Kamp

So this is what camp was like:

We loaded into the car 5 am and drove to the camp. It ended up only being a 10 hour drive, including only two short bathroom breaks. We had 11 of us in the 9 passenger van (plus luggage). The last 3 hours or so of highway wound along the mountainous coastline—incredible views of mountains rising right up from the clear blue Mediterranean and coves lined with pebbly beach or rocky shorelines. Unfortunately several passengers—including Matthew—ended up carsick.

Two other vans full (16 and 21 people, I heard) came from our city. At the camp, though, were believers from all over the southeast region—something like 160 people. The physical location was beautiful—a piece of land on the side of a hill that ended at the sea with a cove-beach that actually had sand. Pine trees and lots of dirt made up most of the terrain. Weather was hot and humid, but it didn’t rain once. Toward the end of the week evenings were (according to me—Becky) pleasantly cool.

The basic program ran like this: get up, eat breakfast (bread, olives, cheese, tomatoes, melon) listen to a sermon, break into discussion groups, eat lunch, hang out and swim or chat or sleep or sit and watch the games on the beach, eat dinner, listen to another sermon, drink tea and chat till late at night. Kids had their own program during the sermon/group time run by an awesome, sweet, hard-working Korean lady from our church. The youth were kept running from breakfast till midnight with some sort of week-long competition. And the babies—they were mine!

So as I started to write, I wondered where do I even start to tell about our whole week. I brainstormed this list of aspects of camp that stand out to me as I look back. Hopefully I can give you the flavor of the week.

Hejar, Gabriel, Daniel, Matthew, Anna, Riaya, Samuel, Deniz, Isra—these were the kids under age 4 who came to “nursery” every session. Each one is special, with unique needs and backgrounds—and I learned to love them all! I wasn’t planning to do nursery. But the first morning they were looking for someone to help, and I volunteered. It turned out the other workers had come from Romania anticipating to work with kids and youth and had never cared for babies before. They also didn’t speak Turkish, so I did a good bit of translating. Since none of us were anticipating doing nursery, we scraped together a tarp and sheet to play on, some toys I had brought for the car ride, some balls, and cookies. The first two days we mostly tried to keep everyone sane and safe; we were in survival mode. Then we discovered a playground at the top of the hill and spent a lot of time there. We had our sweet moments, crazy moments, crying moments. The last day, the Romanians and I promised eachother that if we all come back next year we will be prepared!

Romanians—this special group of 8 young people drove 36 hours to be at our camp to help however possible. They were mostly young adults, (2 highschoolers) associated with Word of Life Romania. I spent most of my time with three sweet girls who weren’t planning to do nursery, but adapted wonderfully. As a group they functioned in Romanian, English, and Spanish. I discovered that although I can no longer speak Spanish, I can understand a bit. It was a sweet time to get to know their hearts for discipleship, hear their experiences, and just make new friends.

Laundry—yup, this is in my list, since I’m getting pretty good at doing it in a bathroom sink. Three kids at camp for a week make a lot of it.

Dirt—this is related to “laundry” certainly. While no rain meant beautiful camp weather, it also meant a dusty campground. By the end of the week my kids’ knees and feet were stained brown!

Gulperi—is a local friend. Her husband is a believer, and they have 7 kids. It was fun to see her at camp, chatting with the ladies, swimming (for the first time), and enjoying it all.

Turkish—spending a week immersed in language was great, I only wish it were a month!

Yummy food—I really looked forward to the food each meal. Hunger and the great outdoors have a little to do with that. Those of you who knew me when I was little would be shocked to know I enjoyed tomatoes for breakfast. We ate stews, pilavs, pasta, melons, lots of bread, and potatoes. I’m not a fan of eggplant yet. I was also thankful for the daily can of Coke from the beach-side “bufe”.

Tired—self-explanatory—me, the kids, everyone!

Waves—I got the chance to swim twice, once with Anna, and once during naps. Generally the waves were small, the water salty but clearer than the Atlantic I’m used to. One day, though, the waves were big enough to jump and ride and all that good stuff. We could see the sea from the door of our tent.

Popular Sara Joy—she was certainly the cool girl to be with. There were very few waking moments that some teenage girl, teen boy, or woman wasn’t asking to see her, making faces at her, or wanting to take her for a walk. She ate all the attention up, no introvert there!

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