Friday, July 3rd - Cross, Calunsansur Norte, & Barrio retreat

Today we anticipated the start of a few busy days. We had planned to continue the road work today, however, we ran out of materials and they were not replenished. Therefore, as we started our daily Bible study with worship, a jeepney pulled up to the house and we all jumped in. We were going to the cross!!! Across the jungle, on top of a hill west of the house, there is a 50 foot cross. During the morning sunrise, you can see the cross silhouette standing on top of the hill. We don't always get a chance to visit the cross, but since our morning plans fell through, we trekked (via jeepney) down the barrio, across the jungle, and up the hill to get to the cross. Once there, we worshipped, had quiet time, and Tyler Moran led us in our Bible study. It was a special time.

Back at the house, anticipating the arrival of road construction supplies, we were unsuccessful. However, since we were going to be having a busy weekend, we now had the time to get ready for that.

In the afternoon we traveled to Calunansan Norte, a barrio school near us. Once home again, we had just minutes prior to the barrio high school students arriving. In years past, we wanted all to hear about Jesus, therefore we allowed high school, almost high school, and post high school students to come to this weekend. Not only was it very costly to have 170 students for the weekend, but with the wide range of ages (typically the older kids), it brought a lot of "worldly distraction". This year we opened the retreat up to ONLY current high school students. This brought 80 kids to us, and there was such a different spiritual dimension this weekend, than in years past. I know the Lord has been showing us more fruit, but I was completely blown away this weekend. Kids were more open with us, just to have a normal conversation. Typically they are very guarded any shy, but there was more openness to talk about their religion or faith in Jesus. I had many conversations about school, family and faith which surprised me and excited me. Irene and Cheryl were two girls that I connected with. They were both in their first year of high school, and intially shy, they started opening up. It was SO fun to talk with them.

Friday night brought conversations and fun with basketball and volleyball. After dinner we had our "session" which consisted of worship and preaching. Tonight I preached the same message that I preached to the Deaf the previous weekend. It was kind of strange for me though, as usually when I preach I'm signing. Today I was preaching with my voice, trying not to use my hands as much as possible. I can say it was a little more difficult, which is odd. Nevertheless, the Lord still spoke and I believe the students were extremely receptive.