Children's Camp 2010

So the 2010 Buyamba Children's Camp has come and gone. This year was especially crazy for me as Pastor Dongo decided to have me head the organizing committee. In a nutshell, I was not really able to enjoy much of the camp because of the work I was called to do.

However, the children were blessed. We had two teams visit this year in support of our camp. One was from Cross Timbers in Dallas, TX and the other from Bethel Christian Church in Bristol, CT. Each brought the hearts of servants as they ministered to our children here in Uganda. Members of each team served as teachers. They brought the Word of God to our children through our theme verse of Luke 2:51-52. They helped to run the games. They served food. But most of all, they loved our children, and we are better off because of it.

We also were blessed with the largest number of facilitators (what we might call youth leaders in the US) that have ever attended the camp. This allowed for smaller numbers of children per facilitator and more time to minister directly to these children. Many of our facilitators developed deep relationships with the children through the week and hopefully will continue to encourage and disciple our children to be more like Christ.

All in all, our children enjoyed a week away from their reality at home. They were blessed with the Word of God, times of fun, new friendships, and of course, good food. Thank you for all who were praying for our camp and to those who contributed financially to help make it a success. Please continue to pray for our children that the Word that was given to them sinks deep into their being and that they draw closer to Christ day by day.

Children's Camp

Last week we had our annual children's camp for Buyamba. We had expected about 600 students ages 8-16. However, we never know how many will be there until we start the camp on Monday. This year, the number of pre-registered students was about 400. That number scared me a little because I knew that on the day of the camp many students would show up without us being able to prepare for them.

Registration was chaotic. The lack of overall planning by all of us (me especially...no excuses) did not help our situation. We had students crowding around every person doing registration. Luckily for me, we were blessed with 11 visitors who could help us with all of them. Thanks so much for them bearing with our disorganization. Students and parents alike did not understand what line they were supposed to be in...I could go on and on about registration. To make a long story short, I don't think we successfully got all students registered, but the final number that we registered before arriving at the came was 650. When I finally arrived at the camp, I found the number of students to be closer to 700. Then you add in all the facilitators and other leaders and we were close to 750.

Remember that we were planning for about 600. Our budget was for 600. The amount of money raised to pay for the camp was about four-fifths of our budget. All this means that God had to provide the rest of the money to pay for everything for us to be able to run a successful camp. And though there were MANY challenges, the camp was an overall success. Students were blessed; leaders were blessed. And most of all God took control of everything. In the end, many made decisions to follow Christ and more than 180 chose to take part in our previously unscheduled baptisms! I was able to get a little more of a visual than I wanted when I looked at the clear water before baptisms and the very dirty water thereafter. A reminder of how Jesus washes away our sins....literally!

Thank you for all that prayed for our camp. Hopefully next year there will be more students, more decisions to follow Christ and more of God shining through in the lives of the people of Uganda.