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.