Kings Kids!

Wow this past week has really been awesome and intense. The campers from the island are doing great. We have had several kids leave on the account of missing home and also just the intense environment. The camp is really for kids who know the Lord, although half of the kids that came never accepted Christ as their own Savior. Now all the kids who remain which is 16 campers in all have accepted Christ. Two of the Girls, Elizabeth and Rashan left beacause there mother said they had to and the left sadly because they were begining to see Jesus for the 1st time. So pray that the seeds that were planted in the 1st 3 days would sprout in their hearts. The teachings are great. Very basic but deep teachings as well, sometimes I wonder if the kids are grasping the teachings but the main focus of Kings Kids is to never underestimate the students/kids. The teachings are filled with all kids of dramas and exciting events that the campers get involved with. Like the picture above on the left. It is wonderful, we have seen significant growth in all of the kids. They are understanding the teachings. It really is excititng to see lives being transformed right in front of our eyes.

Renita and I are helping as much as possible. We help lead worship every night and we try to sit in all the classes that are held. I am helping with the Basketball outreach team and Renita is helping with the Dance and Coreography team. This coming weekend we will go off the base and do evagelism through sports, drama and dance. We are so excited to be apart of this camp. Please pray for us. Our schedule is full from 7am to 9:30pm so pray for strength and that our hearts would continue to grow for the Caribbean youth. Pray also for our Marriage as well. we are begining to realize more and more how key it is to keep our marriage healthy and thriving at all times as we are here. Praise God that He is Good and he has kept us from falling!!

We have received word that our permits for Jamaica are coming as well so praise God for that. We are planning to leave for Jamaica in the next two weeks to start preparing for the upcoming DTS that we will be staffing. Continue praying though for our permits because we dont have them yet.

I leave you with a verse in John 12:23-24 "Now the time has come for the Son of Man to enter into His Glory! I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels-a plentiful harvest of new lives." read on into the next verses. God is good!

The Kids have arrived!

The last two weeks in St. Croix have been pretty full and amazing running "Jericho Kids" which is a VBS for about 45 kids ages 5-12. It was a blast. Most of the kids who came live in the project areas of St. Croix. It is truly a blessing for Renita and I to be here in St. Croix at this time. Also, just yesterday, Sunday the 19th, We started "Kings Kids!" There is a team of 58 people from Puerto Rico and some of them were the founders of Kings Kids 20 years ago. There are 21 kids here from the island being students in the camp. The camp is two weeks long and they stay overnight here the whole time. The Camp is filled with Jesus, they do work duties daily, they have 2 hours of teaching a day from teachers who just are pouring out their hearts for these kids, they have dance and drama or sports ministry tiem everyday. The heart of Kings Kids is to not ever underestimate the children or teenagers. There are staff here with the team who have been in Kings Kids since they were 8 and are now having their own families and living a life after God. Some of the staff on the Puerto Rican team a just 8 years old. Last night was the introduction to Kings Kids and it blew Renita and I away. Kings Kids is saturated with God. The team coming from Puerto Rico and their hearts... is something to be admired! They are so excited even though this will be there 7th week straight of Kings Kids. I pray that Renita and I will be able to catch whatever this team has and live it out daily.
During the next two weeks our job is to watch and learn. The Heart of the Puerto Rican team is to model the camp for us so we can model it elsewhere. We are so excited for this next two weeks so please pray for us as we are surrounded by teachers who are even 10 years younger than us we want to feel God's heart beating excitedly within in them and have beat even stronger than it already is in our own hearts.
Our plan is still to go to Jamaica after the two weeks of Kings Kids. We will be staff on a 5 month long Disscipleship Training School. We are still in need of Work Permits to be released from the Jamaican Consulate so pray that these permits come asap. We refuse to let the enemy work in our lives.
And we just want to say thank you again for all the support that you all have given to us through prayer, finances and friendship. We are truly being blessed greatly here and pray that you all will reap the benefits as well! Blessings!

The last month in St. Croix

The school that we are attending here started last month on the 11th and we have one more week to go with it. This "DTS Equip" school has really been a helpful tool for Renita and I as we think and processing pioneering . It is focused on leadership in YWAM and what that really looks like. We have had proffessional teaching and great staff leaders to disciple us as we go along in the school. We are so blessed to be here and receive excellent advice and words from the Lord. We are doing well as a married couple. We are as healthy as ever and the Lord is really teaching us to love one another more. We praise God for all the people who are praying for us and supporting us. We miss home a little bit but the Lord is giving us grace to walk out in our calling. Thanks to all!!

Here in St. Croix

The past few days that we have been here in St. Croix have been extremely life giving. We were invited to the YWAM Caribbean Strategy Conference, which in short is family time for all the YWAM leaders in the Caribbean. There was about 65-70 people here and 17 different nations represented. They talked a lot about just going back to the roots of their faith, not even as YWAM'ers but as followers of Christ. We also had the priveledge of ferrying to St. Thomas where the Moravian Missions movement began when Moravians sold themselves into slavery to reach the slaves in St. Thomas. Those few that went understood that spreading the gospel is more important than their own lives and it was really good just to meditate on that kind of radical lifestyle.

It was really good for Renita and I to be there to attend the conference just to see how all these leaders bond together and strategically pray for different ways to reach out not only in the Caribbean but the rest of the world and especially the unreached and children. Renita and I are very excited coming out of that time and going into a receiving of teachings time as we enter the DTS Equip on monday may 11th. Please pray that Renita and I will have the ears to hear God and the willingness to obey what he asks of us. Thank you all so much for praying for us! Bless you as you seek his face!