28-29 July 2011 Thursday & Friday
Trying to Give God Room to Work-- The last thing we did Wednesday night in our leader's meeting was to imagine a world where the students at the camp were already prepared to make a decision to believe in Jesus as Savior and to repent to Jesus as Lord of their lives. We didn't want to limit God so we rearranged the camp schedule to leave a ten minute time for the students to go the the worship area if they wanted to make that eternal decision. Who knows? The Holy Spirit might want to break out into he hearts of the children in a dramatic way.
Watching God Shine -- On Thursday morning, Allen went off to write the morning blog, and by the time he came out of the office, three students had made a decision to accept an eternal relationship with Jesus. Two of the students were sweet twin teenage girls, Emma and Sophie, who were among the camp leaders. Allen told them that this was indeed a historic moment: he had never heard of two sisters being born on the same day, and then both being born again on the same day. He calls that double twinning. A young boy who is a special pal of Allen's also made a committment. On Friday, a young girl joined them as new creatures. Four out of eighteen children saved in a four day period is a pretty good day even for Billy Graham. It is absolutely monumental for the drier, rockier spiritual climate of Wales. When Allen received his call to become a missionary to Great Britan three summers ago, it was at an outdoor worship service for school children. It is so gratifying now for him to be present to see Welsh school children transformed for spiritual death to spiritual right before his eyes. It is easily worth the price of admission.
Sharing the Word -- Doug Dees continued his tradition of light-hearted and engaging, though paradoxically deep and profound theological lessons for the Leaders' morning devotions. Thursday was on the Great Commission and Friday was on how each Christian is God's individual and artfully crafted Poem. Owain Ap Howell, part of the great triumvirate of legendary Ap Howell lads (Iestyn and Euros have been mentioned numerous times in previous blog entries), gave his testimony in the Thursday morning worship and Doug Mikes gave a powerful testimony (props and all) of his rise from a dark past to a bright eternal future. Thursday night, Jennifer Nath gave a mini-sermon comparing eating and drinking to Bible Study and Prayer, encouraging the children not to be discouraged when they return to the drier spiritual climate of their own homes, compared to the spiritual feast they have enjoyed at Camp Bala. Derek showed a clip from "Finding Nemo" on Thursday morning about how the Father doesn't give up pursuing his son, even though the son caused his own peril through rebellion of sin. On Friday morning , he showed the clip where the Father rescues his child so they can have a new, sweet, deep relationship together. How true for us all. It was in small groups after worship over those two days that the four children made their decisions.
Fun & Games -- Thursday morning Hannah led the group in some American games (Red Rover and Frisbee Football), Arawn led the children on a scavenher hunt in the afternoon, and Derek led the men in Featherball (now a longstanding Welsh tradition one year old). Tracy led them in the evening party in "I love you but I cannot smile" (the less said about this, the better), and in a series of "A Minute to Win It" competitions. After the games, there was music that was appropriately painfully loud and wild, histrionic dancing, that was more like full body contact roller derby.
On the Mountaintop -- After the children went to bed on Thursday night, the adults had their last Leaders Meeting. The consensus was: 1) We didn't want to leave, 2) We wanted to live together forever, and 3) We were going to do this next year, even if none of the kids decided to join us. We lingered long after the meeting's close because we didn't want this time to end. Friday, the children seemed to feel the same way. We are all literally and figuratively on the mountain. I can be a sad thing to descend to the arid plains.
Sharing the Harvest -- Henderson Hills Baptist Church has sponsored twelve missions to Wales in the last two and a half years. Mission number Thirteen arrives in a little over a week. Is Camp Bala the best one ever? Yes! But to be fair, all of the missions have been the best ever. One must plow superbly before one can plant, or sow, or weed. The Harvest Time gets all the glory but is possible only becasue of the other selfless endeavors. But there is no doubt Harvest Time is especially sweet. Thank you to all those who have labored in the field till now. Thank you to all those who continue to labor. Thank you for our Welsh brothers and sisters, heros whose hands never leave the plow just because the Americans pull out for a season. Thank you to God for making Wales the deep focus of His Eyes and for glorifying His Name through individual (and little by little) national revival. And thanks be to Him for letting the Americans be there to see it!
