Two Sets of Footprints: JPC... Juventud para Cristo

This is the place where I volunteer and am able to meet INCREDIBLE people who love the Lord! Every Friday night there is a youth group for two age groups, 14 and below, and 14 and up. I am blessed by being able to help with the younger ones. They are so sweet! I always learn so much from them: catalan words, smiles, hugs, and trust in Christ!

Here Below are Pictures of the Prejuvenil Campamento at Berea in which they allowed me to take part as a "monitora" or couselor.

During the first Velada or evening, we had a game night!! This included:

Dressing up some of your team members in cardboard.

Getting as many signatures as possible on your foot.

And popping the balloons off of the feet of those not on your team

I got to be score keeper :).

The next morning, we (the counselors) woke up early the next day in order to have a devotional as the leadership group before waking up the kids. After this and prayer, we woke the kids up around 8:45 for the “Buenos dias.” This was the early morning game time before breakfast to wake us up. This morning, it consisted of a few songs as a group (gorilla, and chipi chipi). This got us all moving and ready to eat! After breakfast, we had the first service in which the song leaders (Isaac and his wife Nancy) made a song called Nivel II and in which Isaac preached. He spoke on what Nivel II truly meant for Christians, giving the examples of Moses, Joseph, Paul, and Schumy (fictitious character). He spoke of the difference between our owning our own decisions and giving them completely to Christ. We then spoke about this to our mini-groups. I was blessed to co-lead a group with Joel, one of the youth pastors (Our group: Nerrea, Ana, Adam, Ruben, Nico, and Mircea). The kids in our group were pretty quiet but they were very sincere!

After this service, we ran outside for group games! Here we played the game of Super Berea Bros. (you can imagine what is entailed J). Brew and Jordi set up this group game to be like the Super Mario Bros. video game, filled with levels, lives, and coins to collect. The team that saved the princess and had the most points won. The adventures and challenges ranged from making a cookie travel from your forehead to your mouth with using only your facial muscles all the way to balancing 3 cans of Coke on top of a basketball. If I had to guess, I believe that all the kids had a blast!

Playing "el gusanito ciego" or the blind worm in which all of the team members have to have their eyes closed (obviously this is not working so well for them) and the last member or tail of the gusanito has to lead everyone through a maze by tapping the shoulder of the person in front of him (tap the right shoulder for right, left for left and so on).

Balancing the cans on the basketball

Rescuing the princess!! (Which was really the head youth pastor in disguise. It teaches them not to believe in first appearances as well ;) .)

Along with Hannah and Judith, I had helped plan a prayer walk full of different stations of symbolism and prayer for the 2^nd velada. We had a station of prayer for petitions turned to praise that the kids wrote on post-it notes and placed on a world map; one of prayer for family members and friends that you wanted to talk to about Christ; one of writing down something (a struggle, a sin, a need…) that you wanted to give to Jesus that they wrote down on a paper heart, pasted to a mural of a cross, and painted red to symbolize the blood of Christ covering it; one section was for creative adoration; and one last one for writing an Ebenezer on a stone to take with you (It could be a memory, verse, promise, or anything that God placed on their hearts). After we set up the stations, the nerves kicked in! The three of us were nervous about how the kids would respond, despite our team’s efforts to reassure us that it was beautiful and that it would turn out fine.

Because of this, we decided to bring this night before Lord as a team. We all prayed that God would calm our nerves and that above all, His will be done. God is AMAZING! He completely took our simple little plans, hushed the hyperactive kids, and touched hearts! The whole room, dimly lit with candles and smelling like a mixture of paint, candlewax, and pinesol, was filled with the sound of soft music and quietly whispered prayers. It was beautiful! We finished the evening with a love letter from our Heavenly Father made by a group called conecta con Dios (http://conectacondios.jesus.net/?/1/la-carta-de-amor-del-padre.html). Honestly, there were quite a few sniffles and tears around the room. People were touched! On a personal note, I was touched as well! After the video, Esther (one of our campers) came up to me asking me for prayer. After she confided in me her fear of not being a good enough witness, I prayed with her. Shortly after, the Holy Spirit used her as she prayed for me! Ahhh!! God is so good!

The next day it was so hard to say goodbye!