Cherry Run Camp...
Amazing. Powerful. Uplifting. Challenging. Encouraging. Delightful. Tiring - good tired.
Some words used to describe my time here at Cherry Run Camp. I was so very excited and looking forward to my time this summer at Cherry Run and I was not disappointed or let down. I knew one of the evangelist, Lane Loman, who would be preaching but our second evangelist, Stan Keys was dynamite. Let me share with you the happenings of Cherry Run from my perspective.
I arrived on the camp grounds on Saturday afternoon and unloaded my things from the car into my family's cabin (aka - Eaton Hotel). This is a huge change for me in that my family added on four bedrooms and a bathroom. Allowing for each family unit (6 total) to have their own bedroom and two families shared a bathroom. I greeted some of my Cherry Run family as I set up the missionary table in the tabernacle. During the evening service, the evangelist, missionary (me), song leaders, and all who are volunteering this week to make the camp run and function were invited to come forward to be thanked and prayed over.
Sunday morning for Sunday school, I shared with the adults on the different cultures from the 3D Gospel. I focused more on the shame and honor culture since all cultures are affected by shame and honor. We studied the book of Ruth as an example of shame and honor. It went better than what I thought and there was some good discussion and questions.
Each morning at 7:30am I participated in morning prayer time with the adults who would come. Except for the first morning we read a verse or two from the Bible and then prayed with the acronym ACTS - adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication. It was refreshing to start each day of camp in prayer. Each morning I taught the senior high youth for 45 minutes and then the junior high youth for 45 minutes about missions. Every afternoon from 2pm-2:15pm I would share with the children under the bell tower about missions. The week theme with the youth was Missionary Training 101.
Monday morning, I talked on Psalm 139:14-16. How God has made us fearfully and wonderfully. He knows us inside and out. In getting to know ourselves and one another we did a variety of personality tests. My favorite personality test was the Pig Analysis. The instruction was to draw a pig. Then depending on the location of the pig on your paper, how many or few details, how many legs, and the size of the ears and tail determined different things about you. It was fun. I believe the youth had a great time as well. With the kids, I shared about the Dominican Republic - the meaning of their flag, where it is located, and some fun facts about the DR.
Tuesday I shared with the youth about the importance of language learning. We talked about the different styles of learning and learned that children are the best language learners. I had the youth do an activity to show how important it is to communicate well with others. They paired up and one was the Artist and one the Speaker. The Artist had to draw what the Speaker was telling them to draw and was not allowed to talk at all. The Speaker had to describe the picture of an object to the Artist and could not look over his/her shoulder to see if the Speaker understood. The class shared how hard it was because of not being able to communicate well or lack of understanding what the Speaker was telling them because they could not ask questions to clarify. There were some who were good communicators which means they had good listeners as well. I used some tricks from my second language acquisition class at CIT to teach the youth some Spanish. It was a lot of fun. I taught the children the songs, Alleluia and My God is so Big in Spanish. As Tonya was ready to close our time in prayer, the kids asked her if I could pray in Spanish? I closed in prayer in Spanish. I got a lot of "ohhhs" and"ahhhs."
Wednesday I shared with the youth about living and ministering cross-culturally. It's not right or wrong, just different. One of the activities I did with the youth was to have a partner and one was the speaker and the other the listener. The speaker got to talk for three minutes about whatever but was not allowed to use the word "I." The listener was not allowed to interrupt with asking questions, laughing or commenting in any way. After the three minutes were up the Listener had one minute to summarize what the Speaker said. It shows how important it is be a good listener when learning about other cultures and observing what they are really saying. It also showed that what we want to talk about is ourselves. We are more self-focused than most cultures. I shared with the kids today about the Dominican money - pesos. I gave them some more fun facts about the Dominican people as well.
