We have a bit of time tonight, so I thought I would update you on what has been happening.
We had very limited access to the internet at camp. Over all, I taught 6 days, 2 hour classes. In the afternoon, we 3 teachers rotated our classes. So I did my two activity days, 3 times each. The three classes were very different, the high class spoke English very well, the middle class, the one I had were very hesitant to talk. They had good vocabulary, but were timid to speak. The lower class had VERY little vocabulary, were very young, all about 13 years old, and very hard to moviate!!! I really felt for that teacher. He was from Canada, was a physics/math/computer teacher. But he did struggle!
I didn’t have much of my lesson plans done before I went, I just didn’t know what the kids knew. We worked on some vocab words each day. They focused on certain areas, about food/restaurant, about emotions, about school,and about character traits. We also learned a Bible verse, I picked ones where Jesus said he was I AM....the way, the truth and the life, the vine, the good shepherd, and bread of life. Then we played a LOT of conversation games. I had them write in their journals, nice way to talk to each one of them in a comfortable way.
There were 26 kids, more boys than girls. In the morning, we had breakfast about 8, cleaned up the house(we were in the boys dorm for Black Forest Academy). Then the counselors (Craig) would lead his boys in morning devotions. So he taught them how to do that. Then the kids came to English class, then half hour of free time, lunch, clean up after lunch, Activity in English (me) then at 3 there were large group games until 6 supper, then chapel, snacks and evening devotions. Craig’s responsibilities were to be with the kids whenever they were not in English classes. So he played a lot of ultimate frisbee, watched a LOT of soccer and played american football. He was very pleased to lead one of his older boy to Christ towards the end of the week. There were two boys that came to Christ that week!!!! That was very exciting.
The Canadian team that we worked with was awesome. They accepted us very easily, we all worked well together. I was so impressed with their own walk with Christ, and the many experiences that they brought to this camp.
I want to thank you all for your prayers. The two boys who met Christ, also want to thank you as well. Your prayers also supported us, as we struggled with the cultural
differences, the language differences, and the typical energy that you have when you put 14 boys, mostly junior higher, together!!!
Then on Sunday, we started our trip home. We left from Basil, Switzerland, and took the slow train to Stuttgart. I think that whole trip took about 6 hours, we stopped in Freiburg for lunch along the way. This was one of the very interesting towns. Again, it was old, cobblestone streets and beautiful buildings, and lots of cute, art-sy shops.
On Monday we went to the airport, and found out that our plane was oversold. The compensation for volunteering out tickets was GREAT. So we stayed an extra day in Stuttgart, just walking around, looking at buildings, people and shops. If we get a chance to stay another day, we will go to the Mercedes-Benz museum, they were closed on Monday!!
Well, I will try to post again tomorrow..bye for now.
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