Campmeeting February 19, 2009

Hmmm. Well, Campmeeting is now over. It went pretty well. The whole week before, people were coming to set up their camps, which consisted of hanging up tarps from trees and poles and whatever else they could find. It was quite a site to see. When everyone arrived on the 8th, most of them came piled in the back of pick up trucks with a few necessities. They just laid out their mats and they were ready for the week. Such a simple life…

The ASAP (Adventist Southeast Asia Projects) team arrived on the 6th. They are a group of missionaries from the States. They had a dental team, a medical team, an eye doctor, and a couple ladies that taught some natural remedies stuff. All day Sunday they set up their equipment in the classrooms. I was recruited to help out with the VBS program. An older couple was leading out with it and they had 2 other helpers. So on Sunday, I helped them get organized and prepare some crafts and different activities for the week. I ate meals with their group as well. They had a couple Americans from Phnom Penh doing their cooking. The food was amazing, but because I haven’t had American food in so long, I don’t think it agreed with my stomach too well…

Dan Augsburger (or however you spell it) was the speaker for the main meetings. Tim and the students had erected a stage in an open field and covered the area in front of it with canopies. Everyone sat underneath them on tarps. I never got an official count of how many Cambodians showed up for the meetings, but it sure looked like a lot to me. I didn’t get to go to any of the meetings since I was helping out with VBS, but I hear they went really well and the people were very responsive, even with translation. VBS also went well. I think we had about 300 kids in all. They were divided into 4 different age groups and each of us leaders were in charge of different activities. I did games and crafts for ages 10-12 and 13-15. We had a group of about 30 translators from the Adventist school in Phnom Penh helping us out with all the different stations. They were a huge help and did most of the work. There were more of them helping translate for the medical teams as well.

As the days past, they seemed to get hotter. VBS was out in the hot sun and I got my first really bad sunburn on my neck. I’m still peeling from it. The ASAP team stayed in Siem Reap in a hotel. During meals, I really enjoyed talking with their group. Having other Americans to talk to is something I didn’t realize I missed so much. Oh, on Thursday during Campmeeting, we got our fifth volunteer: Bronwyn. She’s from Australia but she’s Chinese and was born in Pakistan. Wow. She was a volunteer here before about a year and a half ago and really liked it. She’ll be here for 10 months.

On Wednesday night, me, Maria, and about 7 students did a special music for the main meeting. We sang/played two songs that I had taught the students in class. It went pretty well, all things considered, though the mic for the guitars didn’t work. We had Maria on the pan flute, a blind student on the harmonica, a 6th grader on the keyboard, and me and another guy on guitars. Plus there were 4 singers. Since there were so many of us up there, we really couldn’t hear each other. We got off a couple times because of that, but the Cambodians listening really didn’t know the difference.

Every night, the students from the school did a play. They had been working on all during January. It was a pretty big production for them, and they did pretty well. They had costumes and everything, which were handmade. The play covered from the fall of Lucifer, Adam and Eve, the birth of Jesus, the crucifixion, and 2nd coming, and the new earth. It sounds like a lot, but they didn’t put in too many details.

On Sabbath, Wendy had me, Bronwyn, and another guy sing “Go Light Your World” for Sabbath School. That went a lot better than the previous special music…

The last VBS was on Sabbath morning. At the end, we gave toys to each kid and gave gifts to the translators. Then we all headed to the stage area for Church. Pastor Martin from the ASAP team gave the sermon. In the afternoon, about 500 people got baptized in the pond behind the outhouses. There were 19 pastors in the water baptizing people, 2 at a time. God is good. That night, we all gathered around a huge bonfire and we each had a candle. I don’t know what the people said, but we must have stood there for an hour holding out candles. At the end, for some reason, everyone chucked their candles into the fire. It was quite the site seeing hundreds of candles flying in all directions.

Everyone left on Sunday, and things got back to normal once again. School started up the next day. Since Bronwyn is here, she took a couple of my classes: Bible 8 and Home EC. Yippee!!! Since she took Bible, I don’t have first period, so now I can sleep in til 6 instead of getting up at 5! And I’m sure the 7th grade kids will enjoy making other food items besides Fruit Snowballs filled with bugs!

Time is still going by pretty quickly, though with the almost unbearable heat, I seem to be tired all the time. I am getting to know the students a little better and will be sorry to leave some of them when I go.