Camp 2011

*Note: Some names have been changed to protect the privacy of the kids. Please excuse the lack of creativity in some of them...:)

First day of Camp
(AAAAAAAAAAAAhhhhhhhhh yes, this year the kids still had to scream when they heard the word "CAMP"...):



First days are first days. At around 9:50, kids began to arrive. I recognised some familiar faces from last year. The first one was a little girl called Maeve, from last year. I went up to her and her mother. She looked very aprehensive. I noticed she didn't change anything from last year. I asked if she remembered me. She nodded with a smile. I said I remembered her and said her name, adding that she didn't change at all. She smiled, and I could tell she felt more at home. Some more familiar faces: Fiona, the little red haired girl, her sister, Aoife with big blue eyes and Trevor, their 10 year old cousin. No changes there either. they looked exactly the same as last year. I greeted them by saying:

"Hey, I remember your names! That's Fiona, Trevor and..." Couldn't really remeber the girl's name. Someone reminded me by saying the first letter of her name. I remembered straight away and said Aoife. The kids all smiled and felt welcomed.

Some other familiar faces appeared and I kept pointing at them and telling Hannah and Lydia their names. I also kept sighing and smiling as I saw the dear little ones coming back again. There were a few new ones as well. The number was not as great as last year's, because there were fewer leaders. Recognised Cathal, Patrick, Jason and Paul. I also saw Anna, and Cherry, those beautiful and sweet little ones from last year.

We started at around 10:30 (first day...) and played some big group games like the wolf game, tag and etc.

Then I don't really remember what happened, but the kids were all over the place. I played basketball with some girls who looked way older than the average girls.I played on the same team as Babi and Amy, while the three unseparable girls, Ciara, Lana and Freya, the 12 year olds, played on the other team. Those girls are very sweet, especially Ciara. Remember Jack last year? Ciara was the female verson of him! She'd pull the kids on the zip line for hours, help the little ones, do the crafts and other activities without complaining. And she always had a smile on her face when we talked to her.

The kids all wanted to do the zip line, so they all queued up for it many times. They had a small break, and after that, they did what they wanted, till it was lunch time. Cathal, the boy who didn't speak much last year, spoke a lot this year. I asked him how old he was and where he lived, and he started telling me his life, where his house is located, and etc, but I didn't understand much, so I just smiled and nodded. :) Cathal is a a funny boy. He went around, looking around, talking to himself, smiling, etc Patrick, who didn't talk too much last year either, was also talking a bit more.

Paul was there this year too. Oh well, that speaks for itself. That means: MESS. or DISASTER. He'd go wild playing with other kids, then the kids would get fed up with him because he was too rough and would not let him play with them, then he would have a tantrum, crying and yelling, telling us that they didn't want to let him play or that someone did this or that. My usual response to this was:

"Nooooooo... Are you serious that someone did THAT to YOU??? NO WAYYY!"

"Yeah, they did!" he'd yell, with a crying face.

"Oh no, WHO did THAT?" He'd point to some random kid. I'd pretend to be going in that kid's direction, then he'd just go away to play with someone else, and I'd go away, problem solved, not even talking to the kid he pointed at all. :)

I messed with the kids because no one could remember my name. When I was looking after the zip line, Shane, a boy of about 9, asked me my name (he said he couldn't remember). I remarked that no one could ever remember my name, and asked him if he would guess. He coudn't, so I helped by saying the first letter. Not much success there either. He guessed a few names starting with T, then said grinning: Tractor. Well, after a while, all of the kids began to call me Tractor too. Shane mostly hanged around with two other boys, Trevor and Jason, and this trio was insepparable.

There was one time when Trevor went on the zip line, and fell on his arm. He stayed lying on the ground for ages. At first I thought he was joking, but then, I saw it was quite serious. We put some ice on it, and I sat beside him, talking to him. Shane and Jason joined us. Shane told me about his family, told me that he has two girlfriends (what on earth! ha To which I replied: "How old are you boy? You are not supposed to have girlfriends at this age! You are way too young!"), then Jason started telling me about his cows, then that he broke his leg, and other things. I'd ask Trevor some things, but the poor guy was too quiet to answer. I would see a smile popping up from time to time though, when I made some stupid joke. Katy, another girl came and started talking to me. She is definitely a hyper child. She really doesn't stop talking! As Jules says, she is "gas". I don't remember half of the things she said to me because she talked so much!

