The VBS program was called Serengetti Trek. Apparently there is no word in Romanian for serengetti...translating this proved to be a challenge. The program focused on 5 things: Know God, Talk to God, Work for God, Tell About God, and Love God. We had crafts, games, snacks, and Bible stories. We broke the kids up into animal groups...my group was called the Lions. I had Ben, Cristi, Teo, David, Marian, and Vasi in my group.

I led them through their daily activities and tried to keep everyone together. This was not easy when the place where we ran the VBS was also where we were staying. The kids would constantly run off to their rooms...there was a gate at the entrance to the camp and Marian and Vasi would get on it and swing back and forth. They found it highly amusing, but I was not so amused. Suddenly half of my group would disappear...

In the morning, everyone would get together for breakfast and then worship. During worship, Laura and I would distribute the Agape gifts. This tradition was started last year by the other team. Agape are just little gifts for everyone...pencils, hats, stickers, etc. After worship we would have a break and all of the kids would run upstairs for their Agape gifts.

While they were distracted, we would set-up the big room downstairs for the "Mane Event". This is the time when everyone would get together and we would go over the Bible point and Bible verse for the day. Pam, Walter and Anna would also put on a little skit, with Lois and Adi translating in the background. We would also have singing...we taught everyone some new worship songs in English (like "Let Us Pray" and "In the Secret"). I think this was my favorite part of the day.



After that, we broke up into groups and made our way through the different stations. My group always started with games so we were the "guinea pigs" as Tracy and Jake tried to figure out the best way to run the games. The first day we played snake tag...one person is it and then they tag another person and join hands. The "it" group gets larger as more people are tagged. This game was interesting because Vasi was too little to play and Marian would play but wouldn't run fast enough. The "it" group would start running after someone and then Marian would fall and get dragged along on the ground. He thought it was funny...I was glad he was laughing. As long as he wasn't crying...

The Bible Expedition part of the day was always very good. Pam put this on with the help of Matt and Jen. The first day was probably the most realistic and I had poor little Vasi crying because it was dark and there were noises of soldiers fighting. Apparently other groups had problems with this as well. One day, Pam and Matt acted out Daniel in the lions den and Matt played a very convincing angry soldier. The next day, Simon prayed out loud, asking God to not let Matt be a scary soldier anymore. I liked this time, though, because it challenged the kids to really think about a relationship with God and the sacrifices that it required sometimes. It was cool to listen to their answers about prayer and Jesus...

More to come from camp in Marga...