Crossfire retreat

Dear Blog

"I can't talk to you right now..." was what Mark, the youth Pastor for Crossfire, told me Saturday night. We both knew we were about to burst out crying as we saw student after student stand up telling us they had given their lives to Christ that night. Among us leaders we were speechless and overjoyed to see God work in such a powerful way. The theme of the youth retreat was 'Tell the world' and our focus was on Evangelism. Saturday morning had been spent teaching the students the gospel and simple ways they can share it with friends, family or strangers. For many of the students, the gospel was only becoming clear to them for the first time. Saturday night, Mark preached the Gospel and gave the students the opportunity to receive Christ and God brought in the harvest.

And that was only half way through the retreat.

Sunday morning brought on a life changing experience for the students. We got onto buses and headed to Ancon Hill, which overlooks Panama city. There we had a devotional time before heading out in teams to 5 malls in Panama City where the students put into practice their evangelism training from the day before. It blew my mind to see middle and high school students, although slightly nervous, excited and willing to go out and share the gospel with strangers...for most of them it was their first time sharing the Gospel with someone. It was even more exciting to see them come back from the experience bursting full of joy and excitement and stories of how they were able to share the Gospel, and in some cases see some people accept Christ.



God transformed lives this past weekend. I am still not sure which gets me more excited. Seeing 30-40 people give their lives to Christ on the Saturday night or seeing 170 students equipped to be able to tell others about Christ for the rest of their lives. Either way it was the best weekend ever.