Day 2 and 3

Our day two and three on the field were completely different from each other. On day two, we did the same camps and youth rally. It went great! We had some of the children in Camarsu act out David and Goliath. They loved this, and it helped them pay more attention to the story. They did their craft for that as well. We sang songs and played games. All in all the camp went great! We then had the youth rally. The youth rally also couldn't have gone better. We had a message, music, games, and other things. The youth were very respectful in the church. At the end, Daniel Byrd felt called to share the story about the lost sheep. He told that story and had a time for anyone to come forward that felt led. We prayed and sang, but no one came forward. Daniel still felt like someone was denying the Lord. He opened it up one last time. It was then that we had two young gentleman come forth. One came down who was already a christian. He just wanted to take a stand and tell everyone that he wanted to start living for Christ. Even though he believed, he was not living the right way. What a blessing! The second youth that came down, came crying. He prayed to receive Christ! Daniel had mentioned that this young man wouldn't attend the Bible studies in his village, but we believe it was because the Holy Spirit had been convicting him. That day was the day that the Lord broke his heart! Praise the Lord! The boy has asked Daniel to meet with him each week to basically disciple him. What a huge change this young man has already gone through just by saying "yes" to God's call!

Here is my wonderful "uncle" and missionary friend, Daniel Byrd at the youth rally. He is INCREDIBLE! The Roma people are so blessed to have him be a part of their lives.

Day 3. On day three we started out like normal. We went and had worship as a group, then we headed out to the villages for the youth camps. My group seemed excited to see the kids for another day. It was an especially hot day, so the mothers had requested we do everything in the shade. There wasn't much shade, but we managed to squeeze in there for the day. Just as a little background information... each year on our last day of camps the Americans pass out candy, toys, clothes... and so on. Well, when we got to the camp there were many kids and many parents. I couldn't think of why there were so many, until they started asking us for things. The only reason they had come was to get the stuff they thought we were passing out. We told them that we were not here to bring them material things, but we were there to share the Bible and about Jesus. This made some of them SO mad at us. We had children AND parents stealing recreation equipment and craft materials from us. If you know anything about Camarasu, then you know that this is not something that ever happens. It surprised me, and it really bothered me that they are stealing when they are working so hard to change that image or reputation. My group decided to pack everything up and keep everything with us, so they wouldn't have the chance to steal. In the middle of all of this chaos, God tolod me to just wait and be patient. I had the parents, youth, and my crew members angry at me. Many of the parents wanted us to leave. Many of the youth had hurt feelings because we weren't giving them things. Many of the crew members were just upset and angry. We ended up sitting aroudn for a while. As the people began to realize that we weren't going to give them things they started to leave. Now, I know this sounds bad to say they were leaving the Bible study, but it ended up being a HUGE blessing from God. See, the morning before all of this our prayer was to remove distractions. Well, God answered that prayer. He removed those who were only there to get things. This left the ones who just wanted love and to hear about God to stay there with us. The last two hours of our time there was incredibly peaceful. We just spent quality time with those who stayed. The plan of salvation was presented to many of them. Many of them seemed very interested. I left that camp feeling as if God was there. In the middle of all of the chaos and madness...He was there. He calmed it, and He answered our prayers. It was amazing! After our camp we left to eat dinner. We then went to our last youth rally. There at the rally our focus was on the plan of salvation. All 60 something youth heard the gospel. Many students seemed to have had their hearts stirred. It was a great time of fellowship. Many were very responsive to the gospel, but only God knows how genuine they were in their heart. If nothing else, I know that seeds were planted this week. I also know that God was here. I also know that he reminded me again that God can take complete chaos and create absolute perfection and beauty!
Peace and love

Here is a picture of Betty and Sabrina. The two from the earlier blogs that I had asked specific prayer for:

Here is a picture of me with one of my other girls from Camarasu. Aren't these people beautiful?!