Witness Stand

This year at youth group we started doing the Witness Stand. It is an opportunity for a student to share about something that God is doing or has done in their life. Ellie Beth shared this in November and we wanted to share it with you.

A couple years ago, I felt distant from God, and realized that my relationship with Him was missing something. As I looked at my life and my relationship with God and then at other people’s lives and their relationship with God, I realized that they had something that I didn’t; a strong love and a steady passion for Him. I knew about God, I went to church, I prayed a little, went to AWANAS, and had even accepted him into my life and been baptized, but I wasn’t excited about Him, I didn’t love Him passionately! “How can I get that passion and excitement, and that love for God?” I asked myself. I had read a couple books that talked about time with God, people I knew spent time with Him, and I felt like I should be too. So I decided to spend time alone with God every day.

At first, it was really hard, especially on the busy days, and I often felt that the Bible was boring. So I started asking Him to give me a love for the Bible, his word. And I still pray that prayer. Ever since then, God has been changing my heart and helping me to love his word. Now I enjoy my time with God, and look forward to it.

He has been showing and teaching me so much, but as I think back over the past couple years, a lesson from 1 verse sticks out more than the rest: Zephaniah 3:17. It says, “The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing." God used this verse to show me his great love. I had heard John 3:16 more times than I can count, and had recited it every Wednesday night at AWANA club, I had been told that God loved me and had sang Jesus Loves Me, but I never realized and understood in my heart that God loved me until I heard Zephaniah 3:17. When I first read it, I stopped and reread it, not quite believing that it was true. He showed it to me at a time when I was really sad and discouraged. I remember thinking, “The God of the universe who is mighty to save is with me! He actually takes great delight in me! He quiets me with his love and rejoices over me with singing!!!” That verse just gives me so much joy, I am amazed when I think about how much God loves me, and how great it is to be loved by Him! When I realize just how much God loves me and how much He cares about me, it gives me a passion and excitement for Him.

He has shown me a lot of other things too. He has shown me that He is faithful, and that He never gives up on me. He has shown me that I am His child, and that He forgives me. God has also been changing my heart and life, making me more like Him.

Since I’ve started spending time alone with God, I am more passionate and excited about Him, and I love Him more. Now, God is more than just words on a page, or something that people talk about. I now know in my mind and believe in my heart that God is real, and that He is worth living for. Daily spending time alone with God is one of the best decisions I have ever made.

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.

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

My Time at Croatian Camp

At first, when mom and dad talked to me about going to Croatian camp at Severin I thought it would be okay but when I actually got there, I did not want to stay!!  I felt nervous because I only knew three people, Debi , Tea and Petra.  It was all in Croatian.  Only a few of the girls spoke some English.  I was glad that my room counselor, Beka, spoke English really well. She is also an MK and her dad is Croatian and her mom is from England.  

At camp I played ping pong and volleyball, did archery, climbed on the rock climbing wall and tried to go swimming but the water was freezing!  My favorite sport was archery.  I had a Bible group and Beka was my leader.  She translated the Bible verses for me and told me what to do.  I learned a Croatian song and met some girls.  The food was great.

I listened and watched the skits at night but I didn’t understand what they were talking about.  The main character was Professor Tutu.  He was the camp leader and a pastor from Split.  The two funniest parts of the skit were when Beka was a mummy and Professor Tutu was baking and using her as a table.  He accidentally cracked an egg on her head and then spilled flour on her.  The other part was when a leader named Ana had just gotten a package full of make-up and Professor Tutu used a lot of the make up and scribbled all over her face!  Then he tried to make a facial mask by putting shaving cream on a paper plate and then smearing it on her face!

At the end of camp I was glad I went.  Some of it was fun, some of it was terrible and lots of the time I was confused!