Summer Camps – Woohoo

The official camping season recently ended with our last camp, MK Camp. Our family is tired, but satisfied with the summer flurry of ministry and ready for a well-earned vacation!

The season started off early for Bonnie and Lydia. They both helped out with Camp A for 6-10 year olds. Before any camper arrived, Bonnie was hard at work, ensuring that the camp program was not, "over the heads" of the campers. But Bonnie can explain it better than I can, so here is how she describes it: "What do tetherball, baseball, a water slide, cinnamon rolls, and the song 'I Wanna Be Like a Tree' have in common? They were all new activities for Camp A this year we added an American flavor to our youngest Croatian camp. This was my first year at the 6 to 10 year olds Croatian camp. It was lovely to work with my favorite age group for a whole week and we had a great staff who was mostly from Split, a Croatian coastal city. I led the English electives, did the rock climbing instruction and assisted Kate Wurzberg, who was leading the camp for her first time. It was a great week of fun with a focus on the Kingdom of God. We had some good conversations come from the Bible study and evening talk times."

 

Next was camp B. This camp is for ages 11-13. This time Bonnie, Lydia, and myself all served at camp while Ellie Beth attended. Bonnie spoke about God as our mighty king one of the nights. She also served as a girl’s counselor and had a great room of girls who she enjoyed connecting with. I had a room of 6 guys and spoke to the campers about loving God above all else. This age group is a lot of fun to work with and it is exciting to model a life of loving God with these campers throughout the week. What strikes me at this camp is a comment a parent made to me last year. He said, "you sure do love our children, I appreciate that." It's funny how sometimes we can reach the parents through their children. That family sent their children to camp again this year, and we'll be visiting them later this week on our vacation. One of our highlights of this camp was getting several hugs from campers as they went home. Our prayer is that our lives impact these campers in such a way that they clearly see Jesus.

 

I was the only member of my family to serve at Camp C. To be honest, this was the most difficult camp I have served at. A number of campers at this camp were from a local foster home/orphanage, and it seemed that at any given moment there were two groups of campers doing something wrong. This required me to try to stop both problems while also trying to lead an activity. This constant need for discipline kept me from having the opportunity to play and interact with the campers. At one point, I simply felt that I had little or no connection with the campers. But, by weeks end, they started coming around. I spent a lot of time getting the campers to know that I expected respect for camp leaders and camp property. In time, a number of them started to get the idea that if they followed the rules, I would give them freedom and have time to play with them. I think that week was a good start to a relationship with these campers, and I look forward to seeing them next year. Our theme at camp was faith factor. I spoke the opening night from Hebrews 11:1 and encouraged the campers to spend a week exploring faith through Jesus Christ. On the fourth night of camp I was asked to fill in for another speaker. With a couple hours of prep time, I spoke on Rahab from Hebrews 11:31. I challenged the campers to see that even though God had sent the Israelite's to destroy Jericho and all inside, that Rahab still took faith in God that she and her family could be saved. In spite of the difficult week, I am ready to hold camp C again and look forward to future opportunities to engage with these young people regarding who Jesus Christ is.

 

Finally, we had MK Camp. Bonnie served as assistant cook and I served as camp director. Lydia and Ellie Beth were campers. The theme at MK Camp was Faith Factor. Prior to camp, we had two days of staff training and getting to know each other. Then the campers started arriving from all over Europe. Again, I started the camp with a challenge to the campers to spend a week exploring faith, and to consider following a simple process of Listen to the speakers and Bible studies; Communicate with others about

the topic of faith; and then take Action on what they had learned. The defining trait of MK Camp is worship. These campers get together each night and worship the Lord in English. It is exciting to participate with them as they praise God in their native language. It seems that they hold nothing back. At one time during the week, nearly the whole camp chose to have an extra worship time rather than free time. What a blessing that was. If Facebook is any indicator, many of the campers are saying this was the best MK Camp ever. At the end of camp, we ask campers to help us explain what MK Camp means to them and one camper wrote this, "MK Camp is an encouraging, spiritually-renewing week filled with the people who understand you the best. It was one of the highlights of my summer". I guess the campers say it best.

What Christmas Song is This?

We sang our first Christmas song in church today -O, dođite, vjerni.  Any idea which song it was?

