English Camp was the highlight of my summer. Not only is the
camp experience a lot of fun, the week is filled with moments that illustrate
what a powerful God we worship and serve. On July 21st, I woke up
painfully early and made my way to the airport for the short flight to Prague.
Once there, I met up with some of the other American’s on the team. We made our
way to the train station and by 2:00 p.m. were on our way to Česká Třebová to
meet up with the Czech Team. Thank you for your prayers concerning our travel.
Everyone made it safely with our luggage (even though my luggage was severely
overweight). The first two nights were spent in Česká Třebová with host
families. I stayed with Jenda and Evca, dear friends I meet four years ago at
English Camp and have worked with almost every year since then. The first night
I was with them, Jenda’s grandparents stopped by for a quick visit and Evca’s
mother had also come for the afternoon. Meeting the family and spending time
with them was a great experience and a lot of fun, especially as Evca’s mother
really wanted to talk and did so despite not knowing very much English. We
laughed a lot as she told stories from her childhood and I showed pictures of
the different places I had lived.
By
Friday night, all of the Americans had arrived in Česká Třebová and we met for
dinner at the team leader Petr’s house. Thank you so much for your prayers for
our teams unity and partnership. Though we were both geographically and
theologically diverse, from that first meeting and throughout our time together
God granted us friendship and a love and respect for one another. We started
that night by going around the room and having each team member share a little
about themselves and a prayer request for the week. After we had all done this,
we spent the next twenty minutes or so in prayer, with each team member praying
specifically for the person on their left. This was the perfect way to start
the week of ministry, praying for God’s presence and building community with
one another.
Bright
and early the next day, Jenda and I headed off to camp with Honza (a new guy on
the Czech Team). We wanted to get to camp early and play through some of the
songs in the music books that we would be using throughout the week. This was
something new, at least for me. In the past, music at camp had seemed to come
together with just whoever could play stepping in as needed. It worked well,
but having this time to practice as a group not only improved our playing
throughout the week, it also helped build our relationships. It also gave us an
opportunity to see just how different the physical space was.
For
a number of years, the English Camp has been held atPension Lesanka. Last
year, a new owner bought Lesanka and invested in renovating the site. What use
to be an old, cozy building with sub-par food is now a sleek, new building with
more amenities (like bathrooms in every room). Or at least, that is what it
will be once it is finished. The building was mostly complete, but still needed
some finishing details like balcony railings, hot water, and toilet seats (while
some rooms had some of these things, not every room had all of them). Though
there was still work to be done to the building, our first meal showed that,
while it was still camp food, the quality had definitely increased.
The
students began to arrive around 1:30 or 2:00 p.m. and the week started. On that
first day, the students get settled in their rooms and then take a placement
test to see which class they will be in. Once all the students have been
tested, they gather for icebreaker games. This year, I was a grader for the
tests, and so missed the first few games. By the time I was able to catch up
with them, they had broken into groups. I joined one group and met a few of the
new students and desperately tried to remember the names of returning students.
Dinner
that night was perhaps some of the best food I’ve had at a camp. While the
students were served the same meal that the leaders had for lunch, the leaders
were served a very nice salad with Brie and toast. The presentation was
stunning and the taste gave me high hopes for the rest of the week (which sadly
were not quite met). After dinner, the students were split into six groups
based on age. Each group would go to a different evening talk each night and then
meet with the leaders from the first talk group on the last night of camp. I
had group five for my first talk, not quite the oldest group and all but one
was a returning student. Thank you for praying for the evening Talks. This was
a time for the Czech and American teams to discuss with the students topics
like relationships, sacrifice, and motivations and share with them the
Christian perspective on the topic and how it has played out in our lives. The
overall theme of the camp was power, and so I talked with the students about
what has power in our lives and how our motivations are shaped by what has
power in our lives. Other leaders shared about power dynamics in relationships
or how powerful sacrifice is. I believe God answered our prayers for these
talks, both personally in the peace I felt each night while giving the talks
and in the students.
The
next day, the regular camp schedule began. Each day, breakfast was served at
8:00 a.m., but before that, the leaders all gathered for a time of devotions
and planning. This year, both the Americans and Czechs met for both parts. I
had volunteered to help lead the devotions and we studied the book of
Ephesians, specifically chapters 1 to 4:16. This was one area that God’s power
shown immediately. The Sunday after camp, the passage that was preached on was
Ephesians 4:17-32. No one had planned this, yet we could all see how God used
this book to teach and train us throughout the week.
After
devotions and breakfast, the English classes started. We taught three 45 to 50
minute sessions in the morning and then had an hour of conversation class after
lunch. Thank you for praying for the lesson preparation and teaching. Many of
the teachers went into the week nervous about teaching and afraid that our
lesson plans wouldn’t work. My lessons went well. In my class, I had four new
students and three returning students. The classroom dynamic made it very easy
for us to learn and have fun and God was definitely at work. The sense of peace
and ability to keep a good pace throughout the week was definitely God’s
blessing and not any skill of mine. The last day of class, I had prepared a
role playing game similar to Dungeons and Dragons, but was very skeptical about
how well it would work due to the level of English. This lesson turned into a
highlight as, once the students learned how the game worked, we had a lot of
fun and wound up playing for a bit after the class time had ended.
In
the afternoons, there were sport activities for about three hours. Some days,
there were team sports where the campers were broken into four teams and
competed in sports like American football or baseball. Other days, there were
signups and students could choose to do things like archery and sword fighting
or play sports like volleyball or basketball. One of the biggest highlights
from the students with regard to the sports was the orienteering run. All the
campers were paired up and given a compass and a map. They were then driven to
a starting point about 4 km from camp and had to make their way back on foot
while finding six different checkpoints. Thank you for your prayers for the
safety of the people at camp. Last year, there were a few injuries during the
sports, but this year, despite the occasional tick, there were no major
injuries or mishaps throughout the week. There was, however, a bacterial
infection that broke out the last two days of camp. I believe most of those who
were infected have recovered.
After
sports, it was time for dinner and then the talks. The talks generally wrapped
up around 8:30 p.m. and the students gathered in the main meeting room for a
time of singing before the evening activities started. The evening activates
were generally creative with the first night being a craft night. Other
activates included a theatre night, a talent night, and a slide show night. The
slide show night was new for me. The pastor of the Czech church goes on mission
trips to different countries in Africa and he shared pictures and his
experiences with the students. These evening activities are a lot of fun and a
great time to get to know the students and see their personalities and sense of
humor.
The
end of camp was marked by a nervous energy. We were all sad the week was over
and anxious about the many students and a few leaders who had come down with
flu like symptoms. While this was a bit of downer to end camp with, overall it
was another good year with lots of good memories, friendships made, and lessons
learned. Thank you for all your prayers and support!
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