Courageous Journey

We call Lulian, Debbie Marshall’s right hand man, the most interest man in the world.  He’s a real man’s man.  He brought out a couple of guns for us to shoot.  The target was bottles with eggs on them.  I missed every shot BUT Nate – Mr. Sharp Shooter – hit the egg.  Amazing!

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.

Unfortunately, yes, there is Internet, but very slow and shuts down often.  The camp is surrounded by mountain terrain and there’s no way in the world we’re going to get skype working.  That’s a huge bummer!

Today we had our team meeting with Debbie Marshal who is the president of Heart of Hope Ministries.  I was amazed and saddened to hear about the village kids that would be at camp the next day.  A village kid can come from a village of 25 families to a village of about a 1000 people.  Most of these kids come with hardly anything at all.  We will provide a hygiene baggie for them which will include a toothbrush, toothpaste, a bar of soap and a wash clothe. Some families may not even send their kids because they might not have shoes for them.

The camp is pretty rustic and reflects what you would see in the village homes – plumbing that is being repaired, buildings in a process of being fixed, outside play areas consisting mostly of dirt or weeds but because people who love the Lord are working here you can see many signs of transformation. The kids from the village are in bible clubs that are run by Heart of Hope Ministries, and this camp, in the condition it is in, is literally the highlight of their year.  you can’t help but feel like God is using us as a special gift to these kids that have so little.  What they need most, of course, is the love of Christ and we show that in many ways as we provide safety, compassion and consistency to these kids.  The culture of village kids or orphanage children is tough and sad.  We almost liken it to prison culture.  We have to be very careful not to show any special favor to any kids because we would literary make things worse for them.  Other kids may shun them or fight with them later becasue of it.

The weather has been in the 90′s and a bit humid.  We may have rain today tonight.  Food is actually pretty good.  We had chees, bread, salami and tomato for breakfast.  For dinner we had meatball soup (meat tasted a bit different), cabbage salad, frend fries, chicken and crapes (yum).  Late night snack – more crapes, fried eggs, chicken and friend meat.

Tonight, we’re cleaning cabins and putting together the kid’s hygiene bags. Please pray for our rest as we continue to get ready for camp tomorrow.  It’s such a privelege to serve here alongside my son and the whole team.  Thanks for believing in the mission and how God can do the extraordinary through ordinary people.