July 1 – July 5
Since camp was so crazy busy, we are going to give a brief overview of the week. (but be warned – this will still be a long post!!) We have so many more stories than we could even begin to express here about the kids, the other leaders, and camp itself, so we decided to not even try to describe everything for words would not suffice to explain how wonderful this past week was.
Breakdown of schedule for each day:
8:00 – wake up!
8:30 – breakfast (generally eggs, bread & cheese, pancakes, something like that)
9:30 – morning devotion (generally one or two songs to open and then each morning a different person led)
10:00 – Bible study (each morning a different person led with generally a couple of songs beforehand and maybe one after)
11:00 – working in the camp! (There were five teams that each had one leader. Each leader had a specific project that they stayed at all week. Their team would stay together but move fro each project to experience all the different work sites at camp.)
13:00 – lunch (generally potatoes of some kind with a type of meat, most times in a soup or stew fashion with a dessert like whipped cream of some flavor in a liquid or a pudding type dish)
15:00 – working in the camp! (These are the five leaders and their projects:
*Brandon – pulling out stumps (a ton) from the orchard & then clearing brush along the road and making a stack by the firewood) *Lauren – clearing the basketball court of the large rocks and creating a seating area in the back & then cleaning, creating, and decorating a new prayer chapel in one of the old barns *Vivita – cleaning duty (dishes, floors, bathrooms…etc.) *Steve (the leader of the team from Alabama) – fixing the doors in the hay barn & clearing hay off the field *Dan – clearing out the ditch in front of the dining hall and making the pump work for clearing the water)
18:00 – dinner (again some sort of potato dish)
19:30 – evening program (led by a different country each night)
22:00 – evening devotion (led by someone different each time, generally by the country in charge of the program)
23:00 – late evening snacks (bread & jam or cookies – and always tea)
23:30 – leadership meeting (to talk about the next day and how the day went)
*this is the tentative schedule and sometimes things did not really begin or end on time, but you get the idea.
The devotions and Bible studies each morning were very different in how they were led, but all very good in their own ways. To write each one to fully record their worth would take forever, but they were very much enjoyed and appreciated and were deeper than it may seem that I am making them out to be. Some of them were quite moving and talking to the kids really did well to make them think about Jesus and who He is and what that means for their lives. The evening programs were very cool because we got to share and experience different cultures. Here is a very brief description of each.
July 1st: Yanis did the morning devo and spoke about Isaiah 54:10 and how God can move mountains! Steve had Bible study and talked about how the Lord provides. The Latvian group did the evening program and we were taught how to dance traditional dances and sing traditional songs of the country so it was really exciting to experience true Latvian tradition! We played a lot of silly games outside that were a lot of fun before coming in to Trevor’s devotion (he’s what we’d like to refer to as pseudo-Latvian…as are Dan, Courtney, Brandon, and I. We are not a part of the American group, but we aren’t Latvian by blood, only in spirit). He spoke about Jeremiah 18:1-6 and Mark 12:28-29
July 2nd: Vivita did the morning devo and spoke with such compassion about Psalm 139:1-5 and how the Lord loves us the way we are. She showed a video that was as if the Lord was writing us a letter and it was very moving. John (from Lithuania) did bible study and we split into our groups to act out the story of the Good Samaritan. We went to the beach after lunch today and some people (who were crazy b/c it was cold outside and the water was FRIGID) went swimming and other went dune jumping and just hung out. The American group had the evening program and taught us dances from the fifties and recited the preamble and a bit of our country’s history. We had relay races outside where we were in our work groups and had to move from station to station after completing it. Louanne (from the Alabama group) spoke after showing a vide of the drama to the song Everything by Lifehouse. If you have never seen this drama, you need to. It is simply amazing and such a wonderful visual representation of God’s love for us. Fireworks and smores completed the American night.
July 3rd: Grezina (from Lithuania) did the morning devo speaking about Psalm 136 and used the movie Happy Feet as an example of wanting to fit in. Courtney’s Bible Study led us on a prayer walk through camp as we discussed as work groups what it looked like to be a servant. The night devo was a bit different, combining all three countries in leading it on the beach. We walked silently in random pairs to the beach and there each collected stones to lay at the foot of the cross (that one guy from each country helped carry down to the seaside). We went out in our pairs to find another rock to exchange with one another as a symbol of prayer as we prayed for one another at the foot of the cross. Lastly we went out in our work groups to find a piece of driftwood that we piled together while Trevor played a special song. We all circled up at the end holding hands around the cross to pray and ended with the Lord’s prayer being loudly proclaimed in three different languages. It was truly a powerful moment. I have chills just writing about it now.
July 4th: Kay did the morning devo and spoke about loving one another and how we express that in so many ways. Her main focus was on the word Mizpah in Genesis 31:49 which literally means “watchpost”. The verse says “May the Lord watch between me and thee while we are apart” and since we would soon be leaving each other this was only appropriate. I had the Bible Study and tried to focus on why we follow Christ instead of how we do it or what it looks like. The scripture I used was Ephesians 2, John 1:14, Hebrews 1:3, and Colossians 1:15-23 and my prayer was that we would all know God more both at camp and after we left. We played Breath of God by Shane & Shane as the closer. I just hope and pray that the Lord spoke though me and that it wasn’t just me up there rambling! We had a talent show before dinner that was hilarious. People sang, danced, did skits, rapped; you name it! It was a lot of fun for the kids and so much fun to watch! The Lithuanians did the evening program and we learned some songs and games and then went on a walk thought camp to the Stations of the Cross. We came back for an incredible time of worship that was so full of energy and was just so great to be a part of! Some of the leaders stayed up for a while talking and hanging out after our meeting since it was our last night all together and we had gotten really close; especially Brandon, Trevor, Sneidze, Vivita and I and the two of us and Dan and Courtney. It amazing how the Lord moves in relationships that are centered around Him. The Lithuanian band didn’t arrive until 2am so there was a lot of moving around on our last evening at camp.
July 5th: Steve’s team did the morning devo and Bible study and we played a lot of songs since the worship was so amazing the night before. After worship Laura recognized Brandon and I am brought us up to give us each a little gift to say thank you. I was ok at this point, and I was ok even when some of the girls started to cry and come give us hugs, but when one the boys there, Alturs, who is 12, started crying when he gave me a hug, I lost it. It was such an emotional day for us leaving everyone. Instead of working today, we had different craft stations set up to participate in before lunch. There were places to make bracelets, God’s eyes out of yarn, necklaces (of the nails bent into the icthus which the American team got the idea from mine and Trevor’s necklaces – he had made one with ARM several summers ago and I had made mine in Bolivia; which we had gotten the idea from ARM – again, crazy how small the word is), painting rocks, making bookmarks and drawing. The number of bracelets and crafts the girls made for us is innumerable and the gifts from everyone were so gracious. The leaders throw us a “going away” party with cake and tea and gave us each a card they had all signed. The circled around the two of us and laid hands on us to pray for the next step of our journey. The tears were too hard to fight for most everyone in the room and hugs lasted forever as we said goodbye. Leaving the kids and the other leaders was so hard to do, much harder than we ever expected it be when we first arrived to Latvia. We were driven to the bus stop by a handful of people and then departed for Riga on the bus for a very sad journey back to Dan and Courtney’s place.
The Lord moved so much this past week in the relationships with the kids and the other leaders and we were able to not only share the love of Christ and the Gospel with those around us, but we were blessed beyond belief by those conversations and were discipled by those around us as well. It was truly an experience of a lifetime that we never expected or could have dreamed of. The Lord is so amazing!!
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