English Camps Begin!

The kids and I spent the afternoon at the hotel up in Bled where camp will be. Right now there are three teams there having some training time before splitting ways to run three different camps. Our team is from Modesto, California this year. Many of them have been here in years past taking part in the New Hope Choir Concerts that has toured around Slovenia. It's a first for all of them, though, to be helping out at an English camp. I think they're up for the new challenge!

Another team is here from Northern Ireland. Sebastian & Glorija went to Belfast Bible College several years ago and have a supporting church there. Joel traveled there with Sebastian in May to help out with some training as this is also their first time to do an English camp...which usually have an "American English" but their camp with have a more interesting "Irish English" this year! Should be fun!

Then the third team is here from a church in Seattle to do the Ljubljana High School camp in the castle across the border in Austria. The quickest filling camp! Joel and I both know the team leaders for that camp from Chicago and Czech. Joel knows, Donny, the husband from a church he was part of in Chicago. We both know his wife, Kristi, from doing camps in Czech starting in 97. It's fun to see them again and reconnect a bit.

It was fun to drive up and see little pockets of people all learning, practicing, preparing and getting ready for their various parts of camp. I remember going to Czech in 1997 for the first time and not even realizing that there were the same camps going on in other parts of the country and that ours was just a small part of the larger picture of what the Lord was doing. I'm really glad that all the people here these few days (and the previous years we've done training like this) do get to see that vision and be able to stand, shoulder-to-shoulder with others who are entering the same spiritual battles, facing the same struggles and anticipating the same victories!!

Go teams!! ; )