeting to discuss the events of the night and how accepting Christ would impact their lives, which is totally out of character for him to do. On Friday he was also more engaged in all of the team gatherings and seemed more happy and at peace. Finally on Saturday when we were able to visit the orphanage where he--and his teammates--live on a full-time basis, he was one of the first boys to run for our bus and great us as we got exited. While these descriptions appear to be simple changes in behavior, I could sense the change in his spirit, and I knew that he had been changed. If you sew the seeds, some times all you need is 10 minutes and one big step of faith

This trip has challenged us and changed us all in so many ways, and I'm not just referring to the campers. The connections we were able to make with the children in such a short time period with language barriers causing a huge issue in terms of just general communications were the result of God's work and us being faithful to His calling and acting as His hands and His feet to reach the youth of Guatemala. Also, during one of the last days of the camp at one of our morning devotionals, we were talking about the Shield of Faith and how it needs to be used on the offense and not the defense and the application of faith in our lives. Dennis made a comment during this time that really hit home for all us in when walking in faith during our lives: while it took faith for us to answer God's calling to go to Guatemala, our greatest test of faith would be to leave the boys in Guatemala after hearing their stories and knowing the more than hardships that they face on a daily basis. Our test of faith would be knowing and trusting that God would protect them and keep them safe, and continue to show Himself to each of them.

On the final day, all of the boys were allowed to take their pillows home with them, and I'm not sure which child thought of this idea but at some point during the day, we were all asked to sign a numerous pillows. Signatures on pillows? Yes, we all thought it was odd as well. However, in our final devotional Kurtis (aka Tortrix--because the kids couldn't pronounce his name) shared a thought about the signed pillows: While we all had never signed pillows before, he shared that these kids will be laying their head down each night on our thoughts and prayers for them; laying their heads down on our promises and what we had taught them throughout the week. What a powerful statement! These kids will be connected to us through these signatures and they are relying on us to continue to pray for them and support them and stay true to our promises that we will not forget them.

And if airport issues weren't enough on the way to Guatemala, we ran into more on the way back. We only had an hour and twenty minutes to clear customs and get to our new gate upon arrival in Dallas. Those of you who have ever been to Dallas or been through customs in general knows that an hour and twenty minutes is pushing it, big time. As most of us sprinted through the airport, some of us made it to the gate with 8 minutes to spare, only to discover they had already closed the gate we were going to have to take a later flight out. When we finally all went to board our new plane to leave Dallas at 6pm, we discovered that our ticket transfer did not take in the computer systems and none of our tickets scanned so the stewardess had to issues us all new tickets once more. Finally once we arrived in DC, we discovered that the two people from our group who made it on our original flight were routed to Philadelphia due to the bad storms in the DC area, and were still stranded there at 10:00pm. God works in mysterious ways, and causing us to miss our flight is definitely one of those ways.

Thanks again for all of our support and prayers. Also, I hope this post makes sense because it has been a long day, and I'm sure my proof-reading skills are not operating at an optimal level.

Pray Pray Pray!

Please take any additional time you have today to start praying for our final service with the kids tonight! We have had some major breakthroughs with a lot of the boys so far, and it has been absolutely amazing to see them bring down their walls and open up about their lives and their fears. Last night, we had small group discussions within each of our teams and really started to pour our hearts into them and allowed the Holy Spirit to move amongst our discussions and to let God speak through us to reach the boys and to touch their hearts. Tonight we will be doing a final altar call, and we are praying that the Spirit will fill the service and fill each of the boys who have not yet accepted Christ into their hearts and lives. God's presence has definitely been with us this week, and it has been building and building and building. We are all buckling down today and praying hard whenever possible throughout the day; we are sensing that something major and life altering is going to happen tonight, and we need your prayer and support throughout the day and the night to call upon God's spirit to really move within us and the boys tonight. The services usually start around 8pm (10pm ET) each night; if you are awake anytime between 9pm and midnight (ET), please pray for us and the service.

It is HOT!

