You haven't seen anything yet!

The other day I stood in my bedroom and looked out the window on the life God has given me.
...the children, home two weeks from school due to the swine flu playing gleefully out in the yard with the five puppies our dog Fofer just had....
...my husband peacefully working across the hallway in the home office...
...me, sweaty from riding my stationary bike...blessed with good health...

...Lord, I sighed, "I feel almost guilty I'm so blessed..... I've done nothing to deserve this or earn it....
Almost imperceptibly, I heard God whisper:
You haven't seen anything yet! Wait until you get to heaven. This is but a taste of what is yet to come. This is my nature, generous beyond belief.

I literally laughed out loud, joyfully surprised by His whimsical nature. I hadn't expected such a response, it sounded almost like: You ain't seen nothing yet! :)

Can you relate? Have you ever felt so blessed that you actually feel a twinge of guilt?
Tell me about it by clicking on "observations" below and sharing your story.

I had seen it as an uphill climb but now I can say "we are a team"!

Our impressions after touring 4 camp sites in Honduras, by the national CCI Latin America/Honduras team

The weekend of the 21st to the 23rd of August, 2009 the national team of CCI LA/Honduras visited 4 camp sites in the area of Siguatepeque, Yojoa Lake (Peña Blanca), and El Progreso.

Here I share the observations of all (In the picture we are all gathered in one of the cabins at the Cerro de Luz Camp, directed by Ken Vissers).

Lisa Anderson-Umana:

It was easy to make the arrangements; God blessed the little effort that it required. This encourages me to go back to do another tour in the area of the Yojoa Lake in the spring of next year.

We began the tour traveling from Tegucigalpa with 6 adults (Alfredo, Lisa, Blanca, Cesar, Kenya and Blanca) and 4 children to spend that night at the Cerro de Luz Camp, where Ana Cerrato and Ken Vissers received us with open arms.

Early in the morning another group arrived from San Pedro Sula (Juan and Norma Canales, Nora Granados, her sister and her husband Julio Granados) and from Cofradia (Melba Argueta).

After receiving the guided tour of Cerro de Luz Camp, given by Ken Vissers, we all headed towards Peña Blanca where there is Camp Jerusalem, which belongs to the Shalom International Ministry, a church in San Pedro Sula. This time Ken was with us.

There was a strong spirit of camaraderie among us. We shared our experiences at camps and our impressions of the places that we visited.

After the tour in Jerusalem Camp (and a delicious fried fish lunch thanks to Shalom’s generosity) we went to Ovidio Decroly School’s site that is between Bufalo and Villa Nueva (see the pictures below)

At the end of the day, we went with Pastor Marsio Mejía from the Central American Church of El Progreso, Yoro. His property is an hour away from El Progreso, deep into the mountains, and they are still virgin lands. With a spectacular view of the Sula Valley!

When we got to each site we asked the following questions:

· What is your vision?

· How do you hope to use your camp or what use are you currently giving to this site?

Kenia Riera de Alonzo:

"When we formally established the national CCI LA/ Honduras team in October 2007 with the help of Robert Bruneau, I never thought that we would be able to travel visiting sites all together. In fact, we didn’t have that much notion of what camping was all about, so this tour was a dream come true!"

Blanca Cardona:

“As we travel from camp to camp, I realize that I have been stuck in a certain way of doing camp since our church has been using the same campsite year after year. Because I have not known other realities of how to do camp, we got comfortable and fell into a rut. Because of this tour, my eyes are opened to other ways of doing things and there is a lot of things to learn from what we saw at Ken Vissers’s camp (Cerro de Luz) and Nora Granado’s (Camp Jerusalem).”

Alfredo Umana:

“It’s noteworthy that all camp sites emerge from the vision of those who forge them. For example, an individual can look at a mountain and see nothing special, and yet another can look at that same mountain and see a future camp site full of animals, plants and flowers.

Another individual gets to a space and sees nothing, but then a person with vision comes and sees the same space and suddenly envisions a wooden cabin, hiking trails, and platforms (in the picture, only the plywood covering is yet to be build in order to tents to be place)."

“This tour was simple, we didn’t create high expectations neither for us who visited nor for those whose camps we visited. We didn’t promise to solve their problems, we didn’t criticize them either, we just encouraged the people in the hard work of developing camp sites in Honduras.”

Carlos Baca:

“I felt very excited when I saw the high ropes course at Cerro de Luz Camp, I imagined being up there in that great adventure (we didn’t have time to perform on them but I will on the next opportunity).

I walked on a path and I imagined myself being there with campers. I wondered how my youth group members would react in this Trust Fall and Hammock (giant swing).”

Nora de Granados:

“There’s growth when you get exposed to other points of view, this tour has done that for me. I learned that at Camp Jerusalem we need someone full-time who has both camping and constructing knowledge.

I appreciate more our strengths, like the fact that in our church, Shalom, we have over 150 camp counselors and program directors, all of whom have received CCI LA’s trainings. We do numerous camps all year in each of the varied ministries, children, young people, single mothers, women, men and this year we have started ministering to the Police Department of San Pedro Sula using on the Low Ropes Course that we built together with North Way Christian Community (Pittsburgh!).

