Camp Day 1 -- Caution! Contains 'Graphic' Images

Aaron paints singe marks on our camper burn victim

Edit poses seriously as our car accident victim

We even had a compound fracture...

Everyone felt better after a trip to our candy pharmacy

Games during rec time concentrated on learning the plethora of names (about 80 between campers and staff)

The teens began the big Game of Life today, divided into cars, they rolled die, answered questions, and faced consequences for decisions made earlier in life. At the "Stop" moment, Dan shared a message, followed by Katie's testimony. Today's theme was peer pressure. As you can tell, our missionary staff is not short on creativity!

The evening program. This year we have triple or quadruple the number of children (under 12) as compared to last year! This is a great surprise, but one that is causing us to re-think a few logistics in our planning. Tomorrow we will hold an optional church service prior to the start of camp. Join us in praying that many of our camper friends come! Don't forget to check the prayer request section in the right-hand margin.

Hospital Role Play -- Stroke Patient and Burn Victim

This sweet camper was good natured about our 'enthusiastic' trauma team.

Listen to our burn victim ask for water -- she did a good job of getting into the spirit of the activity on really short notice!

English Camp Starts Tomorrow!

Today was the last day of cleaning, planning, and preparation - English Camp starts tomorrow! Here's some pictures:

Testing out the giant "Game of Life"

The room where we'll have the main meetings and eat

Ricky, getting "X-Rayed" by Jon (we're having a Hospital Scenario)

Shane shows off the 10 Commandments

Lawrence putting the finishing touches on his workshop

The school we're using

Moving furniture for workshops

David with his Workshop sign

Katy-Beth gives instructions

The view from the school (suburbs of Budapest)

Anne, Lizzy, and Max getting a classroom ready

Aiden preparing registration signs

Ricky, not listening to the sign!

Alex resting on the "Game of Life" board

Meredith advertising for her workshop

Matt, Jeff, and Ricky playing a newly invented game, "Chairlyball" (a line of chairs is the "net)

Please remember to pray for our team tomorrow as we start the weeklong camp! We'll be doing workshops, starting the Game of Life, a Hospital Scenario (complete with broken bones, burn victims, and head injuries), and more. That's all for now!

-Matt (for the team)

Day of Training/Camp Preparation

One of the coolest places here in Hungary is what has been called "The Man House" - this is the name of the house in which the guys are all staying - hence the name. After busy days of training, they come back and crash in this room:

The Guys playing Nintendo


These past few days have been busy with training, from morning until evening - today was our first day at the school where we'll actually be holding our camp, and we went over the lessons, scenarios, and the huge Game of Life game we'll be playing.

English Camp Training


Tomorrow is our last day of training and final preparations, and then we begin English Camp on Saturday!

The Attentive Trainees


We're expecting anywhere from 60+ kids at this years' camp, and we've got lots of cool games, skits, and lessons planned out, and we're almost completely ready to go!

In the evenings, we gather at Dan and Katy-Beth's house for dinner/fellowship together as a team, as well as a devotion and pointers/instructions for the next day.

An evening time of fellowship (that means food!)


Speaking of food, today the guys made a run to the local grocery store, known as Interspar, to pick up some needed food and drinks for the Man House - they found it quite interesting...

Alex and Meredith are doing fine, even though we don't have any pictures of them today (they say hi!)

That's about it for now - pray that the rest of the planning tomorrow goes well, and that we'll be fully prepared for the camp to begin on Saturday!

-Matt, for the team

A Picnic in the Park

Today we continued orientation at an estate-turned-park in Martonvasar. It provided a relaxed atmosphere to get to know our Hungarian translators and greater camp staff team which has swelled to 46! Tomorrow orientation moves to the school which will host camp. We'll learn where everything will be taking place and set up the class rooms to suit our purposes.

Tryin' to beat jetlag...

They say the best way to acclimate to a new time zone is to stay awake while the sun shines and get good and tired through physical exhertion to sleep well at night. We honored that advice and learned a little bit about Hungary while we split up and saw as much of Budapest as we could in a day! Camp Orientation begins tomorrow and this could very well be the only chance we had for some siteseeing and souvinir shopping so we pounded the streets and did our part to help the local economy. I'll let the photos tell the story...

Alex and Meredith on a city bus tour
David enjoyed the view from the Citadel

Lawrence got this lovely photo of the Szecheny bath house before being soundly scolded by a staff member for bringing a camera

Aidan and Ricky pose in front of their lunch restaurant choice.

Jeff, Matt, Shane and Lawrence wait for their food

Elisabeth and missionary/camp director, Dan, on the tram ride home

Eatin' supper on the Searls' patio

We've Arrived!

Everything just fit in the van!
We're here!

(above) Waiting to board the flight to Budapest (in Frankfurt)


This is a quick note to let you know we arrived! The trip was pretty uneventful. All of our luggage made it and fit in the two vans that picked us up at the airport. We went straight to the Searls' home for lunch and are now settling into our respective accomodations where we'll be sleeping for the duration of our stay (spread out between 3 missionary homes).

The Bags are Checked Through...

Here we are this morning waiting to board the flight to Chicago

And we're off!

For the first time since the last week of classes, we met up together again and covered final details regarding tomorrow's schedule! Some of our group are ready to sleep for the night, the others are making a last-minute Wal Mart run. We covet your prayers as we embark on an action-packed 16 days!

Waiting for a table before dinner tonight...

Here we are, ready to go!