Monday, February 14, 2011

Ro-Narnia - The King was enthroned

I cannot think of a more fitting person or blog to be my 100th blog! Ovidiu, I'm honored to call you my friend and ministry partner and I'm in tears at the success of our Winter Camp. What a joy it has been to read stories and look at pictures from this amazing camp. But, don't take my word for it, take Ovidiu's!

If there is any person that needs to take the credit for what happened during our recent camp it has to be Jesus Christ. He was powerful and active among us. His Spirit made us fall in love with Him. Right now as I write these lines I wonder if I am in love enough with my Savior Jesus; and the answer is of course NO. I am not in love enough with the most beautiful, wise, rich and powerful person in the universe: LORD JESUS CHRIST. But this Winter Camp helped me love Him more. I now admire His beauty and creation more than ever before. I found new way to contemplate His wisdom more while contemplating the beauty of His people coming together more often. I’m now more impressed by His power and amazed to watch Him bringing spiritually dead people to life.

Every person played a key role in this camp. To the person they all brought something special to this gathering. But the success of this camp was 100% a result of PRAYER that was used abundantly in its organization. Our time at camp was fully immersed in prayer…in powerful and passionate prayer. There were nights when we went to sleep only to awaken to the beauty of worshiping Christ. We told the teenagers that Christ is the reason for this camp. We told them that He is worthy of our undivided attention. Our connection was to heaven, not the internet or T.V. Our attempt was to disconnect from the burden of this world and to yearn for a connection with Him. And you know what happened? God gave us what we longed to receive: His fresh presence moving among us, overwhelming us, saving among us, convicting us of sin, loving us, calling us, invading us.

A girl that was born again during this camp was so powerfully changed that her friends were shocked. They were not Christians and they came to us asking us what we did to her! Our response; “We gave her the Word of God and prayed with her.” God changed her so radically and dramatically that when she went back to her room she completely deleted all the music that did not praise Christ. She put down her books and magazines and started to read from the Bible. Before the end of camp she too was witnessing to others.

We were blessed to have another young man born again during camp. His words were evidence of this change in his life. He said that before he came in the camp he was cussing hard, but after God changed his heart that night, he was shocked by the lack of desire to cuss anymore. He said, “I cannot cuss anymore, something happened inside of me, I want to love Jesus more and to worship Him more”.

A third person with strong evidence that she was born again started crying and she fell to her knees in prayer with two other teenagers and me. Though she was just 13 and the other two were 13 and 14 they prayed as though they were mature Christians. The pain for their sins was evident. The passion for Jesus was impressive.

I do not know how many people were saved in this camp. When I invited all to come and put their lives on the altar and become living sacrifices before God, I think almost everybody in the camp came. Though some did not exhibit evidence of their salvation we were blessed to see many reflect being born again. It is not all about a prayer or a hand up or a walk in front under the impulse of the crowd in a camp. It is about the new life in Christ that needs to be noticed.

God still saves in Romania and He does that in a powerful way and He is worthy of all the glory.

I was very impressed by the way God used the American team of 8 people that left their comfort and secure atmosphere and the Super Bowl to come and worship with us and to serve us for God’s glory. The Bible study teams in the morning were so special. They taught the participants how to worship, some even in English! Thank you Erin, Kimberely, Shelby, Lindsey, and Ronne; there were tears of repentance and passion in prayers worshiping together in these teams you led. The preachers in the evening offered a strong challenge for all the participants. “God’s Grace,” “The Encounter with God,” and “The Altar of the Living Sacrifice” broke our hearts and made us experience both the power of sanctification and of salvation. Thank you Jeff, Joe and Brian.

Red Page Ministries needs a special “thank you” for helping organize this winter camp. Plans are already being made for 2012. Many have said they will join us. You are welcome to join us, too. Please pray about it and let us know.

To God be all the glory.

Until HE comes

Ovidiu and Adina

If you have an interest in joining our team next winter, shoot me an email at jhogg@redpageministries.org. If you would rather join a trip this summer, it is not too late. Visit our website for more information. Aspire to new heights. Jon

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