We had a great first day of our second week of camp today (8/1).  Eight new students and two new translators joined us for this week of camp and they melded in seamlessly with our group from last week.  As with all of our days, we started off by playing an icebreaker.  This one in particular forced the students to become comfortable with each other very quickly.  Students formed a human knot and had to maneuver around each other in order to make a circle.  As you can imagine, it provided us with some humorous poses, faces, and noises.

After our morning English classes, Josh told the powerful story of his father’s conversion and paralleled it to Paul’s conversion story in Acts 9.  We heard from some of the translators that the students were especially impacted by these story.  Even in my small group, we were able to get some great conversation about how and why God saves people and what kind of impact the gospel message has had on the student.  As has been the case in years past, the Hungarians students have been slow in picking apart what we have been saying, but I personally am so encouraged by the questions they’ve been asking.  It is clear to me that they are not only hearing the messages, but thinking about them and engaging with them.

After lunch, we broke into smaller discussion groups just to get to know the students better.  Talked about a variety of things from what their favorite foods were to what their families were like and what they hoped to do when they grew up.  It was a great way for us to deepen our relationships with these students and provide more avenues to talk about what is most important to us.

We also had the great opportunity of celebrating the birthday of our camp director and long-time ministry partner Shaun.  We threw him a bit of a surprise party in the evening, and it was great to be able to repay him for all the behind the scenes work that he does to make our camp experience run smoothly.  We thank God for him—for his servant heartedness, his love for the students in Hungary, and his passion to see the Gospel spread and churches to be planted.

We would love your prayer for tomorrow (8/2), since our team will be breaking up and spending the evening in students houses around Tapolca. They’ll eat dinner with them, interact with their families, and have more opportunity to proclaim Christ.  Pray God would empower us with his Spirit to have the right words to speak and the right attitudes as we are guests in another culture and another’s house.  Also pray for our continued strength and health so that we can provide these students with a great camp, with powerful messages, and with the love of Christ.  Sorry to all our faithful readers for posting this one a little late! Thank you all for your continued prayer and support!