Wow…This week went by so fast! At first I was completely overwhelmed by the amount of kids and how to fit the 5-Day Club program with the camp’s expectations but by the end of the week I had fallen in love with all of the kids and ended up having so much fun!

In total we had 69 kids at the camp and about 20 didn’t go to church. Neither Anja or I talked to any of the kids about accepting Christ but around 10 did accept Christ with their cabin leaders and I hope that the message we brought to them may have played a small part in their deciding to follow Jesus.

Because we only taught in the evenings and the mornings we got to spend quite a lot of time with the kids whether it was during meals or beach time and so many of the kids found a special place in my heart. They were so enthusiastic, whether it was to do lessons or memory verses, or their excitement for the stories. These kids made me smile all week long. Although, there were so many kids, I regret not getting to spend enough one-on-one time with them.

At the beginning of the week, I was anxious to go home and I didn’t want to be there due to the lack of confidence in myself but yesterday I was sad to leave.  I think God taught me that I don’t have to be perfect to make an impact on these kids lives.

Can’t wait for week 3!

So I should probably explain the title first. Anja and I were waiting for the bell to signal the campfire where I tell the bible story but the wide game had gone late so we didn’t know when it was going to ring but we decided to come out and just wait for it. Well no sooner had we left our room when the bell rang and I joked that it was my speaker senses that made us be right on time. So that’s why this post is
titled that way.
I felt a lot more confident today and it went pretty smoothly. The best part of today was how excited the kids were to do their lessons. Not even half actually have done their lessons but the ones who have are so excited and they have done their lessons faster than I thought was possible. Since we never actually leave the camp and are around the kids all the time, they’ve just been giving us lessons and we keep giving them more. We actually had one girl who finished her “Meet the King” questions today! I also had another girl who said she wanted “10 of each kind of lesson!” I’m so glad these kids are enthusiastic about the lessons. 
Neither Anja or I have had any kids accept Christ with us but so far there have been at least 4 kids who accepted Christ with their leaders. So that is super exciting!

I am still praying that we will make some really good relationships with the kids as well as the other leaders. The kids have become more attached to us and I’m glad we are starting to build that relationship with some of them but because there are so many kids and other leaders it’s hard to get any one-on-one time with them. It’s harder to get to know the leaders because they all know each other already and we are new, but for the most part they seem really nice and we have had the opportunity to have some conversations with some of them. 

So last week in Ebenzer ended really good, I didn’t have any decisions but I really felt like God did something good in these children’s lives through me, there was 1 kid especially, who was from Alberta came to the VBS and was so exited about everything we did, the songs, lessons, stories, everything, and with his excitement just really helped encourage me as well, this being my 3 week away from home, and home sickness slowly kicking in. As we were about to leave in Friday from the church there was a young 6 year old girl who I really got to know quite a bit, and she was sitting on her bike pouting. I went up to her and asked her why she was sad and she said ‘because your leaving, I don’t want you to leave, when I like people I don’t ever want them to leave’ I don’t remember kids ever saying that to me in the past, so I really felt a huge encouragement through that week, and God just telling me that even though I might not have gotten 5 decisions this week, I still went through with giving up my summer to go share the gospel with these kids and get them exited to know who Jesus is and how amazing His love is!

 This week me and Sarah got dropped off at Good spirit Bible Camp and at first it felt a bit strange because I never thought I would be a ‘speaker’ at the age of 15 and second because there were many leaders our age and just going in to teach and trying to ignore the older ones and put the focus on the kids was really hard. But we made it through the first day and there are already more kids opening up to us and wanting to spend time with us. Even after a crazy 30min of singing really loudly they still found the time to sit quietly and listen to the stories. We tell the bible story at the campfire, which I personally love, and Sarah told the story of zacchaeus and the kids had a lot of fun with it but still understood the reality of how much God loves them. When it was mentioned that Jesus even knew our names this one kid in the second row just dropped his jaw and a shocked ‘whoa’ came out, haha probably my favourite reaction to Jesus love if heard yet. 

As the week goes on please pray that kids will want to open up to Jesus and just really have His love live in them. 

So this week Anja and I are teaching at Good Spirit Bible Camp. We arrived yesterday and were completely overwhelmed about what to do. No one really gave us any instructions and no one really talked to us that much. When it came time for chapel that evening it was clear that we were the speakers for the week. We both felt completely uneducated for that role considering most of the councillors were older than us. We didn’t have anything prepared for Sunday evening but we did introduce ourselves and explain the concept of a 5 day club. I asked how many kids knew what a 5 day club was and to my relief a lot put up their hands. I got the feeling that the leaders at the camp didn’t really know how to react to us since we are younger but we have talked to some and hopefully we will be able to feel comfortable around all the leaders. We then decided how to split up the club since there are 2 sessions each day. We decided that I would teach the memory verse in the morning along with Anja who would do the contest and the extra story. The evening chapel is around a campfire so I decided to do the bible story then. Today is the first full day and it went better than expected. Anja and I had been so overwhelmed from yesterday but I prayed a lot and I actually felt I was able to do this considering we would have older leaders watching us. The morning went a bit longer because we had to hand out 68 first day packets but the kids loved the story about Tony and were so sad when Anja left it at a cliffhanger. Since we had nothing left to do until evening we just hung out at the camp. It’s really nice and we had a relaxing afternoon checking out the skills the kids were doing and going to the beach with everyone. When evening came I was actually a little excited about the bible story. About 1/2 the kids at the camp do not attend church and I’m hoping to make an impact on them the week. I told the story about Zacchaeus and the kids were really excited and energetic and asking a lot of questions. When I told them about Zacchaeus giving half of everything he owned to the poor, I asked if they could imagine giving half of everything they owned away. One little boy said, “my house would be clean!” I burst out laughing but he wasn’t wrong, I guess everyone looks at things like that a little differently. 

After feeling totally unprepared and unqualified for this job I now see that I can do anything with God’s help. I am praying that we would be able to connect with both the other leaders and the campers this week and that we would make an impact on these kids lives.