Vacation Bible School 2009

We would like to say "thank you" to all the folks who helped us help the local churches with Vacation Bible School. As many of you know, school is out here November, December and part of January. So, as the U.S. churches do in the summer vacation, we have Vacation Bible School during the vacation break...usually in November or early December. We had many gifts from teams that came down during the year of craft supplies, Bibles and a special gift from a good friend in Decatur, Alabama, which supplied materials for teaching. In all, we were able to help 8 churches with craft supplies, teaching materials (in Spanish, of course), Spanish Bibles and money to help support the VBS. The church of the pastor in the photo is doing three VBS programs - in their church and in 2 other villages that do not have an evangelical church present. In one, they use the local school without any electricity. Just this one church alone reaches about 250 children! So you see why we are so thankful for your gifts! It is amazing to see the ingenuity of the teachers to make some kind of craft project out of whatever they are given! God has blessed these programs in reaching children for Christ and God will bless you for helping. All of the pastors we have helped have wanted us to tell you all...

Gracias, Maltiox, Thank you!

He came to work...and work he did! Wayne Campbell, the youth pastor at our home church, First Bible Church of Decatur, Alabama, visited us for a week in October. He wanted to see what we did and boy did he ever!

Wayne spent a couple of days learning to tie wire and make concrete on the ground. He was helping us prepare for the dedication of the Camp by putting up a wall and fence at the end of the soccer field.



He also spent almost every evening helping out with some computer problems!

But everything he did wasn't work! We did visit Panajachel and Antigua. Here, you can see him climbing the waterfall between the Camp and Panajachel!

Thank you, Wayne, for all of your work! But most of all, thank you for coming to visit and lift us up!

Centennial Camp Dedication

Finally, after three years of work! Monday, November 2nd, all of our churches were invited to join us in a dedication of Centennial Camp. We had just returned to the Camp the evening before after a week in Dallas, but were up early Monday morning to welcome around 1,000 of our church members to see what Centennial Camp was all about! Below are some pictures of the day:

We had children and ancianos and everyone in between!

The basketball court, the papifut court, the playground equipment and, especially, the new bathrooms were all utilized!

As you can see, we packed them in!

We were joined by several of our CAM staff - Niel and Diana Thomas, Glenn Stewart, Brandon Scott (who didn't show up in pictures because he took many of these!), Joel, Vivian and Josh Lara and finally Mike Stephenson, who represented CAM International in the dedication!

We welcomed everyone...I managed to do it in English, Spanish and Quiche! After a time of worship, a devotional by the president of the national Centoramerican church consejo, a congratulatory speech by Mike Stephenson of CAM and a prayer of dedication by Joel Lara...

We enjoyed praise music by a ensemble from the Esmirna church in Solola! There were about 6 marimba players playing on 2 marimbas, a bass, drums and various percussion instruments. You can see the drummer above...he really enjoyed what he was doing!

Finally, the ribbon was cut on the new building! Then...what everyone had been waiting for...

fun and games! Noe refereed the guys' papifut games while the ladies played a basketball tournament! I didn't get a picture of the winners with their trophies because during this time they also started feeding the crowd.

We only had about 1,000 people...I can't imagine the crowd of 5,000 that Jesus fed! Puts it all in perspective, doesn't it?

I want to thank all of the teams we have had in the last 3 years and who worked so hard on the Camp. This was only the beginning of what we will have, but it was a good start! Thanks to you all and God bless you!