Reaching teens through texts.
Ivana Pineda is a member of Iglesia Crecer, one of our primary church partners, in Córdoba, Argentina, a student at Seminary Carey, and helped start our teen camp program in Cachi, Argentina. She recently returned from a trip that was focused on continuing to develop relationships with the local teens of the region.
*names have been changed to not put Ivana’s relationship with the girls at risk
Our teen camp project in Cachi is aimed at a group of preteens and teens in the church of Cachi. Since July 2017, we’ve had 4 trips to work with the teens. Each retreat and camp that we do includes a time of worship, a gospel message, and small group conversations where we can confirm if the message was understood and open a space for questions and prayer. As we eat, play, or hang out, often we can strike up conversations to get to know the teens and see how they view the gospel. We’ve come to realize that what these kids want the most, more than a program, a game time or anything else, is our presence and friendship in their lives.
In each visit, by God’s grace we manage to gain a little more trust, which is quite important since residents of Cachi have the particular characteristic of being extremely closed off and reserved. As we invest more time in this group of teens, we’ve seen doors and hearts open.
One example of this is Cecilia*. She was not very open in the beginning; we had to travel several times before she began to share about her spiritual life. Finally, she revealed that she had never been sure of being saved, and during summer camp in January, showed a desire to grow closer to the Lord. That’s where our “Whatsapp Discipleship Program” started - we began reading the gospels together, asking and answering questions through the chat application.
Through this virtual discipleship, she understood how much the Lord loved her, and how huge the gift of salvation is! From that moment, she’s changed her view of the Lord: from honestly admitting she didn’t love God, to loving Him fully and relying on Him to help her with every struggle she has.
Another case is Anita*. She doesn’t have a cell phone, so, unfortunately, I haven’t been able to disciple her long-distance. In the first few trips, she was one of many who didn’t talk, didn’t participate and didn’t share. On our second trip, she began to show a partial insight into her personal problems. By summer camp, she was at a crossroads with her relationships within the teen group.
After learning about the importance of loving and accepting others in the body of Christ, she learned to forgive and rectify her friendships inside the teen group. On our recent trip May 25-27, we could see how her worldview has changed to reflect that of Christian. She has a clear understanding of the teaching from past trips and we have seen her personally put these lessons into practice in her life. Now, far from what she was in the beginning, Anita is one of the most committed to the group and to the Lord.
As we see these lives changed trip by trip, text message by text message, we are encouraged to keep traveling and sharing the gospel with the teens of Cachi, so that they might understand the Word and apply it to their lives.