May 2013 Update 3
Wasuze otya! Good morning! I hope you are all well!! Camp has been awesome!! These kids have been so playful and fun! This will be a long one, sorry I haven’t had time to write. Where did we leave off…
Wednesday our first full day of camp.the kids were up early! They are just too excited. Several wanted to put on their new t shirts, but we had a good storm over night so the shirts are still damp. At least they we under an over hang so they weren’t drenched. Each day of camp will look pretty similar, so I’ll explain in detail today and then the other days I’ll give highlights. So each morning after breakfast we will start with worship. We are blessed to have Raoul come and lead us again. He is originally from the Congo but came to uganda during the war with his 4 sisters. He is an amazing man and wise believer. He works as a youth pastor at a church just outside town and has also started a boys home for street kids with a Canadian missionary. Very cool! I love to watch as be leads because the kids just are drawn to him. He is definitely in that sweet spot with The Lord when he is leading kids. He shared with us this morning about the Prodigal Son. He talked about how the son squandered his life, his opportunities and yet when he returned the Father was waiting and distraught until his son came back to him. He lavished him with love instead of greeting him with anger as many would expect. After church we have small group time to allow the kids time to ask questions and have discussion about all they are hearing. From small group, we will have either games or arts and crafts. Today we are making tote bags. Each camper will add their personal flare to a bag through paint. I’m amazed at the artistic ability by just about every kid. Now time for lunch!!
Our afternoons are full of fun! Our futbol tournament will continue each day and then one team will go to the challenge course each day. Then we have CPR before dinner. I really love this curriculum! It is just so important for these kids to hear. After dinner we head to worship again and tonight I am continuing God’s story with Jesus coming as our hero to battle the villain satan to conquer death. We have realized today that these kids are really struggling with English, even if it is a Ugandan speaking, so we are making sure to translate everything. The kids were way more interactive this evening because they weren’t having to struggle to understand. We announced this evening that we will be having a dance competition on the last night of camp. The kids got really excited. We will have a cultural dance party Saturday night. Then we finished Finding Nemo and headed to bed. Such a good day!
Thursday highlights…at worship this morning we had a young man who asked if he could sing a song. Sure! we love to encourage kids to use their gifts. This little guys name is simon peter and he is quite possibly the cutest thing! he got up to perform and i almost laughed out loud because of how adorable he was!! i have a short video i will try to share when i return. Mid morning, we played games that help teach good teamwork and communication. One team member is blind folded and the rest of the team has to communicate with them to complete a task. It really has shown that these kids have never been taught how to communicate well nor how to think critically. They can be very tough on each other. My thing with camp is that even in our games we are teaching and I think the kids really loved this. in the end, they learned that clear communication is best when the person speaking is clear, knowledgable and patient but also the other person who is listening needs to wait and follow instruction. It was fun to talk with the kids after the later rounds as they figured out better ways to complete the task. I could sit in front of a class and tell them these things, but now they have tried and tested things for themselves and that is a way better way to learn. And the task included spraying the other team with water, so things got loud and fun!! I got showered several times. This afternoon teams started preparing for their dances and some found it easy while others really struggled to decide what dance to do. During CPR this afternoon the kids were learning the difference between love and infatuation and how hormone can get them in trouble. These kids are taking notes and asking questions. Many you can tell they have never heard anything like this before. I really hope and pray that they hold on to what they are learning for when they head into secondary school and really get pressured into sexual activity. Please pray with me that they would stay strong and abstain! Tonight we had the treat of hearing Brian’s testimony, one of ourugandan staff before I spoke. So good for these kids to hear true victorious stories from people who share their similar lives. During worship this evening we covered how Christ’s death creates a way back to God 1 Peter 3:18, but we have to step over that bridge. We looked at 2 Corinthians 5:21 where when we make that choice Christ doesn’t just forgive us our sins, but he actually gives us his righteousness to stand before a holy God. I learned an awesome illustration for this many years ago when I worked at camp in Savannah. I used a brand new white towel to represent God and then I used wet wipes to represent us created in His image. Then when we fell into sin i wiped my feet and the wet wipe became very dirty. Then when we come to Christ , Christ takes on our dirt/sin and we become white and made new like Him. Love it! Thank you Frankie!! I think the kids understand it better with the illustration too. Thursday night is BINGO night!!! Holy cow! The kids LOVED it!!! They didn’t want to stop. We actually had a lovely rainstorm, so we kept playing until it stopped at 1100.
