Camp 2 - Day 8 - God works in Creative Ways

As this was Sunday, a day of rest, we did not do morning exercises. Which really only means that the kids (and us) get an extra 20 minutes of sleep, but it is at least something.

This morning's Bible Lesson was lead by Naomi and was on "I Choose." The idea stemmed out of why sometimes bad things still happen. Each of the wards did a skit. That showed someone making a choice. Ward 4 (the youngest) did a skit about choosing to be deceptive, verse telling the truth. Ward 3 (the middle aged children) did a skit about fighting, verses acting in love. And the oldest ward (1) did a skit about choosing to attend a party with drinking and drugs verses having fun with Christ following friends. They did a great job.

In the afternoon we did interest groups for 1 hour. The theme being, "I choose" anything fit in. We did camp favorites and added a few others. One station was to make hemp bracelets that matched the necklaces made earlier in camp. Another was face paint. Hair and Manicures was always a favorite along with Basketball and Volleyball as well as table games. Football was also done, but with a slightly different goal. Another camp asked to play us in Football, so we used this as a practice. Following Interest groups, we prepared for this Football match. As we waited and waited and waited for the other team to show up. They didn't. There is another camp going on at the same time as our camp (Peace Corps working out of one of our buildings), So we asked them if they would play. They accepted the challenge, they were all significantly larger than out team, and so some people thought we were going to get slaughtered. But with instead we won 3-0. Fun for our kids to see.

Following Supper, we did the salvation presentation. Judith found a video on You Tube that was excerpts from the movie called "Most." The story is about how a man who is in charge of a railroad lift bridge, through unfortunate circumstances had to choose to save the lives of all those on the train, or the life of his own son. He choose the train. It shows how at least one life of the people on the train (a drug addict) dramatically changes as a result and how the father is so happy when he sees this. Bob, followed up this with a short message and a prayer. We then broke up into small groups to answer kids questions and talk with them about this decision. In my group 4 or 5 prayed with Bob for Salvation, but after explaining it further 1 more also chose to pray for Salvation. Other groups also had a similar response. I don't have final numbers but at last count 10 or 12 gave their lives to Christ for the first time. What we found though was that almost all the other children have already given their lives to Christ.

On a small note of how God works in amazing ways. To talk with the kids we broke up into our bedtime story groups for these small talks. In my group, our interpreter was just a student in the process of learning English. In previous nights she struggled with the vocabulary especially Christian terms as she would not have studied those at school , and we turned to reading straight from the Russian Bibles for Stories - as translating a complete story was too difficult. When it came to the time to break up into these groups to discuss the salvation message, I was a little worried. And was seemed to be a problem, was actually a pure gift from God. When we gathered in our groups she was no where to be found. Meghan went to look for here, but found Tanya, the director of the camp, instead. Tanya not only has a larger vocabulary, but has an amazing way of communicating with children to explain this to them. As soon as we finished we found our original translator. God works in very creative ways.

This evening we did not do craft. Instead the children watched "Meet the Robinson's." in Russian. I can't understand Russian, and because I haven't seen it in English. I can't tell you much about it. But the main character is in orphan who invents a time machine to find out about the family he never knew. Instead he uses his invention to save the future. This movie went later than planned so, we mostly said goodnight for bedtime stories and allowed our kids to sleep in again and skip morning exercises.

On a separate note: God also worked as an amazing healer today. One of team members was ill. The world felt like it was spinning, she couldn't walk without holding on to the walls. And felt very nauseous every time she got out of bed. We prayed as she rested. Throughout the day she tried a few times to get out of bed, but to no avail. Then just before supper, she felt like God told her to get up, it would all be fine. She did and it was! Just in time to eat, gain her strength, and then talk with her girls about the salvation message. God's timing astounds me!