One of the biggest challenges during this camp has been the heat and the sun. I think most of us have been sweating since we stepped foot in Guatemala. Outside of our extreme sweatiness, the heat and sun has been causing a lot of health issues for everyone at the camp: from sun burns to headaches to fainting due to heat exhaustion. We have all been working around the clock to make sure that the boys are drinking lots of water and staying in the shade whenever possible, but some times this isn't enough. Please keep the safety of the boys in this heat and the sun in your prayers. Also, pray for a little bit of a break from the heat, even if its just overcast!

Here are some pictures of our hydration efforts:

Let's Play Soccer!

The soccer tournament among all of the groups has been occurring for the last couple of days, and the boys are doing so well! They have such potential to be great! We are all getting so attached to each and everyone of the boys, and we want each of our teams to do well in the tournament. It breaks your heart when your team loses a game because the kids seem so defeated when it happens. They have been through so much in their lives already and attending this camp means so much to all of them. Winning the tournament and receiving a trophy would be the icing on the cake.

USA all the way!

We are having a blast when Team USA gets to play against some of the groups! While a lot of us have not played soccer competitively, we have our size on our side which is helping provide a great advantage. Plus I think the kids are having a lot of fun getting to play against the crazy Americans!

During the game yesterday (06/29/11) of USA vs. Grupo Cuatro, we tied the game and decided the winner through penalty kicks, but somehow we needed nine or ten (we lost count) penalty kicks to decide the winners--USA, of course! Both teams would make their shots, then both teams would miss their shots, and this combination continued on and on. I think the referee was ready for the game to be over, and we were all shocked and extremely entertained by the situation! Shout out to Dennis, who doesn't play soccer, for kicking a rocket into the goal during the shoot out! We all went crazy! Another shout out to Matt who has to be one of the fastest people I have ever seen! He can make it to the other end of the field before any makes it past mid-field--He has definitely been a key player on Team USA!

Capillo, Chapel!

I wanted to share with everyone about last night's chapel service. It was incredible and the Holy Spirit was definitely moving among us. The presence of God filled the place! After jamming to some awesome worship, (go KP!!!), a student shared his testimony. He shared how he was shot in the chest by a local gang member when he was just seven years old. He explains that he was hanging out with the wrong crowd, at the wrong place, at the wrong time. He recovered completely and gave his life to Jesus as a result of that phase in his life. Praise Jesus! The boys listened intently as he, now 13, described a new life and a new group of friends. We also had a testimony from one of our group members. Mark was bringin' down the house making the boys laugh about some moments of his childhood. But bottom line, these two testimonies stirred something in the hearts of many boys. When the gospel was presented and an invitation to trust Jesus as the personal Lord and Savior, 14 boys stepped forward!!! Amen and amen. The USA team then did some serious laying of hands and praying over these precious new brother's in Christ. It was an all out party in there as we ended with one more rockin' praise song. And...get ready, it's only Tuesday. These boys will be in a constant relationship with their mentors and mentors' churches when they go home, but we wanted to list their names so you could pray personally for these young believers.

Marco Galvez, Denis Franelsco, Mynor Flores, Johan Flores, Alberto Figueros, Jose Andres Carrillo, Byron Reyes, Josue Ramos, Kevin Alexander, Fernando Morales, Oscar Torres, Marvil Galvez, Donaldo Pereira, Federico Aguilar.

Your prayers are greatly appreciated as you follow us on this journey.

Soccer Drills (06/27/11)

Here are a some pictures from the day...some narrative about events of the day to follow later!

The soccer balls are ready for action!

One of the boys running through a drill, cheered on by Jenny.

Jenilee teaching one of the kids during drills.

Some of the youth running through drills. Jon is in the left of the picture with tall black socks on.

One of the teams gather together waiting for drills to start.

Are you tired? (06/26/11)

The first day at El Faro went great! All of the teams have arrived at camp except for one team who will be arriving tomorrow. The common phrases of the camp thus far are "How are you doing?" usually followed up by "Are you tired?" when their response to the first question is not loud enough. (All in spanish of course.)

