Kids Camp 11 - On the Rock

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Published on Sunday, 07 August 2011 02:00

The second week of July, almost 80 children, leaders and parents met "on the Rock" - Word of Life summer camp in the Račková valley. Bigger group of children along with several leaders traveled on bus from Bratislava to Račková cottage. Other kids and leaders have waited there for them. After the welcoming and accommodation we started the camp with our first dinner and evening introductory meeting. Children were introduced to the camp rules and we competed together in the identification of individual leaders from their childhood photos. On the second day we were welcomed by a sunny weather and during morning meeting, we presented two female RESCUERS, one of which was called RES and the other CUER

Every single day, these two happy, but a little bit confused RESCUERS were trying to introduce us to the story of Peter which was specific for each day. However, these two could not cope with it alone and so Peter always joined them. After the morning meeting, the children were divided into predetermined biblical groups and together with their leaders they analyzed the life of the Apostle Peter and his conduct in specific life situations. Many biblical groups exceeded set time as children asked their teachers a large number of questions and were interested about how to deal with different situations in life. After a short morning tea the program for children continued in different workshops, which we had already 6 this year such as: workshops, games, survival course, praise, "surprise" and the theater. In the workshop group children made products from different materials. The “games” workshop they played various traditional and nontraditional games. Survival course was aimed to teach children different tips and tricks on how to survive in the nature during good weather or in various other situations. In “praise“workshop the children were learning musical theory, singing and playing musical instruments. Theatre workshop prepared a variety of funny but also instructive workshop sketches and "surprise" workshop together with children filmed several biblical stories, but also non-biblical. These stories were then screened on a screen during evening meetings. We must also not forget about tree-frog "Frederika" which spoke to all camp participants every day and delivered the current weather forecasts from various camp sites and has become an indelible part of our team.

Evening meetings began with a story of a plane crash in the middle of the ocean island, which survived only a group of strange people. As it turned out later, this story was just a dream of a young Christian Peter, who returned to this dream every evening and through this dream was trying to understand the meaning of the verses in Matthew 7:24-27, which spoke about a house on a rock and a house on sand. And this strange group of people, among whose was Filoména - Doctor, loving money, older man McDodgy, James - lazy, phlegmatic chess player, and Phil - footballer who was kicked out the club decided to accept an offer from Uncle Sam to build hotel for wealthy guests. Stumbling block, however, was that they chose sand as a place suitable for the construction of the hotel. Neither agreement with the local Indians nor the uneven division of labor helped them. Their hotel ended up exactly like the verses in Matthew 7:24-27 describe it.

We didn’t just stay only at the location of our camp in comparison with last year. We took a short walk to the entry into the Račková valley, visited the museum in Pribylina and on Thursday we took a trip to Štrbské Pleso. A group of about 30 children and leaders even went on a hike to the Popradské jazero. The second group, especially the smaller children have just passed by Popradské jazero and used the opportunity to purchase trinkets and gifts. Beautiful sunny weather made this trip even better and we all took a lot of wonderful experiences with us from the High Tatras.

In addition to tours there were organized different games and competitions for children such as: Gangsters, Teepee building, but the most popular, especially among boys enjoyed, was the football tournament "PetraCup" which took place on Friday and mixed boys-girls teams were playing on the field in the nearby Liptovský Hrádok.

Friday, however, was unique and something else. As the custom is, pastor Peter Čuřík visited our camp this year and brought the message to us about Peter´s ministry and the power of God in the Christian life. This simple message has touched our hearts and during joint prayers we felt God's awesome presence. God was transforming our hearts and changing our attitudes. The Holy Spirit spoke to us and showed children the right direction they should go. Many of us ended up on knees and in tears. This wonderful presence of God in remained in us also through the last day of the camp and children were leaving for home transformed.

So how can I summarize this year's camp?

Despite hundreds of hours, we as leaders have invested in preparation for this camp of my head, this camp was amazing and full of God's presence. Thank to these 8 days, during which we could spend together in the beautiful surroundings of the Western Tatras, the relationship between us tightened, new friendships started and our hearts were deeply touched by the love of God. I think, speaking for all the leaders, I can say that God has returned back to us many times what we have invested into it also thanks to the children. Now we are already looking forward to next year.

Monika: I was very grateful to all children for what an amazing love I received.

Stanko: I am very pleased to see how God works in children's hearts, especially through the relationships and the program that is .prepared.

Andrejka: This camp was the best leisure investment!

Marianna (Blondie): This was a great camp. Kids were super, games, trips, competitions, program. Kids were blessed, wonderful atmosphere. God really touched us. One word for all:”Great!”

And how do kids see the summer camp?

Rachel: Thank you for this camp. I'm sorry that we have to leave. A week is quite a short time until we get close to the Lord and be with friends. I liked the most two meetings in a day and at the meetings worship and skits. Big thanks to the leaders for the program and the effort they made. Once again thank you for a wonderful week.

Henryk: I liked the workshops, tours and various activities. The whole camp. I liked meetings, the food was very good.I've had a great time here.

Kornélia: ... I really liked this camp, and definitely will come next time, do not know yet, but will certainly come. I liked the most the last night when we had a party in dining room.

Janko: Most amazing camp I have been in my life. I really liked the activities that took place during the week.

Anonym: It was excellent. Best of the leaders was Amos. Last night Amos preached to us till 23:30.

Helenka: The camp was great. I have nothing to add. Next year camp should be for 2 weeks.

Dominik: I am very glad that I could be at this camp. I thank all the leaders, and Martin that he preached well.