Final day of camp

And in the blink of an eye, camp is over. It’s amazing how fast 8 days can go by.

We had a great last day of camp. This morning the students who have been learning English all week had a chance to teach some polish to their American teachers. They loved being able to have the tables turned. Our team walked away with the knowledge of a few more polish words and the knowledge of a little bit of what it feels like to be the student rather than the teacher.  Humbling to say the least.

The day was filled with many tears from both the campers and the Americans. Goodbyes began and will continue tomorrow and into Monday morning. The hardest part of the trip... but how sweet it is to have something, a group of people and a week so hard to say goodbye to.

Some of my favorite moments of today were getting hugged by campers who had tears in their eyes and you could tell that when they said “thank you” that their lives had been effected this week. Two words in a language not their own, to convey all that they feel behind those words. Feelings that don’t need explaining. God is so so good.

After camp we spent time cleaning up the school and organizing our bins of supplies for camps in the future. The students from the American team are getting the chance to stay in the homes of students from the youth group here tonight. I have been getting updates through the evening that they are having a great time together. We will reunite at church in the morning with one last morning to worship altogether with our polish teammates. Some of our American team is a part of the band in the morning as well!

It will take us days and weeks ahead to process all that each of us experienced this week and I pray that God has flamed a fire in all of us to continue our passion for sharing the love of Jesus in all of our spheres of influence- both the poles who will be here and the Americans who will be there.

Thank you again for all your prayers- we have gotten to see so many of them answered. More and more stories of students whose lives have been changed for eternity, who have given their lives to Christ or who have grown in their relationship with Him continue to come out of the woodwork. I have loved getting to see students who have been here for a few camps who have, this week, made the decision to give their life to Christ. It makes my heart dance to see another student who gave her life to Christ last year, be an active part of the youth group now and brought three more students to camp with her this year.

The Holy Spirit is moving. God is alive and active and changing lives.

Abby 

Mac, Friday the 15th

            It’s impossible to believe that today was our last full day of camp. Time has gone by at an insanely fast rate. I started the day in its now-typical manner. It should be noted that I am not a coffee drinker, and therefore have resorted to obtaining caffeine in other ways. That being said, one of the hotel workers has become accustomed to handing me a Coke to buy without me asking every morning. This morning was no different, and began with a Coca-Cola and a quick trip to the bakery across the street from our hotel. The bakery workers have, for whatever reason, found enjoyment in Kyle’s limited understanding of the Polish language that he utilizes whenever he pays a visit.

            We had a good conversation among our American team in our hotel lobby about last night’s Labyrinth experience at camp. It was a positive talk about the effect that us and our Polish counterparts have had on the campers. We discussed methods to use that would continue the spiritual positivity that some of the campers are now enjoying.

            Our seventh day in English Camp continued at its highly-accelerated rate. In Kyle’s and my class, one of our sessions was dedicated to teaching our class “Minnesota slang”; “oofda” is a personal favorite among the campers. Another highlight of the day was playing Kyle’s now-signature Balloon Battle game. We ended our day at camp with our final theme night that was based off of Disney characters and other cartoons. Never before have I ever played so much Just Dance in one day.

            After camp, we ventured to the neighboring town of Ciezyn to feast on McDonald’s (which is conveniently referred to as “Mac” by the people of Poland). A few of us dared to try some high-cholesteral burger that I’m pretty sure translates to “The Lumberjack”. Fitting. I will note that European McDonald’s is outdoing its American counterpart in spades. On the way back to Skoczow, a few of us made an “accidental detour” to a scenic hill that overlooked the Czech-Polish Border. Because of this, we sped back to the church at a pace that had me holding on to the car door grip for the duration of the trip. Life in the fast lane.

            When we did return to the church, we came across a strange site that included Abby wearing a red and white afro wig and a bunch of decorations emphasizing the number 10. I later safely concluded that this was in celebration of her tenth trip to Poland, because it obviously was no one’s tenth birthday. This celebration included eating a delicious strawberry cake the “old-fashioned way” of all of us communally digging in without using plates.

            A few of us are now just laying around and looking forward to being taught Polish by our students tomorrow. That should be an interesting experience, to say the least.

Peace and love.

-Mac

Thursday at Camp from the heart of Angela Gudahl

July 14^th, 2016

            Greetings everyone, I write to you with a joyful heart and droopy eyelids. Today started as a typical day of camp would- camp dance, icebreakers, English lesson 1, break, English lesson 2, lunch, activities, sports, break, evening program. However, this specific evening was special. During the evening talk, the gospel was preached loud and clear, and every camper heard the message: God desperately           wants a relationship with you. After the gospel was shared, the campers went through numerous stations that we call the labyrinth. These are stations that challenge campers to think about different aspects about the reality of Jesus dying on the cross for them. At the end of the station, campers can either decide to go into the cafeteria to talk to someone about the decision they just made, or go home.