Friday, July 29, 2011
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Old Friends Already
27 July 2011 Wednesday
New Old Friends -- At the end of a thousand-year long day, Luke the lanky, witty Welshman noted that most of us had not met before yesterday, and we were working together like a well-oiled machine. What he said was true, but most of us just marvelled that we had only arrived in Bala yesterday. What is true for the leaders is also true for the children. We know them all, their individual personalities and foibles, the rowdy and the shy, the ones who need encouragement to speak and the ones who need a shot of Nyquil to calm them down. And we can honestly say we love them all. Where have these Welsh adults (and one Kiwi) been all our lives? And how can we live without them when we leave on Sunday? Where have these little Welsh children come from and why is it we have not adopted them as our own long ago?
Sweet Spirit -- The Holy Spirit seems to be thickly permeating the sweet mountain air. There is a warmth, an openness, an intimacy here that is not strictly natural. When we part company, I suspect some of the children will weep. But so will all of the adults.
Bearing Fruit -- Doug Dees led the 7:00 a.m. Leader's meeting with a brilliant devotional about how the water cycle mentioned in Isaiah 55 is exactly like the Word of God and (all of His other attributes) -- how it goes forth like the rain producing fruit (Christians) that bears seed (Discipleship) that bears fruit sending all the praise back to Heaven. Then we went forward into a fruitful day.
Losing Nemo -- Welshman Luscious Luke, Glesni (the twenty something Welsh matron of Abertawe Christianity) and Rhys Lloyd (who looks vaguely like the bespectacled member of "The Flight of the Conchords" and who is the brother of the beloved Elain mentioned so prominently in the December 2009 Construction mission) led the music in morning worship that was every bit as athletic as a fat-burning calisthenic workout, complete with wild bodily gesticulations for every line of every song. Tracy gave a sweet, accessible, powerful testimony about how she became a Christian as a direct of the guilt she felt as a little girl when she talked her younger sister Katy into eating "candy" which was really bird poop. Derek has planned out a three part gospel message based upon three separate clips of "Finding Nemo" and today he showed the first clip and preached in Welsh about how we, like Nemo, have separated ourselves from the Father by our own rebelliousness.
Finding Their Voice -- After worship, the children broke up into the same small groups they will connect with every day. There, the leaders asked them questions that "unpacked" the meaning of the sermon, motivating them to apply the message to their personal lives. The children have begun to become much more open and transparent than we expected at this point in the week. One completely silent, introverted young girl was seemingly miraculously smitten with the spiritual gift of Leadership and appealed to her friends to take the gospel message to heart, following up by leading the group in a long and powerful prayer. The American leaders of that group, Tracy and Stormie, wisely let the young girl do their speaking for them, letting the teaching moment play out in an organic, unscripted manner. Other children began to bloom in less dramatic but no less real ways. One vivacious boy, the youngest of the camp, overcame an immense nervous anxiety about the camp (so much so that he vomited many times the night before departure, decided not to come along, only reversing his decision at the last minute) and began to let his spunky, fun-loving personality shine through.
