Missions Mag 1-4

made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now therefore go, and
I will be with your mouth and teach what you shall speak.” So I find myself resting in the truth that He is the great I
AM- in sovereign control- and it was not in what we would do or not do or say but the power of the Holy Spirit that
would work in the girls’ lives. And we witnessed Him do just that. Me and Katie were very blessed with the group of
girls we had. They were very responsive and were able to connect Paul and the book of Philippians to their own lives.
Not just during small group, but throughout the whole week of camp it was evident that God was working in the lives
of individual students.
I asked around from some of our mission team to give me some examples of how they witnessed this.
First of all, a couple of girls that stand out to me came with no desire but left with a burning desire to know
Him more. One of them being Aricelli, who actually made a profession of faith on the last night of camp. The other was
a sweet girl named Lilia. I had her in my group at kids camp last year and was as shy and reserved as ever. This year, as
one of the youngest students there, was raising her hands in worship and said “I can just feel God changing me.” She
followed up by making a profession of faith the week after also! Then we had four students-
Castor, Javi, Sonya, and Wrethy prayed in front of the whole group who had never prayed like that before. On
my team, aka Gold team, aka the winning team, we had two girls memorize whole chapters of Philippians, one of which
comes from a family that is Mormon, so that makes it that much more exciting.
And then we had Fonzy, who has been coming to camp for as long as I can remember, very closed off until the
last day when he began memorizing blocks of scripture on his own and if he messed up one word he’d want to go back
and memorize it until he got it perfect.
A kid named Tyler, came to camp as crazy as ever and left as crazy as ever but he was memorizing scripture
with a want to and asking deep questions during small group and commenting about large group. And these are just
a few examples!! Yet, when most people think of missions, the first thing they think of is not usually North America.
But guys, the need for the gospel is everywhere. Not just on that reservation but here in the community surrounding
us, it is urgent. Some things the students brought up at camp that they are faced with daily are broken families, alcohol,
drugs, gangs, all forms of child abuse, teens raising and providing for their younger siblings, self harm, and suicide. To
the students we were working with, these things were normal.
Not just them but the ones right here in Mayfield. Right now, Satan is trying his very best to destroy the souls
of those 6th -12th graders for eternity. But they desire something more! They long for that not to be the norm! As we
witnessed from our week in AZ, they have a desire to dig into God’s Word. They have a desire to memorize scripture.
They have a desire to praise Him openly. They long for a spark of hope in the darkness they live in daily. That is why
most of them claim that this youth camp was the best week of their lives. These students actually hurt thinking about
having to leave camp and go back to their everyday culture. From what I have seen over the past three years, I believe
it is one of the biggest hurdles the students face when deciding to follow Jesus with their lives. Romans 12:2 says, “ Do
not be conformed to this world…” but these students see that as almost impossible sometimes. They fear what they
have to go home to… they don’t see how they can follow Jesus when they are constantly surrounded with evil in their
homes and feel like they have no way to escape it. So I just urge you to be in constant prayer for these students and their
families as well, because there are multiple that are weighing the cost. The truth is starting to speak louder than the lies
in their life, and they are open to hearing the gospel. This showed by the dozen of students who followed up our week
of youth camp by attending VBS the next week. Overall, I learned, my eyes were opened to, and I was convicted of a lot
from this week in AZ.
Majority of us in this church don’t have to deal with what these students do. I don’t hold back in saying that we
all extremely blessed with the circumstances, community, family, church, and people God allows us to be surrounded
by. Yet we sometimes lack the desire to dig into God’s word, have a hard time giving up our comforts to share the gospel,
and look past the urgent need for the gospel to be shared among our country and our nation. There are souls out there
in desperate need of the truth of the Gospel & as Christians that’s our job. So I urge you to step out of your comforts and
love, share, and maybe even go. I’ve been able to witness the way God works and the fruit that came as a result of God’s
work through us in AZ & guys it’s so worth it.
The world needs the gospel and we have it.
Share it.
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