An unexpected striped guest...

God's goodness is always full of surprises! Besides the beautifully striped guest that appeared during our final game at the camp, we have had many incredible surprises over the past 2 weeks.

God handpicked 18 campers for Quest's 2nd training camp. We have now trained 33 young people as future summer staffers! We had participants from 5 new church contacts, which was very exciting for us. We need to continue building positive relationships with as many churches as possible in this region.

Most of our campers were hearing about "camp ministry" for the first time in their lives. As so many others that we have trained in the past, their eyes were opened to a new and interesting way of sharing Christ with youth.

On the last night, during sharing time, several people mentioned how impacted they were by seeing our families all involved in the ministry together. Our kids ran the tuck shop, helped with cleaning and in skits. Children bring an innocence and a transparency to any group setting. We praised God that our families could bless so many of our campers who come from broken homes and have not had the privilege of seeing a healthy Christ-centered family role model.

Speaking of family, here are some pics of ours during our last camp...




Hannah with cousin Jasper enjoying the sunny afternoon on Quest's "future property", Lord willing.



Muki, Caleb and cousin Jaden played the role of guards, protecting the "Sword of the Kingdom" during our Indiana Jones game at the camp. They were the most patient guards, as the game took almost 3 hours to play!



While guarding the "Sword of the Kingdom", the boys were visited by this beautiful false coral snake.



Scott, Patsy and Lidi entertaining the campers with a skit. Sometimes I wonder who laughs more, the campers or the actors!



Caleb and Patsy sitting and facilitating the final game of the week. These campers struggled to grasp the fact that Jesus calls us to cooperate and work together, even though the world forces us to compete, always putting ourselves ahead of everyone else.



Here they are...our 18 campers and staff that made up our 2nd training camp. Our hearts are full of gratitude to be a part of the work God is continuing here in Jaragua do Sul. All glory, honor and praise to our King!!!

Meet our MAD SCIENTISTS...

I never did imagine myself as a homeschooling mother, never mind running a science fair in my own home. Yes, it has come to that! There were definitely challenges for our young scientists, such as lack of written resources and learning to surf the web as most of their information was taken either from Encarta Encyclopedia or from the Internet. There were even greater challenges for Shannon and I as mothers and teachers. It's been a "few" years since I have participated in a Science Fair and the world has changed tremendously since then, but thanks to a fantastic website called Science Buddies, we were able to figure out what needed to get done! There were a couple of days when I thought I'd pull my hair out and I turned to Caleb one day and said, "If I EVER consider doing one of these Science Fairs again, talk me out of it!"

BUT...once the day came and I saw the hard work put in, the many hours of research, the beautiful display boards and more importantly the knowledge gained, I was proud of them and who knows, I MAY EVEN ATTEMPT IT AGAIN IN THE FUTURE!!!(The distant future that is)
Hannah's project was called Ham it up with Hamsters. She did an amazing job and is now pestering Daddy for a Hamster!
Thanks to all of you who replied to Muki's science project. He had a total of 36 responses to his experiment and was able to prove his hypothesis wrong using his data. It was a really neat experience for Muki, who had never worked with graphs before and had a hard time sitting still long enough to get them done. If any of you are interested, Muki discovered from his data and through research that age doesn't slow down reaction time at all until after 80 years or so. Gender makes no difference at all and here's the interesting part; most dominant hands have a slower reaction time than non-dominant hands!!! Thanks again to all those who participated.
Caleb is our electronic "techie" and did his project on radio wave powered Crystal Radio Receiver Sets which were used greatly during World War II by soldiers who would create them using recycled materials they found around them. Caleb learned a lot about the composition of crystals and the role they play in radio. He built a radio and was so frustrated that the day was cloudy and it didn't work, but we assured him that the effort made to build it was already impressive.

Through the whole process, I for one, learned a lot about all four topics. My nephew Jaden, who I also teach, did his project on Volconoes and so to finish off our Science Fair with a grand finale, he set off his volcano and it worked perfectly!!!

Thanks for visiting our blog...hope to see you here again soon.