reaching the most receptive hearts using the most effective means

i was a camper last week. it was hard. i learned a lot about myself.

i'm "that" camper. you know, the one who asks a million questions about what i should wear and what to expect. it drove me completely crazy that i never got a schedule and i had to ask my counselor, that's right, i had a counselor, what was coming up next. j-mo, if you're reading this, i will never pick on you again. ok, i probably will, but i understand a little more now. also, i get pretty mad when other people break the rules. i'm also that camper. all of my friends probably already knew this about me. it's not the rules that i love so much, it's just that if i'm following them everyone else must follow too. i could probably talk more about this...

so anyway, i went to what i thought was a conference about Christian camping in Africa, but it was actually CAMP for grownups. i complained and laughed, but it was really good. i learned a lot about myself and got psyched for camp in Kenya. i was a participant (the only mzungu btw) in heaps of team-building activities. i was in a cabin with some beautiful African women (three from Kenya and one from Ethiopia). and i made some good contacts. there are so many people in Kenya doing camp! AND none of us are doing the same thing! there were some guys there from Christian camping international who talked with us about camp's all around the world. it was so encouraging to hear about other people who's lives are sold out to Jesus and dedicated to camp. i love it.

one of the cci guys talked about how camp is using the most effective means to reach the most receptive hearts. we've all heard the stats about how less likely you are to become a believer after your teen years and anyone who's ever been to camp knows how unique that camp community is and what a special place it is. i'm already getting excited about next summer!

Sock War session 5 this is what i mean by "special":

at the end of "camp" last week we took the youth group camping at the Tana river. it was a really chill weekend, but so much fun with those guys. please pray that more kids will come to the youth group and that we will make the most of our time with them on Sundays and other youth group events.

our camping trip:

it feels like i am just now getting started with "normal" nairobi life here. Haley visited for a few weeks, then i went away for a week to take a wilderness first aid course, then i had the camp conference, and this is the first week i've actually been able to go to the office and put some things in order. i guess you could call it order. i bought a file cabinet, a notebook, and some folders and started to get camp bluesky organized. we'll see how that goes.

here's the famous yellow folder exploding onto the floor: