Eyes Wide Open Ministries: Youth Seminar in June

We had our first youth seminar on June 23 and 24. They came on a Saturday morning and most left Sunday afternoon and the others left Monday morning. We had such an awesome time with them. We had 19 youth come from five different churches and areas. We had seven different teaching sessions. These were the youth who want to become leaders and teachers in their church. We had several different speakers who all did a wonderful job! Ashley Grissom from Alabama, who is staying with us right now for three months, taught on the importance of the Bible, Brandi and I taught on prayer, another young guy from our church, Bryan, taught on worship, Lester, also from our church, taught on Faith, Nancy Perez taught on evangelism, Josh Byrd, our missionary friend here in Chiquimula, taught on Obedience, and I spoke lastly on Success through obedience. Melanie Batchelor, who is also from Alabama staying with us for a month, did all the games with the youth between the sessions. We had another friend from our church, Julio, come and translate for Ashley. Julio and Brandi also lead worship with the youth throughout the day. On Saturday night we took the youth to our church in Chuiqumula to the youth service so they could be with other youth and have a good time with them. For some of the youth this was the first time leaving their village so that was really neat for them to go somewhere new and join in with other youth worshiping God.
Well I had too much fun with them! I hate it for the other pastors here because now all I want to do are more youth seminars! It was like I fit in perfect with the kids! I can't figure out why?? HA! They begged us to fill up the above ground concrete pool in our back yard so they could swim...so of course we did and they were able to swim the last day for a couple of hours before they had to leave. I joined them in playing what was suppose to be volleyball and was on the girls team...we girls rocked!!! I would start laughing and jumping up and down yelling like a girl when we got points and gave everybody high fives. They all died laughing and thought I was even more weird than before! But I was having a great time! I spoke to them while taking them back to the bus to go home and they all shared with me the things they learned and how they were going to go back to their villages more prepared and ready to grow deeper and closer to God. Hearing their person view and what each one learned was really encouraging for us...knowing that they actually listened and learned a little something! Brandi and the girls actually cooked the breakfast and supper for them. So they worked really hard getting them fed and full. We are so grateful to God for allowing us to have our first youth seminar and for the seminar going so great! We are very thankful to our supporters who help us have these seminars through their financial support and prayers! After paying to get them here and back home, feeding them, and providing a place to stay, we spend around $250 to $300. So without y'alls help we could not do this. Please keep these youth in your prayers and also pray that we will have the opportunity to have another youth seminar before the year is up! We are having a pastors seminar the first weekend in July so please pray for us and the pastors as we learn more about the calling and responsibilities of pastors. We love y'all very much and are very excited about what God is doing in the ministry and our family!! God bless!!