Wyld Life camp went AMAZINGLY well! It was so crazy--we were just talking today about the fact that last February, we were trying to plan to get Wyld Life STARTED here in Jarabacoa, and we just had 62 go to camp this past weekend! God has blessed us SO much in getting this middle school ministry started here.

Bill Paige, who is VP of Young Life in the states came down to be our speaker! This was so awesome for so many reasons. First of all, he is from NYC which automatically gives him WAY more respect than anyone else because Dominicans are obsessed with NYC, second, he was an NYPD officer and then detective, so he is way hardcore and tells it to you straight, and third he talks about the Bible in an incredibly real and understandable way that they totally got and loved. We honestly could not have had a better person there to talk to our kids about the realness of Jesus!

I had my 6th grade girls in a small group for the weekend, and we had the best time together! This was (as it was for a lot of our kids) their first time EVER being away from home overnight, so this weekend was a huge deal right from the beginning! They totally related with tons of things Bill had to say, and came to every cabin time with lots of questions! So good! Saturday night we had the usual “sin talk” with 10 minutes of silence afterwards, and that really hit home with my girls. The first comment I got when we went to cabin time was “I thought I loved God before, but I didn’t really, but now I REALLY love God!” How cool is that? One of the girls, Claudill, went on and on about how good God is, and how much she loves Him! It was so incredibly cool to listen to her child-like faith and just complete love for God, and for the other girls to hear that. Some of my girls have gone through so much crap in their family lives that they really just don’t get what love is, and this weekend I think a lot of them got it.

Now, for the most AMAZING thing of the weekend! Two of the boys I had in my class last year, Anderson and Alex, decided to come to camp at the last minute. You have to understand these two boys: they were honestly the two worst behaved boys I have ever seen in my LIFE! To give you a quick idea, one tried to throw a chair at me last year, and ended up getting expelled, and the other had to be removed from the classroom halfway through the semester because he was just completely uncontrollable. These are two very hard, very broken and hurting boys. They both have experienced things in their life that no child should EVER EVER EVER have to experience, which definitely is why they act the way they do. Here is the amazing part: these two boys ACCEPTED JESUS this weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How incredibly cool is that!!!!! God is SO AMAZING. Also very cool is that these two have a guy leader whom they completely love and trust, that will definitely be a major part of helping guide them on this new walk. SO COOL!

Praise God!!!

Isaiah 44 “I am the FIRST and the LAST; apart from me there is no God. Who then is like me?”

Psalm 105
“Hallelujah! Thank God! Pray to him by name!
Tell everyone you meet what he has done!
Sing him songs, belt out hymns,
translate his wonders into music!
Honor his holy name with Hallelujahs,
you who seek God. Live a happy life!
Keep your eyes open for God, watch for his works;
be alert for signs of his presence.
Remember the world of wonders he has made,
his miracles, and the verdicts he's rendered—
O seed of Abraham, his servant,
O child of Jacob, his chosen.”


This morning Chris said to us leaders “Our job isn’t to make Christians, it is to make disciples” and I loved that!

2 Chronicles 31:20-21 “Hezekiah carried out this work and kept it up everywhere in Judah. He was the very best—good, right, and true before his God. Everything he took up, whether it had to do with worship in God's Temple or the carrying out of God's Law and Commandments, he did well in a spirit of prayerful worship. He was a great success.”