Imagine This 2008 (Jr. High English Camp)

Hey everybody,
so after a while I have another story to write. It's a camp we had this last week. The camp was for kids from age of 10 through 15. It was Jr. High English camp - Imagine This 2008. Before Xtreme Week we were a little worried whether we'll have enough kids for the camp but God answered our prayers and gave us 25 kids (!).


The camp began at 9.00 am and last until 12.30 pm. It was a daily camp that was happening at The Building. Even though the camp began at 9.00 am the staff had to be at the place at 8.00 am so again, we had to get up from our beloved beds and leave the comfort of our apartments. The whole camp was divided into four parts: 2 English classes, Crafts and Sports. In each class was one LTP and one American. Dominik and Babulka (and some days Juraj) were in charge of sports and Miriam had crafts. I got assigned to a class according where the worst boys were :-) so I can calm them down.

That's my class!

After the kids left we (as the team) had a lunch together and were hangin' out 'till 5.00 pm when we had a meeting about the rest of the day because at the evenings we had evening programs (as we use to have during a school year on Fridays) from 6.00 pm - 9.00 pm. So we had about 4 hours of rest before we had another job to do.

At the evenings we were playing various games from kind of getting-know-each-other through banana fights to Drive-in. One evening we were suppose to have Outside Crazy Games but since it was raining outside we changed it into Inside Crazy Games. One of the games was to find a partner and to lay down (as you see at the picture below) and to feed each other with a frozen ice cream (and I mean really frozen ice cream). At this point I got attacked by a Jr. High girl saying: We're gonna be together!. Fortunately, Juraj was there and he saved me. (The girl stuff you'll get in a while).

Here's the picture as Juraj feeds me.

There were some problems though. Dominik and me found out that two 14 year-old Jr. High girls have crush on us. And that's not really good. I remember all the times when just during the games one of 'em just grabbed my hand that I'm in her team and I just ripped my hand off of hers and said: I got a job to do in the office... and I disappeared in the back rooms at The Building were students were not allowed to be. Or poor Dominik, one girl grabbed his head, shook it and looked into his eyes and said: Where are you going?. And I had some problems with the boys at my class as well. One of them especially was really disrespectful and not really caring what's going on during the class. So after the second day I took him apart and talked to him that he is being disrespectful and his behavior is not making the class any easier for me and his "classmates" are probably not really happy about it. And even though he is only 9 he seemed he was listening and thought about it seriously. The same day at the evening we had Scavenger Hunt and he was in my team. He was the best kid I ever!
But all this, either the girls or the boys, is just a sign that they are missing love at their homes and in their lives in general. Suddenly they come to The Building where people love them even though sometimes they don't deserve and they don't know how to respond to it.

But after all, again, we've seen God's grace and all the answered prayers He gave us. The whole week He was pushing our tiredness and was keeping it away what really helped us in doing our job. So He helped us to be patient with the boys and share the love of Christ with them even in times when we were so tired and not really willing to be nice to them:-) . And we were really happy that God has glorified Himself in our work and that He was among us all the time.

The other way how God showed us His grace and love is that we got about 10 girls from Špačince (a close village) and put a desire and care about the girls into the hearts of our LTP girls and so Ninka and Babulka are about to start a new GK - Girl's Club. God blessed us so much that so many times we just freeze and stare when we see the way He works and what He does in us and for us.
Praise Him!

And just one more thing I want to tell you about. During one evening (the day before the camp was over) when everybody was so tired and out of strength I looked at us and saw seven young people working with kids and spending at least a half of the summer at The Building doing camps and not even being paid for that, yet they were so happy and so excited to do it. To work for Christ. And I gotta tell you I'm so proud on our team. That God put these young people together for Him and gave them privilege to work for our Father in heaven. So even now I'm looking forward for our next jobs we'll be called to do. Because we'll be called by the Son of God.