WOW!!!! The final week of EL RETO was A-MAZE-ING!!! Words cannot describe how content I am with how things finished. Everyone had a blast, the Lord was worshiped and adored, youth were filled and favored by His Presence, and a winner was named!!
What an awesome 5 weeks it has been. In total, 83 youth participated in the event and were challenged weekly to fight the good fight of faith with Jesus as their Grand General. Many more youth and adults were touched as well as they watched on each week, participated as staff, or attended the final week and watched the Holy Spirit move in their children or family members. There were many people in attendance on Saturday who normally don't set a toe in the church at best, and at worst are adamantly against the Christian church. But they were there because their kids were participating and they wanted to see who would win! Well, they got more than they bargained for as they heard the truth of the Gospel and experienced first hand what it is to be in the Presence of the Almighty! WOW!
Well, on with the report. Week 5 took place in the new church. The day started early with The Israelites cleaning the sanctuary floor, sweeping up leaves, and helping to set up chairs and sound & lighting equipment for the afternoon's activities. This was their chores activity for having received the most votes at the end of Week 4. All this was much more involved setup than usual because the final week always involves worship and a message, and the whole church and any family members or friends of participating youth (as well as anyone else who wants to come) are invited to come and watch. So, we had to be ready for them! There were way too few chairs, but it was great to see so many people in attendance and enjoying themselves and the event!
(left) Ruben and Chuy working on light fixtures; (right) The Israelites cleaning and setting up chairs
(left) More lighting work; (right) The band testing the sound (Goyo on drums, Sandy on bass, Mily on vocals, Jay on electric guitar, Riki on acoustic guitar)
A before shot of the sanctuary as the band tests sound...it's big, but let me tell you that space was in full use!
Before starting the event we had our weekly staff meeting! What a great group of staff we have for this event! Here's a shot of Mily and Luis leading that meeting.
In the afternoon, we kick-started once again with attendance. Then instead of having a devotional time with their team Sargent as usual, we gave them time to paint their faces and get all wound up to present their Military Chants! We also took advantage of this time to take some team pictures! This took longer than expected, but it was the last day so we weren't too uptight about it! We purposely started an hour earlier for this very scenario so we knew we'd still end at a decent hour at night! Yea for good planning!!
(left) The Favored; (right) The Israelites
After face painting and team pictures, we jumped into the presentations and judging of their Military Chants. I have to say that THESE TEAMS DID SUCH AN EXCELLENT JOB!!! Some of the teams really battled all five weeks trying to put together their chant. Some of them had issues with team members wanting to take over leadership, others had problems with team members not attending, and others just weren't too in to it. But in the end, every team participated and did a GREAT job!! Their lyrics and movements were really creative, and it was truly fun to see what they came up with!
Their mission was to come up with a Military Chant that incorporated not only coordinated movements but also lyrics that had to to with the theme of EL RETO 2009 (Fight the Good Fight) as well as the Bible story they were assigned in Week 1 (from which they took their names). Some of those Bible stories were darn obscure as far as trying to write lyrics for a military chant, but they did it and they did it well! They were told that they could use music, or not, but that they would be judged on 1. The incorporation of the RETO Theme and their Bible story, 2. Coordination and quadrature (the use of their space and moving well together), 3. Creativity, and 4. Participation and Animation (Excitement of team members).
I had hoped to take video of each of the chants, but in the end I simply forgot. However, I at least have some pictures of each team...they are in order of their final points!
7th Place = The Lord's Squadron
After the Military Chants were presented and judged, we moved into the service portion of the afternoon. Mily and the worship band did a great job of leading everyone in some stirring praise and worship, which was followed by a stellar message given by Abraham Aguilar. He is the father of some of our youth, one of which is the captain of the Conquerors (orange team). They live in Ruiz, about 45 minutes away, but they have been faithfully attending our church since they were invited by youth from a different church entirely to attend a youth event in May 2007!!! Their three children are youth leaders, members of our worship band, and have been captains in EL RETO! It was such a pleasure to hear Abraham preach for the first time.
He spoke to the youth about Fighting the Good Fight of Faith...about really waging war against the influences and temptations in this world that would seek to enslave them or even worse, destroy them. I wish I could go into more detail, but I was figuring out points from attendance and military chants so that we could announce winners when the service was over, so I didn't get to hear much of the details. But when the service was over, everyone was saying what a stirring message it was and how they had been challenged!!
