From July 31 through August 4, we were at youth camp with 12 of our youth, plus Mili and Julio who were already there as students in a 5-week Bible school that was hosted at the campsite. The camp was in La Cruz, Sinaloa (about 4 hours north of us), and we actually CAMPED the whole week. If you know me at all, you know that I DON'T LIKE TO CAMP...but this was a good time. And though my team found three scorpions the first day, thankfully, none of them found their way into any tents and no one was harmed by them. So, I survived the camping experience.
Here's a shot of the campsite. The tents are the boys' tents. The long silver roof was our meeting area. The red tents are actually outside the camping area. Behind them is the eating area, the girls palapa, and then the girls tents.
At some point in the last couple of years, someone went up on a mountain and painted this rock. It overlooks camp. This pic was taken with a lot of zoom in the lens. In reality, it looks more like this:
Regardless....we were reminded that Jesus is looking out for us at all times, and that Jesus is our reason for being there!The camp is put on by a church in La Cruz called Cosecha Final, which means "Final Harvest", and there were probably around 100 youth there from many different places throughout Mexico. There were even a few from Texas and Tijuana! Steve used to work with the ministry of Cosecha Final and remains good friends with the pastors there. Our kids have been going to this camp since it started I believe, which was 4 years ago, and they have a really great relationship with the youth group of Cosecha Final. Our kids always look forward to this camp with enthusiasm, and this year was no exception. It was my first time attending, though I've heard a ton about it since coming to Cofradia, and it was a really great experience. It was fun to be able to be involved. Our summer intern went with as well, and he and I were asked to be team "tutors" (kind of like team parents) together for the same team for the week. That was quite an experience but lots of fun.
Here we are! Lineup: (Back L-R)Julio, Martin, Pedro, Gollito, Ruben. (Middle L-R)Steve, Jonathan, Big Chuy, Riki, Little Chuy, Jose Luis. (Front L-R)Leonor, Mirna, Cecilia, Mili, Me, Sandy
Never judge a book by it's cover. We look serious and "holy" here, but crack open the shell and.....
....we're really just crazy! -- It's great that we can have fun with Jesus!The theme this year was "Con Paso Firme", which means "With a Firm Step", but
basically the idea is of setting your course and not looking back -- Commitment and Dedication. There were several different speakers, all of which were relevant and dynamic and a ton of fun to listen to. Their messages were great and almost all of the youth that attended the camp responded to just about every sermon they heard that week. Worship was great and completely youth-led by the youth band from Cosecha Final. It was dynamic and full of energy and fun, but it was heart-felt and passionate as well. It was neat to see the youth so 
deeply involved in their worship. It was just about singing or having fun, it was about worshiping their God and Savior, and they took it seriously. Every evening there was a ministry time, and I found myself amazed every time at how many kids would go forward during the calls to receive prayer and respond to how the Lord was speaking to them. It was neat to hear some of the stories from our own youth about how the Lord spoke to them or changed them during those times of ministry and prayer.Here's a video of one of the worship services. They are singing a song that says, "I will sing. I will dance....Like the eagle I will fly." So...the pastors decided to set an example and FLY!
Jonathan and I were the team parents for the Purple team. Sandy and Pedro were part of our team! This is us in our little "fox hole" we were supposed to create for team time.By the end of th week each team presented both a humorous sketch that presented some sort of message as well as a choreography to music selected by the camp organizers and given to the team at the beginning of the week.
Martin's team wrote a sketch about a prince who wants to go off and be a missionary. Martin was the King, and the short girl was the Queen. In the end they chose to be missionaries with their son!
Gollito's team wrote a funny rendition of the story of Elijah (or was it Elisha?) and the woman whom he told to keep filling pots with oil until her debts were paid. The girl in black is the woman, and the three boys are her sons that she would have had lost if she couldn't pay he debts.
Jose Luis' team created a choreography to a song called "Siguelo", which means "Follow Him". They marched in like an army, and that's then the music started. They did a great job!
My team (the purple team) wrote a choreography to a song that talks about how when we are walking in the Spirit, there's nothing that can stop us!After lunch, there was a bit of free time, which usually got used to work on the sketches or choreographies, and then began the day's games. Each day held some sort of competitive games: relays, sports games, etc.
This team decided to pray together before they began their turn through the relay on our second day of camp. 
First station of the relay: Find the bag of rocks with your team's colored ribbon on it in this nasty pool of water, which happened to be the home of a huge frog...BLINDFOLDED! The team was shouting directions from the sidelines.
