Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Saturday, July 4th - Barrio retreat weekend

Happy 4th of July!!! I can't remember the last time I was in the US for the 4th.... maybe when I was in graduate school in Arizona?

This morning I woke up with a great anticipation for great things today. After our morning Bible study, Amy preached to the barrio students. It was amazing and again, the Lord spoke and the students were receptive. We then had an entire day full of activities for the students, very similar to the previous weekend with the Deaf. We had a scavenger hunt, played Romans & Christians, water balloon toss, tie-dye, friendship bracelets, pool time, and painting toenails. It was a fun time.


After dinner we had our yearly talent show. This year we had a lot of great talents, great singers! After the talent show our team performed our dramas with Joshua explaining each of them to the students. It was an AMAZING time and the Lord moved through those students! Joshua decided to share with the students, reiterating what Amy and I had preached about, really being blunt with the students. I looked behind me, outside, and saw our team praying together, asking the Lord to open the hearts of these students. In front of me Irene and Cheryl sat... I prayed and prayed that the Lord would soften their heart and they would feel the love of the Lord that Joshua was talking about. Well, they did because when Joshua asked who wanted to accept Christ, both of them raised their hands. At least ten others decided they wanted to make that decision as well - praise JESUS! It was amazing! We've never experienced or seen such fruit during a barrio weekend before. All of us were in awe, thanking the Lord for what He had done.

The evening concluded with a thunder and lightening show. It was SO powerful, lightening so frequent and near, the thunder following soon after. Kristie and I opened the blinds of our bedroom and watched it through the floor to ceiling windows. We didn't have fireworks on this Fourth of July, but we had the real thing.

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