When Abraham finished his message, Pastor Goyo led everyone in a time of ministry at the altar. He shared a simple gospel message, and invited youth leaders to come and pray for the youth that were coming forward with needs or in a desire to commit themselves to the Good Fight or to Christ for the first time. It was so amazing because as ministry time went on, Team Sargents started praying with their teams as a group and then with individual members of their teams. Finally, Pastor Goyo asked any parents to come forward as well as any youth leaders present and he tasked us all to hug the youth. If there were parents there, then they were to hug their children; if we were youth leaders who did not have children there, we were to hug the others. He challenged us to let them know how proud we are of them, how much we love them, and most of all how proud the Lord is of each of them and how much HE loves them. What an emotional and impactful time that was for us all. The tears definitely flowed, but hearts were opened and touched!
Finally, when ministry time was over, the band came up and led us in one more stirring round of the song "Eres TodPoderos". Now, I wish I knew the title of that song in English. Literally translated it is "You are All Powerful". However, I don't know if the song exists in English. The lyrics speak of how the only reason for our breathing, for our living, the only Truth we know is the Lord God who is All Powerful, Great and Majestic, Strong, Invincible, and there is No One like Him! As the band began to play, Mily invited all the youth to come forward and join arms across the sanctuary and move as one before the Lord as they praised once again. It gave me goosebumps to watch and hear! I did a head count, and there were 65 youth standing there at the altar, dancing and jumping up and down before the Lord in unison praising His name!! It was awe-inspiring! I took a video, and here it is!
When the service ended, Mily announced the winners of the Military Chants and then we moved moved into our Armageddon portion of the evening which began with the revelation of the Hidden Treasures, also known as Grenades. When they were hidden, we only put a number inside each one, and their treasure was to be revealed at the end of the event. So, Luis called all the teams to formation, torches and all, and then called the Sargents of teams that had found Grenades to go up on the stage. At this point, they moved into the voting room where they were to open their Grenades. Then according to the number found inside, they received a sealed envelope which contained the revelation of their prize. With envelopes in hand, they then went back out on the stage, and Luis called the Grenades in a predetermined order and the corresponding Sargent was allowed to open his envelope and read the prize to the crowd.
The Lord's Squadron had Grenade #1 ...
"Congratulations! Your team has won 1000 points toward your final score!"
The Israelites had Grenades #5 & #6...
(#5) "Congratulations! Your team is cordially invited to participate in a movie night at the Christian Center Church on an evening that has yet to be determined."
(#6)"Congratulations! Your team is cordially invited to participate in a game night at the Christian Center Church on an evening that has yet to be determined."
THE Conquerors had Grenade #3...
Grenades #2 and #4 were told that the time had still not come to reveal their prizes and were instructed to return their sealed envelopes to Luis. Then Mily went up on stage and began announcing the final scores from 8th place to 1st place. It was a very exciting moment. In the end, the order was:
8th place = THE Conquerors (purple) with 737 points
7th place = THE Favored with 741 points
6th place = The Lord's Squadron with 1,650 points
5th place = Conquerors (orange) with 2,039 points
4th place = The Banners with 2,157 points
3rd place = The Warriors with 5,024 points
There was much rejoicing among The Powerful at this point, but the event was not over yet, and although they had won the five week event in regards to points, they still could not claim a decisive and final victory. There were still 2 grenades left to reveal! Luis called forward the Sargents of the teams that had found Grenades #2 and #4, and called them in a predetermined order to reveal their prizes.
Grenade #2 went first. Pedro, Sargent of The Warriors read...
"Congratulations! Your team is cordially invited to participate in a game night at the Christian Center Church on an evening that has yet to be determined."
Then Jesus, Sargent of The Favored, read Grenade #4....
Well, you can imagine that The Favored were truly coming to understand just how Favored they really were....all the way in 7th place, and there they were with the opportunity to win the whole thing in the end!
