Last weekend I (Dan) had the opportunity to be a counselor at a summer missions camp put on by our national coworkers. It was a great experience and reminded me a lot of the missions trips I took to Mexico when I was in high school, except everything was in Tagalog. The days were long, 6am-10pm, but the fellowship was sweet. I really enjoyed a chance to do some hands-on ministry and use lots of the Tagalog that I have been working on over the last year. I was amazed by how much that I could understand and happy that I was able to have some input into our small group times. I even used enough Tagalog that by the end of camp some of the students were joking with me about my American-accented Tagalog. Generally, a student-teacher or counselor relationship here would be more formal so I was encouraged by their willingness to joke around with me a bit. I took it to mean that they saw me more as an equal than as an authority figure, which is good since I feel quite far from an authority on anything here.

Most of our small group and I, along with some actors for our cultural presentation.

Most of all I was encouraged by how the students were challenged to consider how they were going to be a part of the Great Commission. Around 20 of the 80 students committed to Go, and several of those are even pursuing the New Tribes training here in the Philippines with the goal of becoming an NTM missionary. Pray for the students that they will be able to follow through with their commitments and they will be a part of the spread of the Gospel here in the Philippines, whether it be in their backyard or deep in the remote mountains! Who knows…maybe I met some future coworkers last weekend!

Campers commitments