Camp recap -Andrea

This last week has been intensely life changing for so many of us. God loves to surpass our expectations and it was so apparent that he intended on doing just that this week. So many of us were overwhelmed with the blessings that the campers brought into our lives as well as the impact God had on us personally throughout the week. I expected God to transform the hearts of the orphans during the camp but was so blessed to find that he completely transformed my heart as well.

We arrived in Ergli and had three days of camp leader training. There were loads of time spent in prayer, fellowship and digging into the word as well as times of playing games in the deepest, nastiest mud I've ever run through. We prayed daily for our hearts to be filled with love for the orphans that would be arriving later that week as well as for the camper's hearts to be opened to Christ and the love that he brings to us. We couldn't wait for the campers to arrive and to see God work!

The first day of camp was so challenging, once the kids arrived we experienced immediately the hardness of their hearts and the walls that were planted between us. Many of the kids would barely even look at us, much less listen to what we had to say about anything related to God. For the next few days we struggled to even keep the kids in one place for nightly meetings. On the first night, half of them ran off into the forest to smoke during the meeting and another dozen or so refused to even sit in the meeting for more than 10 minutes. Workshops were just as challenging. I found that in my sketching workshop my campers were more interested in seeing how fast their sketching paper would burn than drawing. Many of the other leaders had similar experiences and were really discouraged. It didn't help either that it poured rain, so by the second night everything was a muddy, wet mess. The only thing many of us could pray for was strength to get through the week and for feelings of discouragement to be suppressed.

As the week went on we began to see God soften our kids hearts. Relationships were forming quickly and more of them stayed for meetings and listened to messages about a God that loves them and will never leave them. They began to share with us about the hurt and abandonment that they had experienced in their lives as well as their views and doubts about God. By the end of the week, we couldn't keep the kids off of us. They wanted us to talk with them, to be near to them. They were so moved by the love of Christ that they saw in us, one of the campers even explained how he didn't understand how, in a period of four days, we could love him more than his own family loves him- a family who has known him all his life. We were reminded of the fact that nonbelievers will know us by our love because it is by Christ that we love. We definitely saw this truth at work!

By the last night, on friday, almost every camper was present and participating during the nightly meeting. At the end of the night, when an opportunity was given for the campers to come to the front of the stage to be prayed over by a leader, almost every camper stood up and seeked prayer. Many of the kids, whom we were used to seeing hard and emotionless were crying and broken by the love and freedom of Christ. Many of the kids gave their lives to Christ or rededicated their lives that night. We were able to celebrate by worshipping around the campfire, watching fireworks, and releasing floating lanterns over the camp. God even blessed us with a beautifully clear sky and a meteor shower, it was definitely a night of celebration! God claimed so many of his children back to his kingdom, and we couldn't contain our excitement!

The individual relationships that we developed this week will always stick with us- watching the kids leave on the last day just tore up all of our hearts. But we are so encouraged to know that even though we're heading back to the states today the God they came to know this week will stick with them and never leave them. I am humbly reminded of how big my God is! I know that the God I pray to at home will continue to grow in the hearts of all of these kids, and continue to heal the brokenness that they struggle with on a daily basis. God is so good! I am so blessed by the amazing experience God gave me these last two weeks, the kids that i had an opportunity to love on, as well as by the team he sent me with. Thank you to everyone for your prayers and support on this adventure God has had me be a part of, I have been so blessed!
-Andrea

Camp -Alana

Well, it's our last day. We're sitting in a restaurant in Riga getting breakfast before we go to the airport and I can't help but feel torn about leaving. It's been so incredible to be a part of what God is doing here, and we can all testify to just how tangible He was these past two weeks. I have never seen or felt God move like He did during camp, and I have grown so much in my faith as a result. It's hard to leave a place where God is so present, but it's also so hard to leave these kids after the relationships that we formed with them. It will also be difficult to say goodbye to Jaycee and Susan and Anna, but I'm excited to see what God does through us as we head home, as well as what He continues to do here in Latvia and in these kids' lives as we continue our relationships with them. So in short, this week was incredible and I'm reluctant to leave, but it will be great to be home. See you all soon!

- Alana Bramhall

Day three

Well it's Friday! Today's the first day of camp training. We're all packed up and are getting ready to take a bus we've rented out to Ergli, a city two hours outside of Riga where our camp will be taking place. We're already praying hard for the hearts of the orphans well be serving as well as for each other- many of us are pretty anxious about the next week!

Please be praying for strength, persistence and energy for us for the next week. We know that most of these orphans will have hearts that will be hardened due to the living conditions and abandonment that many of them have experienced throughout their lives. We hope and pray that God will give us the words to say to these kids, because we know that Christ will be the only one who will
be able to change these kids' hearts.

So far, 58 orphans are signed up for the camp- all from 9 different orphanages in the area. Well have 40 leaders (including ourselves) hat will be running the camp, so that's almost one leader for very orphan. This makes for a really great opportunity for relationship, each of us have the possibility of making a long term relationship with one orphan- an opportunity that we're praying God will bless!

Unfortunately, we will not have access to Internet for the next eight days, so we won't be able to post any updates until Saturday. Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers, we're excited to get moving in the journey that God is leading us on!:)

Day Two

Yesterday we continued to stroll around the city and take in the culture. It was very moving walking around the city after hearing the history of Latvia. The nation has only been free since 1991, some of us are older than their independence. The generation of orphans we'll be at camp with are the first generation to be born into the modern free Latvia. This can be hard for us to understand and relate to, we're praying for God to enlarge our heats and for Him to go before us in this overwhelming task to give new hope to these teens.

Today we have another day of training and exploring the city. This morning we came together at the offices and shared our testimonies of how God brought us all here to the first christian orphan camp in Latvia. Hearing the diverse stories of how God has purposely drawn together 20 young people from 5 different nations shows us a glimpse of His deep love for these kids.

Tomorrow we travel to camp, we're very aware that this will be a challenging week, and that we can't serve in our own strength but only through Christ in us.

Thank you for your prayers! Please continue to pray for the kids hearts to be softened and for friendships to develop.

Anna
(from England :) )

Day one!

Today is team orientation:) we woke up this morning and met pastor chuck Kelley, the founder of Bridge builders over here in Latvia. He gave us a history lesson on the amazing journey that the Latvian people have been through in the last 100 years, including decades of occupation by the soviets. We also visited the occupational museum to learn more about why many Latvians are more reserved and difficult to spiritually reach. definitely an eye opening experience! In about a half hour were off to leadership training in one of the back rooms of one of the historical churches. We're fighting jet lag but learning a lot!:)
*also that trumpets and horseback riding is not allowed inside of Latvian restaurants.

Finally in Riga

We just arrived in Riga at 5pm Latvia time, or 7am AZ time. We're all pretty exhausted! Jaycee and the rest of the interns met up with all of us at the airport, it was nice to see some familiar faces! Goal is to stay awake until bedtime with dinner and bowling:)

We're in Amsterdam!

So we've made it to Amsterdam without any issues! All of our luggage got through customs, and security hasn't thrown a fit about our instruments so far (yay). Only one more flight that leaves at 6:50am (Arizona time) or 1:50pm our time and well be in riga! Ps. We're super jet lagged- we had to ask a random man in line what day it was. It's Tuesday in case you were wondering.