Xtreme Week 2008

OK guys,
I got some comments for my first "article" so I suppose there are some people that will actually read this. I want to tell you what was the Xtreme Week like.



Xtreme Week was an English camp for High school students. We began our camp on Monday July 7th and were having it 'till Friday July 11th. When the kids came to The Building at 4:30 pm we welcomed them and were watching a daily video from the last day. Then we had our English classes for about an hour and half. We had funny and serious stories that had Christian point, either obvious or not that obvious:-) After the classes we had our Xtreme-Movie-Making time where we divided kids into 4 teams and they were suppose to make a short movies. Then at 8:00 pm our LTP team got in charge with the evening program. The program started with a LTP silly video and crazy games. At the end we had a speaker and discussion groups. After that we were just hanging out and playing games. These are themes we had for each day:

Monday: Xtreme Beginnings
Tuesday: Xtreme Makeover
Wednesday: Xteme Olympics
Thursday: Xtreme Dare Night
Friday: Xtreme Cookout/Oscar Night :-)

Whole week was really tiring. Usually we had a meeting at 2 pm about what's going on, then had meeting with teachers and we talked what was gonna happen at the class. Then was a prayer meeting and at 4:30 pm we opened the door for the students to come.

Most of the times we prayed for our relationships with the students and for a good opportunities to share the gospel. For the program to work out and, as the week was ending and our powers were fading, even for the strength and some rest.

The best day was Friday and our Xtreme Cookout/Oscar Night. It may sounds weird to have a Xtreme Cookout but hey - that's Xtreme Week. On one hand it was the best because it was the last day of the camp, on the other hand because in that day God showed His love and grace the most. Let me tell you a little more about this day...

For me it began a little earlier than I'm used to. I woke up at 5:00 am with only three hours of sleep. I went to The Building and I started to work at 6:00 am. I was making intro videos for the Oscar Night and then made two team videos (seems easy but believe me, to cut it all and put it together with music and stuff - takes a little while) .

In the middle of this I went to a computer store to get a wire because we planned to do a Skype-to-Skype video conference call from another room where Monika was interviewing our teams. And projected on a wall. We had microphones and all the other cool stuff that you can find at a fancy evening program. During the camp I was actually in charge of technical stuff and videos.

But back to Friday. Between movie making I had to make every audio/video/technical stuff working. And then back to the movie making. I got off of computer at 7:30 pm what means that I spend at least 12 hours of the computer work. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to make you feel sorry about me I just want you to get the picture of the day. How much we had to do. The rest of the team was preparing for the classes (I had to skip mine and I'm really sorry about it because I liked my class [btw: Monika and me were only helpers in the class. The real teacher was Anya] ) .

Then we had cookout and the big time was here.

Ladies and gentlemen, please, dress up to your fancy clothes!

Babulka and me were MCs. It was the best day of the camp for sure! Even though we all were so tired God gave us enough strength to keep going and make the job done. That day when I was working with the computer all the time with 3 hours of sleep I lost all my hope that it's all ever gonna work. But we kept praying and Lord answered our prayers and it was even greater that we'd ever imagine.

After the Oscar part of the evening we gave T-Shirts and the Camp certificates to the kids. And you could tell from their faces that they were sad because the camp is over. They we had an "AFTER PARTY!" and LTP have really enjoyed it! Even Miriam did!




Miriam and her children.

Then we cleaned up (because no one wanted to come back on Saturday to do it) and we gathered together to praise God for everything He has done at the camp. 'Cause when we looked back to the past 5 days we really realized what ALL He has done.


And I cannot forget to mention probably the greatest thing of all. There's a guy that's been going to The Building for a year and knew that people from The Building team are Christians. On Thursday night I walked him home and we talked about Christ for over an hour. He's interested into Christianity. He had not been to The Building for over 3 months and when he came back this summer it was so obvious that God works in his life. He always wondered why are people at The Building so nice and welcoming and now he knows. Please, pray for him!