I remember saying a while back that I was only going to post a newsletter (or blog) once every two months, but a lot is happening. I do a lot of my postings on Facebook on what I do throughout the month, so you probably have seen all of this. Please let me know if this is necessary for y'all because this is pretty time-consuming. Like, literally tell me with words. Please. Write a letter or something. I hardly ever get feedback, and I would really appreciate some feedback.
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| Adolescentes Unidos 2017 |
Adolescentes Unidos, or Teens United, happened on August 9-12!! We had 19 teens show up, which is our biggest number yet!! I have to say that for me, this was our best camp yet. I was really sick through the whole thing, but God still moved through me. The message throughout camp was "God Is Greater." We talked about how God is greater than our fears, sicknesses, and our problems. There was freedom from fear and anxiety and healings the very first two nights!! God really did do something amazing in these teens and, although every teen that went didn't take it as seriously as I wished, the few that did made it all worth-while. I'm praying that next year, we will be able to go to an actual campsite for camp to make it something beyond the ordinary for these teens!! Please be in prayer with me in this!!
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| Worship and Service Time up in the mountains |
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| Gabriel and Gadiel in our secret kids club!! |
I recently started up Agentes Secretos de Cristo, or Secret Agents of Christ, which is a kids discipleship program!! In this program, the kids are learning Bible verses, really growing closer to God, and learning how to evangelize!! Every two months, the kids have to memorize a set of Bible verses to reach the next rank on the Secret Agent team, and they get "spy gear" to help them remember what they learned through those verses. Our first week we had 7 kids come out, and our second week we had 4 kids come out. This is a way to really teach the kids who are serious about knowing more about Jesus, God's Word, who God really is, and what it truly means to be a follower of Christ. In our kids club on Saturdays, I saw that the kids who were trying to take God seriously were distracted by the kids who didn't really seem to care. The serious ones would start out trying hard, but then they would see the other kids not really caring, so the serious ones stopped caring. I'm hoping that with this discipleship program, these kids also learn to go against the flow and that they can influence others, not the other way around. Please be in prayer with me for Juan Carlos, Danitza, Gadiel, Gabriel, and all the kids that may come in the future that they may truly encounter who God really is and have a deeper relationship with Him.
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At the end of September, I may be renting my first house!! I'm ever so grateful for the hospitality of May and Karen, the couple of the family that I have been staying with for almost 4 years now, but I feel that it would be a lot better to have my own space and start on a new chapter of my life. I think it would be great to have the space to be able to work on things in the ministry, and for something else. I'm going to be real for a second with you all. I hope that's ok. I really want to start a family. I don't think I really will be able to work towards that living in a closet-sized room in someone else's house. To be honest, I don't even know if I'm supposed to even have a family of my own. Like, will God allow me to do so?? Seriously, though, I would love to have a wife to be able to live life with and do life together. I'd love to have a wife to be able to play, teach, and love on the kids with. I'd like to not be alone in life anymore. God is with me, yes, but for all of you who have a SO, you know how I feel. Maybe.
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Chava and Hector, two boys that I will
be adopting one day, Lord willing |
Also, I'd like to adopt kids, like these two. Actually, I want to adopt these two. I need a place for them to live, and I don't think having them live in someone else's house is the best idea. I want to be able to provide the best that I can for them and be the best father that I can be. I want them to have their own room and sleep in their own bed. I want them to have game nights with pizza in their own living room. I want them to live the most normal life that I can give them in their own house, and I'd like to prepare for that now, Lord willing. Please be in prayer with me for the house to come through, and, if you are able, please donate at
https://www.gofundme.com/housing-for-daniel-ratz. Pastor Renee, one of my old youth pastors, made this for me, and I'm so incredibly grateful for her and for this.
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As always, thank you so much for taking the time for reading this. That shows that you care, and that means more than you know. May God just blast a fire hose of blessings over your life. That's, like, a lot of blessings.
"Casting all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you." - 1 Peter 5:7
God is greater than all the problems I am facing.
- Daniel
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