International Winter Camp and Four New Births!
Trinia, Joyah and I got to ring in the New Year at our international winter camp's New Year's Eve party with the girls harmonizing on a praise song for our international guests! Kristen and I also got to lead worship with two other volunteers, as our group of 28 people from Madison joined about 60 other internationals and American volunteers from universities all over the Midwest. One of the East Asian people who came to know the Lord at this event shared with me how she felt a special peace and joy during our times of worship. In all, four internationals came to know Jesus during this event, including one from our group, as we had some amazing discussions during our small group Bible studies which Kristen and I led along with our friend who helped translate; and our teammate Terrell did a great job sharing the Gospel during his large group talks full of colorful illustrations.
As a fun fellowship event, one night many guests contributed by making food for an international dinner, which was amazingly delicious and diverse, with food from East Asia, Thailand (my contribution), India, the Middle East, and America. Here Kristen joins a group in rolling and stuffing 'jao-tze,' Chinese dumplings.
Another camp highlight was acting out the Christmas account with an international cast! Trinia was a shepherdess, and I got to play mean old King Herod. There is nothing like seeing the true meaning of Christmas revealed to people as they hear the Good News of the incarnation for the first time!
Not only did our camp have great spiritual content, but we also had a ton of fun with our international friends and guests! Broomball was a highlight, as we slipped around on slushy snow hitting a ball into hockey goals with sticks made like cut-off brooms. Ice-skating, cross-country skiing, snowman building, and taking winter hikes were some other outdoor activities we did...
Joyah taking a turn at the pinata for our international New Year's gathering at camp... It was many of our international guests first time doing a pinata, but they got the idea quickly enough to pounce on the candy like a pack of ravenous wolves approximately one millisecond after the pinata broke!
Trinia and some international friends inspecting the pack ice on the shores of Lake Huron (one of the Great Lakes) in Upper Michigan at our winter camp...
Campfire-building and making a snowman - activities that seem simple to many might be the first time an international student or visiting scholar has ever had the opportunity to do some of these American cultural traditions.