January 2014 Update 7
Jambo!! Hey! How are you all?? We have had a great week of camp!! I am feeling better and better each day. Thank you for your prayers. Everyone else has been feeling well. Allan really has been a super star stepping in as I have been slower than usual. It has been cool to see the girls plugging in with the Ugandans. You could hardly tell that Madi arrived late. She just jumped in with the rest. She received her Ugandan name too, Namakose which means a beautiful plant, fitting since Madi is our vegetarian nature girl. There have been a lot of challenges, but it has been awesome watching my girls keep going and not letting it get them down.
I’m going to summarize a bit…Saturday and Sunday the schedule was the same. In the mornings, we were blessed to hear from Isma about the light of the world, and Brian about thankfulness. I hope my girls are listening!! We too can learn to have an attitude of thankfulness instead of always looking for what’s next.
We were finishing up our futbol tournament. Saturday we had the semifinals with yellow beating blue in penalty kicks and then green beating red. Sunday was the finals and yellow won the whole thing. Blue and green have appeared to be the strong teams through the round robin, but yellow pulled it together when it counted. The extreme joy and sorrow felt on the field is tangible to the watchers.
Saturday afternoon our tie dye are finally dry!!! Yay!! I have all the kids get theirs on so we can take pictures. Today for craft time they will make picture frames. They are simple, but they are cherished. One of the Ugandan kids was joking with me the other day. She had a small hand mirror and she said ‘this is the biggest mirror in Uganda’. They don’t have full length mirrors if they even have one at all. The kids love our digital camaras because they can see themselves right away. I have actually sat and taken the same picture of the same kids 20 times and they still laugh and love the 20th. To get a picture of themselves to keep is a much bigger deal than you’d think. I tasked my girls to go out and take the pics of their teams. Lauran got all artsy and had her kids find props, flowers, soccer balls, trees, they turned out really cute. I think on e of the main attractions for the afternoon was the photo printer. The kids came and watched and with each photo, they oooo’d and aaah’d. We can learn so much from them. The simple life is so nice. When there is downtime at camp, I used to worry because that’s when American kids get in trouble, but here, they just chillax and hang out. Actually most of them go to do laundry if I let them. How great if our kids went to do chores when they had downtime. They don’t ever really have downtime though. We are too busy! I look forward to being here and living the simpler life. Who knows, I may get bored, we’ll see.
CPR this afternoon was about STD’s. Lovely pictures just before dinner J Then after dinner we headed to worship. This evening we spent time talking about the Christian life and the work of the Holy Spirit. I talk to the kids a lot about character and this is the night I am able to tie it all together. We focus on the fruit of the Spirit and how God wants us to experience more love, more joy, more peace as well as more patience and self-control. Who doesn’t want more of these things???
Our night activity is BINGO!!! So much fun!! Everyone loves Bingo! When we finish they all complain…one more game!! The prizes are pretty awesome this time too!! Even though they aren’t playing themselves, the staff makes a great time of it too getting SUPER excited whenever someone wins. It is awesome!!
Sunday we played games!! First we had a huge balloon stomp game. Each camper gets a balloon and ties it to their ankle with a string. The goal is to pop everyone else’s and keep yours intact. It is really fun to watch!! They have all sorts of different ways of playing, but they all enjoy it a lot!!! The blue team really has become a team. I have noticed that they work together well. They are also great servants. Almost every meal blue members are collects plates to return to the kitchen. There is one girl that I swear she is stalking me. She always seems to appear just as I’m finishing, but I don’t see her hanging around. The blue team worked together to be the winning team. There were 4 or 5 of them left at the end of the game. Green was the 2nd place team. Then we headed up to the field for tug-o-war. A camp favorite!! Every team got the chance to play every other team. Now the teams were made randomly. We try to make sure friends don’t stay together. Somehow, this time the red and orange teams were much smaller than the other 3 teams. This was clear during tug-o-war. But everyone have fun cheering for their team.
The teams are given time this afternoon to finalize things for their dance. Tonight is the big show!!! We had CPR start early this afternoon. They were spending time on peer pressure. It exists everywhere!!! We really hope that the kids build relationships at camp that can be positive influences when they return home.
After an early dinner, we head into the main hall for worship. While we are waiting for our judges to arrive, the teams go and get in their costumes for the dance show. The orange team definitely wins the best costumes!! Yay!! Emma has arrived and the kitchen crew has finished cleaning up from dinner and come down too. Our judge panel for the evening is Emma, Vincent (a friend of Isma’s) and another Emma who worked in the kitchen. Emma brought his 2 girls for the show also and Kimi brought the girls who are staying with her, including her grandson Jordan, who was born while I was here back in May. Many of you prayed for his arrival. I got my baby time!!