Hyper-Active Activities -- Allen spent the day making new ministry connection with pastors Meirion (Church Life Secretary of the Presbyterians in Wales), Rhun (a dynamic pastor of three churches in Wrexham) and Watcyn and Lowry (Representatives of the Bible Society of Bible of Wales and leaders in Derek's Capel Gomer church). Back at the Youth Camp, Aled (a wiry, Rugby-loving young Welshman who had taken Allen for a brief visit to his Swansea home last summer) and Thomas (an even younger fresh-faced young Welshman whom we picked up at his hometown of Aberystwyth along the way) led everyone to an open field across the street where they taught the group American kickball (which is basically baseball played with a large, rubbery soccer-type ball). Derek (being as he is, Derek) argued to change the rules on the spot as the game went along in an attempt to make the traditional game "better." Later, back inside the children split up into two rotating groups, one which painted their own T-shirts with team and camp designs, and the other making their own "movie" aided by the multi-talented Rhys. After the children separated by gender into an hour of "Girls' Time" and "Boys' time," (where delightfully goofy Euros, of last summer's construction mission team fame demonstrated his surprisingly profound and in-depth knowledge of American football), they reformed into their regular large groups (Whales VS Sharks) as they practiced for the evening's big event -- the Talent Show, led by Doug Dees and Jennifer. Then we all walked through the charming town of Bala (picking up ice cream and candy along the way) arriving to skip stones across Bala's Lake Tegid. Later at the Colleg, the Talent show was a time for both adults and children to be silly and to shine (sometimes both at the same time). It was a bonding time for the group -- a kind of counter-intuitive sequel to the Name Game that had initiated the deeper level of fellowship.
Epilogue -- Luke Mansfield, an elongated version of Monty Python's Eric Idle, led the evening epilogue wherein he showed picture slides of stars of exponentially ever-increasing gigantic size and a means to examine the vastness and grandeur of the God who somehow cares about the most minute details of our day to day lives. Allen and Matthew led the late night debriefing, which focused upon finding comfortable ways for the children to have an avenue to make a commitment to Christ without them feeling the slightest human pressure or compulsion to do so. After praying in small, impromptu clusters, everyone went off to bed exhausted for an overly brief sleep. Everyone was awakened at 1:30 p.m. to a blaring fire alarm that forced us into the cold comfort of a nearby tarmacked basketball court while we waited for the fire department to arrive and give us the all clear. It turned out to be a rather common glitch in the alarm system. Lucky us! It apparently doesn't take very long to sleep in Bala. Just one more reason to rely upon the Holy Spirit to get us through tomorrow. And presumably, gallons and gallons of hot tea!
New Old Friends -- At the end of a thousand-year long day, Luke the lanky, witty Welshman noted that most of us had not met before yesterday, and we were working together like a well-oiled machine. What he said was true, but most of us just marvelled that we had only arrived in Bala yesterday. What is true for the leaders is also true for the children. We know them all, their individual personalities and foibles, the rowdy and the shy, the ones who need encouragement to speak and the ones who need a shot of Nyquil to calm them down. And we can honestly say we love them all. Where have these Welsh adults (and one Kiwi) been all our lives? And how can we live without them when we leave on Sunday? Where have these little Welsh children come from and why is it we have not adopted them as our own long ago?
Sweet Spirit -- The Holy Spirit seems to be thickly permeating the sweet mountain air. There is a warmth, an openness, an intimacy here that is not strictly natural. When we part company, I suspect some of the children will weep. But so will all of the adults.
Bearing Fruit -- Doug Dees led the 7:00 a.m. Leader's meeting with a brilliant devotional about how the water cycle mentioned in Isaiah 55 is exactly like the Word of God and (all of His other attributes) -- how it goes forth like the rain producing fruit (Christians) that bears seed (Discipleship) that bears fruit sending all the praise back to Heaven. Then we went forward into a fruitful day.
Losing Nemo -- Welshman Luscious Luke, Glesni (the twenty something Welsh matron of Abertawe Christianity) and Rhys Lloyd (who looks vaguely like the bespectacled member of "The Flight of the Conchords" and who is the brother of the beloved Elain mentioned so prominently in the December 2009 Construction mission) led the music in morning worship that was every bit as athletic as a fat-burning calisthenic workout, complete with wild bodily gesticulations for every line of every song. Tracy gave a sweet, accessible, powerful testimony about how she became a Christian as a direct of the guilt she felt as a little girl when she talked her younger sister Katy into eating "candy" which was really bird poop. Derek has planned out a three part gospel message based upon three separate clips of "Finding Nemo" and today he showed the first clip and preached in Welsh about how we, like Nemo, have separated ourselves from the Father by our own rebelliousness.
