Last week was kids camp, and we had the pleasure of taking 50 kids to the beach for camp! This year the theme was outer space. We have been planning this camp for the past 3 months, praying, putting together the programme, preparing crafts and games, finding donations… so it was so exciting to finally be there with the kids!
I am so thankful for the fantastic team that I work with and all the hard effort everyone put in to make camp a success– and especially to the small group leaders ( made up of volunteers from the community and iThemba staff). They were a great group of leaders and were willing to do anything for the kids, whether it was be voted off to slide into the pool fully clothed, or have their faces covered in icing and facepaint!
On camp kids play games, have lots of fun and also learn about God. Children who don’t have Bibles get a free Zulu Bible, and during fun games as a team, they learn about how to use a Bible and find verses. We also have a camp speaker who gives a message every day, as well as worship.
Thank you everyone who prayed for or supported this camp in some way!
Here are a few pictures (for those of you who get this via email, it might be easier to see directly on the blog):
The kids are in small groups of 6-8, and they eat, sleep, play and do EVERYTHING as a team.We played lots of games on the beach, including building team sand sculpturesDuring the first activity, groups had to race around the campsite using a map to find different items, and in the end they used their items to create an edible rocket!Tug of War on the beach is always funHere’s Gugu, my co-worker with her team. They named themselves “The Goregeous Girls” All the teams have to come up with their own names and war cries.This is obviously me.The slide is a BIG HIT. Even though it was quite chilly, the kids couldn’t get enought of it. And every night, the kids vote to send one leader down the slide in their clothes. 🙂The pool is always a big hit! Kids had free time in the pool, but also played a game where they had to transfer their entire team across without getting in the water.Here’s one of the crafts they made: stained glass candle holders for tea-light candles. I got to do the black outlines on all 50 of them before camp.David led the teams through the obstacle course.This is us being loopy after 3 days of camp.Kids praying with each other during worshipOur two full-time volunteers at iThemba (Year of Your Lifers), Andile and Nhlaka, who have given a whole year to be with us and serve the community.
Stephanie Ebert 