Day 3
I thought we would start with our prayer requests. The youngest member of our international team is currently really quite unwell. Please pray for David Clarke as he has a very high fever. The camp doctor has seen him and has given him some medicine to try to get the fever down and reckoned that it was probably sun stroke- through could possibly be a couple of other things.Secondly one of our little boys broke his arm at the beach today. His name is Dima and today is his birthday- not a nice present. So please pray that he would be free from pain and that his arm would heal quickly. Simon has just got back and told us that he has suffered a double break just above his wrist. He however is fine (all things considered) and keeps asking when he can come back to camp- bless.And finally just generally for the health and well being of all the people on the camp.
Today started off with the international team bible study and devotional time, where we encouraged and shared God’s word together. Then we moved straight into the exercise time. Our attempt to get the new world record for getting the kids out of bed failed slightly and we had to start with only about half of them. The older kids, who in past mornings have said they couldn’t hear the wake up music, we woken up with a rousing trumpet call and energetic hand clapping right into the nice echoy foyer of their dorm!! It got them out of bed all right- if only to see what was going on.Breakfast was stewed vegetables covered in cheese accompanied by hard boiled eggs (well at least the eggs were not covered in chocolate).Today’s bible talk was lead by Sarah and Shirley and was titled ‘The Bible’. We had a ‘simple’ exercise to start. The kids were told to stand up and not smile. However with the help of the international team they all failed miserably! This led into forms of communication and God’s ways of talking- the specific one being The Bible!!After the service the international team spilt up. Some people went down to the beach and did normal beachy things. The others went and tried out a local church in Kerch.
Interview with Shola-
How was church?
“Church was good, very different, and very interesting considering that language was a barrier (so it was meant to be)”
Where was the church?
“It was somewhere in Kerch and it looked like some sort of cinema type building. I couldn’t read what was said though, so I don’t know.”
Did you understand what was being said?
“Yes and no. Because when we got into church the song they were singing was one I could identify with so I was just singing the English version (our God reigns). Then the service started with an offering and the explanation of why we have to give and the likes. And because we had a translator we got the key words. And because I was sitting next to the translator I had to relay the words to the others so some explanation was ‘lost in translation’. It was funny as well because some times the translator couldn’t keep up, so we had to play fill in the blanks”
So what happened in the service?
“The preacher man went up and introduced us [the international team] to the church, so we felt even more at home, and he preached about… Matthew… No Luke- from the Bible. Let me get my Bible”
Shola runs to get her bible
“Well he used lots of passages from like acts 2 1:6, Ephesians. Oh hear it is all along. Luke chapter 3 verse 7-9. this was the main one he used”
So carry on with the service
During the preaching we had to stop two times to do the praise and worship. And some of the songs we could identify in English. I have to say that by the end of the third praise and worship, when the preacher man started again, some of the members of the congregation were very happy to be seated again and just dropped off”
Including members of our team?
“[laughs] Oh yeah. Well, I guess because there was a delay in getting the translation they just… They were nodding in the spirit- getting their own translation [laughs]”
How did the service conclude?
“[laughs] This is good. I turned around and saw half of the congregation (the ones who were not sleeping) with their bibles in their hands or on their shoulders and people running out the door… well walking out of the door. I thought maybe we were going to have some time in small groups, or it was an announcement for certain people to leave or something. Only to find out from our translator that it was the end of the service. It was a great end. I felt like tapping the people sleeping and saying ‘Home time’ Once everyone had got back from church and the beach it was time for lunch- battered fish with boiled new potatoes.
After ‘nap time’ it was snacks as usual and then we had ‘interest groups’. This is basically where we set up a load of activities and the kids get to pick one (or more if they want to change around). We had football, volleyball, basketball, another trip to the beach, manicures, board games and skoobydoos. These were really fun (we are going to do them again today), the girls came back with beautiful nails, and boys came back hot and sweaty and the little kids came back with skoobydoo strings wrapped round their wrists where they hadn’t learnt to do them properly. But it was all good fun.Dinner was buckwheat and a… burger (for want of a better word to describe a round and very flat piece of meat). Most of the team also downed generous portions of tomato ketchup with this meal. If you have never had buckwheat, well Tim Clarke summed it up fairly well when he said, “It’s like half cooked rice”. It’s a bizarre thing.After dinner was our Sunday service. This was the only service during the entire week which has been or will be geared towards the adults rather then the children. So none of our songs had actions (bit sad about that really) and we had a good old worship in English and Russian. We sang Come now is the time and we switched languages half way through. We had Bible readings and a fab talk by pastor Vlad. Hopefully the older kids appreciated it as well as the adults. It really must be quite hard for them when our talks are all aimed at the younger children.Crafts followed and once again Ruth came out trumps. The kids loved it and it took them the full hour to do it which was good. They were making little angles or bugs which were 3D off a piece of paper. You will see what I mean when we get pictures up.Then bedtime stories for the kids. Because David was so ill and we had had various other people feeling unwell or getting hurt, most wards had a ready made subject to tell stories around- the healing power of Jesus. Many of us got some good prayer time out of it as well.Before going to bed many of the adults (international team, helpers, Ukrainian staff) gathered around to pray for David, whose temperature at that point had started to go up again. It was an amazing time. We prayed Ukrainian style- all at one. We had people praying in English, Russian, heavenly tongues, song and others quietly supporting us. It was, to use a very American phrase, awesome. But the word really describes it well.
