Day three – July 19, 2010
The first day of camp.
Devotions started early this morning. I read Luke 18:15-17 which is the story of children running up to Jesus and the disciples rebuking them. I reflected on the question – Am I filled with Jesus enough so that kids would see Him in me?
As I thought of my time here at Camp of the Good Shepherd I sensed the Holy Spirit leading my thoughts to several answers. Kids can see Jesus in me when I laugh and smile. The Scriptures tell us that the Lord laughs. Jesus was a person who was contagious and attracted people. Kids can see Jesus in me when I serve them. At Camp of the Good Shepherd I have the opportunity to serve the kids throughout the day and night. Kids can see Jesus in me when I meet their needs. Debbie Marshall introduced our team to the kids by having us each tell the kids our name, favorite sport and favorite ice cream. But then we give each kid a hygiene kit with a wash clothe, toothbrush, bar of soap and toothpaste. Smart lady – what a great way to let the kids know that we’re here to serve and meet needs.
I also read Psalm 69. I had my time with God right next to the river in the gazebo. Verse 2-3 says, “Lead me to the rock that is higher than I, for you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy.” There’s no doubt that the enemy is at work in Romania and these kids are impacted greatly by the spiritual warfare that goes in their families and country. As we talked as a team, it’s also true that the enemy will attack right here in this camp. And, yet, as I looked across the river to the mountainside it was basically just a huge rock in front of me. This place is like God’s refuge, a strong tower. That was just a great visual reminder of God being our rock to stand on in the face of the enemy’s attack.
The rest of the day we finished up getting the camp ready for the kids. We cleaned the outhouses, finished getting the cabins ready, picked up trash wherever we saw and also burned a lot of trash. We actually could smell burning plastic all day – but that’s how they do it here.
When the kids started to arrive the team when into immediate action – ping pong, soccer, crafts and just hanging out to talk. We have a great team! I played a lot of ping pong, Nate was the soccer guy, Candace had kids talking to her all the time, Vicky and Josh played volleyball, Aura and Daniel were having tons of fun. Then they’d switch and interact in other ways. They did just a great job! Kids loved it.
When the Romania team arrived Debbie Marshall brought us together for a meeting to get us all on the same page for the program. We were set!
Dinner was next. I love the food. It was a plate of some sort of potato salad and grilled hot dog – not the kind we have but the European kind – very good. Then the drink was warm tea. That’s it – and it was great! This is definitely not how meals are in the states where there is tons and tons of food.
We ended the night with evening fellowship. We started with the crowd breaker, oogla boogla. The kids loved it! At the end, Marcel, the camp director, got Josh with the wet sponge! It was great to see the kids laugh so much. Daniel and Nate led the team in worship with several songs. Daniel had Nate prepare his testimony to share and he did an excellent job sharing it with the kids. Marcel was Nate’s interpreter.
I wrapped up the night with the story of the paralyzed man and Jesus. The paralyzed man was defined by his circumstances and Jesus set him free from it. I challenged the kids to find a new identity in Jesus. We gave each kid a friendship bracelet made of five colors – yellow, black, red, white and green. I let them know that yellow – like the yellow sponge we used in the crowd breaker – means that God loves them and wants to be their friend. Then we closed in prayer. It was a great night!
Every night the crowd breaker will introduce the next color in the bracelet. Tomorrow is black and we’ll have black jelly beans in black cherry jello! Kids will have to stick their face in the jello, find and eat the jelly beans! Black represents sin – haha!
Finished up a late night talk with Marcel. It was good to share about life and our stories with each other. He’s a good guy to be directing this camp.
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Glad to hear the 1st day of camp was such a success! Sounds like fun, too! Hope the team is healthy and well rested at this point. Can’t wait to read more about the adventure! Thanks so much for sharing.
Comment by Julie Zahn July 21, 2010 @ 7:57 am