My life in Russia has me constantly doing new things I never thought I'd be doing, and working at a kid's camp adds a whole 'notehr level of, how do I put it? Weird. But don't think I'm complaining; one of the things I love most about my Russian life is that it's always an adventure.
Logos camp began on July 29 and it's two sessions ran until Aug. 18. The first ten-day session was for kids, the second session was for teens. What, one might ask, does an American do at Bible camp in Russia? In English camp, my special skill-set is more obvious, but what do I have to offer Logos? As it turns out, my American-style organization. Somebody had to organize our very own Fear Factor, and the task fell on me.
very day we picked 10-12 kids randomly from a box to participate in our own version of the reality show, filmed everything, and then watched the results at our evening meeting. At the end of camp we took all the winners (a boy and girl won every day) and they competed in a grandiose, terrifying, dive-in-a-pool-of-milk eat-pig-feet final. The two ultimate champions won free tickets to next year's Logos, which is a really sweet prize if you ask me. I was the Fear Factor Coordinator. This means that I thought up all the games, gathered the supplies (I had two fantastic helpers, Lena and Camila, who saved me bacon numerous times), coordinated the participants and took the blame for making kids put boiled chicken heads in their mouth. Chicken heads in their mouth? Yes.
Let me give you some examples of the challenges the kids had to face: a teetering platform suspended 40 ft in the air, where the kids had 30 seconds to collect yellow flags velcroed onto the board; transporting boiled chicken feet in their mouths from one table to another; finding the keys to padlocks enchaining their wrists while sitting inside a closed box in the dark, and the keys are, of course, in an aquarium of cockroaches.
The kids in first session took it pretty much in stride (though Revekka, my pastor's daughter, burst into tears and refused to compete in the crawdad-catching round) but the teens were hilarious, especially the girls (as is to be expected).
On a more serious note, the theme of fear was really well thought out. There was a sermon every night about different kinds of fear; fear of failure, fear of punishment, fear of God, and it was good to see the kids and especially the teens learn about overcoming their fears. I'd by lying if I said I didn't come away with a lot of great insights for my own life.
Well, I feel like I just got back into "normal" life and I'm already preparing for my trip back to the good ol' USA! I'll be home until mid-October, so I hope to see as many of you as I can before I come back to Russia and start planning winter English Camp (if you have any theme ideas, send them my way!).
See you stateside!
Пока ребята,
Russian Jane
Logos camp began on July 29 and it's two sessions ran until Aug. 18. The first ten-day session was for kids, the second session was for teens. What, one might ask, does an American do at Bible camp in Russia? In English camp, my special skill-set is more obvious, but what do I have to offer Logos? As it turns out, my American-style organization. Somebody had to organize our very own Fear Factor, and the task fell on me.
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| All-camp picture of second session at Anya's baptismE |
Let me give you some examples of the challenges the kids had to face: a teetering platform suspended 40 ft in the air, where the kids had 30 seconds to collect yellow flags velcroed onto the board; transporting boiled chicken feet in their mouths from one table to another; finding the keys to padlocks enchaining their wrists while sitting inside a closed box in the dark, and the keys are, of course, in an aquarium of cockroaches.
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| Water games quickly degenerated into mud games (this is Ernie, we first met him last summer at English Camp!) |
On a more serious note, the theme of fear was really well thought out. There was a sermon every night about different kinds of fear; fear of failure, fear of punishment, fear of God, and it was good to see the kids and especially the teens learn about overcoming their fears. I'd by lying if I said I didn't come away with a lot of great insights for my own life.
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| Pulling names out of the Fear Factor box; it made me feel very Hunger Games |
See you stateside!
Пока ребята,
Russian Jane