On the first day, I talked to Anna too. She's a beautiful kid. She told me what Bible stories are her favourite, namely Esther, Daniel, Joseph and the Noah's ark. She asked me where I was from and I told her Brazil.

"Ahhh! I know where Brazil is! It is in South America!" She replied. Then she began to sing a song with the names of all the countries in South America. How smart is that? I mean, even adults sometimes don't know their geography! She said this year again::

"Can I tell you something? I really like you!" ha! Precious moments there! She began to call me Tennis Ball again. So did all the other small girls, whom I looked after last year.

Just before lunch, Dan told the kids a story about birds and told them there would be a surprise on day two.

Day 2: Ahhh

It was quite a rainy day, so I put on my hat and went outside. When Trevor, Jason and Shane saw my hat, they all messed with me, saying:

"Tractor has a hat!!" or " Tractor looks like Michael Jackson!" haha The boys just couldn't help stealing my hat every two minutes. They were fascinated with it! Especially Shane, who would get it off my head when I wasn't aware, then would run somewhere and start dancing :).

We started day two by playing big group games again. First we played a button game, with which the kids got fed up pretty easily. I was looking after the boys, who were messing a lot, being rough on each other, etc. We didn't really know what we were going to do next, after the kids grew bored of that game. 

Jules and I suggested a game we used to play in Brazil and Dan announced the game:

"Our two helpers from Brazil are going to explain to us a game that comes directly from Brazil!" He looked at us and laughed a little. Ju and I explained it, then some of the kids said:

"That's called ..." (some name I don't remember) "that's not from Brazil!" Well, I suppose. it isn't... Ju and I did a demonstration of it, in which I chased her like mad! She was meant to sit on the place I was sitting, but she ended up slipping at it :).   The kids thought it a great game and played it for another while.
After that, we played the dial game. When a girl, Megan, had to chase me, I ran like mad around the circle, yelling, while everybody laughed, lost my hat on the way to her place, looked like I was a crazy kid lol. Then she caught me and I had to leave the game.

After those games, we waited for Geoff and John to bring the birds (the surprise), but they were a bit late, so the kids free played for a while. John and Geoff arrived and brought four little hawk chicks and our famous friend, JAKE! John explained about the chicks and let the kids touch it for a while. Then the kids went to Geoff to see Jake.

Then they were all dipersed. The birds held their attention for about 4 minutes lol. Then they were all gone. But there were some kids who got really interested. Sammy looked and looked at Jake (the hawk) and really wanted to touch him. His expression was beautiful as he looked at the bird.Ciara also loved the birds and would come from time to time to pet them. Amy loved them and said she'd love to have animals. She stayed with the birds for the whole time, petting them and looking at every detail. How beautiful is a child's face is when she discovers something new! How amusing!

When John and Geoff left, we had lunch, then we separated the kids into groups The small girls were meant to do the obstacle course, but it was raining, so they went inside to do the crafts with the over 8 girls. The boys stayed outside and Hannah, Ju and Lydia organised some games for them. I went inside to help with the crafts. We made a little tshirt necklace and we had to write something we love. I wrote: I love Jesus. Some kids asked me what I wrote and I told them. Some got quiet, some looked scared. When I asked them if they knew who Jesus is, some said yes, other said no. I explained to Shane who the Lord Jesus is.
Anna asked me what I had written on my t-shirt necklace. I said : I love Jesus. Her face shone with enthusiasm as she said:
"I wrote that too!!!" and she showed me her beautiful necklace that said with pride: I love Jesus. I high-five-d her, as some other kids listened and looked. I could see that they all heard the name of Jesus before, only they were too afraid to talk about Him. 

Played a Fooseball match (Trevor and I against Shane and Jason), which Trevor and I won then I went outside to see if I could help. Hannah suggested that the boys play tug war. Well, the reaction was the expected: they just loved the idea! They were separated into teams, and they started. It seemed as if there were only big boys in one team (including the remarkable trio) and small boys on the other one, so I decided to join the small boys team, to make the thing fair. When it seemed we were winning, the boys from the other team were joined by Hannah, and they pulled the rope real hard. It was raining and the grass was wet, so I kept slipping slowly, till I finally fell not vey nicely on the wet grass and was pulled by the ferocious boys on the grass until I got completely soaked. 

