Home Again

First, I would like to thank everyone who prayed for this trip. I know that God worked through your prayers and that much was, and still is, being accomplished through them. God is faithful to hear our prayers. I would like to briefly go down my original list of prayer requests and give you updates on how your prayers were answered this summer.

• "Pray for financial support." 
• God is faithful. Through you, He provided all of the funds necessary for the trip.  
• "Pray for continued healing for my knee and against other spiritual attacks as the trip gets closer."
• My knee was free from problems during the trip! As a matter of fact, I exercised with some of the PROeM staff throughout my time there. 
• "Pray that God would fulfill His purposes in this trip and that my thoughts, attitudes and actions would demonstrate His glory."
• I had a great time working and playing along side the PROeM staff and campers. By giving the morning devotionals and speaking to the campers in the evening meetings, I felt humbled by the opportunity and gracious that God would use me in such ways. Again it was a really BIG responsibility to give the invitation talk to the campers on Wednesday night - a responsibility that I am honored to have experienced. Several campers came forward to address questions about having a relationship with Jesus Christ.  
• "Pray that God would work mightily through PROeM ministries this summer."
• PROeM ministries is in a constant state of growth. Their preschool/elementary school, which is a ministry to the local community, has grown exponentially and now has a waiting list. All of the PROeM camps for this summer are sold out and there are great activities like a zip-line, climbing wall and the river to give the campers an authentic camping experience.  All that, on top of the fact that kids are learning about Jesus in meaningful ways, and turning from the god of tradition to the God of the Bible.
• "Pray for my relationships with the missionaries in Poland, and for my role as an effective representative of Cornerstone Church."
• I had some great discussions with Rafal, a PROeM missionary whom Cornerstone supports. He expressed great appreciation for the Cornerstone Camarillo community group's commitment to his family and the mission in Tomoszow and Lodz. I also had some great discussions with Daniel, the camp director, on the subject of PROeM's projects.  
 

 Thanks again for all your support and prayers for this year's trip to Poland. May God bless you as you continue to serve him.

Coming Home

Chrissy here.  Larry is in the air, on his way home.  His flight lands at 7pm tonight and I'm sure he'd appreciate your prayers for travel mercies.  I'll make sure he posts again here once he's home (probably tomorrow).  :)

Pictures from Wednesday

Here are a couple pictures from Wednesday night, after the invitation message.  These are campers talking about Christ with their counselors.  Such a great sight.

Sharp right hand turn

First of all, I want to thank everyone for praying for the Gospel presentation to the campers last night (Wednesday). I really appreciate all the comments and emails of encouragement. So here are the details. Yesterday (Wednesday) around 1pm, Robert informed me that Rafal could not make it back in time to give the message and so he asked if I would be willing to do this. My first thought was "absolutely not!" This is a "sacred cow." I have only witnessed Polish leaders give this talk in the past. I didn't want to mess this up or appear as the obnoxious American that demanded this honor. After some counsel from Stephanie (an American missionary here) and other Polish leaders, and with much humility, I prepared a talk. The message was on the Prodigal son, how our Father in Heaven desires for our return.  He desires humility and confession: "Father I have sinned against you and heaven". (Luke15:18)  He practices grace (Luke 15:22-24). Toward the end of the talk I started to recite John 3:16 but quickly remembered that this was one of the memory verses for the campers, so I asked them to recite it together. It was amazing to hear God's words flow from so many little ones. I ended with a prayer of confession and acceptance of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, then invited campers to meet their counselors up front if they prayed this prayer. Many of the campers came forward. Praise God. All honor and glory is his.

Just when you think you have it all figured out...

You know you are completely deceiving yourself when you think you have others already figured out. I came to camp this year with the expectation that past opportunities like working in the snack shack, life guarding or working the zip line and climbing wall would be my go-to ice breakers for conversations. God shattered the same old expectations and gave me new and exciting outlets to talk with campers and counselors this year. For example, I have been playing volleyball with a bunch of ten year old girls. Well, it's more like watch the tall funny guy fall in the sand court every time he goes for the ball, but it is here that I have met two campers Ulia and Agata. Both girls attend the language school in Tomasczow. They both love the Lord and love coming to camp every summer. I have also found myself eating with the Northern Irish team at lunch. They have a few on their team who are not believers, but they are seeing that there are Christians out there that back up their talk with a we bit of action. They love saying a "we bit" whenever they can. As for my time with the camp counselors, we are not sitting around drinking coffee or tea and discussing Godly things. No, we are working out every morning this week to something called P90X Insanity. Its more of a time to see who can outlast whom in these workouts, but great conversations have developed from our time together during these mornings. Thank you, God, for keeping my time at camp fresh and new. I have also been leading morning devotionals this week. I discussed living intentionally in the moment with our campers by reading the story of Jesus at the well with the Samaritan woman. Would you please join me in prayer for our campers tonight? Tonight is the invitation for the campers to make a decision to accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. Would you pray for open hearts and limited distractions for the campers as Rafal gives the message tonight. (Update: Rafal was called away - now I'll be giving the message!)  Thanks again for your support and encouragement.

Love Talk

Yesterday (Monday night), I spoke in the evening meeting on the subject of God's love. Since most of us associate love with family, I started by introducing my family to the campers with a picture of Chrissy, me and the boys. I then talked about how God's love for us is greater than the love we have for our family. I used Romans 5:8 to illustrate God's love for us even as we continue to sin. I showed a picture of David as a messy eater to illustrate this point. I then used Titus 3:4-5 to illustrate that God's love for us is a gift - not something to be earned because of good deeds that we do. I showed a picture of Jonathan eating his foot.

Yes, I know that it's not a righteous thing to eat one's foot, but the campers loved it. I then discussed how we are all fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139), and then ended with John 3:16. It is my hope and prayer that the campers are open to the gospel and see their worth and that they are loved by God. Would you please join me in this prayer for the campers? They will get the invitation to make Jesus Christ their Savior this Wednesday.

Mixer Camp

First I want to thank everyone for their prayers for me. After two days, my swollen left hand is getting better. I have been using an anti-itch/cortizone cream on it. Aside from my hand, life here at camp is great. Yesterday (Sunday) we welcomed a team from Belfast, Northern Ireland that have a mix of believing and non-believing college age students.  They will be helping out with activities for the campers. Northern Ireland is home to many Polish immigrants looking for work (who knew?).  This has helped Polskis and Irish to forge a strong relationship, enabling this team to come to Poland and work with Evangelical organizations like PROeM. Since Sunday, I have moved into the upstairs hotel here at camp, a move only a few of you can truly relate to. I was informed by Robert (the camp director) that I will be leading morning devotionals Monday through Friday this week and I will give the evening talk to all the campers on the subject of God's Love tonight.

Please pray for the following:

• Continued healing for my left hand. 
• Rest - still having a hard time with jetlag (I'm writing this at 4:30am). 
• Preparation for morning devotionals and tonight's talk on God's Love 
• Hearts of the unbelievers at camp this week. (The campers as well as a few of the members of the Northern Ireland team.)