Finding Their Voice -- After worship, the children broke up into the same small groups they will connect with every day. There, the leaders asked them questions that "unpacked" the meaning of the sermon, motivating them to apply the message to their personal lives. The children have begun to become much more open and transparent than we expected at this point in the week. One completely silent, introverted young girl was seemingly miraculously smitten with the spiritual gift of Leadership and appealed to her friends to take the gospel message to heart, following up by leading the group in a long and powerful prayer. The American leaders of that group, Tracy and Stormie, wisely let the young girl do their speaking for them, letting the teaching moment play out in an organic, unscripted manner. Other children began to bloom in less dramatic but no less real ways. One vivacious boy, the youngest of the camp, overcame an immense nervous anxiety about the camp (so much so that he vomited many times the night before departure, decided not to come along, only reversing his decision at the last minute) and began to let his spunky, fun-loving personality shine through.
Hyper-Active Activities -- Allen spent the day making new ministry connection with pastors Meirion (Church Life Secretary of the Presbyterians in Wales), Rhun (a dynamic pastor of three churches in Wrexham) and Watcyn and Lowry (Representatives of the Bible Society of Bible of Wales and leaders in Derek's Capel Gomer church). Back at the Youth Camp, Aled (a wiry, Rugby-loving young Welshman who had taken Allen for a brief visit to his Swansea home last summer) and Thomas (an even younger fresh-faced young Welshman whom we picked up at his hometown of Aberystwyth along the way) led everyone to an open field across the street where they taught the group American kickball (which is basically baseball played with a large, rubbery soccer-type ball). Derek (being as he is, Derek) argued to change the rules on the spot as the game went along in an attempt to make the traditional game "better." Later, back inside the children split up into two rotating groups, one which painted their own T-shirts with team and camp designs, and the other making their own "movie" aided by the multi-talented Rhys. After the children separated by gender into an hour of "Girls' Time" and "Boys' time," (where delightfully goofy Euros, of last summer's construction mission team fame demonstrated his surprisingly profound and in-depth knowledge of American football), they reformed into their regular large groups (Whales VS Sharks) as they practiced for the evening's big event -- the Talent Show, led by Doug Dees and Jennifer. Then we all walked through the charming town of Bala (picking up ice cream and candy along the way) arriving to skip stones across Bala's Lake Tegid. Later at the Colleg, the Talent show was a time for both adults and children to be silly and to shine (sometimes both at the same time). It was a bonding time for the group -- a kind of counter-intuitive sequel to the Name Game that had initiated the deeper level of fellowship.
Epilogue -- Luke Mansfield, an elongated version of Monty Python's Eric Idle, led the evening epilogue wherein he showed picture slides of stars of exponentially ever-increasing gigantic size and a means to examine the vastness and grandeur of the God who somehow cares about the most minute details of our day to day lives. Allen and Matthew led the late night debriefing, which focused upon finding comfortable ways for the children to have an avenue to make a commitment to Christ without them feeling the slightest human pressure or compulsion to do so. After praying in small, impromptu clusters, everyone went off to bed exhausted for an overly brief sleep. Everyone was awakened at 1:30 p.m. to a blaring fire alarm that forced us into the cold comfort of a nearby tarmacked basketball court while we waited for the fire department to arrive and give us the all clear. It turned out to be a rather common glitch in the alarm system. Lucky us! It apparently doesn't take very long to sleep in Bala. Just one more reason to rely upon the Holy Spirit to get us through tomorrow. And presumably, gallons and gallons of hot tea!