The dance show is always such a great time!! All the kids really shine in their dance and singing. It is always amazing to see kids that have been so quiet and shy all week, become stars on stage. Melissa, Emma’s youngest becomes my assistant and chooses which team will go first. Orange danced first and Jabez is a little guy who just goes crazy!! He even came out into the crowd. Tarah did her best to keep up with the shaking hips and high kicks of her teammates. At the end, it looks like half the forest was brought in. There are banana leaves everywhere. Red was up next. Lauren I think did the best job doing the local dance with her team. Green was up third and Gloria had a task of a long and somewhat complicated dance. Blue was up next and they did a great job! Cathy led that team and she always gives a bit of an unfair advantage. Last was yellow and Madi had to play the role of a boy in a courting dance, pretty funny!! Everyone did a great job!! In the end, the judges thought that the green team put together the best overall performance.
These points were added to those earned throughout the week’s competitions and by reciting memory verses. We try not to focus too much on the winning and losing, but we have to let them know, so we did the bottom 3 together, orange red and green and then the first runner up…yellow and blue were the winners of the whole camp. Their teamwork paid off and they also got extra points for service and bible verses. Well done, blue!!! We celebrate with snacks and sodas ad glow in the dark bracelets. The kids settle back down and watch a slideshow of the week. It was a great finale to the week, but oh wait, it isn’t over…DANCE PARTY and bonfire!!! The kids have a ball dancing and we brought extra marshmallows to roast. I set the deadline for 2am, since last time they went till 6!! The mzungus had a great time dancing with the kids too!!
Monday morning we reluctantly get out of bed, partially because we are tired and partially because we realize the kids leave today. It has been a week with challenges, but God still came and did His thing. It was awesome, the other night while I was teaching, I was sharing with the kids that the evil one is very present. I was sharing about some of the complications we had been experiencing and I asked them a question…do you think Satan would be fighting so hard if God didn’t have big plans for you kids??? Maybe there is a future politician or even president in the room. Maybe he doesn’t want you to walk with Jesus as you lead the country. Maybe a doctor, who is able to find a cure to AIDS or maybe a teacher, who will impact hundreds of students for Christ. We may never know what all God has done until eternity, but I know for sure that He is at work!!
After breakfast this morning, we have a longer church service. We do worship and then I finish up the story of God. I spent the morning talking about God’s promises, those written of in the Old Testament, prophecies about Christ and then promises Jesus made. Our ultimate hope is heaven and we can be certain of that eternity because God keeps His promises!! Amen!! When we know His faithfulness, we can cling to the hope of heaven no matter what circumstances we find ourselves in. One day we will all have a room, John 14:1-3, and there will be no more tears, no more pain and no more suffering!! I also talked about the joy I receive when I listen to them worship and how it gives me a glimpse of every tribe and tongue and nation worshipping our Lord. So beautiful!! The kids were given on opportunity to claim a room in heaven and then we celebrated the Lord’s Supper together. I love serving communion to these kids. It is truly an honor to invite them to His table.
The kids were sent to go pack their things and prepare to return to the village. There are some sad faces. As the reality sets in the americans are getting very sad!! I even see some tears. We gather teams for pictures and then got everyone for a huge camp photo. They all fit!!! We enjoy one last meal together before the vans arrive to take the kids. I know I will see most of these kids again, but it is harder for the girls. They are even sadder having to say goodbye to the Ugandan staff. It is amazing how deep relationships become so quickly in a camp environment. I say it is one of the cool miracles God performs in the camp setting. It does make leaving even harder though.
Michael, one of the Ugandan staff, came with bracelets for the girls. He apparently had his mom make them each a bracelet with their Ugandan name. Super sweet!!! Now they will never forget. They answer to their Ugandan names just like their American names. Love it!! I heard them telling each other they will call them those names at home. These memories will stick for years and years to come!! I am so thankful that these girls were able to come. I am excited to see what God has in store for them as well!! It is such a gift to be invited into life with students and to share this is even more special. I pray that God would multiply the work in their lives!!
Thank you for your faithfulness and your prayers!! Please pray for the campers as they return to their reality. Pray they can teach others what they have learned and live lives for Christ where they are!!