Forever Young
This morning we made final preparations for the Forever Young Camp, which began this evening. This is an older group of people from Warsaw and surrounding cities. I’m used to large busses of guests who have traveled far arriving, so it was quite a shock when we came to dinner and discovered how many people had trickled in over the day. Polish people make a point to greet everyone when they arrive and there were many warm meetings today. The Ostróda Camp team was introduced to them in the evening session and I’ve already been able to have one brief conversation with one man who speaks English. I feel that they are very open to us being here and being included in their activities because they asked us to sing something, and they seemed to be serious! We pulled together a quick rendition of Amazing Grace. Many of them sang along in Polish. I love when we are singing in our own languages but lifting the same worship to the same God!
Other activities today included preparing a temporary prayer room… more of a prayer “corner” really. Anna and I took care in setting this up last year and were happy to find our Scriptures signs and materials were still around! The prayer room/corner allows us to have a quite place to go and pray over the campers. We have a journal there so we can record the things we individually learn about them as we get to know them, so that we can collectively prayer for them. We’ll take different time slots to allow us to cover each day in prayer. This will carry on through the Ukrainian Children’s Camp and Polish Children’s Camp yet to come, and hopefully for the rest of the camp season after we are gone.
I also received word from my dear friend Iwona today, who lives here in Ostróda. So we have begun making plans to visit with each other. I am eager to give her a warm hug and see her sweet children.
One last thing to share… the first time we came with the kids (2013) we took a picture of them with the Korytkowski kids that has been one of my favorites. Today, I gathered them and created the photo. My how they’ve grown up. I am happy for their friendships and pray they will always stay in touch with one another long after this season of our lives has passed.
The Journey Back 