Outreach Camps Start!

As I write kids are arriving from all over the country for our first outreach camp of 2012. Their excitement is infectious. If we could only harness all of that teenage energy, we would solve the world's energy problems... or at least lower our electric bill!

This is a fun time for us at camp. While there are last-minute details our staff is rushing to attend to, we are also enjoying hearing the kids arrive. Dominicans are loud people in general. You can hear the buses coming from 100 yards away. All this joy reminds us of why we do what we do. We love providing the space for these kids to have the best week of their lives.

Work Crew Week 1

We have a great team of folks from our field ministry that help make this happen. This includes staff, student staff, and volunteers from the field ministry in the DR, plus some friends from Young Life's Latino ministry in the US. Our work crew is a group of 18 people, most of whom are high school students who became Christians in the last couple of years. For them, this is an experience that is almost as impacting in many cases as their outreach camp experience. They work hard, but also form lasting friendships and get discipled by adults who really pour into them.

Kids Arriving from the city of Bonao

Please pray for the kids who are attending camp this week. We are expecting 158 kids and leaders, which is a very full house. Together with our Assigned Team (support personnel), we have 194 people sleeping at camp, which has 174 beds. Right now we are really glad we put two toilets and a shower off our conference room, because we have set up bunks for 16 boys there. Pray for safety, fun, and openness to the message that Diony, our camp speaker, will be sharing.

After this week there are still 3 more weeks of camp remaining. We still need funding for camp scholarships. If you are interested in helping with that, it costs an average of $70 to send a kid to camp, but any amount would be appreciated. The easiest way to give is through Young Life's online giving site. This link will connect you there and pre-populate the page with our account number and info for camp scholarships. Thank you. Stay tuned for more info.