Last Sunday evening, at the end of Sunday worship, we noticed that the church was particularly full – lots of chairs had to be set up in the back. We realized that the crowd must be due to the youth conference starting here (across the street at the Bruno Radi Convention Center on the Seminario grounds) on Tuesday. Right away, Daniele and Rafa, 2 young people we had met here almost 4 years ago, ran up to us and we knew just who they were! When we met, they were in a group of Brazilian teens serving at Extreme ’08 with us! We had immediately connected with Dani, even though we could barely communicate with her. She had declared that we were another set of grandparents to her and that she wanted to come home with us in our suitcase!
A few months later, Dan
had been invited to give some Bible Quiz training at a youth
conference in Campinas, Brazil, and this same group of teens was
there also! So we were able to meet Dani’s parents and reconnect
with her and some of the other youth. It was a very special time! And
now, a group of 15 of them are here with their youth pastor, a
dynamic woman named AnnaMaria, for this 2012 Argentina Congreso de
Jovenes! I’m so excited to see what this group will do (they
have quite a repertoire of dramas!) and how all the young people will
be challenged this week.