Youth Camp

Last week, Chris and I were  at a campground in Magdalena where they were holding a Youth Camp for young people from the age of 11 to early twenties. Chris was there as the main speaker, and I also spoke in workshops for the youth.

The Journey there probably took around nine hours driving, although we stopped for regular breaks. It was one long road straight through a desert which reminded me of old western films. Only there was no sheriff, but strangley enough there was one federal police car sitting at the side of the road in the middle of absolutely nowhere. Further along in our journey I discovered a humungus amount of cactus growing in the desert. Some even resembled telephone poles from a distance. This is probably common knowledge for people in America and Mexico, but being from Scotland it is not something you would normally see…..well if you want to count that my gran used to have a cactus plant sitting on her livingroom window sill, which is probably the closest I have seen if you get my drift.

The weather was very hot for the first part of the week, followed by torrential rain, which was a good thing for the land there as Magdalena had been having a drought for some time.

While at the camp I had held a workshop sharing my testimony about how God brought me from Scotland to Mexico. The theme for the week was ‘Called.’ I shared a bit about Scotland, what it is like there, a bit about myself, how I met Chris, and how God spoke to me in different ways. What was once a thought and idea had became our reality. The purpose of the workshop was to encourage the youth to discuss where they think God is calling them even if at this stage they may still be trying to seek what that may be. The workshop also encouraged them to pray for one another in their groups.

I remember the first morning I walked on stage. I noticed that the floor where the pulpit was seemed to be uneven. However, I continued to speak while Chris interpreted. All was going well. Then at the end of my talk I had placed the microphone on top of the pulpit as we were about to start running a slide show. The pulpit, which wasn’t attached properly, fell off causing the whole thing to fall flat on the platform followed by a huge bang and some giggles from the audience.

After the workshop, someone decided to nail the pulpit down. Apparently it wasn’t the first time it had happened…we all saw the funny side. The next workshop everything went well. God was working in the hearts and minds of the Youth there throughout the week resulting in 36 people making the decision to follow Christ.

The camp for the youth was certainly a fun packed week with not only devotional times and teaching but games like table tennis, football ,basketball, and mud slides to name a few. There were all sorts of different activities for all ages. On the last night some of the youth shared their testimonies of what God had done in their own lives over the past week. It was amazing to hear how grateful they were to have made the decision to come to the camp and how much they had enjoyed the experience. A lot of the youth made new friends and had felt encouraged by the teaching.

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