Preparing for Camps...

This time last week I was in Austria visiting some lovely friends in Eisenstadt, near Vienna. On Sunday they took me to a lovely restaurant with this great view across Vienna. It was a good time of relaxing, talking about my work in Ljubljana and mentally preparing for all the work that is to come over the summer. Of course, as it's me, I didn't quite have a smooth journey to Eisenstadt. I survived the 6 hour coach journey and even had some people collect me from the bus station to take me to the train station and help me buy my ticket to Eisenstadt. Unfortunately, although I suspected my train would split in two, I don't understand German and yes, I ended up in the wrong section. Fortunately I realised almost straight away what had happened and was able to get off at the next station. At that point I was tired, hungry and pretty fed up! I am so grateful for the invention of phones that can access the internet even in different countries! I was able to phone my friends and look up the train schedule. I did have to wait 45 minutes at this tiny station in the middle of nowhere but when I arrived at the next stop I was able to get onto a train for Eisenstadt immediately and was actually only about an hour later than I'd planned! This is a warning to all of you who might possibly want to travel from Vienna to Eisenstadt, the train splits! (Just so you don't think I'm the only one who's done this, it also happened to my sister and brother-in-law several years ago!) It's an easy mistake to make.

It's that time of year again when the big things on the horizon are the summer camps. I've you've been following my blog or reading my prayer letters, you're probably aware that I have three camps to prepare for this summer. No big deal right? My roles are quite varied in each of the camps which means that the preparation involved for each is quite different. The first camp is the youth camp. We'll be camping again in the south east of Slovenia along the border with Croatia. I'm hoping to use my hammock again as it was so much more comfortable than sleeping on the ground. I've decided that's a sign that I'm getting older, 10 years ago I had no problem sleeping around a campfire in Maine in just my sleeping bag, now the thought fills me with dread! I'm also in charge of the music and leading the singing again. I really can't complain when my job is to listen to Christian music all day to choose the songs.

The second camp this year is the church family camp. I have a lot more work to do to prepare for this one. I'm in charge of all of the sessions for the 10-13 year olds. The topic of the camp is the image of God, looking specifically at creation, the fall and salvation. Although I won't be leading all of the sessions I need to prepare all of the material. If anyone has any ideas for games or crafts related to these ideas then I am completely open to suggestions.

The third (and final) camp this year is in England. We'll be taking some of our teenagers to help out at a Holiday Bible Club. It's a really good opportunity for them to experience Christian work in another culture and hopefully train them in ways they can put into practice when they return to Slovenia. Although my main priority will be to look after our teenagers, I will also be helping out during the week and I've been asked to lead the story on one of the days. The story is of the healing of the paralysed man and I was asked if I would prepare my talk before Wednesday this week so that I could give it at the weekly meeting for practice. I think it went well, people were very encouraging afterwards so I'm praying that God will use my words when I give it again in August.

Please be praying for all of these camps and for all the work that is being done in preparation for them.