(Friday afternoon)

This has turned out to be quite the random day (what's new, right?), but also an interesting one. Right now I'm sitting at a picnic school at some random elementary school which is within sight of the foot of a giant glacier, tucked back near the end of a long valley which follows a river that just slices and dices its way between snow-capped mountains on its way out to the fjord. And why am I here? for a volleyball tournament that I'm not even playing in. Go figure. Karlis, one of the local guys in Skjolden, recruited some of us for a volleyball tournament going on this evening. I wasn't particularly keen on playing (I'm not that good, and I wanted to do some more journaling), but Darrell couldn't go and they needed someone to drive Olav's car there... and since I love to drive, and am one of only a couple people on the team who know how to drive a stick shift, I gladly volunteered to do the chauffeuring. Today started off overcast and rainy, but it's turned into a beautiful, clear, sunny, breezy afternoon and evening; I love it. I can't imagine attending elementary school in such a paradisaical setting, with stunning views all around... but I bet the kids don't really pay much attention to the view.

Earlier this afternoon we spent some more time encouraging one another (we did some last night, too). I love being able to tell people how much they've meant to me and to the kingdom. I'm trying to be more intentional about doing it as part of my daily life, but it's nice to have some time set apart specifically for building one another up. As much as I hate being in the spotlight, I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy receiving some praise and encouragement after a summer of service. I was especially encouraged by the fact that several people said that they appreciate my direct style of question-asking. Sometimes I worry about coming across as a real debbie-downer, always being the one to kill a fun moment with a serious or thought-provoking question or comment. This past year I've been trying to become more direct and focused in my conversations, and for the direction and focus to be on the eternal. I'm still pretty rough at it, but I've seen a lot of fruitful conversations and thoughts come into play as a result of timely and pertinent questions. I just hope that somehow, some way, I can prod people towards the Light... and hopefully inspire them to seek out truth for themselves.

I really love this team, these people - I love the way that we've bonded and learned to work together, the way we seem to display so many different traits and characteristics which allow us to come together as the unified body of Christ. So cool. I'll admit, I've had my doubts at times as to whether we would really be able to gel like we needed to, but I underestimated the power of God to work his will through weak and frail humans, myself included. It was cool to see how we really became a team once we started at Zosna camp. Any differences which might have kept us from being truly unified before camp slipped away as we became focused on a common goal: serve God, serve others, and nothing else matters.

I'm having a real hard time recording what happened last week at camp... it already feels so long ago. I had hoped that I could take a few sparse notes each day and then recreate the events afterwards, but now I'm not quite sure that's possible. It doesn't feel quite right to try and write as though I'm in the moment when in actuality I'm far removed from it. So, I gues it's just remember and reflect...

One of the most frustrating parts about being "campfire co-director" was the random and flexible nature of Zosna camp. Beth and I would usually sit down sometime during the day and try to map out what we wanted to happen that night. The usual lineup would include some songs, skits, testimonies, games, daily recaps, memory verse review, questions for discussion, all designed to try and fit in with the main theme and mood of the day's lessons. But, you would never know what time the campfire would start, which would have a direct impact on how much you could squeeze in before people started nodding off to sleep. In addition, you never knew what additional "acts" were on tap until the night actually began.

One night a group from a nearby church came and basically put on a Russian worship music concert... which, if you don't speak Russian, is about as interesting as watching paint dry. And even if you do speak Russian but are under the age of 40, you're probably not going to really dig it either. So, that night we had to drastically cut what we had ready to go... as we did the next night, Friday evening, when some random chap, seemingly out of the blue, got up and started directing us to play a couple of bizarrely random games. They included activities like sewing buttons onto pieces of cloth, and arranging our shoes to spell Russian words. Not only were they boring and bizarre, but they took up a ton of time on a night we had a bunch of stuff lined up (it was "talent night," and we had a full slate of songs and skits that the older Latvians had put together).

We had planned to have some sort of an "altar call" at the end of that night, since all of the kids from the orphanage were leaving the next morning and it was our last campfire as a "full" camp. But, between the bizarre games and having to cut out almost everything that we had planned, it seemed like the mood we were trying to create had been effectively killed. That is, until Ivan got up there and shared his testimony... you could feel people starting to engage again. We went ahead with our end-game plan, I said a few rods to challenge the camp to think about taking a step towards Christ, then Adam C. led a time of worship while a few of us hung out in the back and waited for someone to pray with... but no-one came. I had been praying all day long (even had fasted that morning, after another one of those moments where I felt God leading me to do so) for the camp, for individuals, and for at least one person to come to Christ that night. I had already seen God doing some amazing stuff throughout the day, so I went into the evening with high hopes and expectations... which quickly turned to sadness, frustration, disappointment, and anger that my biggest request hadn't been answered. How could nobody respond to the call of the Lord?