 

The boys, especially the trio, proudly celebrated their victory, and Shane said: "Ha, we got you Tractor!!"

After that, I left the guys and went to help inside with the small girls in the crafts. They were doing little bracelets. Well, I heard "Tennis Ball, will you help me?" many times. It was so cute that the small girls began to call me tennis ball again after last year! How adorable!

I then went outside and the boys were playing the wink freeze game. That game where there is one murderer who has to wink at the others and freeze them (we in Brazil call it kill lol), then one guy has to be the detective and guess who the murderer is. When the murderer would wink to one of the boys, they would make lots of noises and say: "I am deadd!" very dramatically :) When Lydia and I joined the game, the guys got pretty excited. But Alan would tell everyone who the murderer was, especially when the murderer was me. I didn't even get a chance to wink at anybody and the kid HAD to tell Jason (who was the detective at the time) that it was me... How sad.

Every time Shane, Jason and Trevor would see me walking ( and I mean, eveytime!) they'd yell: TRACTOR!! They'd say something like: "Tractor look at what I am doing!" or "Tractor, take a photo of me!" or "Tractor, will you take me on basketball!" or "Tractor will you play foosebal with us?" or "Tractor, will you pull me at the zipline?" or "Tractor, the zipline is entangled!" or "TRACTOR!!" and they'd smile and wave to me, and etc etc. Mireille saw Shane saying "tractorrr!!!" and doing a little crazy dance, she said: "He really likes you!" She laughed. I replied: " Oh dear, I know, this is crazy!"

Day 3

Day three began with heavy rain. The kids had to go into the crafts room, where they painted pictures of trees, while Hannah and Lydia painted the kids' faces.

All the leaders were inside helping with the crafts (of course we wouldn't go outside in the rain!). What we didn't notice was that some of the boys, namely Paul, Patrick, Alan and Roger were having a mud fight outside. When we saw that, we told them to stop. But, boys will be boys. They wouldn't stop. Roger got completely soaked and dirty. Very much so that we couldn't see his face! There was mud in his ears, in his mouth and everywhere! Jason, poor kid, couldn't help it. He just HAD to join it. At the beginning he had normal clothes. At the end, he had, well, brown, filthy clothes.

Patrick is a funny boy. He doesn't speak much. I've heard him say only a few things during the camp. But at the mud fight, he got completely crazy! He is such a quiet messer, you don't even notice him, until he does something mischievous!
But he looked so happy! So did all of the boys taking part in the mud fight. Mireille told me that Roger said afterwards:

"That's the best day of my life!!!" Ah, we wouldn't spoil such happiness!

Looking at those war-like scenes, Dan and I tried to stop them, with no success. Oh well, seeing we couldn't, we just decided to take pictures of them. Some time later, Dan joked, looking at his watch:

"This is a disaster!! Why is the time going so slow today??" 

Jason was so soaked and dirty when he came into the crafts room that I took him to the toilet and washed his face. He is such a funny kid. I couldn't help but smile at the way he tried to take mud off his face and ears but couldn't. I had to help him. The way he speaks is the most adorable thing in the world. When he wasn't with the other boys, he would speak like a baby!
Interestingly enough, Trevor and Shane didn't join the mud fight! Jason was so eager in washing himself that he actually broke the sink. He looks at me and says, in a really girly voice:

"Ooops! Sorry!!" I just look at him, displeased, trying to hide a big smile. The sink was broken, so everytime we turned on the water, it went everywhere. The toilet got muddy and disgusting. It also smelled bad :). I was  thinking: "Could anything go worse today?" when the kids called me to disentangle the zip line, help them with this or that, or just told me to look at what they were doing.

The boys, not content with the mud fight, decided to make a mud slide as well.

Jason who was pretty clean some minutes earlier, came back to me as dirty as a pig but smiling. Oh boys will be boys, I thought.

