As the weeks come to a close, our festivities are still in full swing. Today was our longest day of these past two weeks. We started off slow with the coldest day of 60 degrees, rehearsing for our parent’s night. With this being a long day we were privileged to spend 11.5 hours with our campers, including eating two meals and dessert. Although our day was long, there was no lack of energy at our parent’s night event.

We started the evening by welcoming the parents and thanking them for allowing their kids to join us for camp these past two weeks. We proceeded by singing two of the campers’ favorite songs, One Way and Build Your Kingdom Here. Each group prepared a skit lasting about 5 minutes each. We started with the beginners group and ended with the advanced group. The performances included a “tour” of Chicago, Noah’s ark, reciting Psalm 121, singing My Lighthouse, singing the Llama song, and imitating camp leaders. In between skits Josh shared some of what the campers have been learning from him and Dillon. He shared a brief gospel message and talked about how they could continue to learn more if they were interested. Peter, one of our beloved translators, shared his testimony for the parents. And although I couldn’t understand the Hungarian presentation, the audience and kids seemed to enjoy it. The night was closed by a Hungarian version of Build your Kingdom Here followed by a slide show encompassing all of the camp festivities from the last two weeks.

As the presentation ended, we all headed outside for refreshments. There were tables of food and tons of fellowship with each other. Students raced around to take last minute pictures with friends, campers, and leaders. It was a bitter sweet moment, knowing that we only have one more day with these kids, but also getting to see how many great new friendships we’ve made.

Tonight was a special time to just look back and reflect on how much some of these kids have changed, and it’s been amazing to see it happen right in front of my eyes. I think I can speak for everyone on my team when I say that these kids have left an eternal impact on my life and they will never be forgotten. Neither will the time we’ve gotten to spend with them.

I ask that you would pray for us as we head into our last day of camp tomorrow, that God would use this last day to show the kids the urgency of following him. We would all like to thank you for your continued support from back home.

Kenzie Craver