I see where we come from. We started with only a jungle like mountain and now we have a tabernacle, a pool, and a Low Ropes Course situated in an old coffee plantation!”

Ken Vissers:

“It was a privilege for me to receive the CCI LA/Honduras team at our camp, Cerro de Luz, Scripture Union's Camp in Honduras.

I recommend we should start a directory of all camp sites in Honduras so that we can invite all of them to the next tour we make of campsites.

Something I’m thankful for is Lisa’s clarifying statement that when CCI members unknowingly make the statement: “CCI style camps”, it tends to exclude others. This phrase makes you believe CCI LA has only one particular way of doing camping, which is not true. There are a lot of ways to do camping. The four elements that CCI LA encourages are: (1) the use of Christ-centered experiential learning, (2) the use of small groups (3) the use of well-trained leaders and (4) ample use of God's creation, the great outdoors. Fulfilling these four requirements, there are numerous ways in which the CCI members can do camping. CCI LA provides thousands of tools that can be used in thousands of ways.”

(Ken has built The Wall with the platform at one side that helps as a ladder to get off the wall and also can be used as a platform for the Trust Fall.)

Norma de Canales:

“This tour reminded me of the Exchange program CCI Latin America has with CCI/ Canada where we visited a dozen gorgeous and well-developed campsites in Ontario. Here, in my own country, there are also gorgeous and developed sites. We hope that next time we can invite more people to come with us on this Site Tour.

We don’t force the sites to become members of CCI LA. But some are already members and others are considering it. I feel very happy that we were all in the same spirit, I feel that CCI LA/Honduras gave evidence of its existence to the campsites, an area where we had been weak.

I confess it had been very long since the last time I had laughed this much, it’s pretty relaxing being all together!”

Cesar Alonzo:

“With my personality, I tend to be very rigid and schematic. Once I learn a way of camping, I believe that to be a part of CCI LA philosophy, and that everyone should follow this same pattern. But with this Campsite Tour, I could see the danger of excluding other ways of doing camp.

Something else I learned is that for developing a site you should have vision, in other words, picture in your mind what you can’t see physically at that moment. Vision to observe a mountain and imagine a whole camp site.

In my church, after praying and striving for 4 years, there’s the opportunity of using a land that at first we only used for short intense retreats (we'd never leave the buildings). The church’s youth group is sick of that site because they’ve been visiting it since they were children. But now they are giving me the opportunity to have a say in the program. I used to see that land as a desert, but now, with vision, I can picture all the potentiality it has.”

Kenia Riera de Alonzo:

During the presentation Ken Vissers made about his adventure program, I heard him say that some of his leaders were not Christian. And there I froze! What? I thought. Ken continued explaining that these people have good skills which can serve the camp's purposes and then he slowly introduces them to Christ. This shook up my mental schemes. Ken clarified that these people don’t have tasks like teaching the Bible or other things related.

It also impressed me when Ken said that they choose influential leaders to work with, even though currently they have negative influence. But they are leaders, so people follow them, then through their training and working with them, they learn God's ways so their influence can lead them on God´s paths.

I always remember Bessy Macotto who encouraged us to establish a strong CCI LA team in Honduras. I had seen it as an uphill climb but now I can say “we are a team Bessy!”

Melba Argueta:

“I am used to environmental camps; all we take is a shovel! I enjoy what is rustic, were there’s no more than the forest or the jungle!” That’s why this last camp that we visited with Marsio Mejia on the mountain was so meaningful to me.

Plus, I felt identified with Ken because we both like camps that are both rustic and adventurous.

Lord willing, we will have a second tour, inviting more people and going to other camps in Honduras (by the Yojoa Lake for example) in April, 2010!"

If you know of any site which would like to receive an encouraging visit, tell them to write to me at capacitacion@ccial.org Lisa or leave a message below where it says “observations”. Thank you!

Lisa Anderson-Umana

Director of Leadership Development

Christian Camping International, Latin America

Reflections on the children's baptisms....

Valerie reflecting on her baptism August 29th, 2009:
"I felt cold outside because of the water,
but warm on the inside because of Jesus."

Victor,
"I felt like if I was entering into a new world with God."





Enjoy the brief picture slideshow below!




Our reflections as parents:
We had the good fortune of our home being chosen to celebrate the quarterly baptisms.

Valerie had read about John the Baptist with her first grade teacher and came home one day, eager to follow suit. For two years, we had been hesitant to let Valerie get baptized, waiting to see if she persisted with this idea or it was a passing fad. Now, just having started fourth grade, she communicated that she was still eager to get baptized. Prior to baptism, our church leadership taught those ready to get baptized a lesson on it's meaning and role in the Christian life. We rejoice with her decision to demonstrate publicly her commitment to follow Jesus.
Victor, within the last 6 months or so had indicated he was wanting to get baptized so we supported him as well in his decision. By the way, both sacrificed attending a camp to stay home and get baptized.

Our hearts are filled with joy at how God's spirit is evident in their lives.