around me saw God’s work in my life so much better than I did in those years. In 2001, Word of Life Bermuda grew to be a national field ministry, and we started a teen camp ministry after running Bible Clubs and Club events for 12 years. We started with just one week of teen camp each summer trying to capture much of The Island feel and spiritual intensity in our little program. Today we run four weeks of summer camp and one weekend of ‘Battlezone Camp’ (spiritual disciplines) each year. Almost none of our ideas are original but observed elsewhere and adapted to reach our local island communities effectively. Each year we see about 200-300 decisions for Christ in our Olympian and Teen events and Camps. I’ve come to believe a consistent ministry over 30 years and still seeing the creative blessing of God is as powerful a testimony to God’s grace as a huge stadium crusade with 5,000 decisions in one night. God’s miraculous power is at work in both situations. This Christmas Eve, Grace Island, the camp we’ve rented for 17 years, was gifted to Word of Life Bermuda by The Perry family. The 5.87-acre island is just big enough to solidify our camping and will open new kinds of ministry for outreach. Property is a blessing which can quickly become a distraction. Land and fun amenities don’t lead people to Christ; only people can evangelize. Don Lough and our Bermuda Board are helping us to plan creatively to fund the property upgrades while keeping our passion for precious lives as our focus. Did I see this coming back in 1980 when I was at the Bible Institute? No! God is serious when He saves us. He has a full plan called ‘His workmanship in Christ’ (Ephesians 2:10) that you don’t have to struggle to actualize. You just have to ‘trust’ and ‘obey today’, and He unfolds His plan for your marriage, ministry, mistakes, mission, kids, and community as you walk with Him. YOU JUST HAVE TO ‘TRUST’ AND ‘OBEY TODAY.’
BY MARK HALL ('81 & '82)
I REALIZED I NEEDED THE LORD TO HELP ME LIVE FOR HIM. I think I learned so much in my Bible Institute year, it took me the next 10 years to unpack, understand and appreciate all that was given to me that year. By August 1981, I had learned a lot about the Christian life but was still a ‘babe’ in how to ‘live’ all this new truth. You remember? Just enough Bible knowledge to be ‘dangerous’. I came back to the Bible Institute the next year for the first-ever School of Youth Ministries, 1981-82, (now Second- Year program). That was a fantastic year of ‘Bubar-leadership’ and vision and experiential learning with Bible Club principles brought into the classroom. I think much of the vision instilled in me that year has become my foundation for Word of Life ministry today. I interned in the Bronx with John Cousins, hoping to observe youth ministry in the inner city. When we arrived, there was no youth ministry, and the pastor thought we were coming to pioneer a youth ministry in the Bronx. What John and I had to learn that winter was to see what God was already doing and then adjust our approach to make ministry more effective. That is what I still do for Word of Life and Local Church Ministries now as Director of Word of Life Bermuda and a zone leader in The Caribbean Region today. For five years as youth pastor in Bermuda, I was using the Word of Life Local Church Ministries program. I was mentored by the gracious Howie Bowen. He was my coach, example and greatest cheerleader as I became a Word of Life missionary in 1991. Pamela Swan and I were married that same year, and God was taking this once ambitionless young man into new ministry and marriage all at once. The gracious men
Mark Hall
National Director, Word of Life Bermuda MHALL@WOL.ORG
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