We invited our Hogar CREA guys to come for a day of fun and games here at Camp Caribe on MLK Jr. Day. And the center’s director gave his permission. We were all very excited and began preparations the day before, including buying 20 water balloons for a water balloon toss, buying lots of fixings for s’mores, cooking 2 turkeys for Turkey & Rice to feed the 30-ish guys lunch, as well as planning other organized games. They told us they would arrive in the morning a little after 10am.
I got up around 8am to start getting ready. At 8:30, one of my squadmates walked into the room to announce “Hogar CREA is here!” Most of the team had still been sleeping until that point, and they began quickly to get ready. Then we got a new discovery upon going to greet these guys… we didn’t know any of them! They were from a different Hogar CREA home. Apparently the Hogar CREA director made it mandatory for about 6 of the homes to come to our game day. So now we were told to expect a minimum of 50 people. 
As you can imagine, the stress level hugely increased. Matt, Zach, and Jonny immediately started bringing the guys back and starting a basketball game with those who had arrived. There was a small group of us in the kitchen who discussed the food situation, because we knew we did not have enough for over 50 men. We prayed a couple times for multiplication of food.
Over the next few hours, vans sporadically arrived to bring the men, eventually totaling around 65. And they all brought food! In fact, they brought so much food that we began to stress about what to do with all of it. We ended up with over twice as much rice as we needed, and tons of hot dogs, turkey burgers, pork, and sodas. Thank you, Lord, for providing!
There was a short portion at the beginning where we gathered all the men around a fire, and Jonny gave a small message about how important it is to give our troubles and worries to the Lord. Everyone wrote their worries on a piece of paper and tossed it into the fire, symbolizing giving them to the Lord. Afterward it was game time. Yay!
We played games of basketball, volleyball, GAGA ball, egg races, water balloon toss/fights, plus swimming in the ocean. The water balloons were such a big hit that we went to the store to buy 4 more bags of 75 balloons each. In between all this, we had lunch of turkey, rice, hot dogs, juice, soda, salad, followed by roasting of S’mores. None of these guys had ever eaten a S’more in their life, and it was really very touching to watch them discover the amazingness of graham cracker, chocolate, and roasted marshmallows.
At the end of the day, we gathered all the men in the chapel and Joe Palmer, our ministry host, shared the Gospel with them and invited them to come forward for prayer or salvation, whatever they needed. Over half the men came forward, and we were able to pray with them and encourage them for a bit.
For me, it was an incredibly moving, faith-building day. I was overwhelmed by the multiplication of food, and I was very touched by their first experience of S’mores. Plus, it was good to see so many place their faith in Jesus. I pray their lives are completely transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit – that they will walk in newness of life and begin growing lots in Him.
