Cedarville Magazine, Fall 2018

JUNE 28 – ITALY We recently returned from two weeks serving and being blessed by the sweetest group of kids at Centro Evangelico Isola, a camp run by Joe Hunziker and his family. The camp is located in Isola near Gran Sasso d’Italia, the highest mountain in the Apennines. It’s such a beautiful place, both because of the ever-present reminder of God’s creation always in the background and the wonderful people we had opportunity to interact with and serve alongside. Though many camps offered at Isola are Bible camps, they cannot teach Christianity here as they could in the United States. The English camp where we served i s o f f e r ed on l y f o r unchurched kids, so it was even more different from the norm. Our main focus was to love the kids and show Christ in how we lived — definitely a very different kind of missions trip than most of us were expecting. We learned how dedicated the camp is to building a strong connection with the surrounding community, whether through inviting families for fellowship and meals or offering local people access to their soccer field. This connection is how they seek to spread Christ’s love to everyone around them, not just the kids. And of course, everyone at the camp seeks to serve and love these kids as much as possible, to connect with them and with their families and to be a Christlike influence in their lives. God blessed us with such a wonderful opportunity, and I think I speak for all four of us when I say that we wouldn’t trade the experience for anything! God is definitely at work, even in places like small-town Italy, a place that we may not consider as starving for Christ. They really are, and we’re so thankful for ministries that are dedicated to satiating that need, and we’re thankful for hearts that are so burdened to reach these people with the Gospel. JULY 23 – GERMANY This last week was the English-speaking day camp at Crossway International (in Berlin, Germany) for children in sixth grade and under. By the end of the week, 104 different children attended. The theme was “Shipwrecked: Rescued by Jesus.” Each day’s lesson focused on the way Jesus rescues us from various situations in life. By the end of the week, and because of the clear Gospel message presented on Thursday, at least 12 of the kids wanted to talk one-on-one with us about what salvation means, and four of them proclaimed Christ as their Savior! AUGUST 2 – CZECH REPUBLIC We just finished our third full day of camp, and we are having a blast! It’s amazing to see God work through all the different activities and people here — through English classes, afternoon workshops and games, evening activities, and hike day (we survived!). We have been able to explicitly share the Gospel with them during evening talks and discussions. God has also given us several neat opportunities to share our testimonies with students and answer their questions during meals, hikes, and bonfires! AUGUST 2 – BOLIVIA We have had an excellent week installing water pumps and recording instructional videos in Vacas, a rural area near Cochabamba. The instructional 8 | Cedarville Magazine