Last week our family took off time from our busy schedules to attend the National WAIT Training Camp (Washington Aids International Teens) in the beautiful Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. Somehow I felt as parents this time we needed to be there, and I was right. WAIT is the ideal vehicle for families to work together in our communities to save the culture. It is a perfect way to reach out to our neighbors, neighborhoods, schools, churches, and political leaders, and provide them with a method to teach their youth. It expresses so much of what we believe in a form that’s easily digested and immediately transforming to everyone who witnesses the program.

The camp was a total "action workshop." Rather than sit and only listen to lectures the WAIT workshop taught the kids how to actualize God centered principles in several ways. It mainly showed teens how to use their natural talents to give unconditionally to others. This generation has so many gifts they are able to utilize. They were able to plug into music, dance, theater, break dancing, gymnastics, writing, movie-making, marketing, fundraising, coordination, art, computer development and more.

Led and guided by the tremendously energetic Tsubata family, a family that has taken on the HIV/AIDS epidemic, WAIT wisely focuses on abstinence as the central teaching, along with faithful life partnership and getting tested. Most importantly, WAIT emphasizes the restoration of true and pure love as the antidote to these problems.

WAIT’s philosophy involves teens working together in concert with their parents, so that parents can transfer to their children the invaluable training and resources they have accumulated. Working side by side, we reach out and educate the culture. Through WAIT, kids learn who they are, how valuable they are, how precious is their love, and why and how to ‘wait’ for true love. But, they don’t just learn it in an isolated environment. They learn it with positively-motivated peers who then teach the rest of the teens and parents in schools, community service organizations and churches. Almost every organization we are connected to can be served by WAIT. What a powerful tool we utilize in order to fulfill the cultural transformation which we are now praying to accomplish. The WAIT training included members of various teams from throughout the nation who are from diverse religious backgrounds. Many of them had no place to rest their hearts. They want to live pure lives but have no outlet for their feelings or even a place to share honestly. At the workshop they became free to express who they really were, and they could relate for perhaps the first time as brothers and sisters, not seeking love but developing their gifts and talents as a true family would. They were empowered to go back to their schools and communities and stand strongly for what is right, also to start programs in their own areas.

WAIT is so broad it can embrace every kind of person, from every ethnicity and religion. It is inclusive of kids of every economic bracket. It teaches kids to look at what’s inside instead judging others by what they see externally or what kind of clothes they wear. It helps kids understand what’s really valuable in life.

The camp brought together teams from throughout the nation as well as newcomers from as far away as France. After learning the new programs we preformed three times in the surrounding areas. We were warmly welcomed by the 4-H camp. Their leader had been deeply concerned that this program might be too sexually oriented for the 8-16 year old group. Afterward he said it was an unnecessary worry as WAIT talked about sexuality but did it in such a pure, natural and wholesome way that it could be presented to any age without fear.

At the Pocono Market Fair, a venue open to the entire public, the program was presented not only for those in attendance but to the press, the newspaper and the radio media as well. All loved it and, in one afternoon, we could reach out to an entire region with the message of WAIT.

After contacting about 30 venues, camps, community centers, schools and churches, it was sad to think we couldn’t stay and perform for all those who said, "The teens are gone for the summer, will you come back, we would love to have you." This included the choir director of the high school. He wanted us to perform for 3,500 students as well as the four churches he is youth pastor of. So many people are prepared and waiting for this message.

For those of you who think WAIT is just for our kids, I ask you to get involved! I have never seen a more powerful program to transmit the ideals to which we have dedicated our lives: purity and selfless giving. WAIT can help us transfer to our children a deep understanding of that we have sacrificed our lives for and the training necessary to accomplish their future missions.

For more information please contact Kate Tsubata at the WAIT website www.waitteam.org if you’re looking to bring WAIT to your community or nation.

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