Youth retreat filled with tons of energy

What a week!! The past 3 days have been filled with the youth group here. There were 26 of us total. So without us TREKers, the leaders, and staff… there were about 15 youth. Not bad for the community here. They all seemed to have a good time. Its just hard to know for sure though sometimes. Sometimes they just show up to see us and to have something to do. But this week retreat, it was focused on God and connecting with people in your area.
They arrived on Wednesday night at about 10. We just hung out and got everyone ready for bed. We had 14 girls ( 12 mattress ) in a small room… and 9 guys ( 6 mattress ) in another small room. It was hard getting some of them to bed on time. They love to giggle and just stay up. For some of them, this was their first ‘slumber party’!! Yea, that may be hard to believe, but its true. Yesterday morning we had breakfast on a long table. Felt like a big family. We had bread buns and soupy oatmeal. We sat and just chatted like we hadn’t talked to one another in weeks. After breakfast we played some games. We were on two teams and we played some true and false games. Talk about something challenging to have a person reading off the questions who speaks no English at all. He finally gave in and had Lydia give off some questions in English for us TREKers. The one question was pretty funny. She asked who the prime minister of Canada is. On my team it was: Laura ( American ), me ( American ), and Roxy ( Canadian but has a hearing problem )! So… if you didn’t figure it out yet… we last that one!! They had a pretty good laugh on that one. Another question I was eliminated from. Lydia yelled out… Lisa and Jake have been dating 7 months now!!! It was a fight to sit in the ‘True’ seat!! Everyone here knows I’m dating Jake and they ask everyday how he is doing! Makes me feel good and it helps me see how much I miss him.
After our games, Jano had devotions and it was a tear jerker. He talked about how much God did for us on the cross. He talked about how when they nailed him to the cross, they had to pull his arms out of their sockets and they were pulled out about 10 cm more then a normal arm. So for him to breathe, he would’ve had to push up on his nail feet to open up his lungs enough to take a breath!! OUCH!! He showed us 2 different clips from the ‘Passion of the Christ’! One of Jesus getting whipped and tortured, one of him being nailed to the cross, and one of the things that could’ve ran through Jesus’ mind while on the cross. It really touched my heart and made we wince at the sight. I had to turn away. I’ve seen that movie before and I’ve watched it all, but for some reason, I couldn’t this time. After the devotion was over, we were to get up and hug everyone. We saw some crying, watched their facial expressions change while getting hugged, and some just happy to be living.
After the hugs, we went out on a prayer walk. We split up and just walked around the neighborhood and prayed for each house, each person we saw, and just the whole Peruvian country. It wasn’t something I’ve ever done, and I found it relaxing, touching, and just amazing. After about a half an hour, Otto was walking beside me and he was explaining some things to me about the different streets and the houses. Some I found shocking, some I found amazing, and others were just the usual. We had some good talks and discussed the differences and similarities between Abbotsford Canada, Lima Peru, and Cannelburg Indiana.
Later we watched a movie. It felt so much like home. We were all spread out on the floor, mattress, and on chairs. We laughed and cried. We had the movie in Spanish and subtitles in English. It was so much fun how we can actually relate to each other. Just because we have a language barrier, we find ways to connect and to get through to each other. We watched a touching movie called ‘Pay it Forward’. Amazing movie!!
This morning we woke up and had another breakfast and then we headed to the beach. We were there about 5 hours!! Talk about a lot of sun!! We did a lot of body surfing, laying out, and hiding in the shade of the umbrellas! Beaches here are so amazing to just sit back and watch. There are ice cream carts being pushed around you every 2 minutes and just tons of kids running around. One thing I noticed though… their ocean has a stronger salt taste then Florida beaches do! We all did a lot of system cleaning while body surfing! But even through that, it was a lot of fun.
After 3 days hanging out with their youth, I can honestly say that I am wore out! They have a lot more energy then Americans or Canadians and they love to use it up in one throw! Its hard to keep up but it’s a lot of fun. I love it here and cant image being anywhere else at this moment. God is good and God is amazing!! He will never let you down.
Oh and we got Poncho ( the parrot ) to say ‘Party On’!!! Talk about some happy TREKers!! We were pretty excited!