Camp

Time flies. I don't know what happened to last week, but let's just pretend that I just got back from camp today, ok?
I guess I uploaded my pictures to facebook and thought that I had updated my blog too.

Camp was a great! We had perfect weather and a good group of people. I got to spend lots of time swimming and hanging out with my family and one or two friends that I hadn't seen in a long while.

Camp 120 was held on an island in a particularly wide stretch of the Dnepr River. Each morning began with a meeting or service or church or whatever-you-want-to-call-it. After breakfast, of course (and for me, a swim or two). Several of the guys took turns preaching/giving a talk with the themes centering around serving God and living for Him.
For me it was particularly encouraging as God used their talks to remind me that I just need to focus on serving Him in the here and now and He'll take care of the future (which for me is a trifle uncertain at this point).

The island that we were on was rather a sandy hill rising out of the water and it was a bit of a climb to get to the top. Thankfully, there were lots of young guys who could carry all the paraphernalia up the hill. Including the well water that the guys went and got every morning for our drinking. And the river water for washing up (no electricity or running water, of course). Here's the guys coming back with a load of fresh water. You can see how wide the Dnepr is, there was this little island across from us, yet another island in the distance and in the far distance the shore. And I never did see the shore on the other side because it was blocked by another island, so I don't know how much further that was.

We also had our own private little beach with a pier, so that we didn't have to fight our way through the reeds (which would have totally prevented me from swimming since there are snakes in the reeds and water rats).
I did a lot of "life guarding" for my nieces and a couple of other little girls--mostly that consisted of being on the beach or in the water while they were down there. It was a bit separated from the rest of the camp so good to have an adult eye on them. But normally that wasn't much of a problem, since with 75 of us on the island, there was usually an "adult" ready to go for a swim.

I was in my sister's church group for meals (and in her family group for tents which means I lived a life of luxury in a six person tent that I shared with her two youngest girls). We had a very nice cooking set up--by far the most advanced of any of the groups (there were three groups). And Pris is an excellent organizer and cook so our meals were not the usual camp fare. She managed to keep fresh vegetables and meat on the menu for four out of the five days we were there!

All in all, it was a refreshing time away from work and computer and internet and phone. It was a nice reward after finishing the English work on Doctrine on Christ and His Kingdom.
And God used it to encourage me and bring me back into alignment with His peace.