Hey all!

It is already day 3 of camp and we are all loving it! Well, except for the heat. It was almost 90 out today, so we made sure to have plenty of indoor activities and water for everyone. The day started out with an intense rock paper scissors competition before breaking off into lesson groups.

Sydney and I are starting to get the hang of lesson planning and teaching. Initially, our expectations were a little high for our upper beginners, so we had to do a lot of thinking on the fly and rewriting lesson plans. We realized that a lot of these kids only know nouns and shorter phrases, so Joan stepped in to show us how to teach them vowels and CVC words (consonant, vowel, consonant).

After seeing so much, the kids really need a mental break, so we started to read them a story towards the end of lesson time. These kids also love Pictionary and hangman (the word antidisestablishmentarianism stumped them).

Today after lessons, we learned about how Jesus fed the 5,000 from Dillon. Some of our campers were really engaged in the message, but others were nearly asleep. It is encouraging to see how some kids are genuinely there to learn about God and have fun, but disheartening to see some kids who are unwilling to participate or listen.

So far, it has been a little difficult for me to connect with my kids and talk to them about God because of the massive language barrier, but I still have plenty of time to talk with them through a translator in these upcoming days.

Lunch time is a really good time to reach out to new kids who didn’t end up in my group. I’m glad that some of the more advanced English campers are willing to come up and talk to me. These kids are not only wonderful people, but amazing translators during game times.

Today for game time, we ran rotations with a paper airplane competition, crab ball, musical chairs, and Delaney and I were running the “spoons” station. Spoons is a card game where once you match 2 of your cards, you race to snatch a spoon from the table and the one person left without one is out. The kids really liked this game and were able to play without much assistance after the rules were explained.

This took up the rest of camp time and before I knew it, we were waving goodbye to all the campers on the bus. After everyone had left, we were told that we would stay in tonight. A relaxing evening in. Until a few bees entered into the girls’ room and a wasp flew into the kitchen. A brave soul, Joan, rushed in to save the day, whacking all the bees before taking a trip to Tesco for breakfast tomorrow.

I went to a Hungarian Tesco for the very first time and it truly was a magical place with inexpensive, delicious chocolate. This Tesco experience was one of my very first experiences in Hungary. The country is significantly more developed then I had thought, and our living space is really very nice. Tight living quarters combined with expressive people took some getting used to, but the whole team seems to mesh well.

After camp ends, all of us have fun stories every day and that really helps us to learn all of the camper’s names. I just ask that you all pray for building good relationships with these kids, courage to share the gospel, and rest for the next week and a half as we pour ourselves into these kids. Thank you all for your love and support, and we will see you when we get back July 7^th!