SIGMA Awards

The awards banquet was one of our favorite parts of the SIGMA program we ministered in while in North Carolina. A few weeks before the banquet Pastor Jim and Lisa Ogle along with the adult leaders would get together to brainstorm and plan. The decorating took a lot of work, and over the course of 3 days the auditorium was transformed completely and ready to surprise a bunch of really excited and hopeful teens and adults alike. The years we were at Emmanuel the themes varied greatly from a trip to Mexico to one under the water, and from a castle courtyard to a patriotic rally. Certainly we learned a lot about throwing a BIG shindig with a little bit of money. Most importantly we learned that it is important to "render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor." (Romans 13:7)

Tonight we rendered honor and tribute to our faithful teens and also announced the winner of the 2nd SIGMA block. Though there was no change to the inside of the auditorium the change in many of the young people is evident. We are so proud of all of the young people and their hard work and faithfulness!

It's time to let you know who won......drum roll please.....and the winners are....... the Lopez Lions (los Leones). Pastor Daniel and his wife, Amparo, led the Lions: Eliana, Elizabeth, Kaitlin, Valeria, Nicolas, Yeni, and Ana (pictured above) plus Nahuel and Rudy. As a team:

• They said 245 verses, plus an additional 44 of those were said in chapter form. Chapter verses have to be said twice in a row in order to get the bonus for those verses.
• They completed 238 days of devotions.
• They took 94 notes of sermons.
• They served in the church 70 times.
• They sang a special with their entire team.
• They had 6 visitors in their team meetings.
• They completed 3 community service projects. Though they only received points for 2 of them because they did not have their entire team present for one project. 2 of those projects were several hours of cutting and hauling grass and weeds and cleaning up yards. The other project was a stocked toy box for the church nursery.
• One of the members completed a book report on Missionary Nate Saint.

These young people are the top two verse sayers from each team. Eliana said 46 verses, Brandon said 41, Tatiana said 52, Maria Eugenia said 146, Melissa said 40 and Kaitlin said 80.

These young people were faithful in completing more than 70% of their devotions for the 2nd block: Paola, Brandon, Nacho, Yeni, Eliana, Melissa, Kaitlin, Maria Eugenia, Eliana G and Valeria.

Thank you, once again, for praying for our work in SIGMA. It is a labor of love! We fell in love with youth work while in Bible College, so it is a particular blessing from the Lord that we are able to help and encourage young people to grow in the Lord here on the mission field. And train Uruguay's leaders of tomorrow.

We covet your prayers for the full SIGMA "year" that we hope to begin this fall (March or April). It will entail more work on our parts, however, we trust that the end dividend will be young people whose lives honor Christ!