We’re drawing to a close of our time here in Tapolca.  It’s evident that the team is exhausted just by how we’ve been getting up a tiny bit later every morning, but it’s been a blessing to see God give us strength to get through the days.  Even in our exhaustion, I have been amazing at how our team has staying engaged with the campers and have truly put the effort into making their camp experience the best they can.

That was especially important today as we had an extra-long day at camp.  Today, we invited all the parents to join us in the evening so that they could see what their kids had been doing for the past two weeks and it opened up an opportunity for us to share the gospel with the students’ parents.  But I’m getting a little ahead of myself.

We started off our day as usually: welcoming the campers, playing some ice breaker games, and then sending them all off to their English classes.  Today’s English classes were slightly different than previous days since each class spent their time preparing what they would do for their parents that evening.  After that, we had chapel where I preached from Romans 12:1-2 and discussed what true worship is and what our motivation for worship should be.

After lunch, some games and prep for the night in the afternoon, and then a dinner of pizza and watermelon with the students, the parents began arriving for the night around 6 pm.  Each group got up to share what their had prepared that day and throughout the week.  It was awesome to see several groups recite bible verses, sing Christian songs, and even do skits on the story of Jesus calming the sea and Daniel and the lions’ den.  The parent’s got a great spattering of what the groups had done so far in the week.

More than that though, we had the great privilege of sharing the gospel with the students.  We had an amazing testimony from Krista which clearly explained what the Gospel was.  Josh gave us an overview of what we had learned that week (in which he also shared the Gospel).  And I was able to preach a very short message on Romans 6:23 to also give the parents a taste of what we had been doing every day at camp.  If they didn’t know before, they definitely found out quickly that our team was not merely there to have fun or teach English.  First and foremost, we were concerned that the students (and their parents) heard the message of the Gospel.

We’re coming to our final day, and we could definitely use your prayers.  Our team is getting exhausted and sees home on the horizon, so pray that God would give us the strength and focus needed to get through our final day.  We also need boldness and confidence as we have a final opportunity to share the Gospel to students and ask for a response of faith in Christ.  Also, pray for the fruit of this camp; that God would use the fruit here to build his church and draw many to himself in Tapolca and in the rest of Hungary.  We are resting our hope on the power of the word of God (just like we saw Krista doing yesterday).  We’ll have a final update on camp for you tomorrow!