Please be praying for kids camp this week. Most of the kids are from Uruguay, and some are coming from Argentina. Pray for the councelors to find personal opportunities to share the Gospel and encourage the kids. And pray that the kids would come with open hearts and return home changed to share Christ with their families.

Ana Paula is a classmate of Callie’s and they get along really well even though there isn’t a lot of conversation. So yesterday, Ana Paula, her parents, and baby brother, came to camp for the morning to swim and play. It’s times like these I wish I knew Spanish better!

Since this was the first Father and Son retreat here, there were more missionaries with their kids than locals. However, there was plenty to do! Popsicle stick boats were built and raced, the bouncy castles were used, personal pizzas were made and devoured, lots of games were played outside and the pool was put to good use! I think Miguel’s favorite was the “fire camp” as he called it. When I came to take him away (it was after 10pm!) he asked if he could stay there with Daddy forever.

    All the missionaries from our mission, GMSA, came to our camp for the annual missions conference. It is meant to be a time to regroup, talk about some mission business, and be spiritually refreshed. It was also quite the learning experience to host the conference! Every morning Bruno would need to set up the projector or sound equipment and I would go to town to get a van load of food for feeding 90 hungry missionaries! It was wonderful to meet all the missionaries and hear from Dr. Burggraff and Pastor Hixson.

This week is Youth Camp which incorporates young people ages 13 to around age 25. There are just under 70 campers and two speakers. One speaker has come from Montevideo, Uruguay, and the other has come all the way from Virginia. You can be praying for open hearts since this is a very impressionable age and there several coming that are unsaved.

Update:

Thank you for praying for the youth camp, it was a big success! When I was driving a van load of them to the bus station to head home, I asked what their favorite part of camp was. They answered “the preaching!” The second best part was the kayaks! it was the first time for most of them to try out a kayak!

Didn’t know these guys lived here too! After doing some research, I’m pretty sure these guys would only feel like a really bad bee sting for adults but the kids are much smaller, so pray we keep our house scorpion-free!

Well, the weather sure feels like it! We had a great Christmas together. Our family celebrated the morning as just the four of us then had other missionary friends over for the rest of the day. And Christmas wouldn’t be complete without a dip in the pool! Thanks to technology we were able to Skype with our family and even be there via video for Christmas morning at Audrey’s parents, which was great.

    Callie’s school had an end of the year performance and most of the children were dressed as American Indians. Her class theme was the hatchet, so we made a hatchet that she used to”chop” a paper mâché log. The kids wandered around the stadium randomly then were cued to find a log and start chopping. She was so cute with her french braids and Indian feather!