La Cumbre
I want to ask you to prayerfully consider supporting Mike and Amy Parsons and their great kids Emrie, Eden, Ezekiel, and Ezra, as they minister to missionary kids across Costa Rica and even other countries in Central America. Here is how you can make a gift:
https://cfci.org/support/the-parsons-family/
It should not be as hard as it is for missionaries to get funded! There are some missionary pitfalls we can help people avoid. 47% of missionaries won't finish their term. Some of it is lack of funding; some never raise enough to go. Some struggle with isolation. The youth ministry we are working with tries to address the social issues facing missionary kids. It was started many years ago to be a place for kids whose families were at a missionary language training center. AMCA is a Spanish acronym which in English means Association of English-speaking Christian Missionaries. They try to help with the isolation and homesickness missionary kids can feel. This is Great Commission work, keeping the missionary families encouraged and in the field where they can work to share the Gospel.
This campout, there have been three baptisms in the creek that runs thru the camp. It's such an important place in their lives, that they make plans to be baptized here.
It is a very humbling thing when people are thankful to you for sharing the Word of God with others. Very humbling. One of the young men who was baptized and his family were so thankful that he was following baptism up with being at a camp with solid teaching of the Word. How blessed am I to get to be a servant of the Word?
It's always interesting to share at a youth camp. You worry if you're getting through. You wonder... too heavy? Too simple? And then they blow you away because they ask deep questions without fear. They want to think hard about what they are learning.
One thing I will share with them tomorrow: if a Christian has a character defect, would you want them to get closer to, or farther away from Jesus? Not just His teachings, but Who He Is? Where this thought started was with a Christian philosopher my dad and I heard, who asked it more specifically. If a Muslim has violent tendencies, would you want him to get closer to Muhammad or farther away? If a Christian has violent tendencies, would you want him to get closer to Jesus or farther away? You'd want a violent Muslim to get as far from Muhammad as you could get him. And you'd want a violent Christian to get as close to Jesus as you could get him.
And a follow-up question I have for them: pretend you are not a believer and are hearing about Jesus for the first time. Would you want Christianity to be true? I hope to break through some clutter in our heads, get past being inoculated with the Gospel, where we think we know it because we are in church all the time.
On another note, being here in Costa Rica with a lot of missionaries and their kids reminds me of God's faithfulness to me. Every time I put my fork to a plate, there are a lot of faithful people who have given to the abundance I have. That is also very humbling.