Tuesday, June 12, 2012

PIU Yap Ministry Team Update

Here is another update from the PIU Yap team written student leader Josh Ladd. I will try to get some pictures from the team to post soon….

Yap Day 19 (Sunday June 10)

It's hard to believe that we have already been in Yap for almost 3 weeks now. We are now over half way done with our trip today. Tonight at 7:00 will be the opening ceremony for the youth retreat that will go the entire week until next Sunday. The theme of the retreat will be "The Heart". This past week our team has been primarily preparing for this youth retreat by brainstorming and practicing for our programs that we will do over the retreat. We also had the privilege of leading the outer island youth on Friday afternoon, which gave us a lot of time to develop relationships with some of the youth who we will see the entire week.

Here are the main activities that our team will be involved with over the retreat. (These are also things that can be prayed for)

1. We will be doing 2 evening programs similar to PIU days on Friday and Saturday. Saturday's program will be summing up the entire retreat and will include a speaker. (Each night of the retreat one youth group gets to present a program with songs, actions songs, skits, and a speaker. We have been given 2 nights to present.)
2. Jesse will be doing one of the morning lectures. (these are the main speaking sessions on topics relating to the heart). His message will be on "The Solution to the heart."
3. Every day after the morning sessions our team members will be responsible for leading small group discussions relating to the daily message.
4. A different member of our team will be leading the daily devotion each morning at 7AM.
5. Our team will also have the option of spending the night with some of the youth groups - this is an awesome opportunity to get to know the youth.
6. There will also be a whole lot of opportunities for PIU recruiting. We will for sure have an afternoon session set apart for a PIU presentation and will also be helping some high school graduates fill our their PIU applications. (There is a lot of interest in PIU from the youth here since this is our second year in a row coming to Yap.)

There are many other activities our team will be involved with such as sports and planning of other activities. The bottom line is that this retreat is an awesome chance to spend a week sharing Jesus with the youth of Yap. Last year there were over 100 Yapese, Outer Islander, Palauan, and Chuukese youth who were in attendance. We are not sure how many will be coming this year, but whoever the Lord brings will be great.

In addition to the things mentioned above please continue to pray:
1. That our team will continue to stay united during our busiest week of ministry. Jesus prayed that all believers would be one so that the world would believe that the Father had sent him. Our team likewise must be united for this reason as well.
2. That we will have strength, patience, and joy throughout a week where we will no doubt experience a lack of sleep and a lack of personal time.
3. That the hearts of the youth attending the retreat will be open to receive and apply God's word.
4. For protection from any attack that Satan throws at our team. We continue to need your prayers in this area.

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