Saturday Post -- 23/11/13

Some happy campers, with leaders Alex Wann (top), Mariana Garrón
 (3rd from right) and Ana Urquiza (far right).

Since our church was founded in 2005, our youth group had been attending an annual camp hosted by another church in town. But over the last couple of years, we’d been a little concerned about one or two things we’d heard in the aftermath of these camps, particularly with regard to the supervision of campers by leaders.

So, way back in January of this year, when we were planning the calendar for the youth group, a recurring theme was the possibility of running our own camp. Not only would this give us greater control over the participants from our church, but it would be a hugely positive experience for the group to have their very own camp; many a reader can surely look back on their times at such camps and see God shaping their lives in significant ways.

Furthermore, the camp would be a great signpost on our church’s road to maturity, as the organisation and execution would require no small effort of all of us; falling back on the missionaries would not be an option in this case (not least as, by the time camp came around last weekend, Amanda and I were the only missionaries in the church not back home on furlough).

What happens when you play a game in which your team's aim is to
burst as many water balloons as possible, using only one's head?

This.

We had initially hoped to stage the camp in July (the mid-year school holiday here), but the closer we got to that date, the more we realised the scale of the task we had taken on. The issue was mooted here and there over the ensuing months until, in early October, we saw that it was now or never, in terms of 2013 at least. So we committed to a weekend, announced it to the church and the youth group, and over the next few weeks went about preparing for this huge task. Amanda took charge of the enterprise and barely had time to think about anything else for a month or so beforehand.

A curiosity here is that November tends to be the month when most churches have their youth camps, yet it usually sees the first rumblings of rainy season. And, after a mostly dry and sunny week, we were hit with a deluge on Saturday morning, which seemed only to be gathering in strength the closer we got to the campsite, some 50 miles south of Trinidad. At least this campsite had dormitories, but the main outdoor facilities were totally waterlogged. And as we began our first praise/teaching session in the conference area, the wind picked up significantly, totally drenching much of our sound equipment as it wheeched through the windows, whose only defence was a sheet of mosquito netting. Acoustic we went. 

Despite this setback, our speaker, Jerry (one of my fellow church leaders) did a great job of kicking off the week’s theme of Family, focusing on our relationships with our parents and our duties to them as Christian sons and daughters. Many of our young people come from homes where the parents neglect their own God-given duties, and so this made for some excellent and very practical discussion in the ensuing small-group time. The camp's name was 'Adoptados' (surely no translation required there) and each camper and leader was given a T-shirt with the word 'Adoptado' on the front, and the text of John 1:12 on the reverse ("But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name").

Jerry Soleto: the man at the mic.

The morning’s planned outdoor games obviously had to be suspended, but San, our ‘sporting director’, if you like, managed to improvise in the conference area. And by this point, the rain was easing off.

Indeed, by the time our post-lunch session (this time, on children) had ended, the sun was out, giving as good as it had got that morning (the sheer heat of the sun down here is surely the only thing keeping the bowl-like Beni region from becoming the next Atlantis) and the outdoor area was mostly dry enough to play some team games. Not that dryness is all that big a deal. Weirdly for a race of people who will usually run for cover at the merest spit, the youth of this city prefer their camp games wet. And so, inevitably, the nearby pond was brought into play for the final act. Ingeniously, the participants were required to fill their team’s bucket with water, but only by wringing out their clothes, sodden from multiple dunks in the pond. Chaos reigned.

Young and young-at-heart embraced the camp's activities with equal
fervour. Apart from Amanda, who singularly refused to get wet. Party
pooper.

That evening featured another praise time, but rather than listen to Jerry once again, the youth were tasked with performing a sketch/skit (delete as appropriate to your side of the Atlantic) based on what they’d learnt that day about the Bible’s teaching on the family. This is another activity that the youth here really relish, and we had some excellent responses, ranging from the hilarious to the genuinely heartbreaking.