All day Thursday is designated as Missions Day. It's the busiest day for the resident missionary. I knew from all my years as a camper that this is a busy day for missionaries so I had planned to have the youth play come cross-culture games which I thought would be fun and a learning experience as well. I had Mary Jane (sister) and Britt (sister-in-law) help me with the games. The youth was divided into four groups and each group was given a description of their culture. As a group they had to decide on how they were going to act out or become their particular culture. Mary Jane, Britt and I would give them some suggestions of what they could do. Once we were ready to play the game each culture had to be in character until the game was done. At the same time, two cultures would be visiting two other culture groups for 5 minutes. The idea was to try and get the opposite culture to become more like your culture. After 5 minutes they would go back to their own homes. Then we had them visit a different culture group for an additional 5 minutes. And again for the last visit so each culture visited one another at least once. We discussed what the other cultures felt or thought about the other cultures in what they liked or disliked about the culture. The youth also got to discuss how they felt about their own culture. The different cultures we used in the game: a military style culture, an Asian culture, a Californian-hippie culture, and a southern hospitality style culture.
The morning worship service, I shared some about Kids Alive as an organization. I shared about Moses being an at-risk kid (Ex. 1 & 2). I shared some of the stories of the kids in our programs in the Dominican Republic. How each one of their lives and Moses' life as well could have been vastly different if our Heavenly Father would not have used ordinary people to intervene in these precious lives. I had those who served as missionaries or presently as missionaries to come and to be prayed over since today we are celebrating missions. I asked my Dad to come and pray over us.
Thursday afternoon, the youth have what is called mission marathon. It is two hours of playing four different team sports, volleyball, softball, football, and soccer. They raise points and then ask people to either sponsor them for the amount of points they get (penny a point) or for a donation and it all goes towards missions. The youth get to decide where half the money they earn will go from three different choices they are given. The other half of the money raised goes to the resident missionary. The kids program also has a fun raiser to support missions as well. They have a slip 'n slide which you have to pay a dollar to go down it. Then around 4:30pm all the staff, counselors, Bible teachers, missionary, evangelist, song leaders are placed in a roped off section for anyone who purchases water balloons can get wet. Campers can also purchase buckets of very cold water to throw on you. If the camper is a kid those in the middle have to stay still and sometimes bend down for the kids to pour the water on you. If it is a youth or an adult those in the middle can try and get the other people wet. Let's just say I was completely soaked from so many buckets of water and water balloons thrown at me. Just thankful for it being a sunny afternoon.
Thursday evening for the worship service, I showed a video clip of my first year in the Dominican Republic. I shared about Elijah in 1 Kings 18 & 19. How he gave up right after seeing God's mighty power against the 450 prophets of Baal. Yet Elijah was ready to die and gave up. But the Angel of the Lord ministered to Elijah two different times. Elijah met God at Mount Heron in a still small voice. I shared four different stories about four of our missionaries to hear how God is working in mighty ways yet sometimes how we can feel defeated or despair. How God is ministering in the lives of these missionaries. I opened the altar for anyone who feels God is calling them into missions or into ministry to come. After the worship service, the camp had its talent show. All eight of my nieces and nephews did a song-skit for me....We're going on a mission...to find their favorite missionary...you can't go under it...you can't go over it...you can't go through it. They found their favorite missionary and gave her a big hug.
Friday I shared with the youth about teams and multicultural teams. The components of a good team the dysfunctions of a bad team. I had them do different activities that showed trust since that is the foundation for a good team. It was interesting to observe our youth in how much they trusted their partner or the group as a whole depending on which activity we were doing.
Since 2001, Cherry Run has been taking the time to honor different people and families who have served the camp in so many ways. A time to thank them while they are still living instead of after they have been called home to glory. Friday, we got to honor Denny and Ginger Mahle Family. I was so glad I was here for this as they have been my spiritual and professional mentors for a very long time. We recognized them during the morning service and then in the afternoon we had a small party with cake and a Thank You card to sign for them.
