September 2013 Update 5

The competition is tight!!  No team has run away with it and no team has dropped behind.  Tonights final competition will be close!!  We did a water balloon toss, which yellow and red tied in, a soccer relay, sponge relay, and tug-o-war.  The kids battled fiercely in the tug-o-war.  So much fun and everyone was yelling.  A few kids came after with blisters and sores from pulling so hard.  I think each team won at least one event today.

Lunch!!  The kids were reminded that their memory verses would need to be finished by dinner.  During the futbol matches, the teams not playing were to practice their dances for tonight…instead they were all reciting their verses.  It is awesome getting to celebrate with these kids as they commit the Lord’s Word to memory.  We had many more kids doing this this week than previously!  Little Moses became my quality control.  Here they have a hard time with our prepositions…in, of, from, for…I’m generally pretty lax on these but correct them and explain why.  Moses was in my ear saying they shouldn’t get the points.  He was hilarious, but I can see him as a pastor some day with him understanding and zeal for Scripture.

Today is the finals for the futbol tournament.  Yellow Falcons and Green Cryptonite played for the Consolation with green being victorious.  The championship between Orange Avengers and Red Warriors was a battle.  They both scored and it ended tied, so it went to penalty kicks.  Red was able to steal they win from the dominant Orange team.  It was HUGE!!!  No one could believe it.

Today is the final day of CPR as well.  They talked about friends today, “Show me your friends and I’ll show you your future”.  We all need to hear this over and over again.  They people we hang out with most are the people that have the greatest impact on our lives.  I am so thankful that God pulled me out of some relationships in high school and placed me in others.  He definitely protected me!!  It is also a time to show the kids that the time they spend with the Lord is so important too.  How can we know and serve a God we don’t spend time with, and He wants to spend time with us so badly.  They do a really fun demonstration with this lesson too that gets the kids engaged and laughing.

Off to dinner and then the kids begin getting costumes for their dance competition tonight.  It looks like someone came through and trimmed all the trees.  There are banana leaves and other greens all over the back porch.  Raoul is back to lead us in some worship before our big competition, so we all head to the meeting hall.  Worship is wonderful and Raoul spoke to us about obedience, a great lesson for us all too!!

Oh the dance competition…the kids are given 10 minutes to go get dressed and ready to perform while I get our guest judges set up.  Emma, my good friend and driver has come to watch asnd be a judge, Pastor Godfrey who’s youth group is here for the week is here with his 3 young boys to enjoy and be a judge and finally Rosaleen who manages the kitchen here at the Discovery Centre I asked to come and enjoy as well.  Each team can earn a total of 30 points for their dance, 10 for participation, 10 for energy and 10 for overall performance.  Orange performed first with a Busoga dance that was very well prepared and performed.  Green followed with a dance of the Buganda tribe, but was lacking some energy and enthusiasm.  Yellow came with a high energy dance, they were all painted and covered in leaves.  Allan was jumping and kicking so high it was hard to pay attention to anything else.  Their drumming was excellent as well.  Last was the Red team.  I was excited for this team to see Hayden shake it like a Ugandan.  This team has all new staff to camp and they chose to do a creative dance instead of a traditional dance.  They took the themes we learned in CPR and made a dance to show the consequences of risky behaviors.  It was interesting and well done.  Hayden did very well…video to come 🙂  Our judges marked their scores and I took them to do the final tally on the overall competition.  While I was doing that, the kids watched a camp video of pictures from the week.  It is great to hear them laugh and shout as they see their faces appear.

And the winners are…the kids get so tied up in the competition sometimes, that they forget the great week they have had.  I used to actually say the full order that the teams came in, but this time I tried something a little different.  We had several categories of competition, so I found at least one that each team won and shared their strengths.  I then I said just the overall winner.  This worked out well because everyone got to cheer for their team and then we all celebrated with YELLOW as the camp champs.  every kid received some sweeties..oh they love their sweeties!! Hayden and I had brought a ton of snacks just in case, but haven’t eaten much, so we gave out granola bars and fruit snacks.  THey also received a glow in the dark bracelet and a soda!!  PARTY!!!  We all then headed to the basketball court where we had a HUGE bonfire!!!  THere was singing and dancing, drumming and playing.  This is the only night I let the kids stay up as long as they like.  I always bring marshmallows to roast for the kids.  They have never seen marshmallows, so it is really fun.  They call them chubby bunnies because we played that game early in the week.  So I sweat off about 5 pounds trying to get close enough to this huge fire to roast and share with the kids.  Most of the time it is chaos and loud, but there were moments when they would break out in worship songs all together.  Under the beauty of God’s great creation, with awesome fellowship with good friends and a choir singing praises to our amazing God…can life get better than this?!?!  I am overwhelmed with God’s goodness to me.  To be called to this place to share His story of love for each person.  What a pleasure and a gift!!  The first day of camp one of the kids was reading the word AWESOME for part of the CPR class and pronounced it ah-wey-some!!  It has become our camp joke, but God is ahweysome for sure and this week has been ahweysome!!! Again Ephesians 3:20-21 rings in my mind…Now to him by the power that is at work within us is able to do immeasurably more than we could ever hope or imagine, to him be all glory in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever AMEN!!!

