Day 7: Prayer mountain, beach day

Monday, June 15, 2015
Quiet Time
I read John 9 today. It was just too big of a coincidence, I couldn't wait! See my previous entry.

Prayer Mountain
I was really looking forward to this because it was such a moving experience last time. It was different this year in that there wasn't as much structure for us. Some groups prayed aloud, some silently, some split up and prayed individually afterwards. My group sat in a circle and prayed popcorn style. It's really hard to put to words how much this experience meant to me, to each of us. Even now I can't put it into words. We experienced so much in the last week and the power of prayer, especially corporate prayer, is so intense.

Southwest mission team on Prayer Mountain

Getting instructions, getting ready to pray

team D praying (ok, we were posing there!)

...and a selfie of the photographer!

Beach Day

We had lunch at el Centro Cristiano in Rio San Juan, which was awesome because my sunglasses were still there! Perfect for beach day! We had sandwiches and Norm shared some more thoughts with us about our circle of influence. Soon it was time to head to Playa Grande!

El Centro Cristiano Manna in Rio San Juan

Not everyone had gotten to see Cafe 25 next door or this room where I taught during VBS

Soon we would have chairs set up here for lunch!

Right when we got to the beach, we had a lovely surprise! Spencer was ready to be baptized! We were all very excited about it and his dad Brent was even there to do the job. He shared some thoughts and Spencer gave his confession before we went to the water so we could all hear, then we all headed to the ocean! What a great way to start!

Video of Spencer's confession of faith
Video of Spencer's baptism
Video of hugs afterwards

We all enjoyed the lovely cool water and could hardly stand to get out. Despite loading on the sunblock and being in the water the whole time, I even got burnt on my legs! Caleb rented a boogie board and was generous enough to let anyone else who wanted to try it give it a shot (No, I didn't!). Lauren had her go pro and got some fun underwater shots. A number of the girls got some braids on the beach - $1 a braid, not bad!

When it was almost time to go, we had another new brother and sister in Christ! Garrett and Trisha came forth to be baptized! Jim baptized both of them and we were all filled with joy for them both.

Video of Garrett and Trisha's confession of faith and baptism
Video of Trisha's baptism and afterwards from a different angle (Jeff was gone and had the camera so I only got the tail end on video!

We brought shampoo and reveled in the showers that had both hot water and tons of pressure. Antics were a plenty. Being deprived of water pressure for a week will do that to a girl - 4 of us even got in at once!

After dinner and chores were done, we spent the rest of the night packing. All in all, it was a great day!