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Getting to Know You
26 July 2011 - Tuesday at Camp Bala
We got off the bus at Colleg Y Bala which is a tiny college turned into a full-time camp for Christian youths. It is situated in the valley on the edge of a small, picturesque town which itself borders a silver lake surrounded by green highland hills. We piled our mountain of luggage along the narrow entryway and went immediately into a chapel where Jennifer, Hannah, and Stormie had all the adults and children play three "Getting to Know You" games: 1) Ninja War (don't ask!) 2) Knot (a standing "Twister" type team-building activity) and best of all, 3) The Name Game, where everyone learned each other's names.
We stowed our luggage in the dorm-like rooms of a gray stone building that looked like a 60's television version of Bruce Wayne's manor, then we had free time and ate dinner. The children gave Laura their money and she issued to them the camp currency of "Balas" (each Bala being equivalent to a British penny) so the students could buy snacks and supplies. After dinner (pizza and french fries, really?), we went down a steep hill to a grass soccer field and had a free-for-all water balloon slug fest. Americans' note to self: bring fast-drying clothes next time. During the battle, Sophie, a sweet teenage Welsh leader, asked Luke (a bright-spirited, witty young Welsh leader) to put her necklace in his pocket. He did so, but didn't know he had a hole in said pocket. After the water balloon madness had passed, a group of about eight people began scouring every square inch of the now turf-torn fields for the missing jewelry. After awhile, we remembered to pray. Then, in the fading light, just as we were about to give up, Luke prayed in silent desperation for God to direct his eyes to the spot of ground that held the missing jewel. On a section of ground that the rest of us must have passed over a dozen times, he saw it. Luke was so relieved and Sophie was so filled with thankfulness to God. We all agreed finding the diamond needle in a hundred yards of proverbial haystack was indeed a miracle.
Matthew and Allen had stayed up until 1:30 pm the previous night preparing quiz questions for a team trivia game (and of course, talking about politics, like they do), so everyone went to the worship area to give it a go. Derek comically emceed the trivia competition which featured both Welsh and American trivia. Of the five teams, the big winner was the one captained by Jennifer Nath.
At about 11:15 p.m. Allen led a brief devotional which emphasized that Salvation is about 1)Believing in Jesus as Savior and 2) Repenting toward Jesus as Lord of our lives (and not relying on Good Works to save us). The children went off to their bedrooms while Matthew and Allen led a brief time where the leaders could decompress, process, debrief, and pray together. Most people got to sleep at 1:00 a.m. or later and we knew that our Leader's Devotional Session was going to begin at 7:00 a.m. sharp. We were going to need God to intervene to infuse us with lots of supernatural energy. And we were going to need lots of hot tea!
We got off the bus at Colleg Y Bala which is a tiny college turned into a full-time camp for Christian youths. It is situated in the valley on the edge of a small, picturesque town which itself borders a silver lake surrounded by green highland hills. We piled our mountain of luggage along the narrow entryway and went immediately into a chapel where Jennifer, Hannah, and Stormie had all the adults and children play three "Getting to Know You" games: 1) Ninja War (don't ask!) 2) Knot (a standing "Twister" type team-building activity) and best of all, 3) The Name Game, where everyone learned each other's names.
We stowed our luggage in the dorm-like rooms of a gray stone building that looked like a 60's television version of Bruce Wayne's manor, then we had free time and ate dinner. The children gave Laura their money and she issued to them the camp currency of "Balas" (each Bala being equivalent to a British penny) so the students could buy snacks and supplies. After dinner (pizza and french fries, really?), we went down a steep hill to a grass soccer field and had a free-for-all water balloon slug fest. Americans' note to self: bring fast-drying clothes next time. During the battle, Sophie, a sweet teenage Welsh leader, asked Luke (a bright-spirited, witty young Welsh leader) to put her necklace in his pocket. He did so, but didn't know he had a hole in said pocket. After the water balloon madness had passed, a group of about eight people began scouring every square inch of the now turf-torn fields for the missing jewelry. After awhile, we remembered to pray. Then, in the fading light, just as we were about to give up, Luke prayed in silent desperation for God to direct his eyes to the spot of ground that held the missing jewel. On a section of ground that the rest of us must have passed over a dozen times, he saw it. Luke was so relieved and Sophie was so filled with thankfulness to God. We all agreed finding the diamond needle in a hundred yards of proverbial haystack was indeed a miracle.