Second station was to do a backwards crawl under the strings through the mud
Third station was some sort of shock machine. The kids had to hold hands in a circle with the one at each end holding onto the rods of the machine. The more power they withstood, the more points they got.
Here's Mirna at the fourth station, which was to cross from one side to the other on this rope...it's a lot harder than it looks!
The fifth station was to do the human wheelbarrow with three on the ground and only two holding onto the six legs! From here, they had to find a ribbon in their team color and then head to the stage to find out their time for finishing the relay.
On the third day of camp, one of the competitions was to run around and catch this pig!
Here's Martin with his prize! 
Another competition the third day was to play mini soccer with your wrists tied to your ankles! Here's Julio and Leonor (two different teams) at the kickoff.
Then the teams had to make water balloons and toss them to their teammate with the buckets who had to try and catch them in the buckets. Here's Pedro doing his best!For day 3 competitions they also brought in a rodeo bull-riding machine. They got points for how long they could stay on! Here's a video of Steve giving it a whirl!
In the evenings there was another message and worship, ministry time, and then the evening's version of being "voted off the island" -- modeled after survivor. See, throughout the day the teams were earning and losing points based on the games as well as other things such as the use of foul language, attitude, and participation. At the end of the day all points were tallied, and the last three teams had to participate in this trivia time to determine which two of the three teams would be "saved" and have to do chores (clean the campsite and clean the bathrooms) and which team would have to sleep outside the camp with no tents (exposed to elements and animals such as scorpions...though they've never had someone get stung when sleeping outside the camp). My team slept outside the camp the first night we were there. But we were never nominated again!
This was the first night's Nominations. You can see my team (the girl in yellow was our team leader, and Jonathan is behind her giving the thumbs up) there trying to save themselves during the trivia portion.After the Nominations time, there was often another sort of mini-presentation by one of the speakers, and then everyone had about a half-hour to get ready for bed before lights out at midnight!
It was quite a busy week, but it was a ton of fun. The last night of camp was the awards ceremony and "concert". This is where they awarded the first, second, and third-placed teams as well as various individual awards. It was quite exciting because Mili's team (of which she was team leader) won first place, Mirna's team (one of our newest and youngest girls) won second place, and Cecilia's team (another one of the younger girls in youth group) won third place! In addition, Mili was awarded the Most-Creative award, and Martin was awarded the Best Worshiper award! It was a very proud moment!
Normally, the first place team wins $5000 pesos to do what they want with it. This year however, the leadership felt that it would be a good idea to donate the money to different people in need from the La Cruz/Mazatlan area. The first place team donated $3000 to a one-year-old girl with leukemia who has little hope of recovery if she can't get to some doctors in Mexico city which is VERY far away (several days by bus). The second and third place teams each gave $1000 to needy families in the area. At least one of those families didn't have a house! It was neat to see the kids so excited about this idea. The leadership presented the change to all the kids at the beginning of the week, so their efforts that week were going towards a cause, and they went for it with all they had.
After the awards were over, there was a worship concert until the wee hours of the morning since there's no lights-out on the last night. I fell asleep around 2 am after chatting with Sandy in the tent for a while. However, I'm told that the concert ended around 3 am, and the last stragglers, including some from our group, went to bed around 4. Crazy kids!!
Our trip home was quite an adventure as the alternator in the van died about an hour into our trip. As we were on the side of the highway waiting for Steve to come back in the Chevy truck from calling Dave, the kids all started saying, "this is what happens when we don't pray first, so we need to pray now." So, we all gathered inside the van and prayed over the rest of the day. When Steve got back, we moved all the luggage from the truck to the van and all but 1 of the 12 kids (that's 11 kids total) over to the truck -- the four girls up front with me in the cab, and 7 guys in the back inside the camper with the tailgate and back window CLOSED. Then I proceeded to drive us all home. We met Dave in Acaponeta (about 1.5 hours from home) where we switched trucks. He went back to help Steve get the van home using the Chevy, and I took all the kids home in the 68 Ford pickup (manual transmission, steering, and brakes!). In the end we all got home, without luggage, quite content with the events of the week (for the most part).
It was really amazing to see how these kids handled the hiccups of the trip home. The week's theme had been fixing our eyes on the goal and walking towards it unwavering. They knew they'd be tested in their resolve after leaving camp, but they did not think it would come so soon. In the end they took a situation that could have been (and was for some) very frustrating and discouraging and instead turned it into an enjoyable adventure for which they were thankful. It was s true testimony to the Lord's work in their hearts during their week at camp. And it was only the beginning of the manifestation of how the Lord had worked and is continuing to work in them all.
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