            This evening sounds simple enough when I try to explain it on a blog post. In all reality, the evening was indescribable. I was given the amazing and humbling privilege of being able to see God answer prayers for a specific camper right before my eyes. This camper was a challenge, but many of us had been praying and believing that our God can change her heart. And as I sat in the cafeteria, waiting to see if any campers would come in to talk after the labyrinth, I just prayed over and over again “Jesus, please please please, just bring her in this room. I believe you can do it.” 

She was the first camper to walk in. My entire body got the chills like I had never felt them before. She knew little English so someone from the Polish youth group went and talked with her. She said that she wanted a relationship with God. God knows her heart, but I pray that this is so real, and so good, and I am so overwhelmed by who our God is.

At the end of the night, we all got to debrief our day and the different conversations we had. There were so many of them, full of goodness and the Holy Spirit. One other camper who accepted Jesus as her Savior tonight said to her foster sister (who is a follower of Christ) “We have the same Father now.” Praise Jesus!

There were so many other stories, other campers coming to Christ, good conversations, hard conversations, real conversations. God knows all of them. And the angels in heaven are rejoicing. And on this day we all have some new brothers and sisters in Christ. And maybe all of you won’t get to meet them here on this Earth, but one day we will be standing before Him and praising Him together. My heart is so full and so overwhelmed. God didn’t have to pick us to be used, but He did. He is so faithful.

Oh God, the glory is Yours. Your kingdom has come. The battle is over. Jesus, in Your name we rise. The glory is Yours. The glory is Yours.

Angela Gudahl

Kon Nagy's take on Wednesday- Field Trip Day

This morning at 5:49 our whole team was woken up by the sound of a metal dumpster being slammed into the pavement repeatedly. Poland, you truly never fail to disappoint. Today was our field trip day, basically where we go take a day off from camp and do something fun to try to talk and connect more with the campers and hopefully strike up conversations about God. Our field trip today was hiking a mountain. 

I never found out the name of the mountain but even if I knew it I'm sure that I couldn't spell it correctly. The trip started by walking to the Skoczów train station where we met up with the Polish campers. “I got to ten thousand steps!”-to quote Tori while she gazed at her Fitbit and tripped off the train station steps. After Domi concluded that she rolled her ankle we went on with buisness. We eventually boarded our train and after a 45 minute long train ride we made it to Wisła. Upon arrival we went through the “cute little town” and made it to the base of the mountain. It was a steep sight, and because of the rain the previous night it was very wet and mucky. But we went along and started our journey. The first part was very steep and hard to walk up especially with Tori having her hurt ankle and Abby with her bad knees. So we made it to the first “checkpoint” and Abby made the decision to have her, Tori, and Domi to head back down the road to get a ride to the town. They were all very disappointed because they all wanted to do the hike and make it to the top of this mountain. So after they left we kept moving and the weather got nicer the farther up we went. It was an amazing sight getting higher and higher up and seeing more of the town and farm land below us. We eventually made it to the top of the mountain and ate some lunch, to quote myself, “that wasn't so bad” After finishing lunch we took off back down the other side of the mountain. It was beautiful walking through the forest and seeing God's great creation, some parts really reminded me of northern Minnesota. This part of our journey felt a lot longer and more physically demanding due to all of the mud and runoff on our path. After many good conversations and great music we made it off of the trail and to the main road. I saw a building and made the assumption that we were at our destination but was mistaken. We took a wrong turn somewhere and had to walk on the side of the road to make it there. So we trekked on again, this part of the trip was interesting because Domi was driving her car and picking up 4 people at a time and driving them closer to our stop. After lots of talking, telling jokes, and doing voice impressions, myself and 3 others hopped in Domi's car and made it to our place. 

I didn't really know what to expect when we got there, a ropes course? I just hiked 12 miles, all I want to do is sit down and drink some water, not climb up a ladder to my certain doom. But actually it was really awesome. We met up with Abby, Tori, and Domi and got started. We bought lots of sweet candy and ice cream while our team went up and down the course. It was very cool to see our team of Polish and American people doing awesome on this very intense course, even people that really didn't want to do it, or had killer head aches did the course and got some awesome pictures. After spending some time there we all packed into a bus and made it back to the school. With some sweaty hugs and tired legs we went back to the church and had dinner then our team debrief. At the team debrief we had lots of discussion in how we saw God and talked about the conversations the Polish youth group kids had with the students. In the end our team walked a combined total of about 200,000 steps and 100 miles (according to Fitbit) All is going very well and I am personally having a great time, lots of internal struggles but it's a good learning experience for myself. 

