Romania Team – Update #6
Day #2 of English camp! (Sorry, this is a long one.)
Yesterday was a day of answered prayer in action. It was our first full day of camp, and we started it off with a leaders meeting before breakfast; the Romanian leaders and the American leaders all met together and listened to a devotion from Tyler (several of our team members were asked to prepare devotions for these meetings, and Tyler gave an edifying devotion from Philippians 2:1-7 encouraging us to be of one accord and stay servant-hearted). Then we discussed what had been good about the first day of camp, and what could use improvement. Thankfully, the list of what had been good was definitely longer.
After breakfast the students had devotions, and then we went straight into the English classes. A big answer to prayer for the Advanced English class: 3 out of the 10 students are very reserved and did not want to participate in the main activity (which is debate) but after a few warm-up games they became much more engaged and now they are excited about winning their debates! The Beginner English class was very large, loud, and chaotic, and at first it was difficult to tell if the students were learning much (some of the activities seemed a little too advanced) but the students told the Romanian leaders that they really enjoyed it and so our teaching team agreed to simplify some of the activities for the next day and felt much better about the experience. And our Intermediate team is awesome; having great fun from day one!
Our afternoon sports activities were led by Eli, Riley, and Zach, and their theme was “Water Day”; a very welcome theme in this heat! Setup was brutal as the sun beat down on us, and, inexplicably, the water balloons started popping when we tried to fill them, even though we had them submerged in cold water. This was a BIG problem for the games. But Eli and some of our teammembers prayed about the balloons (“His eye is on the sparrow”, or in this case, the water balloon) and left them in the water for a few minutes. When they started filling them with water again, they didn’t pop! It may sound like a small thing, but God granted the small thing and we are so grateful. And the games were so fun! God sent another blessing via an unexpected hour and a half of shade with a cool breeze, and that, mixed with pelting each other with water balloons, made for a refreshing time.
Unfortunately, even with this refreshing time many of us were still suffering from the effects of the heat, and for myself I began experiencing stomach pain, nausea, and exhaustion, and when the smell of dinner almost made me throw up I knew I had to find a cool spot to rest and recover. When Eli came up to our room the power had gone out (so no AC anywhere) and I was lying on the floor trying to cool down while my stomach continued to cramp. He did what he could to help me feel better and then went to join our team’s prayer meeting, saying that he would ask the team to pray for me (I think I mumbled in reply). The AC came back on right before he left, and within about an hour I had almost completely recovered, and what was much better I felt that my spirit had recovered; I was feeling a great deal of anxiety and self-doubt which I realized I had not been speaking to the Lord about, so I started giving that to Him and felt a great deal of relief.
I was not able to be there for the evening message and the night program (which was a game show night, led by Riley, Isabelle, Maddie, and Christian), but I was told later that it was a really fun time. Some of the leaders and students also played some late night volleyball before crashing in bed.
Please join us in thanking God for how He has been answering prayer (even the “little” ones). Please continue praying for our energy and control of our tempers, and pray for the students’ engagement as they are also overheated and tired. Please pray that the power and water will stay on (the city keeps losing both). And please be praying for Thursday night (which will be the early morning of Thursday for Oregon), as it will be the night when the Romanian leaders give an altar call to the students; they have been hearing the gospel every day and we are praying they will respond to it.
Thank you for your prayers! God is working!