Matthew and Allen had stayed up until 1:30 pm the previous night preparing quiz questions for a team trivia game (and of course, talking about politics, like they do), so everyone went to the worship area to give it a go. Derek comically emceed the trivia competition which featured both Welsh and American trivia. Of the five teams, the big winner was the one captained by Jennifer Nath.
At about 11:15 p.m. Allen led a brief devotional which emphasized that Salvation is about 1)Believing in Jesus as Savior and 2) Repenting toward Jesus as Lord of our lives (and not relying on Good Works to save us). The children went off to their bedrooms while Matthew and Allen led a brief time where the leaders could decompress, process, debrief, and pray together. Most people got to sleep at 1:00 a.m. or later and we knew that our Leader's Devotional Session was going to begin at 7:00 a.m. sharp. We were going to need God to intervene to infuse us with lots of supernatural energy. And we were going to need lots of hot tea!
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
All's Well that Begins Well
Friday Through Tuesday, 22-26 July 2011
The group is off and they don't have an internet connection yet so I will give a quick update:
They are on a bus on the way to camp. So the journey begins! We have 9 American adults, 10 Welsh adults, and 18 youth (4 bhoys and 14 girls) bonding together as they travel north to the beautiful mountain country. Please be in prayer for all of them as they make these new friendships and bonds around the things that are eternal.
At last, an internet connection!
The team of seven Americans (Allen Rice, Doug Dees, Doug Mikes, Tracy Hunt, Laura Turner, Hannah McMillan, and Stormie Lee) left Oklahoma City and things were uneventful until we landed in Amsterdam, Netherlands and discovered that according to a glitch in teh computer system of KLM Airlines, Doug Mikes and Hannah did not in fact exist, and the airline had no tickets for them on a full airplane so the best they could do was to be placed on standby to travel to Bristol, England. Allen lobbied every airline official he could find, stewed inwardly, and imagined the worst. Doug Mikes and Hannah were surprisingly unperturbed and Tracy was a veritable font of faithfulness and encouragement. The whole team sat quietly on the floor and bonded for about 80 minutes while the whole debacle played itself out. Ultimately, the airline relented, issued Doug M and Hannah tickets and they didn't even have to wait for on standby. Doug Dees pointed out the spiritual truth: prayer worked and God intervened. This truth gave Allen great comfort and it lowered his blood pressure.
Three delights at the Bristol Airport:
1) We all passed through immigration with less friction than ever before. Tracy was the first one up. She simply stated that she was with a group touring castles. Then the whole group was called up, and after a question or two each, all seven were rubber stamped through. Miracles do indeed still happen!
2) We were greeted by our friend and bus driver, Chris Reid.
3) Even more delightful: we were greeted by our eighth team member: Lauren West. She has been serving in Wales as our church's intern for the last two months, serving pastor Derek Rees and helping to prepare for the youth camp. She has grown to consider the welsh her family, especially Pat, a sweet mother figure who Lauren has been staying with. And the Welsh have found her irreplaceable. Monday Night they through a going away party for Lauren and to thank Pat for her hospitality. Around thirty people showed up to express their love and respect for Lauren and for her godly service.
We all toured mystical, meditative Tintern Abbey with its impossibly tall walls pointing to heaven and we toured grand, powerful Caerphilly Castle with its dark stones and deep double moat.
