National Youth Camp in Sucre

This past weekend we traveled to Sucre, Bolivia. It is located in the mountains, south of us, at about 10,000 ft. 130 youth from our national churches all over Bolivia traveled here for a weekend of teaching, games and of course a lot of food. :)

We had the wonderful opportunity of teaching, for the first time, 130 young people while covering the topic of Evangelism (in Spanish). Everyone we spoke with said they understood and they were responsive as we spoke. We took this as a good sign and hope to get the opportunity again in the near future.

One of the favorite games of the youth was tug-of-war. They chose Kevin quickly for the tug-of-war challenge because of his long arm span. In this particular tug-of-war game, the winning team had to grab a ball three steps behind the last person. Kevin was obviously chosen for this position. The opposing team was certainly more well rounded (this refers to their weight, not athletic ability) and so were pretty much guaranteed to win. However, when the whistle blew, Kevin's team quickly gained two ft. giving Kevin a quick second to grab for the ball before the other team managed to drag all of them, including Kevin. Here is a picture of the winning grab and drag.

While we were in Sucre, the old capital with all the historical landmarks of Bolivia, we had a little bit of time once the camp was over to learn some of the history. God blessed us with a young women who we met during the camp that generously offered to show us around the city. She is studying at the University in Sucre in tourism and so knows quite a bit about the history of Sucre.

Our time in Sucre was wonderful and we returned to Santa Cruz feeling that the trip had been very profitable for both the youth and us. When we first arrived we were a little unsure of how they would receive us and whether or not they would want to get close. By the end... we got close. I'm not only talking about the time spent in the 20 ft cattle car with 120 people on a trip into the city (see picture taken from a Bolivian and shown on the screen at camp), I am also referring to the well over 100 young that we were able to communicate with and befriend.