During the last week of July, the three of us girls and our sweet friend, Leah, had the opportunity to help with an overnight Bible camp that is down the road from us.  This is a camp that operates under Redby Community Church where we fellowship up on the Red Lake reservation. Normally, there are groups that come in and do several camps during the summer. However, this summer, only one group was able to run a camp (all the way from New York!) and we were excited when the pastor from our church asked if we could help them out. We had about 20 kids from the reservation attend the three day camp.

All of these kids come to the Kid’s Club that we do Monday nights at the church during the school year. All of them were SO excited to come to camp. When we went to pick up kids on Monday morning, many of them were waiting out at the road with their bags – there was even one girl who told us that she was already packed on Friday night! 🙂

The group from New York that ran the camp did an excellent job. There was singing and a Bible lesson once or twice a day. There were fun crafts in the morning and evening, and several hours of swimming in the afternoon.

Throughout the day, there was a lot of free time to spend playing with the kids – we spent many hours in games and activities like Candyland, Uno, badminton, basketball, frisbee, making friendship bracelets, taking goofy pictures, and just talking.

It was a great time getting to know the kids better.  When you live with someone for three days, you certainly get to know them a whole lot better.  Even though we’ve known all of these kids for at least a year (some of them for three years), deeper relationships were built with the kids simply by playing, talking, and loving them for three straight days.  Many of them told us they wished the camp didn’t have to end.

We returned home exhausted, but grateful for the opportunities to share the love of Jesus with these precious children.  Some of these kids have professed Christ in the past.  Please pray that they will grow in their faith, and that those who don’t know Jesus would be saved. And please pray for us as we continue to share God’s love with these same kids throughout the school year.

Just about every year since we moved here in 2000, our sending church in IL has sent up a youth group to do VBS on one of the Reservations near us.

This year, the group arrived on Saturday, June 21, after an 11 hour drive and after our mad rush to clean the house. 🙂 This year we only had eight extra people in our house for a week. Because of conflicting schedules with the camp that many of the youth group kids counsel at, the group that came here this year was exceptionally small.

One of the main highlights this year for everyone, I think, was the fellowship and getting to know each other better or for the first time. We played many games, some of which were volleyball, the Darcy game (aka the name game) and signs.

In the mornings after breakfast and group devotions taught by Dad, there was outdoor work to do. We had a truckload of 10 cords of wood delivered right before the group came, so the project for the week was cutting, splitting, and stacking the wood so that we will have wood to burn in the winter.

While the outdoor work was being done, the lunch crew would make sandwiches. Around eleven or so, everyone would come in and get cleaned up, finish packing their lunches, and put on our team shirts and head out to reservation about eleven thirty. On the way there we would eat our lunches, and after we crossed the Reservation line we would pray and read Scripture.

When we got to the rez, a group of us would head out to pick up a van load of kids, and more local kids got dropped off, or they walked or rode their bikes to the chapel.

Because the group was so small this year, Jonathan got to help out, and he was excited about that. He took Daniel’s place as snack man, and Daniel joined me in games. Daniel did a lot of running for me: whether it was putting cones out, or filling up buckets of water, he was right there to help. I don’t know what I would have done without him, because Mr. Spaargaren wasn’t able to make it this year. I was the head games leader, Deborah was the guitar player for singing and the lesson teacher, and Sara was head craftswoman.

Each day had lots of activities…

 

On Tuesday night, a very hospitable family had the whole group over for hamburgers, walleye, and tubing. We ate first and then went tubing even though the weather wasn’t the most beautiful. We all had a blast, and everyone who wanted to went at least twice.

 

 On Thursday, we had a picnic after Kid’s Club and invited the families of the kids to join us. I am not exactly sure how many adults came, but there were a few, and we were encouraged because one lady from the community even brought a dish to share!

A few more pictures from the week…

 On Friday night we had our annual go-to-Walmart-night, where girls go in one van and guys in the other. Usually we go to Caribou Coffee and Dairy Queen before Walmart and don’t cross paths until Walmart, but this year because the group was so small, we broke tradition and all went in the same vehicle. 🙂 When we got to DQ, it started pouring. We saw it coming, and made a dash for the one foot of protection under the roof, but we didn’t make it quite it in time. 🙁

 Then, on Saturday morning they left, and it was very quiet.

Once again, our wonderful week serving the Lord in this little village is over, but we continue serving Him in other ways.