Highlight on Youth Camps

The following is a featured article from the Winter 2008 edition of The Overflow. Click here to download the full edition as a PDF File.

Do Agua Viva youth camps have any lasting effect on the youth?

Oscar: Wild Boy Politician

"Up till now you’ve been crazy kids. Now the Lord is going to use all of that craziness for His own glory." Sometimes we say that to kids at Agua Viva youth camps when they accept the Lord.

Never has that idea had more meaning than in the life of Oscar Cruz, former crazy boy now turned crazy-for-Jesus.

When I asked to interview Oscar, he asked to meet me at his office. I’ve known Oscar since he was 16, and I still see him as a kid, so when he said "office", I chuckled. What kind of office can a former crazy, former 16-year old have? My first surprise was that he really has an office, and an Office with a capital O. He has an outer office where his various secretaries work, and his inner office with his cherry wood desk. I think I may have whooped when I entered.

And then the ex/current crazy young man told me about his new position in the current Ensenada Mayor’s Cabinet.

His official title is Director del Instituto de la Juventud (Director of the Youth Institute) a new position created by the newly elected mayor of Ensenada. I asked Oscar what the vision of this new position is, and he started listing the five programs:

1. To foster the participation of youth in the ecology of our city.
2. To promote and encourage youth to study by providing scholarships for high school and university age.
3. To promote holistic prevention in areas of addictions, unplanned pregnancies, and sickness.
4. To foster employment of youth, both recently graduated professionals and youth yet studying.
5. To develop alliances with foreign schools and cultural institutions, for student exchanges, etc.

I said, "Wow, Oscar. You’re doing all that?"

Oscar with his two sisters, Cindy and NancyHe said, "Allyson, I’m only 23 years old. This is a newly created position, and I’m heading it up. Not only that, but I’m a member of the Mayor’s cabinet. I’m the youngest-the person closest to my age is 30 years old-and I’m the only Evangelical Christian. I tell kids all the time, ‘Never say you can’t do something. Put all of yourself into things and even though you begin with nothing, you will be able to do things.’"

Well, how did this crazy influential young man come to the Lord, anyway?

I know the story, but I love to hear it, so Oscar indulged me and told me everything again.

In 2000, Oscar was a wild boy. He was in a gang, living a secular lifestyle with lots of partying. Some of his neighbors invited him to a Christian youth camp at Agua Viva, even though none of them were Christians. But they had been invited by others and passed the invitation on to their friend. Oscar thought, "No way. How boring." And he went home to laugh about it with his mother.

Now his single mother was also not a Christian, but she saw the path her son’s life was taking and decided that a Christian youth camp was better than nothing. She told Oscar, "You’re going to that camp. You are going for two days, or I will not take you on the family vacation this year." So little wild Oscar was forced to go.

Spring 2002 youth camp: Oscar (front middle) with his soccer team that won the Agua Viva CupHe said, "When I got there I was so surprised. I couldn’t believe that Christian kids wore normal clothes. I had always imagined Christians being so weird. And I was so impressed by the campground itself. It was all so awesome—so cool.

"Then the program got going and it was all great. I had a great counselor, and when my two days were up I didn’t want to leave. But our family was going on vacation, so I did.

"When we got home from vacation, I was changed. I didn’t want to go back to hanging out with the gang. I did everything I could to avoid them. During that time my counselor from youth camp came looking for me. I finally went to church with him, and when the pastor made the call I went forward. I was at the altar crying and crying. People probably thought I was just so broken, but I was crying because I knew I had to break away from a bunch of stuff I liked. I knew I was quitting the party life for good, and it was killing me." He laughed.

Later Oscar brought his sister Cindy to youth camp and she met the Lord. She is currently working for a missions organization called YWAM. At another youth camp Oscar brought his sister Nancy. She accepted the Lord, and is now working with young married couples in a church in Lancaster, CA with her husband. Finally their mother accepted the Lord. Oscar said, "By that time what choice did she have? She was outnumbered three to one!"

After his conversion, Oscar worked at his church for three years on a volunteer basis, organizing concerts, cleaning the church, helping with the administration in the office, and assisting and traveling with the head pastor. "But I got tired of only working within the church. I wanted to be working with kids who were like I used to be."

Spring 2003 youth camp: Oscar (top left) served as a counselorSo Oscar planned a city-wide event called "Halloween-nada," (a play on words that means Halloween-nothing.) Held in October, it was basically a concert done by a formerly secular hard rock/rapper turned Christian. Oscar invited the then-mayor of Ensenada to the event who declined but sent an assistant to visit Oscar. The assistant was enthused about the project, but Oscar never heard anything back.

1,100 youth attended the concert and over 800 of them were not Christians. The musician gave a call and almost all of the 800 accepted Christ. It was a huge success.

Except financially, that is. Oscar was left with a $7,000 debt and no one to help him with it. He recalls those days as the most difficult of his life. "My church criticized me and that type of event, the people who were going to help pay for it didn’t, and I owed money all over the place. I sold my car. I said I was never going to do anything else like that again. It was a bad time."

Oscar took refuge in working at a local Christian orphanage where the directors took him in and loved him for six months.

At the end of that time his former head pastor called him and said, "What’s in the past is done with. I want you to be here on Monday to work for me again, with a salary this time."

Spring 2003 youth camp: Oscar (in white T-shirt)And here’s the part where God took all the pieces to form the current young crazy man. When Oscar went back to work for the church, he was sent to City Hall to obtain a permit for a public event. Oscar didn’t know anything about City Hall, not anybody or not even where to go…so he thought. While he was getting the permit the assistant to the former mayor saw Oscar and yelled out to him. "Oscar! Where’ve you been? I’ve been trying to find you for awhile." He took him back to his office and gave him a position as counsel to the mayor regarding all things youth.

"I was 20 years old. They took me everywhere. When I needed to do an event on a public street they gave me the permits and police coverage, no problem. Any events I decided to head up, the government paid for. They interviewed me on the radio every two weeks. I was on television. When they needed me to be somewhere they sent a car for me and escorted me there.

"It was during that time that my love of politics was born. And now I’m in this position for the Youth Institute for the next three years. But that’s not the extent of what I’m dreaming. I want to be elected for the local government in the next election. After that I want to run for State representative, and then come back and be Mayor of Ensenada by 2021. And after that I want to go into full-time ministry."

I said, "Oscar, how much are you able to share the gospel in your new position?"

He said, "Oh, all the time. I take the Mayor to church with me!"