As I was calling with my parents the weekend before leaving for our annual Vikings Camp with the club kids, my mom asked how many girls are registered to come (knowing that our girl participants have grown increasingly at club and events over the past couple of years). I excitedly stated that nearly half of the registers are girls, to which my dad replied that we should consider adding "Vi-QUEENS" to our camp title for our growing population of girl campers! While the number of girls made this camp unique from our past experiences, there were other changes that set this year apart from the rest.
For the first time in five years, we had new team leaders at Vikings Camp. It is our tradition to split the students into four groups, each lead by a club half-leader, for competitions and team-spirit throughout the week. It mixes up the groups of friends, thus helping new friendships to grow, and brings new leadership skills to the forefront in our young leaders. While a longstanding quartet had led these teams for a half-decade, new summer jobs and sport training schedules now conflicted with the camp term. We looked to a group of 16 and 17-year-olds to take over the leadership of the four teams. A couple days before leaving, one of the new team leaders found he had a conflicting work schedule and would no longer be able to come to camp. We looked at the list of registered students and landed on a small, trustworthy 13-year-old to fill the spot of team leader. The first night of camp, this 13-year-old pulled me aside and voiced his concerns with leading his team. I poured out encouragement for the young leader and then we prayed together for God to help him confidently lead. Their team had an unbreakable bond after that first night, and after the whole week, they came in 2nd Place with all the points from the team activities! More than that, our young leader had a "David and Goliath" experience with God's strength as the backbone leading the group. 
New joys and challenges present themselves with a large number of ViQueens. We dealt with many bumps and bruises and some home-sickness that seemed to be more contagious in our girls' tents, but our leaders and campers held to a deep level of compassion for their hurting friends and teammates. An old wooden sled on a pile for the bonfire was pulled out from under tree branches to drag around a little friend who had hurt her ankle during the week so she wouldn't miss out on activities. By the end of the week, she was running again with her teammates! One evening, another little ViQueen complained about a stomachache; she didn't look well at all, so we prayed as a group and sent her to her tent to lie down. After about a half-hour, I went to check on the little girl, who quickly sat up when I entered exclaiming, "I feel great! I feel like I can jump! Can I come back now for dinner?" When I told another Elim leader what the little girl had said, he replied, "We serve a great, miraculous God." It was really a joy watching these girls embrace the camp lifestyle with their own touch - multiple tents lit up during the evening as the girls strung battery-powered fairy lights from the tent to play card games and hangout. They were truly ViQueens as many asked if we could extend camp another week! 
It is our tradition at Vikings Camp to have a short Bible teaching or testimony sharing each night around the campfire. It was suggested that we focus on one Bible story for this trip, and so the leaders and I decided on the story of Daniel. Each night, we shared a piece of Daniel's story, starting with Daniel arriving to Babylon and his faith, interpreting King Nebuchadnezzar's dream, and standing against King Darius' law through prayer. We left the kids hanging with the guards taking Daniel away for praying when the law banned it, knowing the punishment is death. We explained that we would conclude the story on the last night, but a couple of the kids spent part of free-time trying to figure out what happens to Daniel - they simply couldn't leave the cliff-hanger until the evening! For the final evening, we asked the groups to create a skit of Daniel in the lion's den. The groups were unique and they had a lot of fun creating the story with their teammates.
One thing you can count on at Vikings Camp are spontaneous challenges to help the camp (like cleaning or looking for lost items, etc.). On Wednesday afternoon, a couple of the guys spotted a water snake in the swimming hole (a pond-like swimming basin). It's a harmless snake and hides when all the kids are the water, so the youth pastor told us to just let it be. The next morning during team meeting, the youth pastor had talked with his dad (a member of the village where we camp) and they decided it would be best to move the water snake to a nearby pond because this water snake feeds on the small population of lizards in the swimming hole, who keep the water nice and clean for us by eating the bugs. The youth pastor created a challenge that the team to catch the water snake would get an added 5 points for their team. As he continued talking, I realized our American summer intern hadn't understood the conversation. She asked, "What are we talking about?"
"If you catch the water snake in the swimming hole, you get five points for your team!"
"Water snake?!"
"Yeah, we want to move him because he eats the lizards, and we like the lizards to keep the water clean."
"Lizards!?" (We had assumed that they were tadpoles.)
"We are Vikings!"
"... I'm a soft Viking."
One of the smallest campers fearlessly caught the water snake and safely brought it to be transported to a nearby pond. I wasn't afraid when I saw the snake in the water at a distance, but I'm sure I would not have been so brave to catch it. Maybe I'm a soft Viking too!
Vikings Camp will forever be one of my favorite weeks of the year. I love seeing God grow in these kids, building them and shaping them.
Watch a video from this year at Vikings Camp here!
A couple of years ago, I got connected to a youth group in a nearby city because they have an English Camp nearby each summer. Each year, I make sure to stop by for at least a couple days to help their youth group as needed. This year, their theme was "Mystery," and in the planning stages of camp, the leaders told me they were planning to do a surprise mystery challenge for the campers. The leaders continued to say they wanted to have a British 1940s Cafe and then move into a surprise mystery - our own Enigma challenge. The best part - they needed me to be an undercover general for the American team at camp since I understood Czech and could keep them informed. I took on the role, embracing all the wartime mystery novels I have read, and there was a lot of excitement surrounding the mystery activities and challenges. After the activity, we talked about how the real Enigma solvers had the challenge of deciding what information to tell and what not to leak. We talked about how there are really no true winners in war and used the topic to open God-conversations with the campers. The second evening that I was at camp, the leaders had asked me to teach an evening seminar. I had a lot of fun teaching a workshop about leadership skills and how to use our talents. After the seminar, the group continued to talk about what God was teaching them through understanding their leadership skill for the next half-hour.
During the day-time program at camp, I joined the Kid's Class (my sweet spot) and sang some English songs and played Legos with the kids. After class time, I sat with two of the little girls and their dad and another friend outside. One of the little girls said I needed to stop moving because she was drawing me, and then she said, "I know you're not wearing a dress today, but I drew you in a dress." "Okay. Why?" "Because... you are at a wedding!" "Whose wedding?" "It is your wedding." "My wedding?! Where is my husband?" "There isn't room for him in the picture." I don't think the ideas of children explaining what they are drawing or creating will ever become boring!
We sadly said "goodbye" to our American summer intern who left back to the states today. Our Connect Girls wouldn't let her leave without a little goodbye party, so we spent the afternoon playing games, making clay creations, adoring our faces with stick-on tattoos, and enjoying lots of snacks. We planned the goodbye party pretty quickly, but these girls are superstars and made sure to be there to show our friend how much they appreciated all she did over the summer. The girls are already excited for next summer!
We had one last team lunch as the summer camps and festivals with Elim came to a close. It was a special treat to go to an American-style diner and have burgers, fries, and Dr. Pepper - a bit of "home" that had me full for the rest of the day!