At this point Mily explained what THE FINAL BATTLE would be: a Paintball Target Shoot! We made a target on a camoflage flag, which we will later turn into the flat for EL RETO 2009, and we mounted it over in the Education Wing courtyard. Mily then explained that The Powerful automatically started with 5 free shots since they were the first place team. What followed next were several activities in which each team had the opportunity to win shots for THE FINAL BATTLE.
The first activity was voting. Just as they had done every week, the other 6 teams formed up and one by one went into the voting room to vote for one of the two team remaining teams: The Powerful or The Favored. For every vote they received each team received a vote. In the end they each received three votes and therefore 3 shots. The count was then The Powerful with 8 shots and The Favored with 3.
The next activity was balancing on one foot. Each team chose one member to come up on the platform where they had to balance on one foot with their eyes closed and their hands firmly clasped behind their backs. The first one to open their eyes, drop their foot, or use their hands to balance would lose. In the end The Powerful won this activity and received 5 more shots. The count then stood at 13 shots for The Powerful and 3 for The Favored.
Next came the Bouncey Ball Race. One member was chosen from each team to race on the bouncy ball around Mily and back to the starting line. The first one to cross the finish line would win 5 shots. The winner was The Favored. The count then was The Powerful with 13 shots and The Favored with 8.
The final activity was a Trivia game. Mily asked them 10 questions, and the Sargent had to whisper the answer to a staff member who then relayed the answer to Mily. They then received 1 shot for every correct answer. In the end both teams answered 8 questions correctly for 8 shots each. The final count then was The Powerful with 21 shots and The Favored with 16.
At this point, we moved over to the Education Courtyard for THE FINAL BATTLE!!! Jay had the paintball gun all primed up and ready to go. It was drizzling slightly, but not enough to cause problems. Each team chose one member to shoot the gun, and Jay showed them how to work it, while I made sure the audience knew to keep a safe distance from the target and to please keep a hold of any small children running around so as to avoid injuries! There was also someone holding a spotlight on the target so they could see to aim. The target was made of rings (like any target) each with its own point value ranging from 5 points in the outermost ring to 100 points in the bulls-eye. The first to shoot was Jesus, Sargent of The Favored. He shot all his 16 shots, and then Goyo, Sargent of The Powerful, stepped up and shot his 21 shots.
(left) Jesus shooting at the target; (right) Goyo shooting at the target
Mily, Sandy, and I then ran off to talley up the scores. At first we thought the difference was 5 points, but when we finally got things added correctly, final score was 585 to 510, a difference of 75 points!!! We called everyone back into the sanctuary, and Mily called the two teams up to the altar.
She did such a great job of infusing an unbearable suspense into the announcing of the winning team, but in the midst of a dead silence, she finally yelled out....
The Favored played a great game, and they had a great attitude about the entire event. They knew they had given their all and had sucked all the marrow out of every ounce of fun to be had in this event. They had enjoyed it for all it was worth, and their words in the end were, "AND WE STILL GET TO GO TO TACOS!!!!" Luis spent a few minutes reassuring Jesus, Sargent of The Favored, and encouraging him, and then he presented the winning team with their prize options: 1. Going to the movies in Tepic, 2. Bowling, 3. Going to the beach, or 4. Going to either El Salto (a really awesome natural swimming hole) or to the local pool which has some cool water slides. Their choice was a movie in Tepic!
After the event, all the kids had Sandy taking pictures of them as memories. Here's a fun pic of me with some of the guys! I love these kids!!
We still have to schedule that outing for The Powerful as well as the Taco dinner for The Favored, a movie night for The Banners and The Israelites, and a game night for The Israelites and The Warriors. There's lots of fun to look forward to, but most of all we are excited to see how the Lord uses this five week experience to totally revolutionize the lives of the 83 youth that participated. Next week it's back to regular LIFE activities (that is the name of our youth group), but we certainly hope that they will never return to how their lives were before EL RETO. Instead we hope they will move forward Fighting the Good Fight of Faith and living in the Abundant Life that their Grand General, Jesus Christ, has extended to them!
Three cheers for EL RETO 2009: FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT. Here's to an even more exciting EL RETO 2010!! If you would like to financially support EL RETO, please click here to make a safe, fast, and easy online donation to "Cofradia Youth: EL RETO"! Regardless, thank you for you prayer support, and please keep lifting us up as we continue onward in the good fight of faith here in Cofradia!
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