The Journey Back

Another Life-Changing Week

Posted on June 29, 2018 Updated on August 26, 2022

Polish Teen Camp is drawing to a close, and we are packing up to begin our trek home.  If you saw my brief post yesterday, you know that yesterday’s invitation was moving and ended with many decisions.  Tom’s testimony is another powerful example of a life dramatically changed by Christ followed by a tragedy that God used to deepen Tom’s understanding of God’s love and continues to use to grow the Kingdom.  Several of these kids do come from Christian families and are involved in church, but I have no doubt that this week will still serve as a spiritual marker in their lives.  In Bible times, alters would have been built to worship and denote that this was a place where someone experienced God in a significant way.

We’ve held a variety of roles in this week.  I have continued leading crafts and creating the daily picture video.  These are two time-consuming things that keep me from being in all of the group activities, but I was still able to get to know our “Hulk Team”, and spent a lot of time praying for each of them.  I will miss their beautiful faces and hugs.  Ben has continued working on projects around the camp like fixing the floor of the gazebo, build campfires, and lead a baseball workshop that seemed to be a hit (pun completely intended) and help with archery.  Anna helped with the Snack Shack each day, made a lovely string-art salamander to help illustrate the theme for the week (regeneration) and worked with Lydia to decorate the dining hall for the final dinner tonight.  She also participated in the team activities when she was wasn’t doing those other things and when the language barrier would allow.  Ethan has continued to spend time with Ben and Klara and will miss them terribly.

One of the greatest things about coming here is all of the great people we get to minister alongside.  I’ve really enjoyed this team of Polish counselors, some we have worked with before and others we just met.  There have been a lot of laughs, but they are also very deep and committed people who are living and loving in big ways.  One of the hardest things about coming here… having to say goodbye.  That just happened since we are leavin

g camp very early in the morning to make the trip to Warsaw (it is 1 AM here as I post this).  We get a few more hours with Tori, Nathan, Kyle, and Tom before those goodbyes have to be said.   For now, I must get a few hours of sleep before the long journey home begins.   Prayers for safety and unstressful travel appreciated.