Today started off with the international team bible study and devotional time, where we encouraged and shared God’s word together. Then we moved straight into the exercise time. Our attempt to get the new world record for getting the kids out of bed failed slightly and we had to start with only about half of them. The older kids, who in past mornings have said they couldn’t hear the wake up music, we woken up with a rousing trumpet call and energetic hand clapping right into the nice echoy foyer of their dorm!! It got them out of bed all right- if only to see what was going on.Breakfast was stewed vegetables covered in cheese accompanied by hard boiled eggs (well at least the eggs were not covered in chocolate).Today’s bible talk was lead by Sarah and Shirley and was titled ‘The Bible’. We had a ‘simple’ exercise to start. The kids were told to stand up and not smile. However with the help of the international team they all failed miserably! This led into forms of communication and God’s ways of talking- the specific one being The Bible!!After the service the international team spilt up. Some people went down to the beach and did normal beachy things. The others went and tried out a local church in Kerch.
Interview with Shola-
How was church?
“Church was good, very different, and very interesting considering that language was a barrier (so it was meant to be)”
Where was the church?
“It was somewhere in Kerch and it looked like some sort of cinema type building. I couldn’t read what was said though, so I don’t know.”
Did you understand what was being said?
“Yes and no. Because when we got into church the song they were singing was one I could identify with so I was just singing the English version (our God reigns). Then the service started with an offering and the explanation of why we have to give and the likes. And because we had a translator we got the key words. And because I was sitting next to the translator I had to relay the words to the others so some explanation was ‘lost in translation’. It was funny as well because some times the translator couldn’t keep up, so we had to play fill in the blanks”
So what happened in the service?
“The preacher man went up and introduced us [the international team] to the church, so we felt even more at home, and he preached about… Matthew… No Luke- from the Bible. Let me get my Bible”
Shola runs to get her bible
“Well he used lots of passages from like acts 2 1:6, Ephesians. Oh hear it is all along. Luke chapter 3 verse 7-9. this was the main one he used”
So carry on with the service
During the preaching we had to stop two times to do the praise and worship. And some of the songs we could identify in English. I have to say that by the end of the third praise and worship, when the preacher man started again, some of the members of the congregation were very happy to be seated again and just dropped off”
Including members of our team?
“[laughs] Oh yeah. Well, I guess because there was a delay in getting the translation they just… They were nodding in the spirit- getting their own translation [laughs]”
How did the service conclude?
“[laughs] This is good. I turned around and saw half of the congregation (the ones who were not sleeping) with their bibles in their hands or on their shoulders and people running out the door… well walking out of the door. I thought maybe we were going to have some time in small groups, or it was an announcement for certain people to leave or something. Only to find out from our translator that it was the end of the service. It was a great end. I felt like tapping the people sleeping and saying ‘Home time’ Once everyone had got back from church and the beach it was time for lunch- battered fish with boiled new potatoes.
After ‘nap time’ it was snacks as usual and then we had ‘interest groups’. This is basically where we set up a load of activities and the kids get to pick one (or more if they want to change around). We had football, volleyball, basketball, another trip to the beach, manicures, board games and skoobydoos. These were really fun (we are going to do them again today), the girls came back with beautiful nails, and boys came back hot and sweaty and the little kids came back with skoobydoo strings wrapped round their wrists where they hadn’t learnt to do them properly. But it was all good fun.Dinner was buckwheat and a… burger (for want of a better word to describe a round and very flat piece of meat). Most of the team also downed generous portions of tomato ketchup with this meal. If you have never had buckwheat, well Tim Clarke summed it up fairly well when he said, “It’s like half cooked rice”. It’s a bizarre thing.After dinner was our Sunday service. This was the only service during the entire week which has been or will be geared towards the adults rather then the children. So none of our songs had actions (bit sad about that really) and we had a good old worship in English and Russian. We sang Come now is the time and we switched languages half way through. We had Bible readings and a fab talk by pastor Vlad. Hopefully the older kids appreciated it as well as the adults. It really must be quite hard for them when our talks are all aimed at the younger children.Crafts followed and once again Ruth came out trumps. The kids loved it and it took them the full hour to do it which was good. They were making little angles or bugs which were 3D off a piece of paper. You will see what I mean when we get pictures up.Then bedtime stories for the kids. Because David was so ill and we had had various other people feeling unwell or getting hurt, most wards had a ready made subject to tell stories around- the healing power of Jesus. Many of us got some good prayer time out of it as well.Before going to bed many of the adults (international team, helpers, Ukrainian staff) gathered around to pray for David, whose temperature at that point had started to go up again. It was an amazing time. We prayed Ukrainian style- all at one. We had people praying in English, Russian, heavenly tongues, song and others quietly supporting us. It was, to use a very American phrase, awesome. But the word really describes it well.
posted by lewin at 7:41 PM
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