I had quite the jam-packed day yesterday. Usually on Fridays we have meetings in the morning and cleaning, but yesterday was an exception. Our entire team of missionaries and interns loaded up at 8 in the morning to drive to Galveston, TX. We went to speak at Champion Forest Baptist Church's preteen camp. They had a bunch of preteens! 4 of our missionaries talked about their work this summer and then Ginger spoke briefly. For their missions project they had collected backpacks and school supplies for the kids at our centers. We had the great pleasure of helping assemble the bags and watching the preteens each put together a bag as well. We ate lunch with the preteens and then headed back to Gano center.

Then it was time to get ready for our preteen and teen extravaganza. We invited the preteens and teens from all 3 mission centers to come to Gano gym and then First Baptist for a night of free food, worship, sports, and lots of prizes. I was the organizer of the worship service. That means I had to get a speaker, a band, set up, etc...to make a long story short: I got a local church worship band to come, but our speaker never called me back and confirmed. Luckily Ginger, our director, was willing to speak. Ginger did so good! What she talked about was so applicable to the kids...At the end she gave an open invitation we had one girl accept Christ. I closed the service with a prayer. I prayed that if any kids still needed to talk to a missionary that God would give them courage. Afterwards I was talking to the band when one of the preteens from Joy Center walked up. We found a place to talk, and he totally opened up about what God had taught him and shared some things he wanted me to pray for. Praise God! Praise God that he had the boldness to approach me. We prayed together and then we left for First Baptist for the rest of the night. I promised my preteen friend that I would be praying for him in the coming week! BMC rented out First Baptist Houston's Family Life Center. The facilities are awesome. They have 6 bowling lanes, a huge basketball gym, indoor track, billiards, air hockey, etc...The teens and preteens were able to spend 3 hours doing whatever they wanted at FBC. It was so fun! I was in charge of the prizes, so every 45 minutes I got on the intercom to do prize drawings. We gave away everything from t-shirts, CD players, basketball, gift cards, etc...It was definitely a big hit. After all the fun ended we transported everyone back. (This took about an hour because there were so many kids!) Then I worked with the Gano missionaries to sweep and mop the Gym at Gano. After a late night snack, it was time for bed. Yesterday was a LONG day, but it was so WORTH it!

Here are some pictures from the past couple weeks:


Painting the game closet at Joy Center

Hanging out at NASA with my other summer missionaries

As you can tell, I am BEAMING with happiness in this picture. The kid in the picture, Dario, means so much to me. Dario is in my kids club class. He's 8 years old and so much fun! :) We have totally bonded this summer. He's always so proud to tell me his Bible verses from the previous day! Dario is my boy!
Dario

Here we are playing tic-tac toe