The seeds have been planted

As an English Camp rookie, I thought that blogging daily during camp would be an easy task, but it was not. What I failed to realize was that the camp only had dial-in acess, yep that's about 30kbps which is slow as molassess and I did not realize that English camp is a 7am-2am non-stop race. There was literally no down-time. Not that we were running ragged, but the days were just a blur of meetings, fun, laughing, hanging, building relationships with students, having serious talks. Add all that together and I did not blog at all during camp. The camp has ended and we are back in Tartu for a couple of days of debriefing, so I thought I'd fill you in on a bit of what happened and to thank you for praying and help to direct your future prayers.

If I could some the week up in one word it would be RELATIONSHIPS. Part of the reason camp was busy is that we were always starting, building and growing relationships with the Estonian students. We did this through our small group discussions which last about 1 hour and were held after every large group meeting. We also did this by doing FREE TIME events together during the day like soccer, American Football, snow tubing, guitar lessons, self defense classes, whiffle ball, bead making sessions and more. Then during the evenings other events allowed us to further relationships like movies, Cafe, Sauna and game playing. I'll fill you in on the Sauna experience in another blog. I found myself during the week, rarely spending time with Americans but often found myself immersed in a crowd of Estonian students. Often conversation would fall back into the native tongue and every so often someone would say, "we need to translate for Clay" or "let's speak English."

The team has definitely felt your prayers and God has certainly been moving in students hearts as well as leaders hearts. The presence of God was felt so much today that after the students had left the entire leadership team was crying tears of joy as we committed the camp and each student to the Lord. It was quite an emotional good-bye for all, because we all were able to see students either commit their lives to Christ or move closer to considering Christ. You are a part of these stories. It is by means of your prayers that God has chosen to soften students hearts and sustain our tired bodies as we all joined together to incarnate the goodnews of Jesus Christ. You will hear more of these stories that you were a part of...and in fact the stories continue. We will be meeting with students on Friday in Tartu and on Saturday we will meet students in Tallin.

Here are a few snapshots of the camp:
(1) Here are some of the students registering for camp. This year there were 70 students, many were first-timers and at least 70% were not Christians. We had 30 leaders this year that is 16 Americans and 14 Estonians. (2) On Wednesday morning I caught a rare sight, 2 leaders and 3 Christian students in prayer. On Wednesday we had talks #4 and #5 during which I shared the gospel. Knowing the importance of this time, these girls gathered to pray that the Spirit would be moving in lives, drawing hearts towards Him. (3) Here is Chris Kelley standing on a table during lunch crowing like a rooster. This is something that Chris did a lot during meals this week at camp. Craig Hamer (camp director) awarded students for accomplishing the "Top 10 Things to do at English Camp." On the list was, stand on a table and crow like a rooster with Chris Kelley...poor Chris. (4) One of the Estonian leaders is an art student and took the images I used during my first 4 talks (leading up to the gospel in #5) and put them on a poster which was displayed in our meeting room. Images in order which I delivered the messages are labels, mirror, mask and road sign. Nice work Tarmo!! (5) Here is a fun snapshot of the American and Estonian leaders at camp. We teamed up as a real one-two punch during the camp to make events run smooth, make the meeting times fun and build deep relationships quickly with ALL students at the camp. It was a real experience in body life!

Pray for:
(1) Students who left the camp desiring to know more about Christianity, that they would be followed up on and would consider attending a Home Group Bible Study.
(2) Students who left the camp with a new relationship with Christ, that they would quickly connect with a Home Group and begin to grow in Christ through mentorship and reading the Bible.
(3) For all 30 leaders, Christian and American, that we would not crash and burn after such an amazing experience of seeing God work in and through us. We actually covenanted with one another to pray for each other every day for the next month, knowing that storms often follow on the heals of great spiritual victories.