Retiro de los jovenes

That either means "Youth Retreat" or "youth retirement".... maybe both. At any rate, it was SCW in Mexico.

It was fantastic. We drove out Friday afternoon to the campamento and got everyone signed in and settled in, then had some dinner. Afterwards, Henry gave a teaching about discipleship and its importance in not only changing indvidual lives but changing the world around us.

We played some crazy games after the first teaching. They involved a lot of running around in circles and mass chaos sometimes, but they were really fun. They all seemed to revolve around marriage and society somehow. Finally, when everyone was thoroughly exhaused and soaked in sweat, we went outside for a campfire. We had a time of sharing (one girl told everyone she had accepted Christ earlier that day), talked about why communion was important, took communion, sang a bit, made s'mores and hung out til some obscenely late hour :)

The next day we had breakfast, 2 smaller breakout sessions (one about discipleship and one about evangelism). Omar taught the discipleship one and Andres and Armando taught the evangelism one. After that, we had a lot of free time, which I spent talking to Justin (the random American Diplomat who found the church through some random happening). In the Afternoon we had lunch, another teaching session (Alex talked about evangelism (seeing a theme to the retreat yet?)), and then free time until we left.

It was really encouraging to see eveyone get so excited and to hear really straight-forward teachings on Evangelism and Discipleship; the definitive points of the Great Commission.

Alex has asked me to teach a class on the practicals of evagelism, since all of theirs have been on the importance of it. They've talked about the "why" and they want me to talk about the "how." I don't think it will be too bad; the most effective ways are usually the simplest. Yes, there are creative ways like surveys and evangecubes and soulariums; there are less confrontational ways like inviting people to church and hoping they pick up on the gospel...but ultimately, nothing can replace the effectiveness of sitting down and talking with someone. Tell them about what God has done in your life. Tell them what the Bible says about Jesus and what he did (and why). Granted, if you sit down with someone, whether you know them or not, and talk to them about Jesus, there will be times you get rejected, mocked, or have terribly awkward situations. But if you sit down with people and tell them about Jesus, there will be people who listen, believe and have a relationship with God because of your obedience... definitely worth it.