Camp
Hope you all had wonderful holidays! Alan and I are back to teaching our students. We already have a couple new ones this year, so it looks to be a busy year again.
During the holiday's the churches in Catania and Paterno hosted a camp for youth ages 14-25, but the ages were pretty flexible. Camp was December 27 - January 2. The theme for the camp was, "In the world, but not of the world."
Alan and I had the awesome opportunity to get to help out in a few different ways. Alan was the "official" photographer, though once everyone learned that we are pretty relaxed with our cameras and will let anyone use them, our cameras spend most of the week in tour and the majority of the photos were taken by the campers. Alan did have the lovely process of going through the thousands of photos taken, editing them, and making a slideshow each day. If you would like to see the photos or the final slide show here are the links. Warning: the final slideshow is long, running at 26 minutes. We made a shorter one for you all who might not enjoy the 26 minute one as much since you don't know the people in it. I will include that link as well.
Here's the shorter video:
Link to long slideshow http://youtu.be/2FPtcl92h6Y
Alan and I were both counselors. He was with the younger group of boys and I was with the younger group of girls. I admit we were a little nervous going in, but it turned out to be such an awesome experience. We loved getting to know the youth in Italy better and form stronger friendships with them. It was a little intimidating at times being in "Italian-speaking mode" for a whole week with not many breaks to talk to someone else in English, but it went well, and we definitely got more comfortable with the language thanks to this intensive week of Italian.
We were also in charge of organizing games for the entire week. It was a bit challenging at times because it takes different tactics to motivate and round-up Italian youth than it does American youth, but by the last two days I think we finally had it figured out. I don't know if they had fun playing the games, but we had fun making them do silly things to earn points for their teams. :)
The second night into the week, I remembered that I had had a counselor once that did small devotionals with the girls before bedtime. I remembered how much I enjoyed them, and that the more relaxed atmosphere was much more comfortable for young teen girls. So, I thought I would give it a try. I went along with the theme of the week and decided to address the topic of love. Who do we love? How do we show love to others? How did Jesus show love? Etc etc. The girls seemed to like the studies even though we were only able to do them a few nights during the week. They were extremely open, and these small devos that I planned to only be 5-10 minutes often turned into at least a half hour.
I think it's easy to forget as you grow older, that young boys and girls are already dealing with really difficult issues. We ended up talking about several "difficult" topics such as: modesty, loving people who are different than us, how to love those we don't agree with, homosexuality, and staying sexually pure. After the first night, we invited the older girls from the other room to come join us. It was amazing to see these girls study together. Towards the end of the week, it wasn't surprising to find them with their open Bibles on their laps, studying and talking about these issues together during free time in the middle of the day. These girls are amazing, and I look forward to seeing what God has planned for their lives. They were especially encouraging to me in several ways, but most of all, I am extremely appreciative of the patience they showed me as I fumbled through my Italian or had to ask them to repeat their questions or thoughts more slowly. Also, I'm so thankful to Virginia (and Italian girl who goes to Harding University in the states so she speaks both languages) for being there and helping lead the devos and contributing her help and guidance as well! She is another girl in whom I see a lot of enthusiasm to find ways to help the youth in Italy.
The best part of camp, by far, was that we now have 4 new siblings in Christ - three sisters and one brother. Beatrice and Anna are beautiful girls on the inside and out and it's easy to see that they have hearts to serve God. The night following Beatrice and Anna's baptism, Davide and Gaia also both decided to become Christians. These two also are very special, and we are all so excited to have these four new Christians in our family.
Naturally, pranks were played, people stayed up late, soccer was played several times, the musicians whipped out their guitars and serenaded us all week long, and new friendships were made while old friendships became stronger. All in all, it was a beautiful week. Nobody wanted to leave, and there is already talk of doing this camp again next year. If so, Alan and I plan to be there. We wouldn't miss getting to spend this time with our Italian family for the world!
During the holiday's the churches in Catania and Paterno hosted a camp for youth ages 14-25, but the ages were pretty flexible. Camp was December 27 - January 2. The theme for the camp was, "In the world, but not of the world."
Alan and I had the awesome opportunity to get to help out in a few different ways. Alan was the "official" photographer, though once everyone learned that we are pretty relaxed with our cameras and will let anyone use them, our cameras spend most of the week in tour and the majority of the photos were taken by the campers. Alan did have the lovely process of going through the thousands of photos taken, editing them, and making a slideshow each day. If you would like to see the photos or the final slide show here are the links. Warning: the final slideshow is long, running at 26 minutes. We made a shorter one for you all who might not enjoy the 26 minute one as much since you don't know the people in it. I will include that link as well.
Here's the shorter video:
Link to long slideshow http://youtu.be/2FPtcl92h6Y
Alan and I were both counselors. He was with the younger group of boys and I was with the younger group of girls. I admit we were a little nervous going in, but it turned out to be such an awesome experience. We loved getting to know the youth in Italy better and form stronger friendships with them. It was a little intimidating at times being in "Italian-speaking mode" for a whole week with not many breaks to talk to someone else in English, but it went well, and we definitely got more comfortable with the language thanks to this intensive week of Italian.
We were also in charge of organizing games for the entire week. It was a bit challenging at times because it takes different tactics to motivate and round-up Italian youth than it does American youth, but by the last two days I think we finally had it figured out. I don't know if they had fun playing the games, but we had fun making them do silly things to earn points for their teams. :)
The second night into the week, I remembered that I had had a counselor once that did small devotionals with the girls before bedtime. I remembered how much I enjoyed them, and that the more relaxed atmosphere was much more comfortable for young teen girls. So, I thought I would give it a try. I went along with the theme of the week and decided to address the topic of love. Who do we love? How do we show love to others? How did Jesus show love? Etc etc. The girls seemed to like the studies even though we were only able to do them a few nights during the week. They were extremely open, and these small devos that I planned to only be 5-10 minutes often turned into at least a half hour.
I think it's easy to forget as you grow older, that young boys and girls are already dealing with really difficult issues. We ended up talking about several "difficult" topics such as: modesty, loving people who are different than us, how to love those we don't agree with, homosexuality, and staying sexually pure. After the first night, we invited the older girls from the other room to come join us. It was amazing to see these girls study together. Towards the end of the week, it wasn't surprising to find them with their open Bibles on their laps, studying and talking about these issues together during free time in the middle of the day. These girls are amazing, and I look forward to seeing what God has planned for their lives. They were especially encouraging to me in several ways, but most of all, I am extremely appreciative of the patience they showed me as I fumbled through my Italian or had to ask them to repeat their questions or thoughts more slowly. Also, I'm so thankful to Virginia (and Italian girl who goes to Harding University in the states so she speaks both languages) for being there and helping lead the devos and contributing her help and guidance as well! She is another girl in whom I see a lot of enthusiasm to find ways to help the youth in Italy.
The best part of camp, by far, was that we now have 4 new siblings in Christ - three sisters and one brother. Beatrice and Anna are beautiful girls on the inside and out and it's easy to see that they have hearts to serve God. The night following Beatrice and Anna's baptism, Davide and Gaia also both decided to become Christians. These two also are very special, and we are all so excited to have these four new Christians in our family.
Naturally, pranks were played, people stayed up late, soccer was played several times, the musicians whipped out their guitars and serenaded us all week long, and new friendships were made while old friendships became stronger. All in all, it was a beautiful week. Nobody wanted to leave, and there is already talk of doing this camp again next year. If so, Alan and I plan to be there. We wouldn't miss getting to spend this time with our Italian family for the world!
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