Wedding Bells and Camp Dances

From the voice and heart of Kim Westaway::

Dum dum da dum…dum dum da dum… We started our day by attend the wedding of Darek and Basia, members of the Polish youth group. The wedding was beautiful and the pastor delivered a powerful message on creating a “forever marriage.” After the ceremony, we enjoyed cookies, fruit skewers, and amazing cake. We were able to socialize with other members of the Polish youth group and congratulate the newlyweds.

Following the wedding, we had lunch at the church with the Polish youth team (pork, potatoes with gravy, and cucumber salad).  The energy in the room was very positive and everyone was excited for camp to begin. After lunch we walked to the school to set up for camp. The campers arrived for registration around 2:30pm and the fun began! We went around introducing ourselves and helped campers paint cups to use for the week. Then we broke into our color teams to make posters and come up with a team chant. We have the green dragons (myself and Ellie J), the blue bears (Phillip), the cookie monsters (Ellie E and Carl), the pink panthers (Zach and PK), the powerful purples (Derek and Abby). We will be in our color teams for games and the team with the most points at the end of the week will win a prize. 

We started teaching the camp song and dance. Ellie E and Zach taught the dance from stage and the campers were enthusiastic about learning it. I have to say we were all looking pretty good by the end! Then we conducted a brief English lesson, mostly just introductions, before playing our first game. After a unique introduction (thanks to MCs Ellie J and myself), Ben led a game of “I have never…” The campers caught on quickly and everyone had fun running and diving for chairs. After games, Derek led worship and we sang three songs.  Abby even showed off her vocal abilities! After worship, Abby gave the evening program talk and introduced Peter, who will be the focus on evening talks all week. All the campers then broke into small “cell groups” to discuss expectations for camp and Abby’s challenge to be honest with each other. The first day ended on a positive note with many campers excited to return tomorrow.

Our team is feeling blessed and overwhelmed with how God is already working in the lives of the youth around us. We are looking forward to the week and getting to share the gospel with others. Prayer requests include patience as we try to teach English, especially for the beginner class, strength to remain energetic and engaged throughout the day, open hearts to be led by God, and courage to share the gospel with the campers.