Held June 17-20, Champs Camp was a great success again this
summer, thanks to all the children who participated, their parents, and our
wonderful volunteers. We thank God also for His blessings in this event. This
was the third annual Champs Camp in Zagreb. We had several Americans who came
to lend their talents, as well as their native English. We also had many
Croatian volunteers from several different churches, without whom this program
would be impossible. The program was again sponsored by Biblijski institut, as
a service to our community.
This year was our biggest camp so far, with 80 children registered! They were
mostly from neighborhoods around the park where we held the camp, and many were
repeats from the last two years, which is very exciting. Please pray for our
ongoing relationships with these children and their families.
This year especially it seemed that the camp was full of joy,
even though it was very hot. For four days the children had a great time
playing games, hearing stories from the Bible, making crafts, singing songs,
and having lots of fun. The theme of the camp this year was "God is My
Rock." We all enjoyed hearing the laughter of the children, and seeing
them happy and content at the end. It was a great time together for all of us,
and we are looking forward to similar events in the future.
A new aspect of the camp we added this year was having some
of the children from previous years (who are now too old to be campers
themselves) to help with the camp. We then did some special activities with
just them for three days after the camp. We hope this also will develop into
future possibilities for ministry.
This was also a special time for me as I had four guests from
my sponsoring church (Pond Springs Church of Christ, in Austin, Texas) come to
help with the camp. It was the first time for all of them to be in Croatia, and
the first time that I have had a visit here of people from the church. They did
great and it was a real blessing and encouragement to have them here.