Love and miss you all!

~Kon 

PS. Tori and her ankle are better :)

Tuesday from the heart of Allison Gudahl

            Day four of English Camp in Skoczow, Poland flowed nicely just as all have gone so far. That’s what I believe, at least. Our days always consist of the lovely but sweat-instigating camp dance, which usually ends up stuck in my head for most of the remaining hours. But today there were various activities and discussions. We played a pretty violent game of capture the flag that involved me being pulled over the dividing line by at least four campers. I have no idea how my arms didn’t tear from my body.

            Did I mention a few girls came to the school where English Camp takes place and they put on a concert for us? And both of their names are Megan, which makes things even more amusing. All of the music reminded me of singing along to the radio while driving my rusty Le Sabre. I miss everything from home from my mom to mainstream music far too much, but I honestly wouldn’t trade anything in the world to go home just yet.

            My perspective of life in Poland has changed a lot in only a week. At first I thought God was punishing me to be here for an entire fifteen days without my cellphone, friends, and my usual freedom of being able to do whatever I wanted whenever. I am admitting the full truth right now. I didn’t necessarily want to go to Poland as the days grew closer towards our plane departure from Minneapolis. As soon as I got to Poznań, Poland, I was already homesick, beyond tired, and wanted to be on my way back to Minnesota that very day. However, I knew God was whispering to me “Just wait.” And so I did, mainly because I didn’t have a choice. Once we got to Skoczów a few days after staying in Poznań, something in me started to change. As soon as camp started, my attitude was immediately transformed.

            I felt a connection between so many campers only the first day after meeting them. The way I’ve seen God move in the campers lives’ and even mine has blown me away. Just knowing that I have to leave them all breaks my heart a little bit as our days in Poland are counting down. I’m just trying not to think about it too much.

            Thank you to all of your prayers and support! Keep it up!

                                                                                               

-Allison Gudahl

Camp Day 3 from the heart of Kyle Wikstrom

Wow! What an amazing day at English Camp!

Today was the first full day of camp activities. Here are some of the highlights!

We began with the Camp Dance, and the campers are getting really good at it. I’ve even spotted some of them doing the moves in the hallways! English lessons are going exceptionally well in the classroom I share with Mac. Today, our students learned about how English is often used in the Twitter app, and they even came up with their own hash tags for themselves and their interests.

Our Blue Team got to play in the bubble balls today, where players wear a life size balloon and try to play soccer. The challenge is trying to stay on your feet when opposing players run into each other to steal the ball. I admit it is pretty wild getting smoked by another player and bouncing across the field. No points were awarded if you bounced into the goal. It had to be the soccer ball.

Everyone got to play American Touch Football. While explaining even the bare bones of how to play the game, Mac, Kon, and myself realized just how much we say in sports that is not easy to understand. Phrases like “In the end zone” and “You’re out” simply mean something else. Finding ways to deconstruct our own understanding of these games and putting them back together again in ways that are simpler and more intuitive is even teaching me more about how we communicate with others.

The Evening Program was great and many campers are drawn to the message and want to know what happens next! Tonight, Abby continued sharing about the events in Genesis and what it means to have relationship with God. These campers are in my prayers as we support the Polish team and their youth.

Tonight was our first Theme Night where everyone dressed up in ways to represent different countries and regions from around the world. I was particularly excited about wearing my Swedish hockey jersey even though I had to correct some of the campers’ interpretation of my costume when they started to sing ‘O Canada’. We played games such as wrapping individuals like mummies using toilet tissue, racing across the room holding candy with only chopsticks, and a costume relay race.

We continue to play games like UNO and Ligretto with the campers during free time. The youth seem to have sure taken a liking to the camp team, and we are excited and grateful to see how God is working through English camp.

It is hard to believe that we have only been here a handful of days. It is true when the Bible says God created people to be in community. We do not come from the same places. We are not all at the same place in life. We do not even come from the same language background. But God has created a community in Poland that is centered on Him, and we are incredibly blessed to be a part of that community.

Every morning, our team spends time going through devotionals in the book of Romans. Today, as we were sharing the word with each other, a maintenance worker came up to our group. He spoke very little English, but he shared with us that he spent 16 years in prison and he was released 6 years ago. He said, “Jesus is life.” This man knew that Jesus is our saving grace, and we all need Him each and every day. Please, continue to be praying for the campers, the local church in Skoczow, the Polish youth team, and our Timberwood team, and know that your prayers are bearing fruit half a world away.

Most sincerely,

Kyle