Monday - First day of camp

Warning: there are 50 photos in the following slide, not exactly in order. I will post movies at the bottom of this post.

It is Monday night around 9:10 pm. I made it through the day but it did not start off all that well. Actually it started off well but once the kids arrived I got a REALLY bad dizzy spell. It lasted about 1 minute or more. It was bad enough that I had to sit down. Okay, Let me back the day up a little.

We got up VERY early. I think it was 5:15 am? Not really sure. Debbie can tell you, I gave her a call on Skype from here. Pete and I both tried to go to bed at 12:30 am. Pete woke up around 3:15. We were staying in the office because our room had 11 people in it. We gave up our beds for some of the translators. Excuse me if I already posted some of this. It has been a long day. By 6:30 am the guys unlocked our room so that we could get back in and brush our teeth, etc...

We met for breakfast and orientation at 7:30 am. I passed on breakfast. Well, I got a couple of slices of bread and some jelly. We did the typical going over the schedule and teams and then we did some team building exercises. It was great! You have to watch some of the videos. Unfortunately I do not have a video of the best game. I was in a group of ten guys that stood in a circle and then one guy in the middle would cross his arms and close his eyes and fall. It was called weeping willow but our group played it a little different. It should have been called the spinning top. It was incredible. We even pulled David over to do it once. The middle guy would fall back and then we were throwing him around in a circle while he was still lying back.

After that we hung out with the translators for a little bit and then came up stairs to do our blogs. Then Christy came in before I had the computer booted up and said the kids were here. PANIC. I ran down to the room and dropped of my stuff with Pete and then as I was leaving the room the hall started spinning VERY fast. I almost got sick (sorry). I had to sit down for a little bit. It did stop like it usually does for me so I got up and headed down the stairs to  see the kids when it started again as I was going down the stairs. Pete and Steve made me go back to the office and lay down. They got me an ice pack and water and some protein bars. I am not sure what happened but it was the worst one I had ever gotten and never twice in a row. I think the excitement, lack of sleep, poor eating and lack of water got to me. I stayed in the office for about an hour with Tilly (Steve's wife). She was a great help.

The kids were at lunch with my translator, Andrew. He is a great guy. He told me that he is a christian and that his mother has taken him to church since he was a boy. He told me that he wants to learn from me. HELP!!! Lord give me the words. So I headed down to the cafeteria and Andrew and the boys were coming out. One of them (they do not have english names but I am calling him Jack) came running saying Bill and gave me a hug. WOW! that is all I can say. The other boy (who we are calling Bob) has some mental disabilities. He has a bright smile on his face most of the time. Jack is a little  (hmmmm) wild. He is 12 years old and also told Andrew that he is a christian and that the church brought him to the school that he is at. (sorry, I had to pause, Nancy is singing and a few of us were joining in, lightly).... 

Andrew took the kids to his room for a short nap so that I could lie down. He has been a great help all day. After we woke up we took the kids to the pool. It is AMAZING. It is a brand new facility - indoor pool. It is not heated but after the walk across the campus it was welcomed. We had to lice shampoo all of them and then wear swim caps (see photos). I took some photos and videos in the pool.

After the pool we went straight to crafts in the cafeteria. None of us brought a towel. I will remember tomorrow. The craft time has an Olympic theme. Jack colored very good and drew a cross on his. After crafts the kids stayed for lunch with Andrew and I ran down to the Cafe to have a chicken burger (it had a fired egg on it??). I was okay. Then I ran back down to the cafeteria where they were having an assembly. Singing and Conga, etc... It was a blast. Debbie you would be proud of me. I don't know a lot of these people enough to worry about making a fool of myself yet. Jack was running all around the place. He found a squirt gun and which I got back from him. He is not really a trouble maker, just full of energy. He is a very smart kid. Sarah, one of the other translators told me that he is 12 but is very mature for his age. After the assembly I carried him on my back, running down the street as he was yelling in Chinese, faster, faster. He is 12 but weights about the same as Jadyn. I told him good night in the hall as he left with Andrew and I said "see you in the morning" and he repeated it perfectly and gave me a hug. Again, all I can say is WOW!

I wish I could put into words all of the emotions that ran through me today but they just wouldn't do them justice. There are so many special needs children here. You may see some of them in the pictures. It would break the hardest of hearts to see the faces of these children. They are all so sweet. As I was teaching one how to swim and they would go off another would be on my side with just huge smiles. Several are down syndrome children that have never been able to go in a pool before. Actually I left out that one of the female translators came running up to me as I came out to the pool and pointed to one of the kids swimming out past the rope with his life vest untied. He was starting to go under water by the time I got to him and no life guards jumping in. Funny part was that I never let go of the camera when jumping in. It is a waterproof one but still - what was I thinking. Oh well, it all worked out fine. Another funny part was I had to do this more than once today. There are slightly over 80 kids here but only about 40 in our group - Team B - Green.

Well, that's about it for today. It was a long one. Tonight I think we have a lot less people in the room. I plan on getting a good night sleep an making sure to drink lots of water and eat tomorrow. Please pray for these witnessing opportunities. 

Debbie, Tiff, Abby and Jade - I love you an miss you.

Mom - I read your post. I love you too.