A smiling Nabil Costas arrives to say hello and to see us off. He is beaming with humble passion for these children and the work God is doing. Pastor Joseph arrives and introduces us to his 18 year old son, Roy, and his 16 year old daughter, Joy. Finally all have gathered and we finish loading onto the bus. We begin our journey a little late which is not unexpected here in Lebanon.
The ride up the mountain is breath taking! The road curves and twists higher and higher as the city falls away below us. We can feel the air grow cooler as we make our way along the two lane road bordered by the side of the mountain to our left and an amazing view of Beirut to our right. It takes only about 45 minutes to reach our destination. We are nestled up in the mountains of Lebanon surrounded on all sides by picturesque views decorated with green and dust colored mountain tops. It is absolutely astonishing.
Around us it is controlled chaos as the bus is unloaded, rooms are assigned, and gear stowed. Since we have arrived late we immediately then head to the conference hall for the first of 5 Bible studies. They are all of the theme "Through the Eyes of God." The main focus is on our identity through Jesus Christ.
The study begins with worship music: all in Arabic. It is a beautiful language and the kids all join in to sing along. The sermon is in, as they all will be, Arabic also. We are blessed to be attending a camp that has been blessed in turn by various churches. A headset is available to each of us in which we can hear a translator speaking quietly into a microphone.
The guest speaker for the first lecture is elderly; he speaks with passion about creation, our Lord Jesus, His death and resurrection on the cross and through that our opportunity to accept the free gift of salvation and thereby become children of God, and through that our identity "through the eyes of God." He concludes his message and another song is song. Loulou then takes the microphone and goes over some of the rules of the camp and our schedule for the remainder of the day. We then divide up into groups to have a discussion about the lecture. Mary and I have a group of three boys, including Joseph's son, Roy, and three girls. There should be four girls; one has not arrived yet. They are all 17 and 18 years old. Jon and Kacie have a similar group, but their group consists of 13 and 14 year olds. These will be our groups for the remainder of the camp. They are friendly, quiet, yet eager to answer questions and to learn. We are privileged and honored to be entrusted to mentor such wonderful teenagers.
Following discussion we break for lunch. All the food is prepared in the cafeteria by the locals that own the campus that has been rented for the camp. Lunch is a standard Lebanese dish called mansala au potato (meat with potato - I am only guessing at the spelling) and is very good. After lunch we all have some free time and then afternoon Activities. Maher, a Syrian and Pastor Joseph's assistant and a student at ABTS, leads this up. It is two sets of very creative relay races. Did I mention how well behaved Lebanese teens are? They all wait patiently during the first nearly 30 minute explanation of the five required relays each team will need to finish in order to win the race. 30 minutes and they all listen attentively and patiently! This will be repeated again for the second set of 5 relays. And again they will listen patiently. The Arabic language is spoken very passionately. We think that they are being yelled at like a drill instructor, but we are told, no, he is just explaining the rules.
The relay races comprise of events like holding a whiffle bat against ones chin and, while looking up at the top of it, spinning around 10 times before running about 25 meters to a chalk line and back again, carrying a ping-pong ball on a spoon to the line and then running back, a wheel barrow race to the line and then running back, three people locking elbows to make a triangle together and running as a team to the line and then back again, two people running with a football held between their heads to the line and then running full tilt back again, two people running to the line with a piece of spaghetti held between their mouths and then back, and finally running to the line to find a coin, buried in flour on a plate, with their mouth. It was great fun to watch them and the peels of laughter that echo along the mountain were an indication they had even more fun participating in the events. After these hilarious and exhilarating races are free time and shower time before dinner at 7 p.m.
After dinner we gather again for worship and the evening message in which Jon and I are the speakers. We both give our testimonies. Jon uses the Roman road to not only illustrate his journey, but also to give a clear message of the path to salvation. He also adds a clear word picture by having one of the kids come up and join him to show how impossible it is to get to God on our own. He does this by standing about 20 feet away from Jad and asking him to jump to him. The fact that Jad can not span the difference shows that it is impossible to get to God with our own works. Jon's message is delivered very well; full of laughter as he speaks very confidently of the need for salvation and the love of Christ for us - even when we were yet sinners.
For my testimony I begin with the parable of the prodigal son from Luke 15. I tell them this is my story and this is to warn them against making the same mistakes I have made. That the lies Satan uses, attractive and full of promise, are empty and full of regret. As I look out upon their eager faces I am overwhelmed through the Spirit by how much they are loved by our Father in Heaven. My voice chokes and I can only pray they may understand my message: that no matter what - God loves them deeply and passionately! I hope to illustrate the responsibility we have to seek the Lord in the decisions one makes instead of following our own desires and getting ourselves into trouble and breaking God's heart. To show them how this relates to the theme of the weekend, I end with Ephesians 2:1-10 that states though we were once sinners we are are given salvation as a gift through Jesus Christ and all those who accept it are forgiven our transgressions and made alive through God's mercy and are God's workmanship. In our messages, both Jon and I try to emphasize the importance of making the right decisions at this crucial stage of their life and no matter their background, heritage, ethnicity, etc., Jesus Christ loves them so much he would rather die than live without them.
This is followed by Judgement. Yes, judgement. Maher and his two judges, Loulou and Zeina set up a table at the front of the room to serve as their bench. Their then follows one of the funniest, warmest, side-splitting, court mockery of the days events. I wish I could accurately explain to you how awesome this was. We were quietly told earlier in the day that there would be a spy watching the campers. If we noticed that anyone had done anything noteworthy and deserving of judgement - whether good or bad - we should tell Maher or Loulou. We did not realize fully what this meant. The entire event was of course, to remind the campers to follow the rules, to be respectful, to get along and love one another. This was done through laughter, not shame. Through creativity and not adherence to rules. Through joy and not pain - except for when we were all laughing so hard we were crying. In summation, let me give you an example. Do you remember the description of the relay races, especially the one were they were to hold a bat, look at it's top, spin ten times and then run to the line. Yes? Ok. One of the girls, when almost to the line, suddenly veered to the right and ran right into the bushes bordering the camp road where the races were run! At judgement, Maher, in stern character, with extremely passion, called her out on this - her judgement: to stand in front of the bush and apologize three times the following morning. Trust me, I cannot do this scene justice. To watch Maher "berate" - this is all an act - this tiny, timid, innocent looking, girl of harassing this bush was hysterical. Scenes like this were repeated for several of the campers. It was a great way to end the evening session. They are all so full of the joy of life; they are amazing!
We ended the evening with another worship song and then a brief reminder of the rules before being dismissed at about 10:30. And there was evening, and there was morning - the first day of camp.
No comments:
Post a Comment