Friday…This morning in our staff meeting, we had great conversation about how things are going. Several of us have noticed that there is division amongst the campers. I am experiencing for the first time…this group coming out of Masese, even though they are from the same village, it is a melting pot of sorts. Many people groups have relocated to this area. So there are many languages and cultures. We as a staff are praying for unity amidst these different cultural issues. Please join us! Raoul led us in some great worship this morning although the kids were very sleepy. Some of them had to be woken up when we were serving breakfast! Usually they are up between 5-6. After some small group time we headed back out to the field for our relay race extravaganza!! This is a big team competition day!! We do everything from water balloon toss to tug o war to sponge relays. Probably 8 different competitions. It is fun to see how excited the teams can become but also today we saw one team just become totally deflated! Please pray for the yellow team to come together as a team and not place so much value in winning, but enjoy the experience. We continued our futbol tournament after lunch and yellow headed to the challenge course. I had a visitor this afternoon. A gal by the name of Justine who started a school in the Jinja area. A friend from home connected us so she came to see what we were doing with camp. I had a great visit with her and look forward to maybe partnering with her in the future. (Thank you Patrick Jones) Today I have had many kids coming and complaining about pains and weakness. I think their bodies are realizing just how much we are asking of them. They are running and playing and going way more than they usually do. I think many are just really tired. This evening we decided to send them to bed early instead of doing an activity, so we had worship in the main building where we eat instead of over in the educational center. We opened with some songs from campers and then Silas came and shared his story with us. It is amazing when I hear the stories of these boys I know again. I get to where I kind of forget the tragedies they have lived through. Again just such a blessing. Now all day I have had kids asking about playing Bingo again. It is fun to know they enjoyed it so much, but this evening I got up and continued to tell the Story of God. Tonight should be the work of the Holy Spirit to grow us more and more into the image of Jesus. I was starting with a review of what we have already learned. I was asking the kids questions as I have the other nights. As I was asking I heard from several kids, “Can we go play Bingo?” Man, it struck something in me. In that moment, I was filled with pain and frustration. “Why am I here? Have I not shared or do they not understand?” I set down my Bible and props and I just spoke from my heart. I shared the purpose for which God has called me here to Uganda. I shared with them the vision I have for a new Uganda that is driven by change in this generation. I shared how the fun and games are tools I use to share with them the Gospel, God’s good news of salvation for them. You could hear a pin drop. I got a little emotional, because I am passionate about this. The kids understood I believe. We sent them to bed in silence. I felt like I came down a bit hard, but I believe God will use it for good. The 2 leaders came up after to apologize for the kids and I told them, maybe this is the message these kids needed to hear tonight, so they would truly understand. Please pray with me that these kids would understand and respond to the Gospel. Many of the girls came to me in tears asking for forgiveness. I feel bad, but I am praying that God would use it and still restore my relationship with them so they don’t fear me.
Saturday…This morning I wasn’t sure what to expect. As I walked up to the main building, the kids seemed tentative. I hope they won’t avoid me. I quickly wave and say good morning and walk up to them and start giving hugs. You can almost feel the tension release. Thank you Lord! The morning went well. We worshipped with Raoul and after small group we had craft time. I took pictures of the kids and they made craft stick picture frames. We had foam letters and objects, glitter glue pens and the kids went to town. Many of them don’t have a photograph of themselves, so they get excited to see themselves and can take it home. Some of the girls got sassy in their pictures and started posing like models. So fun!! We have another visitor today!! Linda Greiner arrived last night from home. She will be helping out at CoG while Mike and Mary Ann are in the US. Linda and I made our first 2 trips touganda together, so it is fun having her around. She jumped right in taking pictures and playing with the kids. So impressed as she arrived last night. This afternoon we had the championships of our futbol tournament with the orange team winning over the red team 1-0 and then yellow finally won the consolation game 1-0. The orange team are headed to the challenge course while the other teams work on their dances for tonight. This afternoon I caught a glimpse, generally I am the one keeping the train moving forward at camp. When it is time to change activities I am running around to get everyone or calling over the microphone. This afternoon with Linda around, I was sitting and talking with her and suddenly I looked at my watch…we were supposed to get futbol going 20 minutes ago…whoops! I jumped up and rushed outside, the game was already underway and was halfway through. Wow!! Then again in the evening, I thought we were running late for CPR and when I headed that direction the majority of the kids and staff were already there getting going. Amen!! These boys, this staff that the Lord is raising up around me, they are getting it!! Yippee!! Please celebrate and thank the Lord with me!!!
Dinner and then the dance competition!!! I have arranged to have a few guest judges, Linda, Emma, my friend and driver, and then 2 of the Discovery Center staff. The kids came in costume painted up and performed very well. The director of the DIscovery Center arrived this morning with his wife from the UK and they came to enjoy the show as well. All put on a great show, but at the end of the night Orange put up a performance that was really phenomenal. To celebrate the contest as well as the end of camp, we provided the kids with soda (a special treat here) and then we roasted marshmellows around the bonfire.