Youth Retreat Report

For some reason, this blog site is not downloading pictures right now. I have some pictures to show and testimonies of the youth. I'll try again later. In the meantime, here is a report of last week at the youth retreat...

The youth retreat was awesome! We took 15 students, packing the van, to a small ranch near La Cruz, Sinaloa for 5 days. At the moment the first speaker walked up to the stage, I could feel the Holy Spirit and had great anticipation for what was going to happen during the week. The first two days were incredible, I have never seen a camp where everyone is participating in worship. I even saw some of our youth who are very, very shy, go up front with others and dance before the Lord. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. During the next couple of days, there were a series of great sermons. Thursday evening, the speaker shared about how we are to honor our parents. He challenged the youth to go to their parents and ask for forgiveness. He mentioned that many of them are probably thinking, “for what?” And sure enough, there was a show of hands and many were thinking that. He explained that holding grudges against our parents wasn’t right. They sometimes don’t know what we want…a hug, an “I love you,” time well spent. Many of the youth present had never received any of those things. At that moment, the parents of the youth from La Cruz showed up and they stood in a line in front of the meeting area. As they youth shot out of their seats and ran into the arms of their parents, everyone was crying. The pastors stood up front as well, standing in for those youth who’s parents weren’t there; from three other locations. It was powerful. All of our youth were impacted. I hugged a number of youth, even youth I didn’t know. Then, I had a chance to go with some of our youth still sitting in their seats, doubled over, in tears. We hugged, we prayed, I told them they were loved, and no one wanted the night to end. Incredible!

The next day was the final day. They finished their games and one more speaker shared. That night, we had dinner at some the tables that were surrounded by the lit torches. As we ate dinner, one of the pastors put together some pictures and video of the week’s events. The next day, we left for the city of La Cruz where there would be a concert that evening. We spent some time at the beach, had lunch and went to the concert where the winning team (out of eight) was to receive their prize. It was all worth it. I’m so glad we were able to go and especially see the youth being impacted by God during the week. It was powerful!