EAB's 40th Carnival Camp was outstanding. As Getiane Mota, our Matureia Church pastor's wife posted on my Facebook page: "The Green Pastures Camps are always marvellous... but this one was unexplainable... amazing"! It truly was a blessed time together in God's presence and went extremely well for the 220 participants.
The theme was "Connected to Christ", based on John 15, and sought to work through, in the 7 services and sermons, what makes us in this day and age disconnect from Christ and what helps us connect. Thus on the opening Saturday night (March 2nd) young pastor Rafael from Teixeira spoke on 'desconnecting so that you can connect'. He focussed on the dangers of thinking being hyper active in church can replace one's devotional life; becoming accustomed to sin and being egoistical in church life.
In the build up to this Camp I felt the Lord guiding me to bring in young people to minister and this I feel was the key to the Camp's extraordainary success. Thus in the preparatory meetings which I organized I asked the youth leaders what they felt disconnected the youth from Christ and they said 'Digital Media' by which they meant not just social media but also series on Netflix which I had never heard of etc.
So I took the plunge and handed the Sunday over to the youth and two young men, Ray (journalist) and Mailson (Radio sound operator), spoke in the morning, and two young women who are both law students, Louisa (our granddaughter) and Rayla, in the evening. Oh boy - it was fantastic! Mind blowing. Ray did the positive side of how digital media can be used for good and for God. Then the others launched into very tough stuff like Satanist and witchcraft series on Netflix and the lasses launched into the sending of nude photos, cheating on one's wife or husband virtually, gossip, pornography & bullying. They combatted all this with Scripture and it was all an education for most of the older generation and a graphic insight into the world in which our youth is involved. We certainly all need to be connected to Christ and full of His Spirit!
On the Monday a pastor, woman bank worker and woman social worker presented the vitamins B & P as the only solutions for all heard the previous day. B (Bible) + P (Prayer) were shown to be essential for spiritual survival in this evil world. The devotional life with Christ was a major focus point of the whole camp.
Then on the Tuesday (March 5th) morning I spoke on being connected to Christ in our relationships and covered such subjects as feminism, male chauvanism, homosexuality, marriage, courtship etc. At night Philip preached on being connected to Christ in Mission which was really good too.
I should also mention and praise God for the tremendous visit of the Holy Spirit in a beautiful way in the worship time on the Tuesday morning. It was quite extraordainary.
So thank you all for your prayers and support for this 40th Carnival Camp. It was a beautiful time of renewal with God. PTL!
I nearly forgot to mention that we, on top of all the spiritual rain at the Camp, had some light rains on the Saturday (3 mm), Sunday (8 mm) and Monday (13 mm) bringing our total rainfall at Green Pastures to nearly 15½ inches in 2019 with our target at 40 inches. Please pray for one or two really big deluges of rain in March and April as to accumulate water in the lake and underground. This accumulation has not occurred yet as the ground was baked hard and dry and evaporation is a constant competitor.
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