Sun pm & Mon am

The last 24 hours have been fantastic. As the kids settle down into their new surroundings they are opening up more and being much more friendly with the international team. In the sea they have wanted chasing and pulling along- things which require physical contact which yesterday they didn’t want. Walking around some of the girls are coming and giving us hugs. In fact several of our team- the three youngest guys, are proving quite a hit with the young ladies of the camp!
Yesterday was a special day in the camp because it was the bible ceremony. Each child is presented with a bible, either a picture bible or a new testament depending on their maturity and reading ability. We all then went off with our bed time story groups and wrote in their bibles for them, with their name and from global action or something similar, and then maybe a message. It was a little strange that some of the children then started using their bibles like autograph books, getting all the team members to sign it. However writing words of encouragement is always good and once we have made the friendship books this should change.
After the bible ceremony we had an hour of practice time because at 6 was the opening ceremony. The ceremonies and bible talks are a time when not only can we give the children biblical messages but we can just be silly and make them laugh. Many of the children don’t have the opportunity to be silly and have fun, and they certainly don’t see it from many adults. So showing them that it’s ok to be silly sometimes is good. For the opening ceremony each of the wards chooses their own name and makes a poster. The wards are then referred to by that name, rather than their numbers. Their names were all Russian words which I haven’t managed to get a translation for yet, but the oldest kids had the Russian for ‘hope’ which is the name of the camp. We also picked out a name- ‘Mixed spice’ due to the fact that we are such a mix of nationalities, personalities, and everything. So we made a little skit that fitted the name. Jessica (one of the interns, the other being Jessie) was a cook with a giant pot. We were all different spices and herbs and seasonings and she listed then all off and added them to her ‘pot’. The every now and then, with the addition of a new spice, she would stir the pot and everyone rolled around in the stage pot. It was really silly and possibly funnier for the team than the kids, but it showed us being silly and was fun.
A slightly late dinner of pasta and beef stew was followed by the days craft. This one was foam bookmarks. We also gave the children the materials to make foam name tags due to the fact that the quality of card used on the first day wasn’t quite high enough and they were breaking. So in the sweltering dinning room the tables were laddened with foam shapes, glue and pompoms. Craft is great because one of the best ways to explain something when you have a language barrier is to demonstrate, so we all got to make name badges as well.
From all accounts bed time stories went really well with each word progressing slightly. Some wards like mine (the littlest) were gathered on a couple of beds listening to a story, some such as Dino’s ward heard testimonies (this apparently went down very well), and some sat and chatted about the bible they had been given.
After bedtime stories the team was invited to the birthday party of Rouslan- one of the interpreters where we had cake and watermelon and tried tossing happy birthday as quietly as possible.
Then bed.

The morning routine today followed as normal with the bugle wake up call (it echoes fantastically in the ward lobbies) and mini baguette pizzas for breakfast. Today’s bible talk was “I’m unique” and was lead superbly by Babs and Emily. They talked about the differences that we have between us and the fact that we can’t measure these things. They did however find one thing that is easy to show and record. And so they have a number of children and councilors putting their hand and thumb prints on a large piece of paper. They are going to go round everyone at some point so that the whole camp has their thumb print of the unique paper. Hopefully we can put it up somewhere for the kids to look at so they can all see just how unique things like fingerprints are.
Then the sea- wet and sunny, shower- amazingly cold, lunch- very much appreciated and once again the team meeting.

Prayer points:
* Continued and developed openness of the children towards the international team and other helpers.
* At some points while we are explaining things like craft, the children can be quite noisy and we would appreciate prayer that we will know how to engage them at such times, so they understand what is going on.
* David has not been feeling too good today and as one who struggled with the sunstroke last year we really want to pray that he will recover quickly and not get ill again.
* And of course continued and renewed energy for the team.