Even though some of us are working through language barriers, bonds have already started to form between our NCC team and the youth. Some of the kids are jokesters and a little more outgoing, and some are still a little quiet but hopefully will start to come out of their shell soon. But if one of the kids or teams get out of line--going down to the beach without permission, etc--you are cheered on by your peers as you perform your assigned push-ups. During one of the push-ups assignments, two of the guys from NCC went up with the kids and knocked out 50 push-ups with them! Talk about bonding.

We were also able to play some games with the kids throughout the afternoon, and then closed out the night with some worships songs and opening statements by the Champions in Action team. Once the kids learn all of the songs and the week progresses, I cannot wait to see how the Holy Spirit will move and work during the worship time. Its going to be amazing!

A view of the water from El Faro.

Boating? (06/26/11)

As much appreciated by all of us, our bus ride to El Faro was uneventful minus the beautiful Guatemalan landscape! We got off the bus in Puerto Barrios, Guatemala and loaded into two boats to cross the Caribbean Sea to cut down on travel time to El Faro so we could eat and prepare for the kids arrival.

"We're taking a boat!"

We were all so excited until the rainy season greeted us at the docks. [Insert dark clouds, winds, huge rain drops, thunder, and lightning.] We waited for most of the storm to die down before we left, but because it was still raining, our drivers we gracious enough to provide us with a huge black tarp to cover ourselves with as we splashed through the waves. Unfortunately...the tarps were not as effective as we would have liked them to be. The log rides at most amusements parks had nothing on this boat ride. We all ended up SOAKED!

Time for the Campers! (06/26/11)

Ready at our assigned posts, the campers arrived bright and early at 6:00am. Some of youth seemed nervous; some seemed excited. And, as with most teenagers, I had no idea what any of them were thinking. Or maybe they were just tired...I don't know how many times I was up at 6am on a weekend!


While we were checking in the kids, most of us had our first experience with Guatemala coffee. I usually don't drink black coffee, but given the amount of sleep I was operating on, and the long list of activities planned for the rest of the day, I was going to drink all of it to the best of my ability. However, my first sip was delicious (muy delicioso)! Guatemala coffee is so much better than coffee found in the States, and most of us have already had a couple of cups at this point with plans to consume many more cups of Guatemalan coffee while we are here!

Once all of the kids were checked in and loaded on the bus, we all met the pastor of one of the local churches, who has been a HUGE advocate for Champions in Action, and received a blessing from him before our long journey to the camp at El Faro.

I know as I was leaving the church and walking out toward the bus for our trip to the camp, I was both excited and nervous for the week to come which I had been praying for and preparing for over the last 8 months or so; and I'm sure many of the others in the group felt the same. What the week had in store for us from a physical standpoint, we knew. What God had planned for the week, we could only begin to imagine and are waiting anxiously in anticipation for His plans to unfold.

Arrived in Guatemala Safely (06/25/11)

We have arrived in Guatemala safely...but a little late into the night!

For those of you who have ever traveled in a large group, you probably know that more often than not something will happen that throws your plans a little off course. Well, we can definitely say that this was the case for us when trying to leave Washington, DC to fly to Guatemala. Once we all gathered at the airport, tagged our bags, and received 3 crisp dollar bills to pay for our visas, we started to check into our flight, but for some reason no one was able to register a checked bag. We quickly discovered that our flight out of Reagan National to Miami had been delayed, and American Airlines was not allowing anyone to check bags into the flight because our bags would not have enough time to be transferred to our connector flight before our departure to Guatemala. [Insert mild panic.]

While the possibility of us flying to Miami and not even making our connection hung in the air, Jon and KP quickly started the negotiations with American Airlines with the rest of the team praying for help on the sidelines. After about an hour or so, we were informed that American Airlines would hold our plane in Miami--re-assigning 34 passengers was not the ideal situation, and we would have to sprint through the airport with all of our items needed for sleeping and the next day to be placed in our carry-on suitcase since our luggage would be meeting us in Guatemala the next day. Thankfully, our prayers and your prayers were answered once again as we landed into Miami and discovered that our flight to Guatemala had also been delayed and the probability that our luggage would make it as well increased dramatically.

