"I am glad I came to the camp, it's the most fun I've ever had in my life!" That was the quote of a young man who came to camp last week who was heavily involved in witchcraft. "Carnivals" are a big thing in large towns in Cuba. The week we were in Bayamo there was a carnival going on there. Thousands of people took to the streets until the very early hours of the morning. The carnivals are much like our Mardi Gras celebrations, very carnal in nature. This young man was faced with going and being involved in all that was going on with that lifestyle or going to a Christian camp. I am convinced the prayers of God's people for our camp drew this young man, and others like him, to our camp. This young man came, had more fun than he had ever had, fellowshipped with God's people, was exposed to God's truths and asked the Lord to come into his life!

We had 110 participants at camp this year. Twenty five were leaders from various churches, forty five were Christian college students and forty were "lost" students who were invited to come who did not have a clue about the Lord. I did not know this, but Pastor Abel (the pastor I have been working with on previous camps) shared with me this year that inviting "lost" students to come to a Christian youth camp was unheard of until our Press On Missions teams began to conduct camps back in 2004. I had just assumed that this philosophy of camp was acceptable in Cuba. It is something I have always done as a Youth Minister all my 24 years in youth ministry. But, apparently this was a new concept for them. Pastor Abel told me he, too, was skeptical when I introduced this back in 2004, but he made a decision to trust me. Apparently he had taken some "heat" from other pastors and convention leaders for allowing lost kids to come to his camps. But, what he and others discovered is these students come, engage in the fun, are exposed to the Word of God and leave different than they arrived. The Convention leadership watched the work we were doing with Pastor Abel for years, very skeptical about this new philosophy. However, they could not deny the results: Lost students were coming and many were coming to know the Lord. Last year they decided to test this new camp philosophy on one of their teenage camp...the camp we helped them with. The result was a large number of the lost students who came to camp came to know the Lord. This year all their teenage camps allow lost students to come. This year they decided to try it on one of their college camps...the one they invited our team to help them with. The result: 30 of the 40 lost students who came made a decision for the Lord!

The spirit of the camp was incredible. Students engaged in every aspect of the camp: Quite time, large group Bible study, small family group discussion time, organized recreation and the evening worship service. The camp started with a worship service on Thursday night and ended with a worship service on Saturday night. The camp director decided to not give a formal invitation until the last night of camp. What I saw happen was truly a movement of God. By the second day of camp 12 different students had individually sought out their family group leaders and told them they needed what was being talked about at camp: a relationship with the Lord. Only God can do that!

YOUTH CAMP 2009
Bayamo, Cuba

• Date of Camp:  August 200
• 85 youth (ages 18-28) + Leadership
• Our team helped the Eastern Baptist Convention establish this camp in Bayamo, Cuba.
• Press on Missions provided scholarships to all these youth to attend camp.
• 40 of the 85 youth who attended camp were non-believers.  30 of those accepted the Lord as their Savior during camp.