Monday, July 30, 2012

Please pray for our children


Below are our children that we spent the week with. What a privilege it was to be with them and share the good news of Jesus Christ. What a blessing it was for all of our children to now how the greatest gift, salvation in Christ. Pray for them to grow in Christ and in their knowledge of Him. Pray for them to have faith in Him and his promises and to trust Him in all they do. Pray for boldness to call out in His name when they need His protection. And pray for blessings on their lives.

Blessing  (not sponsored)

Nkole, 16 (sponsored)

Paul, 14 (sponsored)

Sidney (sponsored)

Ezekiel (not sponsored)

James (sponsored)

Petros (not sponsored)

Fredrick, 16 (sponsored)

Obet (not sponsored)


Ian, 14 (sponsored)

Martha, 14 (sponsored)

Rebecca, 14 (sponsored)

Kashika, 11 (sponsored)

Juliet, 12 (not sponsored)

Memory, 12 (sponsored)

Lizzie, 12 (sponsored)

Patricia, 11 (sponsored)

Anna, 11 (sponsored)

Beatrice, 12 (sponsored)

Grace, 11 (sponsored)

Friday we delivered gifts & said goodbye!

Friday is a huge day at CampLIFE.  Not only do we have a final large session, but the children receive gifts.  They got a bookmark, a couple of sweets (4 starbursts), a certificate, a t-shirt, a bandana, their shoes and a New Testament Bible.  It was so thrilling to see their precious faces with all the excitement about these gifts, things our children can get any day of their lives.  If you could see the condition of their shoes that they come in, you would be so blessed to know that you were able to give them new shoes just because.  Kevin had a couple of boys that shared 1 good pair, so they each had one good shoe on and one bad one on.  That'll make you stop and think about all we have.

Below are my girls trying on new shoes.








It was also a day of saying goodbye which was incredibly sad.  The reality that they will not be enjoying another day away from their communities is very difficult, but mostly that they have been loved and encouraged and spared difficult times during the week and that is priceless for them.  There were many tears, but the reminder that last year when we didn't think we'd ever see each other again proved wrong, they left me praying that I would return again next year.  I really can't put into words how I feel about these children.  The Lord opened a whole new world for me last year that got bigger this year.  I see these sweet faces so often and when I least expect it.  I truly think God intends for them to be forever in my heart and I trust they will be blessed by Him.






Sharing the Gospel in the community

On Thursday, we headed out to meet our kids in their community of Kanyama to share the Gospel with their neighbors.  This is also when I reconnected with Fridah.  Between mine and Kevin's group, they witnessed to about 75 people (some in groups) using the Evangecube, and about 15 prayed to receive Christ.  It's awfully encouraging and remarkable how easy it is for these children to be bold in sharing Christ.  They do understand He's their only hope and they are excited to share Him.









Worship during CampLIFE

During CampLIFE we had large group during the day with all 1,000 children, 100 leaders and 2 partners for each of them.  Imagine 1,300 + Family Legacy staff singing these great camp songs and dancing all together.  It's worship like nothing I'm use to!!  Each time "Our God" played, we began by having all leaders pray over our children.  On Friday, the children prayed over us.  To hear each of those sweet voices praying for me and my partners blessed me so much. 










Sunday, July 22, 2012

CampLIFE in General

For CampLIFE, children are chosen from the compounds by Disciple Leaders that are at the compounds' LCAs.  This is a place that ususally includes the school and another building where the children come for activities, for school work, or just to feel safe.  The leaders get to know these children as best they can.  They then identify those children that are most at risk for CampLIFE.  At CampLIFE they have the opportunity to have one on one time with their counselor so that counselor can help them by finding a sponsor or maybe even having them move to Family Legacy's permanent residence.  Basically, we become an advocate for the children in our group.  This year both Kevin and I had 5 of our children from last year and they are all already sponsored, but obviously still in some really difficult situations.  In my group I also had Martha, a young lady that we just began sponsoring a couple of months ago.  The bottom line though is that out of my 10 girls, 9 were already sponsored.  Juliet is the only one that needs a sponsor and we will get that done.  All of our children were from Kanyama 2 compound.  It is a huge blessing to see the kids growth since they have been in such a good school.  Kevin's boys were a little older and his concern for a couple of the oldest is that they may only make it to 8th grade before turning 18.  We are anxious to find out what we can do for them after that. 
On a daily basis we had 2 small group sessions and 1 large group sessions.  Other time was spent with a little recreation (dodge ball with a sock ball was my group's favorite thing, Kevin's was anything with a soccerball), blessing times and time learning the Evangecube demonstration.  When they learned about sharing the Gospel, we also encouraged them to pray with others so they would feel comfortable doing that in their community.  Also to help them memorize the verse for camp that week, I made some word cards so they could use them as a game.  They loved that!  For blessing times, along with my Evangelist (partner) I was able to dig deeper into each girls lives.  I asked about their home life - who they lived with, how many meals a day, who was sick, what kind of work a parent does.  Then I asked about school and what they dreamed of being when they grew up.  It was amazing to hear such different answers from last year when they didn't have much school in their lives.  They now want to be doctors, nurses & teachers. 

Below are a few pictures from our groups.