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Camp Gorney was
amazing this year. God used this time to teach me all about
faith and my limits verses His. Looking back at Gorney I don’t
see it as individual days but as one big lesson and time of
growth.
Physically Camp
Gorney is a lot easier then Mama. There are western style
toilets and good clean showers.
During a typical
day at Gorney we would wake up and have devotions at 8 and have
breakfast at 9:30. Between devotions and breakfast we would
practice for our program for the kids. After breakfast we would
also practice more and then had the program from 11:30 until the
kids had lunch at 1:00. We would then have lunch at 2ish
practice and prepare the crafts till snack at 4. Then at 4:30
the girls from our team gave the girls at camp makeovers and the
boys from our team gave the boys from camp haircuts and hung out
with them. Doing the girls makeup was one of my favorite things.
The girls that came to us didn’t like what they looked like and
then after we did their makeup they couldn’t stop looking in the
mirror. At 6:00 the kids had their own program during which we
did laundry, rested, whatever. Dinner was at 8:00 and then we
practiced the program and prepared crafts until whenever we were
done.
There were some days with other
activities too. The camp had sport competitions so we played
ping-pong, football (soccer), and basketball. I played (yes I
played you read right) football and ping pong. Lost both but we
were good examples on how to work on a team and support each
other. Also this year there were two backpacking expeditions for
three days each. I actually ended up going on the second trip
from Tuesday to Thursday. It was hard, a great experience but
hard. We hiked a total of 55-60 km in three days. I’m pretty
proud of myself for making it. That’s all the details till now
because emailing them wouldn’t do justice.
We had a great team at Gorney.
There were three Americans, Sara, Sarah and I, five Ukrainian
students from Kiev Bible Institute, three boys and two girls,
Sasha, Pasha, Maxim, Ula and Marina. Then there was also Marina,
Vitalik (the Ukrainian National Director for The Least of These)
and their two sons Daniel and Phillip. Our team was great. After
Mama I remember thinking that I was really worried that Gorney
wasn’t going to have a good team but I was wrong. The unity in
the team was immediate we all clicked so well that it could have
only have been of God. Our team also had a great sense of humor.
We were always laughing and playing jokes on each other. God
blessed us so much through our team members on this trip.
Ok now about the lessons. On
the last morning that we were in Gorney Sarah Adams told me that
this was the trip of extremes. That, and the theme for the
children’s programs, faith, have become my personal themes for
this trip. Gorney and even Mama have been the trips of extremes.
There have been so many things that I have done that I would
have thought that I could never do. I have now been away from
home for about 39 days, the longest I have ever been away for. I
went on an extremely difficult three day backpacking trip. The
morning that we returned from the trip we climbed the mountain
back at Gorney. I woke up multiple days at 4:00 am. I have never
had a more challenging time health wise. And I don’t think that
I have ever discovered who I am, and realized who I want to
become both in life and in Christ, as much as I did on this
trip. Had you told me all that I was able to accomplish about a
month ago I would have laughed and told you that I could never
do that. I could never hike up mountains all day for three days
with a 30 pound bag on my back, kept up with everyone,
maintained a positive attitude, and have energy to spare. And
actually I think that is still true. It wasn’t me that was able
to do all these things, but it was Christ in me. Philippians
4:13 has really stuck out to me for this trip. I can do
all things through Christ who strengthens me. The
thing was though that I had to remove my limits that I set for
myself and allow Christ to move them back, way back. I had to
have faith that I would, could and still can do things that seem
huge, if I rely and learn to find my strength in Him.
Thank you all so much for
supporting me on this trip. This has defiantly been a life
changing experience for me and I know that is because of your
faithfulness in prayers and support. Thank you more then you can
ever know.
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