English Camp - Day 4

Day 4

Evening Talks

Wednesday is usually known as the hardest day for the leaders at camp due to the jetlag setting in and the emotional and physical strain reaches its peak. This year the hardest day for me was Tuesday. As I noted in most of the days so far, I had been feeling tired and worn out by the end of the day. I actually started the day feeling really good. I felt well-rested and ready to go, but everyone else seemed to be tired and dragging. This made me a little over-confident in some situations while others were more sensitive. It did prompt good conversations, though, and I was able to see where I needed to repent and I was able to talk to others about things. My last update will deal more with this stuff, so stay tuned for that.

Tuesday was one of my favorite days for English classes. We focused on comparing and contrasting. We broke the students into two groups for our reading and had them read different parts of The Horse and His Boy. The two sections describe two different groups making plans. The students then had to write out a plot summery and peer review the plot summery from someone who had read the other story. I had good feedback from the students and we had fun with it.  

Bartholomew and Red Beard the Pirates

Theater rehearsal also took up a good part of the day. After lunch during the siesta and right before dinner, our group had a chance to get together and look over the script. The script was great. We used all the quotes and had it linked well to the English Camp and freedom. We worked on creating different shadow figures for the different scenes and ran through the sketch a few times. That evening, after talks and the time of singing, we had the performances. The order was set and my group performed last. We enjoyed watching the different performances as some groups had really good stories and some made really good use of the shadow theater aspect. It was really fun to watch. When our group got up to perform, I was a little nervous and didn’t really know what to expect. We had a good time though, despite me forgetting most of my lines.

After all this, I was pretty tired again, and a little discouraged. I was discouraged both from my lack of energy and not being able to be as fully engaged in the evening activities, as I should have been. I was also discouraged with some other things I was seeing at camp. That night, after the performances and when things were quiet, I had the opportunity to talk about my struggles with a friend. We talked late into the night and after coming to a sense of peace we went to bed. As we walked out of the main meeting room, I saw my mother, sitting on a chair facing the room. “What are you doing still up?” I asked. She had stayed up to pray for us. What an encouragement and gift!