There were some boys who didn't join the mud fight, they just looked. When Dan and I were outside, Tom said to us:

"Oh, I wouldn't join this! My mom would kill me!" Tom has a twin brother, so Dan decided to mess with him.

Dan: Tom, how old are you?

Tom: Nine years old.

Dan: And how old is your brother?

Tom (looking surprised): nine as well!

Sammy (who was nearby, listening): They are twins!

Dan (looking at me, laughing): Oh, I see. But who is older?

Tom (looking astonished at me, who was laughing really hard): He is two minutes older...

(Dan and I look at each other and laugh. the boys just look at us, not understanding a thing! )

The boys who didn't join the water fight were playing on the zipline. Trevor got hurt again. This time he fell on his foot and hurt it. But Trevor just wouldn't cry and that's why I never thought it was serious. When I asked him if it hurt a lot, he put his hand on his face and said: "Yeh", very seriously. Poor kid. We got some ice for him and he sat on the couch, very quiet. He decided to lie on the couch. Well, Lydia, who was sitting on that spot some minutes earlier, was standing now, painting one of the girls' faces. She decided to sit again, but didn't look where she was sitting, and not realising Trevor was lying just there, she was almost sitting on his face, (he looked very confused!), when I yelled:

"Lydia, don't sit there!" She looked behind her to see his astonished face staring at her. At that, Lydia and I had a fit of laughter, and Trevor sat up, looking at us, surprised. We laughed hard for quite a few minutes, Trevor facial expression was saying: What on earth are you two doing? He couldn't help but smile a bit at our foolish fit of laughter.We laughed even more when we looked at his confused face. I really think we are worse than the kids!!

After some minutes, he said: "I don't want any more ice" and went outside, where he challenged me: "Tractor, you against me on basketball!" Of course this big kid took the challenge. But Dearbhla, a six year old, decided to join the game (even though she hardly knew how to play it) and we gave up playing it.

As I was outside supervising the zip line and playing some basketball with other kids, I heard Shane scream:

"Lydia, we have a new name for you! You are Lydia Activia!" And from there on, they called her Activia.

Some of the girls, Aoife and Megan, who were around 9 years old, kept asking me to clean the muddy swings for them. They kept saying things like: "Oh boys are animals! We are girly and we are clean! Why do boys have to be so dirty?" I couldn't help smiling at their girly, feminine remarks!

The boys, namely the remarkable trio kept calling me all day long for all sorts of things. When Shane was on the zipline, he called me:

"Tractor, watch this!" and he went sliding. One of the kids said:

"Tractor, you are FAMOUS!" I was like: "I know, this is just great, do you guys want autographs?" and made thumbs up for the kids. Some of them laughed, others thought I was a weirdo haha.

At the end of the day, we were all as dead as you could get. I mean, running around muddy kids on the rain, disentangling the zipline a thousand times, cleaning kids' faces, playing all sorts of games with them, running around to prevent accidents and etc is not easy! But one thing that paid all of this off was when Cherry, Anna's 5 year old sister came and gave the craft she made to Lydia. Such a sweet child! She saw I was beside Lydia and said: "You can share!" How precious is that? :)

Day 4

Day four started with the story. Dan remarked that if the kids had God in their lives, they would fly as birds and would succeed. Then the kids had to make a bird for their craft and drew some animals as well. When Shane and Trevor were finished, they came to me, yelling:

"Tractor, look at our chicken flying!" and they threw it making it fly for a second before landing inside the bin. They just found this great and kept doing it, till they got tired of it and went outiside.

We were divided into groups and I stayed with the small and big girls in the crafts room (as it was raining). It was a good time to talk to them more, and they were really excited to have me drawing elephants and cats and bears.(though my drawing skills are far from artistic!). The kids always got excited when the leaders came and talked to them one to one. I think it made them feel special. I could see how my little girls from last year had grown. They are so precious!

After crafts, we went outside for a break. Ciara, Lana and Freya, the 12 year old girls, came to me and complained that the boys had spat on Ciara. I didn't need to guess who did such mischief. I just knew it was Trevor, Shane and Jason. I went and gave out to them, looking very cross. I asked them:

"How old are you guys? Seriously, how old are you?" They were looking at me speechless. I continued:

"You guys are 9 or 10 years old! You are not kids anymore! You can't be doing kids' stuff like spitting on people!" They looked very embarrassed and Trevor excused himself:

"It was Shane who did it, so I threw water on him!" Shane then said:

"They started!" I shook my head, and they just stared at me, eyes wide open. I think they learned their lesson, and so I left them to think about it.

