A few weeks have passed since the last blog post. It’s been an eventful couple of weeks!
Seeds of Hope runs something called ‘Gents Camp’ every year. It is a week-long camping trip for boys who are 14 years and older. They sleep in tents, do Bible Study, praise and worship, and play all kinds of competitive & intense games! Typically, a team from Australia comes to run the camp, but because of covid, this couldn’t happen. We were excited that the camp was still going to happen this year, and Jon signed up to be a team leader.
Here’s Jon’s review of the week:
Gents Camp ... what an awesome week! Most of my time is spent on the farm, and the boys dorms are on the other side of the orphanage, both of which make making connections with them harder. Gents Camp changed all that. We, as leaders, set out on Sunday afternoon to setup camp for all of the boys coming the next day. All of the 14+ kids (including Grace grads in college) can come. The leadership team consisted of pastors, the principal, the transition house leader, Evan and myself. We were assisted by a couple of previous camp attendees and they were titled the junior leaders. We set up tents and enjoyed a meal together the first night discussing the coming weeks events. The next morning, all the boys arrived and they were received in true Gents Camp style!!!! Many whistles, drums, yelling, pool noodles hitting the arriving vehicles as they pulled in to camp. The boys were split into 4 tribes and us leaders showed them their tents. And so began Gents Camp!
Every day consisted of Bible Study in the morning, led by our pastor, and then we set off into discussion groups. After that we played games. Testosterone/competitive filled games….. The first night we played “Bring Him Alive”. Us as leaders had to go hide and the four tribes had to go and find us in the pitch black in the bush. Let’s just say that once a tribe finds you, you better try defend yourself. The week of soreness began on night one. After being caught three times, dragged along the ground, pulled between two tribes, it was time to go and hit the showers. I was actually excited to hear that I was worth negative team points for the tribes that caught me! Made me feel better about the beatings I received and well worth the fight for the boys. Typically, there were two games during the day and one game was always played at night. We also had free time to hang around and relax for a while. This led to many conversations with the boys. Once trust was established, I soon realized these were not boys but men. I built some amazing relationships during the week. Some that I will never forget. Those young men taught me a lot as well.
A highlight of the week was to witness the baptisms. Some girls from Seeds of Hope were driven out on Thursday morning. Together with some of the boys from camp, they testified in front of everyone their commitment to Christ. To see the baptisms and hear their stories/testimonies afterwards was an emotional and powerful moment. I will always have a soft spot for Gents Camp. Oh…and not to forget, but our tribe won this year! First time ever for team Beast from the East!
Jon's team picture, after winning the trophy (picture posted with permission)
*****
(back to Renae 😊)
When we started the planning process to come to Zambia, the kids right away mentioned celebrating our birthdays in Africa, and questioned what that would look like. Austin was going to be the first birthday in our family, followed by Zara four days later. It’s our birthday tradition that the birthday person gets to choose what is for dinner, and I remember them trying to plan what they would choose, not knowing exactly what kind of foods would be available here. That seems like so long ago!
Austin’s birthday fell on the Wednesday of Gents Camp. Initially, Jon was planning to come back to Grace that day to be here for Austin’s birthday. We ended up renting a cabin at Nsobe, and the kids and I met Jon out there instead. It was perfect! It was so much fun watching some of the camp games, and was so good for the soul to spend some time out in creation. The trees and water made me think of hiking back home, and it was invigorating. It’s something I’ve really really missed here! I even rented a canoe and took the kids for a paddle around the dam. So lovely!
Our cute, rustic cabin for the night!
Nsobe even has the option to do a Game Drive to see animals, which we didn't do because time didn't allow. But we did see these monkeys in the parking lot!
Ivy loving the quiet time with a sleepy cat!
So picturesque!
Canoe selfie!
Nsobe also has a snake house. I took a few deep breaths and just went for it. It was surprisingly not that bad!
Zara’s birthday fell on the Sunday. Zara had her rumors that they would call her up in front of church to sing happy birthday to her. I assured her this wouldn’t happen. Oops. Turned out they did call her up! Not her favorite part of the day 😉! We had some down time here, where she was soaked multiple times (a fun little birthday tradition around here). We headed out to Mwaiseni (team house in town), and had such a good night enjoying pizza and playing capture the flag with friends. We’re so grateful for the connections we’ve made here, and that we have that little community with which we can celebrate events like this with.
That wraps up our update for you all.
Thanks for reading!
J & R