540 for His glory

What a glorious day!

After 6 months of preparation and prayer to reach a goal of 540 campers at Vida Joven camp this summer, our goal was met!!!  We just started the 4th and last week of camp Thursday and did the calculations and found that we have had a total of 574 campers this summer!!  Please join us in celebration and giving thanks to Christ for what He has done!!

One of the best parts of the summer has been seeing the counselors hard at work.  Many of the counselors are youth themselves who met Christ themselves at Vida Joven camp in past years.  The passion they have for introducing their friends to Christ is very humbling.  Let me share one story with you...

Jose was an average teenager who lived a life where in his free time he liked to be on the street causing trouble.  He was very independent and ruled his house.  His mother and sister were subject to do whatever he asked them to do.  Alcohol, sex, and much more were a major part of his live.  He lived for the party life.  One night while he was out he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, got in the middle of someone else's fight and ended up with two bullets in his spinal cord.  While he survived the injury, from that day on, he was paralyzed from the waist down.  

This brought a whole new set of emotions, let alone lifestyle that Jose had to live.  He became so depressed that he tried to commit suicide unsuccessfully on more than one occasion.  He didn't see what other solutions there were for his life.  One day he was invited to go to Vida Joven club and was then soon invited to Vida Joven camp.  The first summer he came, his heart was hard and didn't really pay attention to the talks or anything spiritual.  However, he was invited back a second summer to camp, in 2010, where he was blown away by the Christ-like attitudes of the staff and counselors.  It was because of peoples attitudes that he decided to give his life to the Lord.   

Since then, he has grown a fire and passion for Christ and for sharing His goodness with others.  This summer in attempt to get some of his friends to come to camp, he rode around neighborhood to neighborhood in his electric wheelchair, selling donuts to raise scholarships to send his friends to camp.  This summer he brought 7 of his friends to camp to meet the Lord.  

Jose is in his wheelchair in the middle, with some of his friends at camp last week.

Please join us in prayer for this last week of camp, for hearts to be broken and for Christ to reveal Himself to the kids that are there this weekend.