Camp #3

I finished my last camp last friday. It was a city camp in Vsetin. This means that instead of going to a hotel like the last three, we stayed at the town where most of them live. It was with one of the other local churches in the area. There were 8 Americans that came from Christ Community in Chicago. 3 of them were around my age and the other 5 were around 50 to 60. Most of the older guys have all done some sort of coaching in there years and love God so they were able to bring their coaching experience and there life experience to there different sports. The camp was a volleyball, basketball and soccer camp. I coached soccer with two guys named Quinn and Bob. They are both close to my age. Neither of them have played soccer since they were young so when I found that out I was a little worried. After we had our first practice and saw there willingness to serve and do what ever I needed and how I saw them interacting with the kids, I new it was going to be great. They were great, they would play when we needed an extra player, shag balls, keep time for scrimmages, or whatever else that needed to be done.

The structure of this camp looked like this:

7:30 - Bring breakfast to Americans at there hotel and do a devotional

9:00 - Meet at the Youth room for the church for a morning program

9:30- Sports

12:30 - Lunch

3:00 - Sports

6:30 - Dinner

7:30 - Night program

9:30 - Go home or go into town and hangout with campers.

Since it was a city camp, everything was far apart so we would have to walk 30 minutes, give or take, to anywhere we needed to go. Doing city camps are a new idea but I think can be a very effective outreach, especially with some changes. The opened up the camp to anyone in the town between the ages of 15 and 21. Nothing was required so kids would show up for sports and then not the programs, or show up for the program and not the sports. I had an average of around 15 kids at each practice. I never knew who would be there so that made it difficult to plan drills at times but everything worked out great. Coaching is a stretch for me just since I haven't done it much, but I have really enjoyed it. The weather was great for most of the week which was a blessing considering almost everything was done outside. It was to have people that I have been playing soccer with on Sunday's but don't know very coming to the practices. The highlight for me was having kids from the camp before coming to the sports and the programs. Especially two kids i have been reaching out to and really have a heart for who are atheists. They came to soccer everyday and most nights to the program where the gospel was shared. Also at every practice, either, Bob, Quinn, Jirka, or I would share part of our testimony to them. So they were able to hear life lessons and about God at every practice. It was another good week. Totally different than the other camps but not in a bad way.