After the small break, the kids were dying to start the water fight. They kept asking us: "When is the water fight, when is the water fight?" and we kept telling them it was after lunch.
We played some games with the girls, then it was lunch time. Hannah and I loaded some more water ballloons and hid them in a grass part. the kids actually found them, and started playing with them.

I hardly had lunch. Jules, Lydia, Hannah and I filled all the water pistols and gave to the kids.
We were meant to play some water games before the water fight, but the kids were so eager to get it started that they couldn't help it: as soon as we gave them their water guns, they started the water fight. Oh well, the big kid here joined them. The boys were so excited! Jason, Trevor and Shane followed me, and well, I got them back! I held Trevor's arm and threw water on his face. Then I had to run real fast cause he chased me! I chased Shane and threw some water on his as well. All of the boys were throwing water balloons on me, which really hurt! The balloons would't break. Rather they would hit the person, then fall on the ground and break. How ridiculous!

Plotting against Hannah! :)

Ju, Freya, Ciara and I plotted against Hannah. We chased her and threw lots of water on her. Hannah and I also planned to take over the tree house, but when we got there, there was no boys left! So we decided to get Roger and Paul back for all their mischief during the camp lol. And wet them we did! We actually threw two buckets of water on Roger at the same time, and two on Paul. Well, after that Roger got vicious and wouldn't stop throwing water on me lol. Some of the girls like Alannah. Dearbhla and Aoife wouldn't stop chasing me either. Oh dear, it was a true mess! Water from the rain was mixed with water from the guns and some mud as well! Patrick, the quiet messer kept throwing water balloons at me throughout. I also chased Sammy, and he looked so pleased!

At the end I was so tired that I just sat down.

Most of the kids had already changed or were changing. Trevor and Jason had changed already, so I decided to do a little mischief. No, I didn't throw water on them, but I did call Trevor for a picture, and put my arm around him to get him wet.
 He didn't notice it, and after the photo, he was saying to Jason:

"I am wet, I don't know why!" haha got you back, kid!

We took some photos with other kids as well. When i went inside the crafts room, Trevor, who was sitting on the couch, yelled:

"Tractor, are you going to be here next year?"

"Yes i think so!" I replied. He smiled beautifully.

When they were leaving, Aoife asked me the same question. I said I probably would and she said:

"Yesss!" looking very excited, and grinning. When Shane was leaving, he said:

"See you next year Tractor!"

When I asked some kids if they would be coming next year, all of them said:

"Of course!!!"

Those kids are so precious! It was funny to see how most of the girls were so feminine and girly. It was funny to see how the boys try to be cool and manly. It was nice to see Trevor looking at me very serious when I talked to him and being polite and sweet when Jason and Shane weren't with him. It was nice to see Shane messing with me everytime he saw me and never being serious. It was nice to see Jason being a good and sweet kid and telling me all about his cows when he was far away from Shane and Trevor. It was great to get Sam and Jade to speak out a bit. It was nice to see how Aoife followed me all around and always wanted me to talk to her and play with her. It was great to see that this camp is a part of those kids' lives and that they enjoy it so much that they come every year, even when they are 12 or 13 years old. But the best thing is that every year they get a chance to hear about the Lord Jesus and His love for them. And every year, as they grow and mature, they hear that there is but one Saviour, and One that can redeem them from their sins.

We pray that this message may be engrafted in their hearts and that they may come to know the Lord Jesus as their Lord and Saviour.

Leaders after water fight

PS: The fellowship we had with our sisters in Christ will not be forgotten. We got to know them much better and we got to talk about our dear Saviour. It's a true blessing to share the same thoughts and to have such a sweet fellowship with persons who are united to us by Christ. We can't thank the Lord enough for their GREAT  help and for their lives, who were truly a blessing and an encouragement to our own lives. Only eternity will reveal the blessings that were attained through this time of fellowship.