February 17:
Friday was Gan and David's Anniversary! In our devotion time in the morning, David started the sharing about what we are thankful for with reflections about how wonderful it is to have a partner that is his best friend who draws out the best in him. We had a great time talking, singing and praying together! I really appreciate this team!
After worship time, we largely spent the day doing last preparations for our weekend events. Our team and the Mighty Oaks Staff are hosting a camp on Saturday for all our sponsor children and their friends. We decided to do a Music and Drama Camp using the story of the Prodigal Son. Mom and David will lead the artistic campers who want to create props and backdrops. Sylvia and Air will work with the group of actors to tell the story using the script and costumes Sylvia prepared ahead. Noy, Tum and I are working together with the music group to create the score for the play. We sat in our groups after a worship and prayer time together in the morning to clarify our plans and identify any missing resources.
On Sunday we are hosting the area Mighty Oaks families and church leaders to come to the ministry center after church. Gan and some of the Agape girls put together beautiful flower arrangements for the event. Thailand has so many flowers that it is the natural way to decorate.
We had a special celebratory lunch together in honour of Gan and David. Gan and Noy did most of the cooking! It was awesome! Mom bought Gan a sweater that matched her own - so we insisted on a photo!
By late afternoon we had accomplished all the physical preparations at the church and centre. We took the evening off and I spent time trying to refine my talk for the camp evening and then catching up on our blog! Mom helped me with the details.
February 18
What a full and amazing day! We expected around 60 children and youth to attend our camp and had over 85!
We met the campers and they learned our theme for the day and our theme song: Give Me Jesus. You can hear it in Thai at this link - ข้าต้องการพระเยซู (Give me Jesus) - Bright Romance Live Moment - 030222 - YouTube
We then divided into groups of more than twenty campers each. We weren't sure how this would work but we were looking forward to seeing what we could put together in a couple of hours!
The artistic group talked about dividing into teams that would work on backdrops, signs, fake food for the feast and large props like a doorway to the Father's house.
The drama group identified cast members and dancers as they ran through the script.
And our music team identified instrumentalists as we talked through the transitions that we could use music to create the atmosphere and the party music. Tum taught a song that he wrote to the instrumentalists while Noy walked through the story of the prodigal with the rest of the group. Then we taught them the vocals for the play.
I worked with the dancers to help them picture how they could move to the song we had prepared.
Then we put our pieces together to see how it worked!
The result was a really fun version of the lost son with ownership from all the children! And that was all before lunch!
After lunch we did a dress rehearsal and then the campers had an afternoon of games.
David drove us Canadians back to the ministry centre for a break before the evening events! After dinner, we put on our production as a camp for parents, volunteers and one another! Every actor had memorized their lines, the song was really solid and the props were way beyond what I imagined! It was a great experience of what we can do when we work together!
When the children settled after a wonderful job of telling the story of the lost son from Luke 15, Sylvia shared a personal reflection about her own experience of a child who had gone her own way but then was restored to a wonderful life.
Tum and the worship team led a great music and prayer time.
After that, I spoke with Gan's translation about unconditional love and God's desire to restore all of us to our true selves through the cross. We then had time to write down something that got in the way of God's best for us - a limiting belief, a bad decision that we needed to repair, or anything that hindered us from living out of fullness - and brought them to the cross. We had a great prayer time and finished the night with worship.
It was a full day but we all felt so great about having our first kid's camp in four years! The kids had a great day connecting and making beautiful memories. I was so proud of our leadership team from Fang. They really shone! It was also a pleasure to see the pastors from the area churches bringing in their truck loads of children! Their care and involvement in the children's lives was obvious! There are good things happening in Northern Thailand! We are excited about what the future hold for these sponsored children and hope to see many more children have a chance to thrive!
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