Awesome Time so far at the camp!

The lovely view I have at my desk this week 

I intended to write this post earlier in the day while you were all sleeping, but I didn't end up having time, so you are going to get like a 36-48 hour micro synopsis instead of a 24 hour wrap up.

One of our 4 English Classes at work today

Yesterday at camp was phenomenal, we hit the ground running with staff meeting at 7:30, had breakfast, and went straight to work in the English Classes - Josh R., Kayla, and Sarah are all class leaders and a 4th class is led by one of the missionaries, Tiffany, Tim, Becca, Talitha, Israel,and Josh W. are all assisting in the English classes. Day 1 was more challenging than today was, the language barrier obviously presents certain challenges, the classes are ranked in the ability the students already have with the English language.

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Another one of our English Classes

So the beginners class is the most difficult for teaching, day 1 we didn't have an interpreter in there, today we did which really helped bring that class along. Even with the language barrier, just 48 hours of us being here and building relationships has proven to be the most effective way for us to teach and interact better. They love that we came from so FAR away to spend time with them, and they love that we are AMERICANS.

The food has been interesting for sure, and I would say good so far, I love food, so I may not be the right person to ask, but for lunch and dinner yesterday we got a form of Tortellini (YUM)! The way the Germans do meals is a bit different from us - 3 meals a day still - lunch is the only "hot" meal generally with breakfast and dinner looking fairly similar most of the time. Lots of bread and cold lunch meats. Today for lunch we hard rice with a sauce over it and a large meat ball.

The host church in Marienberg, Germany

Last night Tiffany and I had the opportunity to go into Marienberg to the church this camp is sponsored by and take part in their prayer meeting, which was awesome! I had a lengthy discussion with their church leader about the way we do church and ministry in the U.S. compared to how they do. We discussed Israel, outreach, and the camp. All of this conversation was translated back and forth, it was fun, but also felt like I was in some kind of a U.N. Negotiation. 

Sisters Katarina and Francee with Tiffany at the church

The people of the church are awesome, they prayed for us and we prayed for others in the group and we made some quick friends! Andreas, one of the church leaders is quite the entrepreneur - In addition to being one of the 4 primary leaders of their church he also has 2 christian bookstores, recently opened and manages the local post office, and is a travel agent. He also took the time out of his busy schedule to pick us up from Prague and bring us to the camp! The church has only 50 members and will have 70-80 in attendance on any given Sunday morning. They are what would be considered a large church for the area. This area has only been out from under communist control for about 20 years and religion is still a very new concept to most, atheism is much more prevalent.

Israel sharing his testimony

This morning in service Israel had the opportunity to share his testimony which he did VERY WELL. He got a big round of applause and I really think he spoke to these teens on their level. Helped them understand the need to make the right choices now as opposed to waiting until later which can lead to bad decisions and a very slippery slope you may not ever be able to climb back up!

Teaching with a translator today

I had the opportunity to lead a seminar today on Spiritual Warfare which went pretty well from what I've been able to grasp, again the language barrier presents some challenges... especially with regards to preaching and teaching. Marcelo, our main contact and missionary from Paraguay to this church in Germany, interpreted for me. It was hard to gauge the reaction of the campers, but I was discussing a very challenging topic, one they'd not heard before, so silence may have been more from "awe" than anything else. After today's seminar I had a few of the students come tell me how much they enjoyed it and were looking forward to more tomorrow. Additionally, in their small group times this evening, my seminar and Spiritual Warfare was the main topic of discussion, so we evidently got the message across which is encouraging. If I haven't said it yet, we've really been able to connect with the teens here, I couldn't be more proud of the team and how hard they are working, how good they are doing at everything they do, and their willingness to show love and compassion to people they haven't even known for 3 full days.

Tiff and I at the water park before the storm hit

After lunch and the seminar the entire camp went to a water park for a few hours of fun. Prior to going the girls had a little lesson on modesty and what's appropriate and what's not. The culture here is different from ours, and the definition of modesty is somewhat different as well. For example we were originally going to be going to a lake today, but it was discovered the a good portion of the lake had a nudist area which led to us changing plans and going to the water park. Tomorrow's study for both boys and girls is sexual purity, we are going to split up with Kayla and Tiffany leading the girls and Josh R. and I leading the boys. Obviously a taboo and difficult topic to discuss, but needed for sure. Time at the water park was great and we really bonded with kids from the camp. A lot of the girls hung out in the hot tubs and the heated pools and me and the guys went down all the slides with the boys at the camp, quite an experience.

Kayla praying with a youth girl

Tonight we had another powerful worship service and one of the missionaries here this week, Mike, brought the message. He preached very well and when he did his altar call several kids began to come forward, some of our team had the opportunity to pray with them in English, and Kayla was able to lead one young girl to the Lord. Very powerful and AWESOME. Josh and I spent some time talking with Andreas and Marcelo. 

Israel and Talitha praying tonight

We discussed lots about the culture and their church in general. They actually came out of a Lutheran church, they were kicked out for wanting to have "worship" and for teaching about the Holy Spirit.They are now actually a part of the German Assemblies of God. These guys are saints in my book, just amazing leaders and have total servant's hearts.

Be in prayer for us going forward, seminars on sexual purity with the boys and girls tomorrow afternoon and I'm leading the main service tomorrow night and preaching, Tiffany will also be speaking. We had a great meeting with the worship leader and are expecting great things tomorrow! Also Thursday we will be going to work most of the day at the refugee camp which is going to be a very interesting, challenging, and rewarding experience. We are going to be doing ministry for the kids there and a few of us will be trying to interact with the parents. This will be difficult as well since they speak a "gypsy" language that is really a hodgepodge of languages. We have a missionary contact we are working with at the camp who does speak the language, so we will be able to communicate some. The same church that puts this camp on, which is the same church Tiffany and I went to last night for the prayer meeting, is also the same church that houses the refugees and funds this camp with some assistance from the government.

Interesting note, the German government sends funds to the church to run a program in their public schools...foreign idea for sure! We sleep well here too, we have long days, lots of activities, and of course our schedules are all out of whack, but what I really enjoy at night is the cool air from our open windows, and the sounds of the river running just outside my room, this is truly an awesome place.

Have a blessed day, we love you all and appreciate your prayers big time! At the bottom of the post is a video of part of the hip hop song Israel's English class wrote about the Armor of God...

-Ryan