Sunday we all went to Capel Gomer where Derek preached. We went to the beach at the mumbles and had Joe's ice cream. Monday we met with the Welsh team, brainstormed over how best and who best to cover every minute of the camp itinerary, and we bought supplies and lunch materials for the next day. Our ninth team member, Jennifer Nath, arrived after a seven hour delay because of a mechanical problem on the airplane going from Oklahoma City to Detroit.
Tuesday, we got on the bus, got the children and headed for Bala College in scenic mountainous north Wales. We stopped at sunny Aberystwyth Castle for a sun-filled lunch on the lawn, punctuated by attacks by bread-grabbing seagulls. Then on to Bala. It was a rough ride. One child got sick, and another child nearly so. Tracy and Doug Mikes very nearly lost their lunches as well. But we finally arrived to a peaceful yet fun-filled environment.
The group is off and they don't have an internet connection yet so I will give a quick update:
They are on a bus on the way to camp. So the journey begins! We have 9 American adults, 10 Welsh adults, and 18 youth (4 bhoys and 14 girls) bonding together as they travel north to the beautiful mountain country. Please be in prayer for all of them as they make these new friendships and bonds around the things that are eternal.
At last, an internet connection!
The team of seven Americans (Allen Rice, Doug Dees, Doug Mikes, Tracy Hunt, Laura Turner, Hannah McMillan, and Stormie Lee) left Oklahoma City and things were uneventful until we landed in Amsterdam, Netherlands and discovered that according to a glitch in teh computer system of KLM Airlines, Doug Mikes and Hannah did not in fact exist, and the airline had no tickets for them on a full airplane so the best they could do was to be placed on standby to travel to Bristol, England. Allen lobbied every airline official he could find, stewed inwardly, and imagined the worst. Doug Mikes and Hannah were surprisingly unperturbed and Tracy was a veritable font of faithfulness and encouragement. The whole team sat quietly on the floor and bonded for about 80 minutes while the whole debacle played itself out. Ultimately, the airline relented, issued Doug M and Hannah tickets and they didn't even have to wait for on standby. Doug Dees pointed out the spiritual truth: prayer worked and God intervened. This truth gave Allen great comfort and it lowered his blood pressure.
Three delights at the Bristol Airport:
1) We all passed through immigration with less friction than ever before. Tracy was the first one up. She simply stated that she was with a group touring castles. Then the whole group was called up, and after a question or two each, all seven were rubber stamped through. Miracles do indeed still happen!
2) We were greeted by our friend and bus driver, Chris Reid.
3) Even more delightful: we were greeted by our eighth team member: Lauren West. She has been serving in Wales as our church's intern for the last two months, serving pastor Derek Rees and helping to prepare for the youth camp. She has grown to consider the welsh her family, especially Pat, a sweet mother figure who Lauren has been staying with. And the Welsh have found her irreplaceable. Monday Night they through a going away party for Lauren and to thank Pat for her hospitality. Around thirty people showed up to express their love and respect for Lauren and for her godly service.
We all toured mystical, meditative Tintern Abbey with its impossibly tall walls pointing to heaven and we toured grand, powerful Caerphilly Castle with its dark stones and deep double moat.
Sunday we all went to Capel Gomer where Derek preached. We went to the beach at the mumbles and had Joe's ice cream. Monday we met with the Welsh team, brainstormed over how best and who best to cover every minute of the camp itinerary, and we bought supplies and lunch materials for the next day. Our ninth team member, Jennifer Nath, arrived after a seven hour delay because of a mechanical problem on the airplane going from Oklahoma City to Detroit.
Tuesday, we got on the bus, got the children and headed for Bala College in scenic mountainous north Wales. We stopped at sunny Aberystwyth Castle for a sun-filled lunch on the lawn, punctuated by attacks by bread-grabbing seagulls. Then on to Bala. It was a rough ride. One child got sick, and another child nearly so. Tracy and Doug Mikes very nearly lost their lunches as well. But we finally arrived to a peaceful yet fun-filled environment.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)