Survival Camp

Hey all, my time has been flying by here in Brasil and I can’t believe that I now have less than 3 weeks to be here and am starting to become sad when I think of having to leave my new friends and family here, but at the same time am excited for the opportunities I will have in Colombia as well as my return to Mexico City. I will be leaving for Colombia on March 17th and then off to Mexico the second week of May. This past weekend was carnaval here in Brasil, a most famous holiday, more famous in Rio than here in São Paulo, but nonetheless a big party. We took a group of 16 adolescents on a camping retreat a little outside of the city. We called it survival training, although it wasn’t that rustic. We did camp, build outside bathrooms and even make a shower and did some of our cooking in the fire. We spent the four days looking at the life of Joseph. We talked about how Joseph had a dream (literal dream) from God and how because of this dream and his faith in God to fulfill the dream he was able to survive and suffer all he did because his eyes were fixed on God and on the dream. We tried to encourage the kids to have dreams, not short term dreams of buying this or that, but long term dreams of where God might have them in 10 years. I felt challenged and continue to pray for God to reveal such a dream for me. I feel like in my life when I have put my mind to something I have almost always accomplished it and currently feel a bit frustrated by feeling like God hasn’t shown me a vision or a dream in the long term. I praise God for the dreams he has given me to this point and for allowing me to fulfill so many of them. I remember about 5 years ago setting forth some goals that I wanted to accomplish by the time I turned 25. I don’t remember all of them, but I know one of them was to be trilingual and to have served God in another country and I praise God for those two dreams being fulfilled. My prayer request for you would be that God would continue to mold and shape my dreams for the future and help me to see his plan/dream for my life. Getting back to the camp, the next day we talked about temptation with the story of Potiphar’s wife and I had the chance for the first time to share the main message of the day. I shared a bit about my testimony and ways I had overcome temptation in my life and challenged the group especially in the area of sexual purity imploring them to trust and wait for God’s plan for sex. We continued in Joseph’s story and talked about reconciliation, relating it to Joseph being reconciled to his brothers. His was an especially important theme as the kids all seemed on edge which exploded in a rather violent fight between one of the girls and one of the guys after the guy called the girl ugly and she started throwing punches. I think in the end though it was a good amp and helped them to realize that there is a world outside of the favela and continue to encourage them to dream and imagine the life God might have for them. I would ask for special prayers for Junior, one of the adolescents who shared at the closing campfire that God had really touched his heart at the camp and that he wants to continue knowing God more. I would also ask for prayer for Danilo, Wesley, Pedro and Afonso, these guys have really become like family for me, the little brothers I never had and I will miss them so much. Also pray for Vicente, I don’t remember if I mentioned him before but he just recently became a Christian, is 23 years old and single and perhaps the only guy his age in the whole favela outside of my house that would call themselves a Christian and have a positive testimony. It has been amazing to see the change in his life, to see the work that God has done in his heart and to see his hunger and thirst for righteousness and for God.
I continue to be frustrated in my lack of mobility as my back continues to bother me significantly. Some days I can barely get out of bed, others I feel a little better, but it has been over a month now with significant back pains and I am definitely ready to not have them. I am going for a second visit to a sort of chiropractor who says that he will be able to put my dislocated vertebrae back in place tomorrow. He says it will hurt quite a bit and that I’ll be in a lot of pain, but that after a week or so of recovery I should be back to normal. I pray for that, I am ready to run again, to kick a soccer ball around, and return to my regular ministry schedule to take full advantage of my last weeks here.