Day three of camp was just as exciting and challenging as day one. It has been very encouraging to see the teachers and campers getting comfortable with one another which has made engaging them inside and outside of lessons a lot easier. You can talk with anyone at anytime about anything. Being part of and hearing all the conversations that have been had about the Bible has been amazing. Even though we don't know each other that well, it has been so refreshing to see the passion fellow believers here have for Christ.
There is a late night show which is a fun mix of singing and playing games. A group of Americans and Russians were called on stage to try and guess what the other team was saying. The Russians had an English word or sentence they had to try and say and the Americans had a different Russian word or phrase they had to try and say. Giving it our all, we Americans completely butchered what they were trying to say, but the Russians, using the English they have been taught, were able to say the words clear enough that we could guess what they said correctly. It was so cool to be able to see and hear how much they really know.
Near the end they have one American on stage talk a little bit about their life and testimony. Last night was my fellow teacher from Boise, Idaho-Monica Sander. Getting to know her and Cynthia has been a real joy for me. Together, through the power of God's Spirit in each of us, I think we make a great team.
We then had dessert and played some games. Dessert was Buckeyes (OHIO!!), chocolate covered pretzels and apricot preserves. We played code names with a fun group of Russians and bonded over the confusion of how each of us interprets what a word means.
The evening closed with Thomas and Kaitlin arriving during game time late last night and it was so interesting to see them be immediately bombarded with hugs and greetings from the Russian people who knew them previously from other camp years.
With love,
Matthew.
Sorry the wifi is not strong enough for pictures. We will upload more when we are able