Elementary School Summer Camp: God's Words Are Abundant in Creation

August 16, 2014

During August 16 and 17, 2014, church members were holding a two-day and one-night camp for elementary students in the church.

 Although the event had been organized since May with seemingly ample preparation time, there were still a lot of obstacles, since this was the first collaboration between the teachers from four churches. Organizing committees initially made the camp as simple as possible, so that the staff could easily participate in it. Nevertheless, after continuous discussions, the camp became more integrated yet complicated, with the number of participating children increasing to 32 from the originally estimated 20. One thing that remained the same in the camp was our goal: allowing the children to feel that camping with God is far better than other types of camping, and allowing them to have peers with whom they could practice faith together.

The parents were always afraid of their kids making mistakes from not fully understanding God’s words. Thus, we had always prepared our previous camps with abundant Word.  However, after observing how the children had prepared and responded to the Word, we worried that the previous methods would not work well. The president of Christian Gospel Mission (CGM), Pastor Jung Myung Seok, gave all his youth and put in countless effort into understanding the Bible and teaching us God’s Word so that our lives could be changed through studying the Word. But if the kids are bored and feel burdened by the Word, then that would really equate to having the precious Word fall to the ground in vain. Therefore, except for the Sunday service time, the itinerary for this two-day camp was comprised of games and tours instead. From shopping at Neiwan Old Street to fun pool activities, we ended the camp with a series of amusing activities.

The accompanying parents testified that, although the itinerary may appear to be irrelevant to God’s Word, all events were well designed and were, in fact, closely connected with God’s Word. For example, each level of the games was interestingly integrated with the Word. Through the intricately designed topics, the children were able to utilize their knowledge of the Word.  Even I received tremendous strength from seeing how the children’s faces beamed with delight as they participated in the games. During the Sunday service, I led the children with preparatory praise. Hearing the children’s sincere sounds of praise, many kids silently brushed away their tears, and even I got teary-eyed. I realized that compared to adults, it really is much easier for children to meet with the Lord.

There were two other moments that touched me deeply during the camp. A young girl copied down over one hundred proverbs that were hanging on the walls of the church, because she wanted to bring them home as gifts for her mother. At that moment, the girl appeared to be like “a mother who treasures every word from God.” I felt that this was a “teaching by example,” reflecting the value of acting on the Word, rather than merely saying that the Word is valuable with our lips. Another touching moment was when another girl asked if she could bring home some black tea that she found to be very tasty.  She wanted to share it with her family members. By herself, she came up with ways to avoid spilling the three cups of tea, as she carried them all the way from Hsinchu County to Banqiao District.  Looking at her, I was reminded of a story of Pastor Jung. When he was a child, he clutched onto the candy that he wanted to save and bring home to share with his younger brother; only later to discover that the candy had dissolved in his hand when he arrived home.  I felt that the kids had also learned to take action in a similar way.

When the event ended, the kids kept asking us when we would hold the next camp. Some children also started actively monitoring themselves to not do the things that the Lord disliked, while others promised that they would bring their own cameras to take photos with us at the next camp. It was a great camp full of blessing and touching moments. We truly offer our sincere thanks to God!