I called it a night around 230, Hayden around 245, but I learned saturday that many were up until 5 or 6 in the morning.  Yikes!!!  Saturday is a sad day!  When my alarm went off at 745, there was little noise coming from the halls.  usually they are all up and scurrying around.  I stepped into the hall and saw only 2 girls up washing.  I peeked into each room and everyone was still crashed out.  Room to room I went and woke everyone up.  The boys side was completely quiet, so I woke them too.  Raoul is back this morning to end our week of camp in worship.  He shared the importance of salvation and eternity with the kids.  Really GOd is speaking the same thing to Raoul and I.  It is awesome to see!!!  He gave the kids another opportunity to receive Christ into their hearts.  So sweet!!  I then got up.  I hadn’t made it through the whole story of GOd that I had hoped to, but wanted to say only what the Holy Spirit had for me.  I also didn’t want to add too much to what Raoul had shared, so I just spoke briefly about God’s promises of the Holy Spirit and paradise.  In Galatians 5, we learn that the Holy Spirit bears fruit of love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self-control in a believer.  We started the week hearing that GOd wants to give us abundant, full, overflowing lives (John 10:10).  He wants to give us more love, more joy, more peace etc than we could ever think possible.  And I asked do you want that???  Then I shared how Jesus is preparing a place for those who believe in Him.  In John 14:1-3 He tells His disciples that there are rooms in His Father’s house that He is preparing. I said “I know that I will have a room there and I hope that when I am there, there will be a room with Joel’s name, with Muhammad’s name, with Salima’s name”, and I said a few other names of those at camp.  I got teary as I said my boys’ names.  Then we came to the Lord’s table.  It is so sweet every time I get to serve communion to these kids.  We had music playing and they came.  Child by child I served them and then came Muhammad.  Now I had made it clear that this was for those who claimed Christ alone.  In my heart and mind I was excited and questioning at the same time. I continued to serve each child.  Joel came also.  My eyes were starting to well up with love and joy.  All the staff came and I was able to celebrate the Lord’s promises with them as well.  Just such a sweet time.  I had Cathy lead us with one more song of worship  before we had to pack up and say our goodbyes.

I am always looking to improve on what we do at camp, so this time I decided to ask the kids.  I passed out papers and asked them to write one thing they loved that shouldn’t be changed and then one thing they would like to see at camp.  I also asked for the kids to share with me if they made a decision to follow Christ this week at camp.  Oh I can’t wait to be able to read these tonight!!!  We then began the clean up process and the sadness began to set in.  I found Henry outside crying.  I tried to get him to open up to me, but he just cried.  I prayed for him and hugged him.  I wonder what is going on in that boys life.  God knows and he cares for him!!!

After everyone was packed up and the facility was cleaned up, we gathered for an all camp picture and then enjoyed lunch.  Camp is officially over…so sad!!  THe kids have started going around and signing each other’s shirts to remember this week and their new friends.  Pictures were taken, hugs were given and tears were shed.  The bus came for those from Victory Bible Center and the kids from Nuvila began to walk home.  My driver came and took the baseball boys back to town and then it was just me, Hayden, Allan, Silas and Cathy with my two boys.  It is strange how quiet it is.  Strange that this is how it was just 6 days ago.

I praise the Lord for the great work He did this week!!  It is such a blessing to be a tool, a vessel for Him to use as He wills.  I praise Him for I know that He will continue to work in the lives of these kids and I wait expectantly for the next time we shall meet.  The return home is generally really tough for the kids.  Please pray for them as they return and they will all begin school back on monday, so please pray for this term, that they would be different kids than when they were at school just 4 weeks ago.  Pray for those who made a decision to follow Christ this week, that they would stand firm and grow in the love of Christ.

Webele nyo!!  Thank you!! God is good!!