Outreach Camps 1 & 2

Camps have gone really well so far. Tons of kids have come. Nine months ago there was this crazy challenge to bring 540 kids and  leaders to camp this year when last year we brought 297. We knew our field ministry could do it by taking the easy way out, but doing it right would be a huge challenge. Young Life believes that leaders should already have a relationship with the students before arriving at camp. The leaders should share in the camp experience with the kids, then continue to strengthen these relationships after camp in the neighborhoods they come from. The cheap way to bring 540 kids and leaders to camp would be to simply round up a bunch of kids who wanted to come to camp. That's relatively easy. The challenge is forming lasting relationships.

It appears that our leaders have built those relationships with those they are leading. And now in camp 3, we are only 85 people short of 540. We think that next week we should reach the goal. Yet numbers are only a small part of all of this. The great thing is hearing snippets of stories about how kids have been touched by their time here. Then I get to touch base with friends on field staff and hear more about these kids later down the road. Many of them return to camp for follow-up camps, then training camp to learn how to be a leader themselves. And in what seems like a blink of an eye, two or three years have passed and these same kids who appeared to have no future are now in college and have people who love them who have continued to walk with them and share their joys and hardships. God-filled relationships are a beautiful thing. I look forward to sharing updates in the future.

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.

New Life

I have always loved the Spring. While it can be a bit messy, it brings an explosion of new life. Spring this year is especially exciting for Rebeca and me as there is new life growing in her womb. We are excitedly awaiting the birth of our fist child around August 27^th. While pregnancy can be hard and uncomfortable, it is also an amazing process to experience, as this tiny creature begins to move around and announce he is there. While there are preparations to make, mostly we are just thankful that the pregnancy has been normal and healthy so far. When we first found out that Rebeca was pregnant, he was about the size of the hot peppers that grew in her grandparents’ yard when she was a child, so the nickname Chiltepito stuck. We have not yet decided on a name officially, but it will be something easier for non-Spanish speakers to say than his current moniker. 

Sonagram from May 4

He will be born in a modern hospital in Santiago called HOMS. It is about 45 minutes from our house on normal days, about 17 minutes when a soon-to-be father is driving his wife with labor pains. We like the hospital, like the doctor, hate the doctor's policy of not making appointments. This is a common practice here. We try to get there by 7:30 am but generally the doctor arrives between 10:00 and 11:00 and we see him around noon. Oh, the joys of the Dominican medical system! We have gotten good at planning a morning of work we can do on our laptops in the waiting room.

Spring 2012 Work Teams

Spring at Pico Escondido means Spring Break work teams who come from the US to help us with all sorts of projects. They are a very important way for us to do all sorts of significant improvements to camp. 255 people came from all over the US during seven weeks of work teams from February to April. 

Sidewalk to new dorms

The big project this year was cutting a sidewalk into the hillside to improve access to our newest dorms, Barrancolí and Cua. We also turned two storage rooms into an apartment for our student staff, painted, did landscaping, worked on two community service projects, and changed the entrance to the gym bathrooms. Thanks to all who took part! If you are interested in being a part of a work team in the future, watch this video to get a glimpse of what it is like. 

Partner with Us

Great things are happening through Young Life in Latin America. God has blessed this ministry. Pico Escondido has grown a lot in the last four years, adding a gym, playing field, new infrastructure, and two new camper dorms. We have also grown a lot in the number of people that utilize our facilities. Vida Joven, Young Life’s field ministry in the Dominican Republic, is growing so much that even with the addition of two new dorms in 2011 we are having to add an extra week of summer camps just to keep up with the need. We are expecting 540 kids at outreach camps this summer. There are many more that need Jesus in their life. We have the ambitious goal to double the size of the ministry within three years, then double again in the following three. We have already seen how God is blessing this “Double-Double”. But there are big challenges. We need your help to accomplish this. Part of this is support of Rebeca and me. I have always tried to live frugally. While we continue to do this, I am now married, have an adolescent brother-in-law living with us, and we are expecting our first child at the end of August. Please consider supporting us in this ministry. Our need is urgent. We are at the lowest funding balance I have experienced in the last 10 years. The easiest way to give is through Young Life’s online giving site. Please click here to go to the site now. Via this link, if you want to give toward our salary and regular expenses, all you will need to do is add the amount, confirm whether this is a recurring gift, and how often. If you are more interested in giving camp scholarships, click here. Thank you very much for your support.