But just at my darkest moment, Yannis, a guy in his early 20's with just the biggest smile and friendliest personality ever, despite (or because of?) living at the orphanage and being limited by some mental and developmental difficulties, came over to me, smiled that smile of his, slung his arm around my shoulder and started singing along as best as he could. It was if God was telling me "Hey look, I can answer your prayer... but on my time, with my agenda, and how I want to." So true, so touching, and so humbling.

We had planned on having a time of sharing on the last night of camp (Saturday), a chance for people to tell how God had been teaching them and calling them that week... but that ended up getting postponed until Sunday afternoon when what I had thought was going to be one person's 10-minute testimony somehow turned into a four-person, hour-long recap of the material we'd studied that week. It didn't exactly resonate with anyone for a variety of reasons, and wasn't what we had in mind for that evening in particular. I was sitting around the campfire later that night feeling a little melancholy, both over the way the events of the evening had played out and also about the fact that it was my last night at Zosna camp, when some local kids sat down across the fire from me. Cody had been hanging out with them for most of the week, despite the fact that they weren't technically campers but were just some kids who lived in the area who hung out at Zosna camp off and on that week. A few of them had written a letter to the entire camp that day, saying how much they enjoyed being a part of camp this year (albeit in limited form) and that they appreciated everyone's kindness and openness and that they were trying to get to know God better as a result. Pretty wild stuff!

Anyways, I felt led to chat with them, so I started up a conversation with one of the guys, Anders, who I had just officially met for the first time earlier that day (but who Cody had been witnessing to all that week). I told him I appreciated the letter that he and his friends had written to the camp, and started asking what he thought about Jesus. One thing led to another, and next thing I knew we were sitting together a little ways away from the campfire (the rest of his friends had ditched him for a smoke break) and he was praying for the first time to be a Christian. Halle-freakin'-lujah!

I was worried while we were praying that he might not "get it," that something might be getting lost due to his limited English... but right after he said "Amen," he grabbed his heart, and literally started gasping for air, and started saying "Whoa... whoa... this feeling... I feel so... I don't even have words... My heart, it's light, it's free!?! I can't even explain it... Whoa..."

Yikes.

I was just sitting there, probably with my jaw scraping the ground, utterly amazed at how awesome our God is. Salvation? Available for free? To me? No way! Who wouldn't want to share that good news? There's something so absolutely refreshing about seeing the gift of salvation through the eyes of a new believer; he was in utter disbelief that it really, truly, was that simple. No need for a church, or a priest, or any huge ceremony... just believe. I felt so humbled to be in a position to share that moment with him. I was worried that I might have butted in and totally stole a moment from Cody that he had been hoping and praying for, but when we tracked him down to share the good news, he told me how he had been praying for God to use someone else to lead one of those guys to Christ to help keep him humble and remind him that it's not him, it's all God. So true. Only God could work everything out in such a fantastically amazing way.

Since we didn't get our "sharing time" in during the last campfire, we managed to find time to squeeze it in on Sunday before everyone left. I kicked it off by sharing some of what God had been teaching me that week (more on that later; I'm still processing), another guy got up and shared some really deep and personal stuff... and then a lady came up and shared, in essence, the story of St. Francis of Assisi. Talk about a total mood kill (not to mention a serious "huh?" moment). The whole time she was talking (which was forever), I could see people's eyelids drooping and attention wandering (I'll admit, I resorted to praying for rain so we could just kill the session and get on with our lives). By the time she finished I wondered if there was an ounce of energy or emotion left in the camp... but then up strolled a girl who proceeded to share about how, at camp this year, she was finally deciding to start coming back towards Christ in her life. It was touching, it was powerful, and the timing couldn't have been better.

All week long I kept seeing how God was working his will at camp, and he was going to see it carried out... with or without us, regardless of how well things were planned out or how many unexpected interruptions there were, with people's cooperation or without. It just made me realize once again how great God is, how small I am, and how privileged I was (and am) to have an opportunity to take part in the furtherance of his kingdom. And now the volleyball tournament is drawing to an end, and I must resume my chauffeuring duties swiftly... and it looks like some people might need some consolation as well. A few American spirits appear to have been bruised on the harsh sands of the volleyball court today.