Aloha from the beautiful state of Hawaii. Region 13, aka Region Hawaii 5-0, survived our first week of camps in Maui. For me personally (Tiffany), it has been amazing to watch the Hawaii ministry grow and expand over the last few years, and this year was no different. Records were made to be broken I guess. Last year our largest camp in Hawaii was 198 kids strong. This week, Hope Chapel Maui shattered that record. Our morning camp had 250 kids!!! Praise God! It was an overwhelming amount of kids, but we had some amazing helpers step up to the plate. Our best guess is that close to 40 of those campers made first time decisions. Friday at camp was awesome as we acted out the Bible time for all the campers and an additional 100 parents. We used pool noodles as our "battle weapons" of choice! It was great fun!! But the coolest part was at the end of camp we had the parents join their children to sing HAPPY DAY. It was an amazingly powerful thing to see Moms, Dads, Grandmas, Grandpas, etc... jumping right in and celebrating an awesome week with their kids. Hope Chapel was rockin!
Once again, the children (and families) of Hope Chapel blew us away with their response to Change 4 Change! The campers brought in a total of $1012, with the girls SMASHING the boys in the head to head competition with nearly a $400 difference. An adult at the church was so touched by what the kids raised, that they decided to match it dollar for dollar! With that being said, $2024 was raised to allow children around the world hear the gospel.
Our night camp was held up country in Kula. We had 52 kids attend this camp. For our team, it was a treat to have this smaller camp. It was a lot more intimate, and we were able to get to know the kids well! 12 of them made first time decisions. This camp wasn't without its challenges though...We were at a public park, and lets just say some people weren't happy we were there and keyed up the van real good. But with such opposition, we know that we are doing a mighty work for God!
Our team is doing well. TJ and I were both sick last week, so that was a challenge, but we are all doing better. Sarcasm reigns supreme on our team, and for some reason Lynda keeps forgetting everyone's name, including her own. It makes life interesting. Yesterday we hopped on a very tiny plane to Kona. As Justin put it... everyone should be happy because, "Everyone gets an isle seat, a window seat, and a seat on the wing!" We are loving what God has called us to do this summer. We miss all our friends on all of the other teams, and are wishing you a great second week! Mahalo and Aloha!
-Tiffany, Lionel, Justin, Lynda, and TJ
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