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
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