Saturday I played a final game with the youth to kind of wrap up our time of training together. The game was a maze that the youth had to figure out together and get everyone through the maze. I would show them what side is the start and what side is the finish. Otherwise they would get a "X" if they made a wrong step. I enjoyed watching them work together...seeing different personalities come out...seeing leaders step up...seeing some encouraging others...seeing that they needed one another to complete the maze. Both groups did a great job and both made it through the maze before the end of class. The kids I had them play Simon says but in Spanish since there weren't very many kids today. The kids seemed to be having fun and I had fun with them. I got to close our time in prayer in Spanish. All week long the kids would ask me to say something in Spanish to them whenever they would see me around the camp.
Sunday morning I shared one last time with the adult Sunday School class. I shared with the adults how much I enjoyed working with the youth and children. I had the adults pair up but no husband-wife could be together for this Speaker/Listener activity. I gave them the same instructions as I did with the youth except for the adults were not allowed to say "I," "me," or "myself." It was interesting to hear them when we discussed the activity afterwards. How hard it is to talk because you could not use those three words. How difficult is was to just listen without asking questions or interrupting or laughing. I asked the adults if they support a missionary what is their role? Or if their church supports a missionary what is the church's role? Besides prayer and financial roles the only other response that came was possibly writing to the missionary. I shared with them that there is more to their role in supporting a missionary than just prayer and finances as those are so very important and vital. But there is an encouragement role, an accountability role, an educator role, and a liaison role. I shared about these other roles and what they look like. But I also shared that it is a two way street for us as missionaries. How I am trying to teach our new missionaries to be these same roles to their supporters/partners/family/friends. I feel that my supporters are a part of my team or family and so I need to be invested in them like I hope they are invested in me and the ministry God has called me. I shared a couple of passages of Scripture: 2 Timothy 3:16-17 and 1 Peter 4:11. Had some great comments and thoughts about the different roles in supporting a missionary as well as it is a two way street.
I know that I have not shared about everything especially what Lane and Stan preached on but soon you can go to www.cherryruncamp.org and click on Sermons Page to listen to each one. I plan on doing it because I learned so much and I know I missed some things as well.
Amazing. Powerful. Uplifting. Challenging. Encouraging. Delightful. Tiring - good tired.
Some words used to describe my time here at Cherry Run Camp. I was so very excited and looking forward to my time this summer at Cherry Run and I was not disappointed or let down. I knew one of the evangelist, Lane Loman, who would be preaching but our second evangelist, Stan Keys was dynamite. Let me share with you the happenings of Cherry Run from my perspective.
I arrived on the camp grounds on Saturday afternoon and unloaded my things from the car into my family's cabin (aka - Eaton Hotel). This is a huge change for me in that my family added on four bedrooms and a bathroom. Allowing for each family unit (6 total) to have their own bedroom and two families shared a bathroom. I greeted some of my Cherry Run family as I set up the missionary table in the tabernacle. During the evening service, the evangelist, missionary (me), song leaders, and all who are volunteering this week to make the camp run and function were invited to come forward to be thanked and prayed over.
Sunday morning for Sunday school, I shared with the adults on the different cultures from the 3D Gospel. I focused more on the shame and honor culture since all cultures are affected by shame and honor. We studied the book of Ruth as an example of shame and honor. It went better than what I thought and there was some good discussion and questions.
Each morning at 7:30am I participated in morning prayer time with the adults who would come. Except for the first morning we read a verse or two from the Bible and then prayed with the acronym ACTS - adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication. It was refreshing to start each day of camp in prayer. Each morning I taught the senior high youth for 45 minutes and then the junior high youth for 45 minutes about missions. Every afternoon from 2pm-2:15pm I would share with the children under the bell tower about missions. The week theme with the youth was Missionary Training 101.
Monday morning, I talked on Psalm 139:14-16. How God has made us fearfully and wonderfully. He knows us inside and out. In getting to know ourselves and one another we did a variety of personality tests. My favorite personality test was the Pig Analysis. The instruction was to draw a pig. Then depending on the location of the pig on your paper, how many or few details, how many legs, and the size of the ears and tail determined different things about you. It was fun. I believe the youth had a great time as well. With the kids, I shared about the Dominican Republic - the meaning of their flag, where it is located, and some fun facts about the DR.
