A Sea Of Blue

The second week of camp has concluded, it has been a myriad of emotions, chaos and fun! I often walk through this sea of kids wrapped in blue camp Gahini shirts and let the reality of this venture hit me. Just over a year ago it was a dream that God had placed into our hearts and now here we are half way done the first year of camps! It is overwhelming to ponder, the greatness of this God we serve.

This morning I was reading about Elijah and Elisha and how they went for a walk one day and as they came to the Jordan river they hit the water with their robe and it parted, so they could walk across on dry land. This is the God that we serve, the impossible becoming possible, dreams turning to reality. These past two weeks have been an incredible stretching process for the entire team. We have experienced so many trials, whether getting sick physically, dealing with cultural differences or the ever prominent language barrier. It has been such a blessing to watch as each team member takes on the responsibility given them and also continually picks up the slack for those sick or tired or just weary from the cultural differences and needing a break. We have had two camps thus far, each camp having roughly one hundred youth attending. In every camp it has been surreal to see the change in these kids lives, to hear their questions during team devotionals about where God comes from or where He lives. I have loved seeing smiles on their faces and even the tears in their eyes as the last day they walk out of chapel giving hugs and speaking in their broken english, "I shall never forget you". It is these smiles and tears that inspire and encourage us to continue to dream, and to trust that God has big plans not only for our lives but for the lives of each and every kid we have been able to get to know these past couple weeks. One story to leave you with; When we first arrived I was in meetings with the church leaders here in Gahini. As we went over what the camp was going to look like and all of the small details that are involved with starting a project of this magnitude my good friend and the man in charge here spoke up. He told me that this camp is not only our dream but has been their dream as well. The idea of bringing kids out of their day to day lives and letting them be kids for one week, of giving them good memories to replace all of the pain and hurt in their lives and showing them God's grace love and joy. This he said is something that has been needed here for years and is an incredible blessing to this country. Please continue to pray for us as we have two more camps left to go. Jordan