Greetings, June, 2008

Here in Tijuana May isn't the best month for camp. May is normally cold and cloudy and sometimes it rains. For almost twenty years, rain or shine, camp time has been the first weekend of May.

Camp time this year was nice and warm under a blue sky! A hundred and twenty kids and staff convoyed down the seventy miles of beautiful Baja coastline to Ensanada city where they all had a fish taco and cola lunch. After lunch a visit to the fish market; boys love fish markets where they can open the mouths and poke the eyes of weird fish. Then the bay, a short distance away, has a few seals and pelicans, that they made friends with. For most of our kids this trip was an exotic and exciting adventure. Camp Agua Viva nestled in the foothills east of Ensanada was only twenty minutes away.

As soon as the vans and busses drove down the winding dirt road into camp and stopped the kids flew out the doors and inundated the area, while desperate small animals and creatures fled to the hills.

It's always exciting to see the joy and excitement of each kid as he enters the clean green tree filled camp ... with a small makeshift pool of water. Ahh Camp! They have been waiting for this all year. Good food, lots of fun things to do, singing, drama and Bible messages, cabins with beds, toilets and showers! Wow! (Fortunately we set aside the cost of camp before our financial slump.)

Aaron, Paul and the rest of the team spent a lot of time making this camp the success that it was. You can imagine how many details there are in making a camp this size click. Camps in the US are all set up for you, here in Mexico we do it all! I've directed this camp for years, it's nice to sit back and watch Aaron and the crew carry the success on.

I was impressed with this years emphasis on using our young teens as staff. Many of these kids have such a low self-image; now they wore a STAFF tee shirt and had responsibilities. They did a great job. Aaron had special Bible classes with them too. So in reality we had two camps in one.

A dozen kids came to Aaron during the camp and asked how to become a Christian.

If you want to actually see and hear camp, we have a short video of our '08 camp in our 'VIDEOS' section. Our teens did the photography and Armando edited it. It's worth a look!

Along with your receipt we want to give you a special thanks for your part in our ministry which includes this important camp. Believe me when I say, these kids deserve it! Thanks!