Young Life Camp 2021
- Meg Harmon
- Aug 19, 2021
- 2 min read
Have you ever tried to put together a camp for one hundred German middle school kids in less than two months? Well you can live vicariously through us as we recently survived a week of camp! Woohoo! As we have mentioned before on our blogs, we’ve been prepping for camp since June. We have had to learn on the fly how to: set up and execute a carnival, put together a silent disco for all the campers, elaborately decorate the dining hall, run two different types of field games, lead inspiring devotionals for ages 18-54 and do all these things in another language (even speaking English was fatiguing as we had to stay away from colloquialisms and complex words...like colloquialism)! Sheesh! Thankfully we were able to have a wonderful time with our team of eight summer team volunteers (who mostly understood us... I think) making camp happen.
Meg and I were grateful to be a part of what God is doing through Young Life in the DACH region (Deutschland, Austria, Switzerland, and Lichtenstein) . It was great to finally meet some like-minded coworkers that are doing the work of Young Life all over Germany! Everybody was excited that we were there, and because we tried our best to speak German, we were warmly received. Our Deutch is still in the elementary stage; in one instance I thanked the kitchen cook by saying, “Thanks for cooking!” in German. I thought this was a nice gesture. However, the cook gave me a strange look and came over and put her arm around me. It turns out she thought I said, “Thanks for cuddling!” LOL.
It was fantastic to be around people again, use our gifts and Young Life insight to enhance the camp experience. Chase’s highlight was getting to be the strong man or “Stark Mann” at the carnival. He was allowed to be like Hulk Hogan and arm wrestle all the middle schoolers. There were lots of caveman grunts and laughter and just a few bruised elbows. For Meg, it was a true delight to be at camp not as a volunteer but as a paid staff member. She loved running around with her clipboard organizing, solving problems, and engaging her creativity. We both felt like we got to lean into the fullness of our giftedness.
In Young Life, it is often said that things are “caught, not taught”. There are things that are hard to explain until you experience them yourself. That is why we were so thankful to take two incoming seniors from MIS with us. We hope that this excitement for genuine Christian community will launch us into this school year (which actually started Wednesday).
We thank you for your partnership with us. We couldn’t do this without you! Thank you for being a part of our team.
Excited for you guys! Seems like things are really getting started in a huge way! - Jesse
Love reading your updates. Good work! Love how the Lord is using you both and you guys are both able to use how He has gifted you!! 🙏🏽