Camp is Coming!

Camp is only 2 weeks away.  We are feeling the time crunch as we prepare for the campers, counselors, activities, and Bible lessons.

In preparation to teach certain activities, we have to find supplies and practice on our own before teaching something and finding out it can’t be done!  

   Although every summer we host three weeks of camp in three different regions. This particular region has more churches and some of our larger churches. So we average 120-150 kids this week and 70-80 in our other 2 weeks of camp.  But in this already large region are three churches near my home. I usually find projects for youth from these churches to do to raise funds for camps. The main job is to cut grass in the field below my house.  Now that doesn’t sound like much work until you see these “slashers” that they use to cut grass.  At 6” long it takes a long time to cut grass.  Then there is gathering the grass and other work around my house and the campus that we do once a year.  This year one of these villages is hosting camp. As is normal people from nearby always have a higher number in attendance than those that live far away.  It takes commitment to walk a few hours to get to camps some years. This year when it is in your home, you are more likely to come.  Even the younger kids join in who definitely wouldn’t travel far away until they are older. So this camp covers an area of over 20 churches, and these three churches have sent almost 100 kids to cut grass. 100! That’s only 3 of 20+ villages.  We are starting to revamp some normal schedules, racking our brains on how to feed 200 kids that most likely will attend, how to play games with that many kids or have them all fit into the church building for chapel services! Wow, it’s a great problem but it means some administrative wisdom. We most likely will divide the group into 2 for some things to make sure they fit and all get a chance to participate!

 

Clay is heavy and these young men from our church willingly helped to dig and carry it. 

cookstoves VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

We have a few workshops that we teach each year about things that we feel would better their lives. This year we are teaching a couple different types of cook stoves which can reduce the use of firewood and prevent the health problems from the normal smoke filled kitchen.  I can find lots of examples online, but until you actually practice, you can’t know if it will really work. So we travelled off the beaten path to dig a lot of clay from the only place known for good clay in our area and then preparing it so that we could build a couple sample stoves. I’m thankful for some camp counselors who are studying at our Pastoral Bible college (where I live). They took time to help mix the dirt according to the recipe and then build these examples.  Once Staff Training comes along, they now have the knowledge to teach their fellow teachers, who will then go and teach the students.  I was encouraged to see that they really liked learning this and hope to build them in their own homes.

We have 17 Bible Lessons to prepare. We are contacting all the staff needed for each week of camp. We are planning on how to feed and house 35 staff members for the weekend and then starting camp with a record size first week. 

That’s more than 600 # of flour, 400 # of sugar, 450+ # of corn, reed sleeping mats, a barrel to help hold water in the kitchen, etc…

If I did my calculations correctly I won’t have to rush to town for supplies on my one day between staff training and camp. 

There is work to be done, but slowly we are chipping away at the mountain of preparations for camps.