Tuesday I shared with the youth about the importance of language learning. We talked about the different styles of learning and learned that children are the best language learners. I had the youth do an activity to show how important it is to communicate well with others. They paired up and one was the Artist and one the Speaker. The Artist had to draw what the Speaker was telling them to draw and was not allowed to talk at all. The Speaker had to describe the picture of an object to the Artist and could not look over his/her shoulder to see if the Speaker understood. The class shared how hard it was because of not being able to communicate well or lack of understanding what the Speaker was telling them because they could not ask questions to clarify. There were some who were good communicators which means they had good listeners as well. I used some tricks from my second language acquisition class at CIT to teach the youth some Spanish. It was a lot of fun. I taught the children the songs, Alleluia and My God is so Big in Spanish. As Tonya was ready to close our time in prayer, the kids asked her if I could pray in Spanish? I closed in prayer in Spanish. I got a lot of "ohhhs" and"ahhhs."
Wednesday I shared with the youth about living and ministering cross-culturally. It's not right or wrong, just different. One of the activities I did with the youth was to have a partner and one was the speaker and the other the listener. The speaker got to talk for three minutes about whatever but was not allowed to use the word "I." The listener was not allowed to interrupt with asking questions, laughing or commenting in any way. After the three minutes were up the Listener had one minute to summarize what the Speaker said. It shows how important it is be a good listener when learning about other cultures and observing what they are really saying. It also showed that what we want to talk about is ourselves. We are more self-focused than most cultures. I shared with the kids today about the Dominican money - pesos. I gave them some more fun facts about the Dominican people as well.
All day Thursday is designated as Missions Day. It's the busiest day for the resident missionary. I knew from all my years as a camper that this is a busy day for missionaries so I had planned to have the youth play come cross-culture games which I thought would be fun and a learning experience as well. I had Mary Jane (sister) and Britt (sister-in-law) help me with the games. The youth was divided into four groups and each group was given a description of their culture. As a group they had to decide on how they were going to act out or become their particular culture. Mary Jane, Britt and I would give them some suggestions of what they could do. Once we were ready to play the game each culture had to be in character until the game was done. At the same time, two cultures would be visiting two other culture groups for 5 minutes. The idea was to try and get the opposite culture to become more like your culture. After 5 minutes they would go back to their own homes. Then we had them visit a different culture group for an additional 5 minutes. And again for the last visit so each culture visited one another at least once. We discussed what the other cultures felt or thought about the other cultures in what they liked or disliked about the culture. The youth also got to discuss how they felt about their own culture. The different cultures we used in the game: a military style culture, an Asian culture, a Californian-hippie culture, and a southern hospitality style culture.
The morning worship service, I shared some about Kids Alive as an organization. I shared about Moses being an at-risk kid (Ex. 1 & 2). I shared some of the stories of the kids in our programs in the Dominican Republic. How each one of their lives and Moses' life as well could have been vastly different if our Heavenly Father would not have used ordinary people to intervene in these precious lives. I had those who served as missionaries or presently as missionaries to come and to be prayed over since today we are celebrating missions. I asked my Dad to come and pray over us.
Thursday afternoon, the youth have what is called mission marathon. It is two hours of playing four different team sports, volleyball, softball, football, and soccer. They raise points and then ask people to either sponsor them for the amount of points they get (penny a point) or for a donation and it all goes towards missions. The youth get to decide where half the money they earn will go from three different choices they are given. The other half of the money raised goes to the resident missionary. The kids program also has a fun raiser to support missions as well. They have a slip 'n slide which you have to pay a dollar to go down it. Then around 4:30pm all the staff, counselors, Bible teachers, missionary, evangelist, song leaders are placed in a roped off section for anyone who purchases water balloons can get wet. Campers can also purchase buckets of very cold water to throw on you. If the camper is a kid those in the middle have to stay still and sometimes bend down for the kids to pour the water on you. If it is a youth or an adult those in the middle can try and get the other people wet. Let's just say I was completely soaked from so many buckets of water and water balloons thrown at me. Just thankful for it being a sunny afternoon.
