It's late
Tuesday evening, so where are all the updates from the trip? With a couple of
changes with team members and trying to coordinate four churches at camp and
another two staying at the camp for work projects, we've had our hands full!
We've settled into the camp schedule now, and our week has started off very
well. I'm going to include a couple snippets from Matt Ediger, youth pastor
with Hope Bible Church in O'Fallon, to bring us up to date:
Saturday we
had an uneventful trip, enjoying minimal traffic on the 4th for the holiday. On
Sunday we joined Sharps Corner Baptist Church where Matt Hadden, full-time
missionary and camp director, preached. We spent Sunday afternoon in our
respective groups (lessons, games, crafts, and big idea) getting things
unpacked and organized for the week. We are expecting more kids than in years'
past, which is both an area of praise and prayer because we have a few less
people than years' past to supervise all the new kids. In the evening Matt's
wife, Amanda Hadden led a camp orientation, which was a reminder of the reality
in which these kids live. 90-95% of the kids coming to camp are abused in some
form or fashion; this offers us some challenges with how the kids respond to
us, but is also a reminder for the great need of the gospel.
Monday
kicked off our first day of camp. Most of our teens work in teams from Grace
and Hope Bible Church alongside each other in four main groups: Lessons,
Crafts, Big Idea, and Games. Our teens work for several months preparing to
essentially run a camp for 40-70 kids ages 4-12 with little hands-on help from
adults during camp! It is always exciting and humbling to see. Matt Ediger,
Conrad, Tessa, and a couple people from the Indiana team worked with the teens.
We had 19 in our group plus the leaders. Creating discussion is always
challenging; we are hoping to address worldview questions with the teens in a
smaller group setting. Please pray for relationships to be built (or
reestablished in some cases) so we can engage more fully. We also took some
time with this group to get away from the camp to visit some of the Badlands.
Tuesday, day
two of camp, was another good day. We had a total of 64 kids, 25 of which were
teens. Today had a few ups and downs with some stations going better than
others (and some having better morning than afternoon sessions and vice versa),
but that's not too unusual. Tomorrow will already be the midweek point, which
is hard to believe! This is where both our kids and the campers are more tired and
more comfortable with one another, which allows for good conversations.
Thank you
once again for your continued prayer!
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