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!