Monday Morning mission day one.

Wow, what a ride it has been so far. We as a team have now been here for two days and we have been having the time of our lives.
We showed up at camp on Saturday night, got set up, and then had our first chapel. The speaker was challenging the kids to imagine what there lives would look like if they lived them according to what God dreamed for them.
After the chapel we broke off into our small groups where we had many challenging conversations with the youth while they wrestled with this idea inside of them.

The next day we were woken up nice and early by incredibly loud Mexican music and one of the
camp deans doing some improv rap and singing. That definitely helped some of the youth get out of bed.
After breakfast we piled in the vans and tried to find the church that were working with. We ended up being about half an hour late due to getting lost about five times. But hey the Mexicans were fine with that and the kids got to experience four wheeling in Mexico (in a 18 passenger van, I don't even know why we tried to drive on that road lol)

The Mexican church service was a very powerful experience. As we walked through the gates and heard the singing and rejoicing we could feel the presence of God all around us. The church was so welcoming to us and we had an awesome time worshipping with them in song and dance. We had such a good time that after the service we ended up hanging out with the youth of the church and the pastor for the whole day. We went to the beach and did some body surfing with them and played some soccer. Both the youth and the church members seemed to really enjoy that.

Later on the pastoral family joined us at the camp for a partnership worship service. We had worship in both Spanish and English as well as having a Mexican meal together. After the service we tried to be culturally appropriate by inviting the church family back to our house (a bunch of tents in a circle) saying Bienvenidos mi casa y su casa (welcome our house is your house) They seemed to like that. We then went around and had a sharing time as a group about what God was doing in and around us and anything that was stirring in our hearts. This ended up being such a cool time of fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ. We shared openly and I was surprised by some of the things said.
You could tell that some of the youth were really being impacted by the things happening around them.
God is working and I am so excited for the great things that are to come as we start today our
first ministry day. We as a team are waiting in excitement to get on board with what God wants to do with us in this week. I know its going to be awesome.

For those of you who are reading this I want to invite you to pray right now for us.
Pray that the Lord would open the hearts of both the youth an d the people we are ministering to. That they would be able to experience what God has for them in what ever way they need it,
that they would grow in his love and truly have a passion to declare God's Glory amongst the nations.
Also please pray against distractions that can hinder people from coming to God with everything.
This is especially needed for our worship times. Lastly pray that God would be glorified in
using us and that this would be a trip remembered by both Living Hope and the church we are working with. Thanks for all your support back home, we wouldn't be here with out it.
Blessings
Fred