Camp

Ten of the older girls (ages 11-18) from the orphanage arrived as the first campers at the camp. The tents and pavilions were up and ready. Two of the Mather's girls had come and helped us complete everything in time.

It's so interesting to be out there working in the country--wagon after wagon would pass by filled with grass all cut with a scythe. Paul and Steve at one time had a crowd of seven local Romanians gathered around to watch them as they used the weed whacker to make paths through camp. They were puzzled by they use of such a device--one man brought over his scythe and helped clear an area to put up the staff tents.

Paul and I just helped with whatever needed assistance during the camp. There is lots of water to be gotten for 23 people and cooking over a fire for that many takes time. Noemi DeWeerd is amazing at cooking for so many with none of the modern conveniences such as refrigeration--you can not even find coolers over 2 gallons here in Romania.

The girls were so excited to be at the camp. The camp had bought a swimsuit for each of them and most of them just wore their swimsuit for most of the camp. They had devotions each morning followed by activities and then crafts each afternoon. Every evening we had a campfire with the main speaker and of course music--headed up by our newest Brazilian friend Matteos.

The girls are like any teen girls but after awhile you notice that things like being kind are generally afterthoughts--they have grown up fighting for what they have and with little to no security in the knowledge of knowing that somebody cares for them. At times this makes it difficult to work with them.

The evening of the last campfire--each of the girls took a stick and made a prayer request and then threw the stick into the flames. Some of them shared their request before we all prayed for them. The requests made me cry-- "I wish that I had a family", "I hope that I will get adopted", "I want to find a home to live before I must leave the orphanage", "I want to have Mrs. Mather as my mom"...The girls were all so serious about this and sharing the one thing that they wanted most--love and a feeling of belonging. Later as Paul and I talked we were increasingly aware of how blessed we are to have such an incredible family.

The day before we left the torrential rains had started as the campfire had ended. The downpour continued throughout the entire evening and into the next day. The river rose and was impassable--thus we remained at camp, altered the menu as there were not going to be any trips into town and attempted to dry out the wet bedding and clothes and keep the girls entertained.

We noticed that the traffic on the road passing camp had almost ceased. The river went down the following day and the truck went to meet the van that had been hired to take the girls back. The truck got stuck in the second water crossing as the flood had shifted the road and had to be pulled out by horses. Then they returned back to the camp with the local police to start shuttling the girls to the van. Paul rode in the back of the truck while I rode in the front on the Romanian police car--with a siren happy police man. We made it to the van and got all the girls loaded and headed into town where the van driver had gotten stuck trying to get to camp as a bridge had been washed out. We could see washouts on the roads going into town--then we got to the bridge. It was completely destroyed and the van got stuck trying to get around it on the detour. The van had to be towed out and high centered and damaged some of the center body panels. Thus we had to go to the police station and wait for over an hour as the paperwork was filled out so that the van could be fixed. Then we were off to Bucharest and arrived last night.

Next week we are off to camp again for a camp with the younger girls!