On Tuesday, I left for camp and asked you all to pray for a spot to open up for Teresa, Jonathon, and Becca. Tuesday afternoon, Teresa showed up at camp with Dave and Beth Pocta. God just keeps showing Himself! After arriving at camp an hour and a half late - amazing, since the actual bus didn't get to the church until 11, three hours later than we were expecting it, we all gathered and sorted things out - cabin groups, teams, and the all-important lunch. I was in cabin 4 with a bunch of other 14 and 15 year olds and a couple of counselors, Maranda (American) and Joyce (Angolan). Joyce was a Portuguese translator for the girl in our cabin, Natália, who only spoke Portuguese. Natália and I hit it off, with her bit of English, my bit of Spanish, our mutual handsigns, and the help of Joyce.
Every day we ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner together, had a Bible Class, an evening devotional, and worshipped around the campfire. Food was typical South African camp food - lots of meat and bread and potatoes, but not a lot of vegetables. I came home and had carrots and tomatoes and litchis and bananas, and Mom's good food. 
The weeks "Theme" was The Righteous Path, and we talked about how to start on it, how to stay on it, and why the Righteous Path existed. Friday we listened to the Cross Study: Jesus' final words on the cross and what He went through as He suffered for us. It was a very impactful, in-depth study, with a large focus on forgiveness, and we were challenged not to walk away without forgiving those who we felt had wronged us. 
Of course, camp would not be camp without games and contests. Splitting the camp in half, one half played Swamp Ball while the other half did sack races. The next day, the halves switched games. Swamp Ball is essentially pushing a big ball around. Three people from one team push one way, and three people from another team push the other way, and the first team to get it past a designated line first wins a point. 
Every day, teams issued challenges to one another. Girls 1 (Teresa) challenged Boys 8 to limbo; consequence: love letters. Surprisingly, Boys 8 won. Boys 1 challenged Girls 1 to dodgeball; consequence: marker makeovers. Not surprisingly, Boys 1 won. Teresa got a marker makeover.
The only challenge my team issued was a flamingo contest. All the girls in team 4 and all the boys in team 4 started with standing on one leg. The last person standing, boy or girl, won for their team. My team won, just barely, with Shelly standing on one leg for more than 45 minutes. Consequence: love letters. The boys from team 4 had to get down on one knee, in front of the entire camp, and read a love letter to each girl. Two girls were read two love letters because there were two more boys than their were girls, and they had been the last ones standing. I was fifth to get out... ok, that's not much to brag about. 
The last day, during the closing ceremony, as well as having a lot of thank you's and all that, a couple of teams preformed lip syncs. Teresa and her team preformed a sync and a dance to Justin Beiber's "Baby".All in all, Teresa and I had a great time at camp. We built relationships, learned more about the church and youth, and met new friends from both the states and southern Africa. There were campers in attendance from 18 congregations, and multiple countries. The camp was a huge success overall!
The pictures below are me having fun with my camera, teaching Maddy Pocta to use her Macro close zoom setting.
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