Our summers are always extra busy, super fun, and spiritually impacting. This year has not been the exception. I’ll be dividing the activities of this month into two separate posts: the first about the 16-member Mt. Calvary church group that visited us from June 6-13 and the youth retreat and other cool activities, and the second post about our church’s trip to Oaxaca, and the incredible ministry we were able to experience there.
The youth group at the JM church is growing, with many kids going that are committed to the youth group…but not yet committed to Jesus. Our goal was to see many of these kids confronted with the gospel. That’s exactly what happened. Through the teaching times of Jeramel, and the presence of adult leadership, we were encouraged to see 9 kids stand and commit their lives to Christ. In all, 94 people attended the youth retreat, 70 of them youth or young adults. The water games, rally, soccer and basketball games and so many other details, as well as the powerful proclamation of God’s Word made this retreat a truly special time.
Ministry continued the next week, with Mt. Calvary team members involved in a local jr. high school and a nearby elementary school in the mornings, as Grant Stewart, Ken Howard and Dan Hollinger painted the church building inside and out, with the help of several church members. Baking classes rounded out the afternoon ministry hours, with around 20 people participating from the community, very few of which are church members.
Among some of the other highlights…54 of us went for tacos on Tuesday evening, eating a whopping 367 tacos, drinking 81 bottles of soda, and setting an official record for the largest group in that particular taco joint (as told to us later by a staff member). Trey, David and Micah each ate an obscene amount…ask them how their next day was. The girls managed to defeat the jr. hi girls in volleyball, only to be trounced by them in basketball the next day. On our trip to downtown Mexico, one of the two vans had mechanical issues, forcing us to walk to downtown Mexico, and return (all 24 of us) to Ixtapaluca in one van. During our closing “blessing” ceremony, it rained so hard that we were afraid we wouldn’t be able to get back to our host homes.
The group also brought down 500 pair of reading glasses purchased through restoringvision.org. More on these resources on the next post, as they were distributed in Oaxaca.
Mount Calvary has visited us now during 9 of the last 11 years, and has been a tremendous blessing to the ministry here. Pictures with captions follow….
Praising God with you for those who serrendered their lives to Christ during this time