Anyways, last week I had the opportunity to attend a week long conference in Kawai with all 16 of Scripture Union's full time schools and campsite workers from all over the country. Once a year the entire group gets together for a week of reporting successes and failures, encouraging each other, and training to become equipped with more skills to enable them in their ministry. I really enjoyed the week! I learned so much about the schools ministry. Did you know that on a weekly basis during the height of the school year we are reaching more than 35,000 students in 14 provinces of Peru? It is very exciting to see how God is at work and to see how he is raising up volunteers within His church to minister to the children of Peru!
I was brought to Kawai for the week because Betty Purchase, a member of the regional council for the Americas region of Scripture Union, was presenting a few devotionals and training sessions. She does not speak Spanish, so I had the privilege of translating for her. I arrived in Peru just over a year ago, and it is exciting for me to see how faithful God is and how my Spanish continues to improve. A year ago, I would definitely not have been comfortable translating such a formal event into Spanish. There were still some bumps in the road--most notably when Betty pulled out a very old hymn to quote. I didn't even completely understand the hymn in English. The group was very graceful as I struggled through the translation of the hymn. Betty spoke about the importance of following Jesus' model of leadership in her first session, and in her second session she gave us some new ideas about how to dynamically share the history and the stories in the Bible with children and youth.
While at Kawai, we also had a number of workshops led by Katherine Urbano of Christian Camping International. She gave us many, many ideas for future camp programs, and she really bonded with the group during the week. For me, it was an opportunity to regress back to my childhood a little bit--especially during the session where she taught us some new games to play with our campers. We learned water games, parachute games, awkward dances, and much more. Katherine really had a gift for taking a fun game and tying it into a life lesson or Biblical value. It was definitely time well spent.
Apart from the business of all of the meetings and training, last week was also a great opportunity for me to get to know the schools and campsite workers better. I knew some of them, but I had never even met almost half of them. Most of the year they are spread all throughout Peru's provinces. As I continue to get to know more people who are involved with Scripture Union, I begin to feel more a part of the organization. I have said it before, but it is so exciting for me to be a part of this great work that God is doing in Peru!
I leave you with a few pictures of the week at Kawai. To see all of my pictures, visit my Flickr page: www.flickr.com/billygreenman.
Hanging out at a shopping center near Kawai
David, Pepe, and I at the beach of Kawai
The group!
God's undeniable beauty!
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