Olympic Camp

We'll write a short play by play account of the camp first, and then a few testimonies from the camp.

Friday 5:30pm, the bus showed up at the Lopburi Youth House. We threw our stuff inside, loaded up the bus as quickly as possible, locked up the Youth House, and then headed off to Nakhon Sawan for the camp. Students immediately started singing songs and getting to know new friends. Praise God that it seemed like no student was left out.

Friday 7:30 pm, arrive at the camp, register, find our rooms, have a fun opening ceremony with games. Praise God that students who initially seemed anxious to come to a Christian Camp figured out that they would have fun as well. Then we separated into groups for the first of 4 Bible Studies.

Friday 1am Bedtime.

Saturday 7:30am Staff Meeting, then breakfast, a Silly Song, then Bible Study.

Saturday 11am Workshop time, students got to choose from 10 workshops, like sports, craftmaking, Photography, etc.

12:30 pm Lunch

1:30 pm Workshop #2

3:00 pm Camp Olympics- Students divided into 10 "countries", and competed in several events such as: Tie your legs together relay race, Balloon Stomp, indoor soccer, gymnastic water relay race, water balloon volleyball. The winners of the beautiful gold medals and gold chocolate bars were: China.

6:00pm Delicious Dinner with sticky rice and chicken and Som Tam.

7:30 pm Song, skit, and then a Bible Study in small groups. Afterwards, a time of question and answer with the camp "GURUS". Praise God that many serious questions were asked about the Christian faith.

10:00pm Irish dance time, then an outdoor BBQ with live music playing. Students really enjoyed their time this evening, and we heard of many good conversations that happened between students and Christian student leaders.

2:00 am Most students and staff didn't go to bed until around 2am

Sunday 7:30 am Staff meeting, breakfast, workshop #3.

Sunday 11:00 am Skit, Bible study in small groups.

12:00 pm Students choose 1 of 4 groups to join. 1. I am a christian already 2. I am ready to accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and saviour. 3. I want to know more about Jesus Christ and the Christian life. 4. I had fun but am not really interested in Jesus Christ.

Praise God that 3 students chose to accept Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. Praise God that the majority of students wanted to know more about Jesus and the Christian Life. Pray that they will continue to learn and seek God, and that they will continue to have opportunity to learn about God's love for them.

1:00pm Lunch

1:30 pm Closing Ceremony speech by Johnny. Praise God that he was able to clearly summarize the gospel and that students were listening closely to his words.

3:00 pm - clear out your room and load up the bus as quickly as possible.

A few short Testimonies:

Pang: Pang has been coming to the Lopburi Youth House regularly for 2 months now and has heard several testimonies, been to church several times, sat in on the weekly Bible Studies, and joined us all in singing worship songs. She was drawn to the Youth House because she could tell people here cared about her because we looked in her eyes when she talked. She told us of how alone she felt at home and school, and how her parents didn't seem to care about her. Slowly she has started see Christ's unconditional love for her. At the camp, she was able to clearly study the gospel message of our sin and separation from God, and Jesus' love for us and desire to have relationship with us. Pang chose to make Jesus her Saviour and to follow him. Please keep her in your prayers.

Nam: Nam, age 17, has been a Christian for 2 years now, and has obvious leadership and fruit of Christ's work in her life. Through the witness of her life and the change in her life since becoming a christian, her mother is also a christian now. Nam was a Bible Study leader for the first time at the camp. She said it was a great experience and very challenging. She was so excited to be able to serve God in this way. Her group had 1 other Christian and 3 non-Christians. She said they asked many tough questions, but she was still glad to be their leader. Some students even thought she was staff because of her maturity.

Students from Polytechnic School: A teacher from Polytechnic School arranged for 11 students to come to camp. We were at first a little worried because we did not know them and students from this school are not the most obedient. We were pleasantly surprised that they got along well with other students, enjoyed their time, and several showed that Christ was working in their hearts and minds as well. Ball is saying he wants to be a Christian and a Buddhist (this is a step in the right direction, even though he's not there yet). Others also enjoyed the Bible Studies and are open to learning more. They all left smiling and hoping to see us again.

Nice and his friends from Kai Narai: Nice is a great witness at his school. He was able to convince a group of 8 students and 1 teacher to come to camp with us. He organized all their paperwork, and even wrote an official letter to the school director asking for permission for the students to go. Several of these students had good conversations with staff about the Christian Faith and show that God did use this camp to work in their hearts. Pray that he continues this work and continues to connect them with Christians.

OLYMPICS Evangelistic Camp

On August 15-17 we will have a big evangelistic student camp in Nakhon Sawan with a theme of the Olympics. The official name is Huang A Yai, which is a sort of play on words for big circle, Take Care, and it's hard to explain but students like the name.
We hope to have around 120 high school and college students come to the camp for around $8/person. We'll have several competitions, opening and closing ceremonies, and we'll use the colors of the Olympics to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. We will have 5 Bible Studies, each on one color of the 5 circles.
The rings of the Olympics are Green, Blue, Black, Red, and Yellow.
Green represents God is the creator of everything.
Blue represents God reigns over everything, He is the Ruler of the world.

Black represents man's sin and rebellion from God.
Red represents God's love for us, shown by sending His son Jesus, who died on the cross so that our sins may be washed clean. Red also represents Jesus blood, shed as a sacrifice once for all of us.
Yellow represents our new life as children of the King, and the promise of eternal life in heaven with streets of gold.

Other activities will be a campfire with music and performances by students, a BBQ dinner, singing worship songs together, and time in workshops. In the workshops, students get to choose from several different activities including: sports, making crafts, learning english, etc.
Please keep this in your prayers over the next 2 weeks.
1. The staff, to complete all of our preparations and to still have energy to love the students at camp. That we will have wisdom in all the last second preparations. That we will show God's love through our lives and our words.
2. The Christian students, to grow closer with God and have a bigger understanding of His love for us. Also, to be encouraged/set on fire by the big community of christian students. Pray for them to be bold in sharing their faith with non-christian students at the camp. Also pray for the student leaders who will lead the small group Bible Studies.
3. The Non-Christian students, that their hearts will open up to the Gospel and that they will let go of the things that hold them back from following Jesus. There are several students from each Youth House that have heard the gospel and have interest, but pray that God will use this time to convict them of their need for Jesus Christ to be their personal Savior.