Thank you all who were praying for us during our camp on Aug 12-16, 2002. The camp at Ahja Mission Center (230 km SE from Tallinn) was really wonderful. We used a program “Go for Gold” by Scripture Union, a British based Bible organization. The Program itself is based on Paul’s life and on the Scripture in 2 Timothy: I have run my race, kept the faith. Every day there was an 8- minute video to accompany the Bible studies. The cartoon videos were introduced by Jonathan Edwards, a triple jump world record breaker. He continuously emphasized that though his gold medal is important for him, serving Jesus and “the medal” he will get there is more important than anything.
We had 21 kids, ages ranging from 6 to 15. We had seven counselors, myself, Kaidi Nõmmik, our summer intern, Helen Neeve (a coordinator from Scripture Union), , a volunteer at the center, Anna Rangel (16 years old), Hannes Kreinstrauh (17) and Marti Mäevere (17). Marti is a son of a friend and former colleague of mine, Hannes is his friend and Anna is a youth from the Russian section of the Tallinn Methodist Church. I especially liked working with the young counselors who were just outstanding. The weather was really nice. The facilities at Ahja Mission Center, were good—a lot of room to run and play, yet not too much so the kids would be under surveillance. There was a pond about 700 meters away, so we went swimming 3 times a day, up to 1,5 hours each time. We ate a lot and the food was good, prepared by local women.
The kids were divided into the teams from four countries US, Norway, Sweden, and Russia. These are the countries we feel most connected to. The first day they had to make their flag and bring it to all the events every day. Every participant got a water bottle—empty half a liter plastic soda bottles, which were color coded according to the countries and filled each morning with lemonade or Gatorade or water before the events. It goes without saying, of course, that we had security passes and numbers for each kid.
At the end of each day there was an award ceremony. A torch with real flame was lit then. Only gold medals were given out, and not only for athletic ability, but also for good sportsmanship. The medals were chocolate and they couldn’t eat them before the last day. It sometimes so happened that someone ate someone else’s medal. The kids were really involved in all the activities, we shot some footage as well and hope to include that in the video we are making.
1st day: On your marks! The beginning of Paul’s “race”. Conversion on the road to Damascus. Sport activities: Relays
2nd day: Paul’s missionary journey to Lystra. The attempt to make him God and subsequent stoning. Sport activities: Individual events: Long jump, discus, etc., all made fun and light (using paper plates for discus, etc.),
3rd day: Listen Carefully! The importance of coaches and the Holy Spirit as our coach. Paul’s missionary journey to Macedonia, his capture and the earthquake, the conversion of the jailor. Sport activities: Water Events –they all built canoes out of card board boxes and decorated them in the colors of their countries. (Many thanks for all the construction paper we have received)- then there were races, where they had to bring stuff (balloons with water) from the other end of the field.
4th day: Fight on! Paul’s capture in Jerusalem. Plot to kill Paul. Sport activities: Paraolympics—activities with a hand or feet tied or eyes blindfolded.
5th day: Keep together! Paul’s voyage to Rome, miraculously saved from shipwreck and the end of Paul’s life in Rome. Sport activities: Two teams play against each other, no countries.
One thing the kids really enjoyed was severe discipline—we demanded respect and we demanded they listened to us. We discouraged their making their own rules and plans and just making us abide by them. Helen had a really loud whistle with her all the time and that was really helpful in getting their attention. For every dirty word the punishment was 10 push-ups. One of the severer forms of punishment, however, was that you were shown a red card, which all the counselors had. We told them in the beginning that three cards amounted to an early bus ticket home. One guy, a 15 year old experienced criminal (he has been involved in over 10 car thefts in his home town of Tapa and many burglaries) filled his limit on Wednesday morning. But, he did apologize and begged for mercy so he was able stay. His behavior changed at this point —My bet is he just wanted to test the limits and see how far he could go. It was also interesting that though as rough as he pretended to be, he was always very attentive when the video Bible story was on.
Another special person for me in the camp was an 8-year old Ljoða (Aleksei) who has never gone to school. He has already drunk vodka and done drugs (at least in liquid form) and for weeks lived in a car near his home. He had been at the state run shelter in spring, but had run away when we took him and everybody else to the attraction park. It was a miracle that he came to the camp this time. We had some problems with him, for in his mind a way to make a contact with someone (playing with him) is by throwing rocks or sand or apples at him. I had talked to his social workers and we agreed I will take him to the state run shelter after the camp. I felt bad about it for I thought it would break his little heart. I asked him on our way back what he had enjoyed most. The answer was “That I could eat so much”. Then a miracle happened. 3 minutes before I got to the shelter he asked: Do you know where I once used to stay? I said I did and he asked me to take him there. He was of course disappointed when he learned he couldn’t go out the next day and earn his living by begging. By the way, Ljoða was the best “athlete” on the second day for he scored the highest in “bowling” (where the pins were half filled water bottles and the ball was a Petanque ball). –He has had a lot of practice on windows as well as people, I reckoned.
As an extra curriculum activity we went on an excursion to Taevaskoja to see an ancient valley and riverbed with caves. It was very beautiful. We also went to visit the “Ant Kingdom”—two meter high anthills in a local forest. We also had a grillout on Thursday night.
On a personal note, I think I have never laughed as much. We had so much fun. Wouldn’t you at least smile, for example, if you saw our Rasmus coming down the stairs, the little frightened Ljoða in one hand and a bitten chocolate medal in the other and saying sadly: “This is already my second medal he is trying to eat!” Or if you saw Hetili 8 and Pipi alias Regina 7, in a cardboard canoe almost as tall as they are, running as fast as they can, while you can only see their little feet moving. On a down side—I tore a calf muscle, when I jumped up and started running as I was trying to stop little kids get into a fight. But that is already healing.
I feel especially appreciative that for once I didn’t have to be that “delinquent mother” who is always bogged down with administrative work and can never really spend quality time with them. Thanks to our super counselors I could often just sit there and hold the kids and hug them. I do enjoy spending time with them and consider it a great privilege to be doing all this.
I think the overarching message that was driven home to our 12-14 year olds was that when you are serving God, you are a winner no matter what, it is the surest way to Go for Gold, because then God will applaud you and give you his gold medal, which is the goldest of all.
Thank you again so much for praying for us… The camp was definitely a success and we didn’t want to leave. We hope to go back there to Ahja next year with another program and already with a larger team. The plans are under way. More later…
, a volunteer at the center, Anna Rangel (16 years old), Hannes Kreinstrauh (17) and Marti Mäevere (17). Marti is a son of a friend and former colleague of mine, Hannes is his friend and Anna is a youth from the Russian section of the Tallinn Methodist Church. I especially liked working with the young counselors who were just outstanding. The weather was really nice. The facilities at Ahja Mission Center, were good—a lot of room to run and play, yet not too much so the kids would be under surveillance. There was a pond about 700 meters away, so we went swimming 3 times a day, up to 1,5 hours each time. We ate a lot and the food was good, prepared by local women.