Truth be told, this youth camp was (and is) a giant blur. For reasons unknown the Holy Spirit led my brother Cesar Rivera to ask me to be a facilitator for the very first time, a year after joining the community. I was terrible. I botched my share, fast-tracked my 1 to 1’s, and paid more attention to my friends at the camp than my own discussion group.
If I were to take one thing from this entire experience, it would have to be my calling as an evangelizer. This camp was a foretaste of my love for “catching men” by way of witness. In fact, it was the vessel of that very passion to share and witness that lead me (and another friend) to bring around 10-12 of my high school friends to camp! In retrospect, it may not seem like a big deal, but in context it truly was God’s victory at work. Most of those friends weren’t your run-of-the-mill cradle Catholics. They were more likely people who disregarded (or were very indifferent to) the faith.
Although most if not all of them are no longer active, I’m glad that my “yes” (for whatever reason) enabled me to act as an instrument in instilling them seeds of faith, fun, friendship, freedom.
Regardless if I knew it then or not, my being a catalyst for Camp S.W.A.T. was simply the Lord sharing with me a small glimpse of what was to come in my faith journey: a journey filled with personal witness, sharing of self, exchange of persons, trinitarian love, non-stop evangelism and everlasting desire for Truth.
St. Paul, the Apostle of Truth, pray for us
Our Lady of Guadalupe, Star of Evangelization, pray for us