Jarabacoa Field Ministry Update

Spring is here, and with it comes charm and newness, and the rain. I've enjoyed the rainy days in Jarabacoa, since they remind me of home, and I want to enjoy each "cooler" day before the inevitable hot summer arrives.  For our kids at Vida Joven, this time of the year specially brings a mix of things - the excitement that school will be over very soon, the dread of national academic exams, and the anticipated summer camps. 

Club in Jarabacoa - Pinar Quemado neighborhood

Each year, we all get excited and start wondering "who will be coming to camp this year?" And this year there is quite the uproar about it. Over the last year, we have been challenged as a country (and region) to embrace a vision called double-double. This means that we're praying and seeking to meet and introduce to Christ twice as many teenagers in the next three years, and then double that again in the three years after that. The amount of stories and reasons and kids we know who need to come and know their Savior is too large and obvious to ignore. Rafa, the national director, challenged all of us to not stop and go after every teenager. This has had an impact on the way we see and do ministry in various ways.

During our first meeting in January, we studied how many teenagers there were in Jarabacoa and how many we were reaching with one club. After praying for guidance, we decided to start a new club in town. Rebeca was chosen to be in charge of opening the new club in an area that encompasses three different neighborhoods, including the one where we live. One of the leaders and two of the kids in training also volunteered to come along to start the new club. Luis, 24, is on student staff at Pico. Yeuri, 16, and Jose Abad, 18, have both been in Roy's Bible study for about three years. And so, we've been meeting to pray together and also started to get to know kids in the neighborhoods. Also, we've been joined by Aldo who is on staff, and he and his wife recently moved to Jarabacoa. Also, Licelott (who you may remember from our Christmas newsletter) has recently joined our team. After training camp this year, everyone seems to have gotten the encouragement and vision to go after their lost friends. It is really exciting to see kids who are growing in their faith realize that they also want their friends to experience the love and life that Christ gives. They have all been faithful in coming to planning meetings, Bible studies, and training, and are all looking forward to being able to either start being a leader to some of their friends or helping out any way they can.

Camping with Jarabacoa Leaders

Along with the excitement of a new club, it's been fun to prepare to invite new friends to outreach camps this year. As I mentioned, we're looking to double our numbers but not just for the sake of numbers - because we all know plenty of young friends who are missing out on the abundant life. So, once again, we received the challenge of bringing more kids this summer than ever before. Last Sunday, we started our spring training for those who want to be ready to come as a leader. Last year, when I made the invitation of who wanted to start training, Nathalie, Jose Luis, and Jeffrey answered and they came as cabin leaders with a total of 14 kids. Last week's first session started with 19 kids who want to learn and get ready to bring their friends. What an answer to prayer! We've been praying Matthew 9:38 over and over again, and these have been kids who have been involved in Pinar Quemado club for a while now, and are faithfully answering God calling them out. As Licelott said, "after training camp, I finally understand. I just want my friends to come and know Jesus." This is such an exciting moment, and I was humbled as I took names and realized that in my lack of vision, I had only ordered 10 books for the training. So, please be praying for Sami, Yamilka, Nathalie, Yessica, Dayana, Esttheffanie, Jose Abad, Jose Luis, Luis, Yeral, Jeffrey, Cristian, Noemí, WIlmi, Yeury, Edward, Winifer, Licelott and Kilsi as they go through eight weeks of learning and growing about how to be disciples and disciplers. And we get to be part of this movement of the Holy Spirit because of friends like you who pray for us and support us. We're indeed grateful for your lives.

Training Camp 2012

Training Camp

Every spring we hold a camp to train volunteer leaders and staff how to be more effective in ministry. More than 200 students participated in the training this year – our biggest training camp yet. It was a great event, and set the stage for more teenagers to hear the Gospel through these leaders. Powerful things happened during this time. Not only was it a great time of learning how to better minister to adolescents, but it also deeply impacted the lives of many participants. 

Our PRMI friends Nancy, Chris, and Susan

We are very thankful for those who came to teach classes or support in other ways, especially those who came from other countries to help. Chris Walker, Susan Finck-Lockhart, and Nancy Henkes from Presbyterian Reformed Ministries, International came to teach and also minister through prayer. Scott Miedema, YL’s director of training for Latin America, came to teach in addition to leading a staff training time after the main training camp. Matt DeHoog brought a group from Grand Rapids, MI to serve as our work crew for the event. While we had 234 people (including work crew and assigned team) crammed into a camp with lodging for 170, it was a fantastic event that left Vida Joven Dominicana well prepared to do great things this year with adolescents. 

 Susan teaches while Rebeca translates