Hola! It’s Jacob and Lauren Reinking! We are in the home stretch of our time here at Casa Berea and we’ve really settled into a routine. We have seen these kids go from strangers to friends in a few days and even got to witness a Justin Bieber concert from a young student, including an amazing hair swoop (just like the original Biebs). Our team has grown closer through not only prayers being answered but through trials as well.
Some Highlights:
- 4th of July “Let Freedom Ring Bonanza” was a TOTAL HIT! We have had multiple students tell us that is their favorite activity thus far. The best part of this may have been the spontaneous water balloon fight between the campers and counselors.
- We have had worship time every morning with multiple students (some who were not Christians). It has been awesome to hear worship in different languages and know that God understands it all.
- Participation in our evening activities has been great and it is encouraging for our team to see our planning work out well.
- Hsi Hsi Po (Tuesday)and Jacob Reinking (Wednesday) shared their testimonies with the students, and they were very curious about different aspects of their stories. It is cool to see God working in their hearts through the questions they have about faith in Christ.
- During our workshop times with the students, they enjoy trying to show off their basketball skills on the half court at the camp. We may have gotten a little too competitive, but we left the court with no injuries!
Prayer Requests:
- Praise for continued growth in the students. We can clearly see the underlying hurt in some of our student’s lives and how God is slowly allowing them to share more and more of their stories with us. This allows us a space to pray with them and share the Gospel in a unique way.
- Pray for our team’s health. A few members have mentioned that they are starting to feel sick, so prayers that the little sleep that we are able to get allows us to stay healthy.
- Pray for encouragement within our team. All of us have experienced disrespect in some way from students and it has been difficult to try to get all the students to listen to instructions or testimonies.
- Pray that God will be able to give us the right words to say, and even with the language barrier we would be able to display his love and care for them.
