So, what to say about the first week of camp that ended last Saturday… It was quite an eventful week! Other than the main staff there were two teams here: our World Race team and another from Texas who have been traveling around Ukraine doing other camps as well. They took the daytime activities and my team took to the cabins and nighttime duties. The kids really were amazing – very intelligent (more so than myself at that age), most bilingual, and had some amazing stories of what their families were doing in Ukraine and Russia. During lunch I started chatting with one of the kids whose family has moved above the Arctic Circle in Siberia. His parents were learning the language of a group of unreached native people and ministering to them. He described the summer there as our normal winter day with the possibility of snow at any time. To put it lightly, these kids have experienced a good bit more than your average 10 year old.
I had a cabin full of excited and energetic boys but we had a blast making up songs and twice won the contest to determine who eats first, played tether ball and I listened to the stories about their families and the work they were doing. My team also took to the manual labor assignments – cleaning bathrooms, preparing food and cleaning after meals. I must admit it took some creativity and patience to make that work feel like ministry, but in the end it absolutely is. Even when scrubbing a toilet or hand washing industrial sized pans, we are lightening the load of the other staff and providing an opportunity for these kids to enjoy a camp with their peers (which may not happen often for some of them), and hopefully take away some biblical teachings.
Currently we are trying to get some rest and ready ourselves for the next week where we will host a camp for kids from the small village next to the camp. Please continue praying for my team as we prepare for language barriers, late nights and early mornings, and that we would be effective through the barriers to minister to these kids. Thanks for all of your support and encouragement so far.