Thursday evening for the worship service, I showed a video clip of my first year in the Dominican Republic. I shared about Elijah in 1 Kings 18 & 19. How he gave up right after seeing God's mighty power against the 450 prophets of Baal. Yet Elijah was ready to die and gave up. But the Angel of the Lord ministered to Elijah two different times. Elijah met God at Mount Heron in a still small voice. I shared four different stories about four of our missionaries to hear how God is working in mighty ways yet sometimes how we can feel defeated or despair. How God is ministering in the lives of these missionaries. I opened the altar for anyone who feels God is calling them into missions or into ministry to come. After the worship service, the camp had its talent show. All eight of my nieces and nephews did a song-skit for me....We're going on a mission...to find their favorite missionary...you can't go under it...you can't go over it...you can't go through it. They found their favorite missionary and gave her a big hug.
Friday I shared with the youth about teams and multicultural teams. The components of a good team the dysfunctions of a bad team. I had them do different activities that showed trust since that is the foundation for a good team. It was interesting to observe our youth in how much they trusted their partner or the group as a whole depending on which activity we were doing.
Since 2001, Cherry Run has been taking the time to honor different people and families who have served the camp in so many ways. A time to thank them while they are still living instead of after they have been called home to glory. Friday, we got to honor Denny and Ginger Mahle Family. I was so glad I was here for this as they have been my spiritual and professional mentors for a very long time. We recognized them during the morning service and then in the afternoon we had a small party with cake and a Thank You card to sign for them.
Saturday I played a final game with the youth to kind of wrap up our time of training together. The game was a maze that the youth had to figure out together and get everyone through the maze. I would show them what side is the start and what side is the finish. Otherwise they would get a "X" if they made a wrong step. I enjoyed watching them work together...seeing different personalities come out...seeing leaders step up...seeing some encouraging others...seeing that they needed one another to complete the maze. Both groups did a great job and both made it through the maze before the end of class. The kids I had them play Simon says but in Spanish since there weren't very many kids today. The kids seemed to be having fun and I had fun with them. I got to close our time in prayer in Spanish. All week long the kids would ask me to say something in Spanish to them whenever they would see me around the camp.
Sunday morning I shared one last time with the adult Sunday School class. I shared with the adults how much I enjoyed working with the youth and children. I had the adults pair up but no husband-wife could be together for this Speaker/Listener activity. I gave them the same instructions as I did with the youth except for the adults were not allowed to say "I," "me," or "myself." It was interesting to hear them when we discussed the activity afterwards. How hard it is to talk because you could not use those three words. How difficult is was to just listen without asking questions or interrupting or laughing. I asked the adults if they support a missionary what is their role? Or if their church supports a missionary what is the church's role? Besides prayer and financial roles the only other response that came was possibly writing to the missionary. I shared with them that there is more to their role in supporting a missionary than just prayer and finances as those are so very important and vital. But there is an encouragement role, an accountability role, an educator role, and a liaison role. I shared about these other roles and what they look like. But I also shared that it is a two way street for us as missionaries. How I am trying to teach our new missionaries to be these same roles to their supporters/partners/family/friends. I feel that my supporters are a part of my team or family and so I need to be invested in them like I hope they are invested in me and the ministry God has called me. I shared a couple of passages of Scripture: 2 Timothy 3:16-17 and 1 Peter 4:11. Had some great comments and thoughts about the different roles in supporting a missionary as well as it is a two way street.
I know that I have not shared about everything especially what Lane and Stan preached on but soon you can go to www.cherryruncamp.org and click on Sermons Page to listen to each one. I plan on doing it because I learned so much and I know I missed some things as well.
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