O, dođite, vjerni, radosno i složno, svi dođite sadu u Betlehem!

Djetetu neba svi se sad poklonite!

O, hvali moga sada!

O, hvalimo svi Gospoda Isusa!

Highlights of 2009

We thank God for a good and growing year.  Some highlights of 2009 include, but certainly aren’t limited to:

• Our relatively easily obtained one year work permit!
• Helping our church launch EPIC – a week long mix between VBS and AWANA
• Completion of the fire pit project at camp and the fellowship while working on it
• Lydia’s 2nd place finish in her 1st Croatian archery tournament
• Seeing God working in hearts and lives at camp
• Becoming more involved at our church -Dan helping lead a boys’ group for 12-14 year-olds and Bonnie teaching Sunday School for 6-12 year-olds during the Bible Study time
• A time to reconnect with Dan’s mom and step-dad on their trip to visit us this fall
• Beginning a small home school co-op that Bonnie and the girls are involved in
• Dan’s 40th birthday and those painful shingles – could there be a connection?! 
• Ellie Beth joining a fencing club
• On a sad note, Bonnie’s dad Gene is struggling with Lewy Body Dementia with Parkinson’s disease. Being so far away is hard.  
• The completion of the carved verse sign in the dining room – thanks Terry!
• Cooking and hanging out with Jane, Donna, Carrie and Nancy during MK camps
• New co-workers, Juice and Beth Ortiz
• Another hard thing, our team mates, the McCollum's, resigned from SEND and returned to Minnesota
• Bonnie working on her Croatian and ping pong skills with Rahela
• All of us being together at the EBS camp this summer
• Catie, Zelphia and Aurora Peterson’s visit in February

Thanksgiving 2009

Give thanks to the LORD for He is good!  His faithful love endures forever!  Psalm 107:1

We celebrated Thanksgiving at Severin again this year.  It was an international crew - American, Croatian, German and Dutch - but with lots of traditional American Thanksgiving food - or as American as we could make them over here.  Ellie Beth made a triple batch of sweet potato casserole and I made my family's apple raisin stuffing.  It was a great time of feasting, singing, praising God, and fellowship.  We even managed a photo shoot as our co-worker, Daniel, graciously agreed to take family photos.

It has been a good year of growth and stretching.  Here are a few of the things that we are thankful for...

• Our Sovereign and Holy God, full of grace and mercy
• Jesus, perfect King and perfect Savior
• The indwelling of the Holy Spirit
• The Word of God
• Dan, Lydia, and Ellie Beth
• Family and friends
• Our prayer partners who intercede on our behalf and lift up our needs to God
• Our financial supporters - who give sacrificially so that we can serve here
• Our supporting churches
• Our team mates and co-workers
• Frodo, our dog
• Laughter
• Our apartment and our landlords, Dubravka and Stjepan
• Our church in Malesnica
• The DPB House in Severin, aka Camp
• Forgiveness
• The calling of God
• Good food
• Creativity
• God's diverse creation
• Chocolate
• Skype
• Good health
• A washer and dryer that work
• Gas heat
• Warm showers
• Pizza
• The ability to home school
• Great books
• Small group
• Comfortable beds
• Car that works
• Rest
• Stars
• Home school co-op
• Mountains
• The sea
• Public transportation
• Good coaches for the girls
• God is good!

2009 EBS Camp

This year's theme for EBS Camp (English Bible Sports Camp) was ShowStoppers: Discovering God's Great Plan For Salvation. Bonnie and I served as native English speakers. I had a great time as MC of the nightly programs, archery instructor, actor, and room counselor. Bonnie was a member of the acting troupe, camp counselor, and the camp photographer. Each night we had worship and drama, shared a Bible story, and had a leader give a testimony. In the morning and evening we had Bible studies with our rooms. Right in the middle of camp, the flu bug hit and four campers and I and were ill for one day. While not the most pleasant way to be at camp, it did give me an opportunity to catch up on sleep and pray for camp as well. On the last night we had a time of worship and testimony by our new fire pit. Some personal decisions to walk more closely with Jesus were made and one camper rededicated her life to Christ. Please pray for these campers, that the seeds planted at camp would grow and flourish rather than wither. Also, pray that they would return to camp next year and continue the work that began in their hearts this summer.