15 reasons to celebrate 15 years of CCI/Latin America´s on-going camping ministry in El Salvador

I traveled to El Salvador with Valerie and Victor June 19-26, 2008 to celebrate the 15th anniversary of CCI in El Salvador. I lived here from 1993-1995, and have returned for yearly visits since then.
As I reflected on God´s goodness through the years, a number of reasons to celebrate came to mind which I will enumerate below so we can praise God together!

1. Hundreds of Pastor´s kids relate to other PK´s, share their common struggles and find camradery at camp because key leaders of King´s Castle Ministries (Asambles of God) caught a vision for the impact camping can provide.
   
2. Over a dozen leaders have stayed at the helm of CCI since I left in 1995 and the cumulative effect of continuing the work of teaching courses and equipping others year after year has resulted in thousands of campers finding Christ in camp and being developed as leaders.
   
3. David and Karla Alas, a young couple active in CCI feel called to leave the youth pastorate to begin a new camping ministry designed to offer camp programs first to Christian schools unfamiliar with camping, and then eventually to offer Outdoor Education programs to public schools with a pre-evangelistic thrust.
4. Oscar and Sulma, a newly married couple serving in King´s Castle, a ministry which makes strategic use of camps, have committed the next 10 years of their lives to learn all they can about camping and CCI before they aspire for God to send them off as missionaries somewhere in the world-- taking the tool of camping wherever God leads them.
5. Don Tripplett, founder of King´s Castle ministry in El Salvador which has now expanded into 33 other Spanish speaking countries, has selected 150 games from CCI´s Games Encyclopedia for inclusion in their children´s discipleship materials. So a joint publication project is underway.
   
6. Xenia Sanchez plans on attending our Institute for Forming Instructors-level III in Feb. 2009 in order to learn how we do teacher training so she can build a similiar structure for her church´s 14 -level children´s discipleship materials (picture shows Xenia, Don at left and Sulma and Oscar at the far right).
7. Rixy Leiva, both a certified CCI/LA and ¨Precept upon Precept¨(inductive Bible study) instructor will teach a 10-week long course starting this Sept. 20th on how to create Bible Encounters in Community for camp. Dozens of leaders representing over a 12 churches and para-church ministries will be equipped to create their own Bible study curriculum. None of the Spanish publishing companies are producing Bible study materials for camp so this course meets an urgent need in Latin America.
8. Marco and Evelyn Umana sold their home, are living with her Mother and are actively searching to buy a piece of property on which to develop a camp, a laboratory for leaders to be formed as well as a place for social outreach. This couple has served as the backbone of CCI/LA on-going ministry in El Salvador since its founding.
   
9. Cristina, a certified learning disabilities teacher, faithfully works at the CCI national office on her day off every Monday. She has made incursions into Nicaragua to share about CCI´s ministry there. Every effort, large or small, adds to the bigger whole.
10. Mario Palencia and Mayra de Campos (see picture above) founding members of CCI in El Salvador were present to celebrate as well. Incidently, Mayra first received camping courses in Camp Kikoten, Mexico in the late 1980´s from the leaders who had worked with me there. She later brought those materials from Mexico to El Salvador!
11. New graduates were on hand to celebrate and form part of the history of CCI.
    
12. Laura Murillo, a Sunday School teacher who took the first course I taught in 1993 continues to do camps faithfully each year for her Sunday school class.
    
13. Dinorah Morales, faithfully helps out with administrative tasks year after year during the CCI courses that are served.
    
14. Alfredo Funes, a member of the Board of Directors has caught a vision to use camping to reach out to gang members so prevelant in El Salvador.
    
15. In closing, our mission is fulfilled as God is glorified through CCI/Latin America´s linking the ministry of camping with the work on the local church and para-church organizations as they fulfill the Great Commission.

God answers prayers!- Trip to Costa Rica, June, 2008

Christian Camping International, Latin America Summit:
Every 3-4 years we gather the National leaders of CCI Associations from all around Latin America for a time of fellowship and learning. This year, Don German, led us all in an analysis of the 8 core components of team building. Each National Team was guided in specific tasks related to improving their team work.
Luis Castro, Board president of CCI LA/Peru: What a relief to listen to other CCI folk and realize I am not alone. We all share similar struggles with funding, team members who don't play by the rules, and others who won't get in the game at all! I was so caught up in the management of my "micro-world", I forgot that even on the "macro-level of all of Latin America", we share much in common. Praise God I made it to this Summit. I return to Lima, Peru with a fresh vision.


Latin America Mission Annual Retreat:
Each year the missionaries of a given geographic area gather to meet together for fellowship and inspiration. Although Alfredo was not able to be a part of this gathering, the children grew in their understanding of what it means to be an "MK" (missionary kid).
Where are you from?
Victor and Valerie respond to the inquiring child together: We were born in Pittsburgh. But we live in Honduras. My Mom is American and my Dad is Honduran. So, we are from both places.


Travel mercies:
Thank you for praying for our safety. The kids love to travel and they love airports. They end up playing with the K-9 dogs trained to sniff out drugs. In one airport, while Victor followed the dog around on his sniffing tour of the carryon baggage in the lobby, Valerie entertained (unknowingly) the first row of waiting passengers with a ballet performance. I had the most fun watching people watch them!

Connections:
Family:
If I had to sum up this trip in one word I'd say "connected." Through your prayers, we connected and bonded with a number of people, namely, my brother-in-law, Rogelio. The kids visited a rain forest, a butterfly zoo, we all had a pajama party in his one-bedroom apartment, and watched Narnia: Prince Caspian together.
CCI/Latin America Staff:
There's nothing like doing God's will with people you love. Our staff came from Argentina, Panama, Honduras and Costa Rica to meet. Our kids played in the mud together while we met and pondered whether we needed to make drastic changes in how we develop leaders in CCI/Latin America.
Mission family:
Meeting fellow LAM missionaries continues to inspire and challenge me. There's no other mission agency I'd rather be serving with!