Rainy Camp Kick Off!

Our first camp started yesterday! 

The weekend with our first team was wonderful and Shiloh is VERY happy because she is getting played with so so much. I'm not going to know what to do when they all leave! She has recently started crawling as well. Maybe I will need to buy a leash? 

Some of team at our Orientation 

Dinner on our balcony. I tried to feed them some real food before they left for camp. 

The camp site is awesome and they all arrived yesterday around noon. 

The Americans with rolling suitcases, the Albanians with plastic bags. 

And when I say camp, I actually mean camp. 

There are tents. 

There are makeshift bathrooms. There are 2 toilets. Yes two. For 100 people. This is as opposed to last week when there were just holes. I personally believe everyone should have to do that at one point in their life. 

There are mosquitoes. 

There is bread and Nutella for breakfast (although some of the boys have no problem with that, I gained 6 lbs. last year...) 

This particular camp is kids ages 13-15. Some of them look 15 and some of them look 7. They are all so sweet and looked SO happy to be there! 

This sweet boy took about 60 selfies on my phone 

Unfortunately, it POURED last night. Thunder and lightening right above their heads. The team has been awesome! Not complaining. Just jumping in and making the best of it. 

Cory left this morning with 15 extra mattresses because a ton of them got soaked.

While we are not a CAMP MINISTRY, these camps are a huge part of our summer. 

Why does JV do camps? Why do we do camps? 

20 years ago when JV began, the first JV missionaries realized that they could get into the public high schools in Eastern Europe through the means of English. This was shortly after communism fell and everyone wanted to learn. 

The public schools allowed Christians to come into their classes, and say WHATEVER they wanted as long as they spoke English. 

From that the first English Summer camp was developed. It was advertised as a Christian camp in a completely Atheist country. 

English was a draw. 

English was a need. 

Atheists went to camp. They wanted to learn English. 

They heard about Jesus for the first time in their life. They heard the gospel.

They were saved. 

Since then, JV has done 1000 camps across Central and Eastern Europe. 

All of these camps are THROUGH local churches in these countries. 

This means that every student that gets saved at these camps is immediately plugged into a local church.

And that is our passion. The local church. 

We want to see Albanian's equipped, trained and discipled through the body of Christ. 

But that BEGINS with unbelievers. 

Ambra is on the right and she got saved through an
Evangelistic Festival through the Korca Church
When she was 13. She is a leader at camp this week. 

And in this particular instance, the ministry begins with YOUTH. 

Why? 

They have nothing to do during the summer. 

Their parents need to work and want them to be occupied. 

Under communism they had camps during the summer that they could ship their kids to. When communism ended they didn't know what do do with them. 

They want their kids to learn English. 

So they send their kids. Knowing that this camp is through the church. 

Atheists. Muslims. Greek Orthodox. Catholics. 

They all come. Christ saves them. 

And they become the church of that country. 

They get grow up, get married, and raise Christian families. 

These camps are used to DRAW. They are used to PROCLAIM. They are used to IGNITE. 

I wrote about a story from camp last year a while ago HERE. 

The ministry throughout the rest of the year is through the church. Bible studies, Sunday mornings, life on life. 

The camps just bring more people in.

 A week of hearing the gospel, sitting in small groups, and living with believers is IMPACTFUL. It is a "kick off" in some ways. 

AND they come because of the AMERICANS. 

WE apparently, are VERY interesting. 

I am still stared at even though I walk down the same street every day. 

It would be like if a tribal warrior with a loincloth, spear, black face paint and bone pierced nose walked into the produce section of the grocery store in America. 

At least thats how I feel. 

SO, that is WHY we bring summer teams from America. 

They prepare the English Lessons. They run the games. They build relationships. 

Camp Dance

They make fools of themselves. They stay up all night. They eat funnel cake for dinner. 

The Dining Area 

They are a light. They answer questions. They share the gospel over and over again. 

They have a platform because they are different, they are the SAME AGE and because they are AMERICANS that believe in Jesus. 

We also believe that part of our ministry, is to these Americans that come on the teams. 

Many of them are high school/early college students. Many of them are experiencing missions for the first time. 

We want this to IMPACT THEM as well. 

We want them to be pushed and stretched and questioned as well. 

We want them to be burdened for the nations. 

We want them to go home changed and passionate about the local church and about being a part of the Great Commission. 

And the beauty of this particular mission trip, is that they are building relationships themselves. They leave with friends. They have shared the gospel. They have shared their testimony. They have shared a piece of themselves by the end of the week. 

Praying for Camp Sunday night 

SO please pray for these camps this summer. 

Pray for the dear Albanian youth who have never heard the name Jesus. 

Pray for the American teams to gain a heart for the local church and for unbelievers. 
Pray for the gospel to be clearly proclaimed and for the small group time to dig deep. 
Pray for the weather!

And please pray that the toilets work.