Due to the morning’s rain, the planned late-night campfire session had to be shelved, so those who were still semi-conscious stayed up and watched a film together. The rest of us hit the hay for the first and last time over the weekend; we’d made a conscious decision to limit the camp to a single overnight, so as not to bite off more than we could chew at our first attempt.

Seeing young people like Jonathan take a leading role among their
peers was a major encouragement.

But a second very full day lay ahead, which began with a pre-breakfast meeting of the small groups. Here, we leaders gave each of our groups a passage of the Bible to read and reflect on as part of a daily devotional time. Again, very few of the youth in our church come from homes where such a practice would be encouraged, so we felt it was important to help them start the day in the best way possible, while perhaps giving them a model for their own devotional times.

While this was going on, back in Trinidad our bus driver was picking up a group from the church, who were due to arrive at 9 o’clock. The normal Sunday morning services had been temporarily suspended to allow the church to share in the activities at camp for a morning. Typical church attire was out of the question as the games that morning very much picked up from where Saturday afternoon had left off.

The young people listened attentively to the
weekend's teaching, and fully engaged with
the theme of Family.

We were mostly dry enough by noon that we could have our Sunday service on the campsite, during which Jerry gave the third part of his sermon series. A lunch of spicy chicken followed (a traditional Sunday lunch dish here) and our visitors then headed home, while the rest of us entered the final stretch of the camp.

After the morning’s exertions, the afternoon saw some slightly calmer indoor games, before Jerry gave his final talk, a summing-up of the weekend’s theme. In the proceeding small groups, we had some great discussions on what the young people had learned over the course of the weekend and how they could carry these lessons into the post-camp, everyday grind; a particularly important question for those from non-Christian homes.

The weekend ended with a short Communion service – reminding ourselves of what ultimately unites us as believers is a great way to bring the curtain down on such a weekend, but in this case it also gave us the opportunity to share with the youth the importance of this practice. And then, at 5 o’clock, all that remained was to return the facilities to their former state and wait for the bus.

Camp director Amanda in full bossyboots mode. Just how she likes it.

I’ll close with one big personal encouragement, in a weekend littered with them. Regular readers of the blog will be well used to our frequent prayer requests for greater maturity in the church, a much less missionary-dependent culture. On Sunday, as I was heading to the dining hall for lunch, I swung by the cabin for the boys and male leaders. As I approached, I saw a young man I know very well, sitting outside the cabin in some state, clearly having been convicted of a particular sin in his life. But he was not alone. About half a dozen other guys in the group were sitting with him, and as I passed by, I heard the utterance of very wise words from one of the guys in particular.

I entered the cabin and a fellow leader said “you should probably go and deal with that, being a leader and all”. But I politely declined, explaining that what was going on outside the cabin was exactly what we have been praying for for so long. God is good.

Thanks to short-term volunteer Aline for her help with this one.

Prayer

• One of our leaders at the camp was Alex Wann, our friend from Samaritan’s Purse Trinidad. The day before camp, Alex got a message from the US telling him to have his bags packed and ready to leave for the rescue effort in the Philippines. Thankfully, he was not required over the weekend, but on Monday morning he received confirmation that he’d be flying out of Bolivia the following day (from Santa Cruz, to Miami, to Dallas, to Seoul, to the Philippines – rather him than me!). Please pray for spiritual and mental fortitude for Alex over the 30 days he is required to be over there; and pray that people might come to know Jesus as their Lord and saviour through the work of Alex and his team (whose remit is sanitation).
• The coming week is our last official week at Fundación Totaí before we leave Trinidad on the 12^th of December. We have plenty of work to do before we can even think about next weekend, so pray for the energy necessary to get through it. Pray that we both might ‘finish well’.
• We had seen camp as something of a last big emotional hurdle before we left, but, well, this is Trinidad, Bolivia, and a few tough situations have arisen this week. Pray for continued energy.

Praise

• For camp: that the youth had a great time; that the whole activity really brought the whole church closer together; and for so many signs of church maturity throughout the weekend. 

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda