Photos from July 4

Many of these kids are holding and reading Bibles for the first time!

This week the children are studying Moses (left)

Katy Beth shares the morning less (the 10 Commandments, and the Golden Calf)

Rec time went MUCH better today, in spite of having to come up with comletely new games for the day when rain and cold prevented us from doing the water games originally planned.

The three-legged race was fun to watch

Read Duane's blog (see link in right-hand margin) for photos from the Game of Life's silly activity. Some of the campers seem to really be responding to the issues we're discussing each day -- pray that we will have opportunities to go deeper with them before camp concludes.

Hump Day

Aaron second-guesses his willingness to serve as Nathan's assistant during his magic tricks workshop. Here they're preparing to demonstrate the finger chop guillotine.
You can see the suspense!

Meredith sweetly watches Ellie in the teacher's room

Glove check! (Tie-Dying)

The cucumber sculpting contest

David shares his testimony during the "Stop" moment in the Game of Life. Today's issues surrounded friends and relationship decisions.

One of the cars landed on a silly square which meant that all of the cars (teams) had to complete a silly task. In this case, they had to make a recognizeable landmark involving all members of the car/team. Above, Alex's car makes the pyramids.

Can you tell what Aidan's group is mimicking? (hint: think 'presidential' and 'S. Dakota')

The crocs show their team pride during rec time.

Making friends during free time over Uno.

Yes, this is "hump day" for our 7 day camp. During debrief tonight, the team expressed that they feel like they're starting to connect with our campers in meaningful ways. Conversation groups are going well, and we're hearing that everyone is having a good time. There is so much to say, but as usual, it's late and we're wiped out and have another day beginning in just a few hours. We're glad to say that God is answering prayer. Thank you for your continued interest and concern!

Meredith's Workshop

Monday's here and gone

Here's a random assortment of photos from the last couple of days of camp. We're still working out the kinks of dealing with a new facility, double the number of campers as last year (and probably 4 times the number of children under age 10), and a different schedule. The Game of Life seems to be going much more smoothly as the youth are understanding the way the game works, and then today we added listening exercises. We hope to post some video to give you another slice of our lives here! We're still getting to know everyone and the content of our sessions will soon be getting deeper. Thanks for your prayers!

Ricky and Aidan with Balint (translator) and his cute little sister

David, at supper with some of the youth

Jodi and Beth distribute dessert at supper tonight

Shane and a camper friend

Meredith gave cooking lessons in her workshop this morning! It smelled so yummy!

A team landed on a "silly" square which meant every other team had to send a rep to participate in a silly competition. Yesterday it was a TP fashion show, today it was a bubble gum blowing contest.

Yesterday's game time involved a race between teams to find one's own shoe out of a pile of about 150 shoes!

Alex supervises her tie-dying workshop

Sewing a Union Jack from scratch deserved a blog photo posting (from yesterday's world tour)

The school has a great gym for game time!

World Tour Day

Ricky and Aidan led a tour of the emerald isle

Lawrence took his guests to France, including the culinary experience of Nutella

David served green tea and taught his guests how to count to "10" in Japanese

Jeff shared about his home state of North Carolina

Alex took her guests on a site-by-site tour of London

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!