We arrived at the airport in Guatemala around 10pm (midnight ET), and all of our luggage made it safely as well, minus one our plastic cases carrying water bottles for the campers having received some battle scars--quickly mended by duck tape. On our way to the missionary house, we discovered that we had be on the same plane with some celebrities; we passed a huge church that was hosting a 3 day concert, and one of the bands playing at the concert had been sitting in first class! Once we arrived at the missionary house we were served some delicious spaghetti and closed the night out with a welcome meeting and orientation.

We made it into bed around 12:30am/1:00am with the reminder that we were to be awake in about 4 hours and on the bus to get ready for the campers at 5am...

We're connected!

We finally just received internet connection at the camp here at Guatemala! It has been busy, busy since we left Washington, DC for Guatemala so the following posts will cover some of our experiences since we have arrived. Hopefully, now that we are connected to the internet we will be able to post once a day.

In Guatemala

Our team arrived safely to Guatemala with all our baggage. Praise God. We had a series of delays but the provision of God got us here. Thanks for your prayers. We had a great dinner and orientation at the missionary house and are now preparing for bed in order to wake up bright and early for camp. More extended updates tommorrow. Buenos Noches!

Pre - Guatemala

Days before trips (or the days of trips) seems to always involve a considerable amount of stress. In the experience of two of the members of our trip - the Smalls (Jon and Jennie) - the Friday morning before the trip to Washington, DC from Hershey, PA in anticipation of the next day's departure from Reagan National Airport fit the mold of the seemingly stressful.

Jon took their dog, Perry (an energetic English Springer Spaniel) into the Pennsylvania woodlands in the early half-light of the dawn for her normal treat of a "Daddy-day off walk." Upon returning to the house, after several minutes of the usual debrief from the "walkie" as Jon and Perry affectionately name their time together - getting water, panting on the cold hardwood floor for a couple of minutes (Jon - sometimes Perry joins him :)), etc. - Perry emerged into the bathroom as Jennie and Jon were getting ready for the day limping with her back paw the size of a golf-ball and red with soreness. Poor little girl! So, even though Jon had planned the day's departure time perfectly, stress entered in. An impromptu trip to the vet and some unplanned expenditures later, and the Smalls were, finally, on their way to Washington, DC.

At least that's one way to look at the morning and, for that matter, at trips in general - in light of the stress involved. Let's re-visit my first statement: "Days before trips (or the days of trips)seem to always involve a considerable amount of stress." Admit it - I had alot of you - you were thinking, "Amen brother! You are right" and then the story confirmed my statement. Then again, I could have just as easily changed the whole perspective of the morning with a completely different phrase. One, for example, such as this: "God always has an interesting way of preparing us for the next step on our journey." Sounds cliche, sure, but seriously - the patience, faith, perspective involved in the outlook the Smalls had to have of their morning is merely a simple preview of what awaits them - and, in general, the team of people travelling to Guatemala - this next week. Not to say that this trip is going to be difficult or trying, but it will be, in many senses different than they expect - as Jon and Jennie's morning was before the trip.

Now, let's take this a step further, a step away from the members going to participate in the work of the Lord on this trip. Let's think about the youth and the Guatemalan mentors that are awaiting their arrival. Imagine what they expect of this next week and/or what stresses they may have undergone in the days/weeks/months recently past. With countless differences between the ways we (the folks coming from America) and they (Guatemalan youth and mentors) live, we can never truly empathize with one-another's experiences. However, one thing that we can compare is that God the Father has, overall, something amazing in the work of this week for all involved - American, Guatemalan, otherwise.

Sure, days before trips might be stressful. But, trips, themselves, when done in the glory of the Lord, are never merely that. They are full of the unexpected. Follow us to find out what we all never expected from this Guatemalan excursion...God bless!