Water sliding into the Baltic Sea

Hey it’s Erica! Today it’s Tuesday the 30th and we are half way through camp…it’s so crazy to think about! I have been really enjoying English class with Jensine and Jadon! It feels like the students are really starting to get engaged in the class activities, which is really exciting! Today the weather was sunny for the first time it feels like, so we were able to go down to the beach and play in the water and Chad taught some of the guys how to play baseball. It was fun to play with all of them…on the beach especially! We then had “water day” at the beach playing water balloon toss with beach towels and sliding down the HUGE slip n slide on soap into the water. In our evening program, Dan talked about Abraham and the story of Abraham and Issac. The students really seemed to be moved by it. We then had a question and answer time using questions from a question box that students filled throughout this week called “talk back.” All three of the pastors (Dan, Adam and Andrew) answered the questions. Tonight seemed, for me, to be the most difficult night of our trip thus far. I really needed that extra push to keep going when it really felt like students are not responding as well as I thought they would to my efforts of friendship. I was really breaking down emotionally it seemed. So I pulled out a letter from my sister Valerie that told me that she wrote it because she knew that today was going to be a difficult one for me and that when we feel so cast down we must keep going. It was so crazy that those words were totally how I was feeling. That is why, for heaven’s sake, we must delight in weakness, in hardships and trials, for when we are weak, and then we are strong. I can’t wait to see what God has planned for the rest of the week!