Tim and Christa Simmons Prayer Letter: Winter Camp and Leadership Conference

We hope you all are having a nice summer. The U.S. Embassy here in Uruguay did a fireworks display on July 4th, so we decided to go. I told our seven-year-old Ethan, “Aren’t you thankful for America?” He responded, “Yeah, they have better pizza!” Not quite the answer I was expecting!

Winter Camp

Many students here have the first two weeks of July off from classes for their Winter Break. Our church rented out a Christian camp for three days from July 11-13. Everyone in the church was invited to come. There were around 20 teens and 15 adults who came. The group was split into two teams that played games to earn points. One of the challenges was coming up with and singing a Bible-based song. A preacher came and preached each day in the morning and evening. The camp leaders said that the teens were very attentive during the preaching and also during the camp in general. Some solid spiritual decisions were made during the camp. Praise the Lord!

Leadership Conference

I found out that a church on the other side of our city was hosting a conference July 15-16. The theme was “Investing in Leaders for Christ’s Church.” I know that this is such an important area where I as a missionary need to focus in order to see the Lord’s church continue after I’m gone. I was able to get reacquainted with several missionaries, as well as meet a few new ones. I was also able to learn more about the culture and mindset of the people here, as well as some major obstacles that we will have in training future leaders. For example, a big challenge is finding the time to train leaders. Since Uruguay is one of the more expensive countries in South America, many people work five or six days a week for more than eight hours a day. I’m thankful for what I learned and for the contacts I made. The conference helped renew my vision for what the Lord can do here in Uruguay! Please pray with us for revival in Uruguay and for churches to be planted!

Teen Activities

The church we are helping in has a teen activity every Saturday. Praise the Lord that four teens trusted in Christ at one of the activities in July! Also, I went to a Soul-Winning Conference in June, and afterwards, the pastor invited me to preach to their teens on July 23. I prepared the message that I felt the Lord wanted me to preach. Preparing messages in Spanish takes me an incredible amount of time, but it is getting easier with practice. I participated in the games with the teens before the preaching. We had a great time playing ping pong, volleyball, and dodgeball. The pastor mentioned to me before the preaching that there were several unsaved teens there, so I tried to add more of a salvation emphasis in the message. They listened very well as I preached a 40-minute message. The pastor said he thought it went well. I’m thankful for the opportunity I had to preach to this group of teens.