Week 1 Cochrane

         Headed to Cochrane straight from summer camp, met my team at the Tim Hortons there. Some parents recognized our shirts and were excited to meet us because their kids were going to camp the next day. Headed to volunteer orientation after going over plans for the week. An amazing amount of 0 volunteers showed up to the orientation that night. The coordinator told us that we had 55 kids signed up, but only 4 volunteers. One of the volunteers would only be there in the morning, the other three volunteers were still really young. (12, 13, and 15) Bev, our Alberta coach coordinator decided she would stay the week to help us out with that problem.  After orientation Lane (my teammate) and I drove to our billets house, and just introduced ourselves to their family. Our billets were Scott and Lorraine, they had 3 kids, their daughter who was the youngest was in our camp (super cute). They also have a pet rabbit named Jack, and if you follow me on facebook, you would know that Jack decided to chew my earphones into several pieces.   I felt pretty nervous that night, didn't really know what to expect for camps, kept on praying that everything would just run smoothly with so little volunteers. I was still worrying a bit about how I would lead some of the drills and stations.

Day 1

Woke up at around 7:20, Lane and I made lunch ate breakfast and headed to the field at 8 where we did devotions with the rest of the team. (also....it's so cold in the morning there!) Kids started pouring in at around 9, and we just played pass with some of the kids. I was nervous as I started to lead some of the skills and drills but it got much better throughout the day.  Volunteers turned out to be much more helpful than we expected. Even the young volunteers were quite mature for their age, and it made it a lot easier for us coaches. In Coach's corner we talked about the theme "one in a million" and how everyone is special in God's eyes.  During small groups, we have each camper fill in a "u-talk form". It asks questions like "who do you think God is", "do you attend church", and "what question would you like to ask God?". It basically assess where each camper is in their spiritual life, which better helps us coaches and volunteers to better cater to their needs. We had one girl in my small group called Emily who said she didn't attend church but she was really excited to learn more about all this Bible and Jesus stuff. We were excited to tell her more but her mother was really uncomfortable with us sharing the gospel. She had told our coordinator that she didn't want us "indoctrinating her with bible stories". So Bev switched her out of my small group into hers the next day.


Day 2
 I definitely felt a bit more confident leading some of the games and drills. I was still a bit nervous and would forget to explain some key points once in a while, but I was doing much better than I expected I would. We learned about red card in Coach's corner and how the red card seperates us from the game of soccer, just like how sin seperates us from God. Small groups went pretty well, most of my kids were church kids and only a few were not. During lunch it started to rain and there was a thunder storm, followed by hail. The kids were freaking out and we had to go under a shelter. After a while, it stopped so we went back to the field and played world cup. The coordinator called the parents and told them that they could come early and pick up the kids if they were worried about the weather. Almost all of the kids left, and the coaches played a game of world cup with the remaining kids.  During debrief, Bev had told us that Emily had accepted Christ, which was really exciting for all of us. It was a heartwarming story actually, another camper called Ridley had been friends with Emily for years. Ridley had always told Emily about Jesus and had prayed for Emily for  2 years, but each time Emily was not quite sure she wanted anything to do with it. However, she decided that day she would accept Christ,  and afterwards she went and told Ridley. As expected the girls were super excited, and so were the coaches, it was a moment of pure joy.


Day 3

I had to lead devotions that morning, also it was my turn to share my story during coach's corner. The nerves definitely came back again for. I was worried about the length of my story, and whether I would be able to engage the kids for my whole message. I also hadn't completely memorized my story yet and I was worried about forgetting bits of pieces of it during coaches corner. But God was with me as I told my story, and I could feel that the kids were listening. I was telling a story about grace, and how grace was something we didn't deserve. Just like how we don't deserve salvation from Jesus, and it's only by God's grace that we are saved. During small groups I explained to my campers the fall of man, and how God sent Jesus to die for us. Now they could either choose to follow the path of the world or follow the path of Jesus Christ. I explained the consequences of choosing each path, and asked if anyone was willing to choose the path of Jesus. Most of the kids told me they had already chosen that path, so I sent them off to go eat lunch while I prayed for the ones that haven't yet. The holy spirit moved two of the campers in my small group to accept Christ which was definitely the highlight of my day.


Day 4

We started the day with some bad news. Bev had texted the girls saying that she had food poisoning, and later on we found out that it might have something to do with her appendix. Needless to say it was a quite a big gap to fill in for our team as we were already short volunteers. We asked the coordinator to do Bev's small group but she had to leave before then. So we ended up pushing coaches corner earlier than usual so that we could accommodate her. In coach's corner we talked about trusting in Jesus after you have accepted him. To rely on him through your difficulties. For myself it was a great time of reflection. The verse we had the kids memorize was 2 Corinthians 12:9 " My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness". As I was explaining the verse to the kids in my small group, I was just reminded of how that verse related to me so well this week. I was able to see God's power this week because of my weakness. In my state of weakness I came to the realization that my power is not enough, and that I had to rely on God. Too often I do not rely on God because I feel like my own power is sufficient in completing the task at hand. Only when I am completely powerless and weak, is when I have asked for God's help. Looking back on my life the times where I have asked for help from God, is when I have truly experienced his power. For me that is how I came to understand this verse, that when we are weak that is when we rely on God the most and that is when we allow him to show us his awesome power.



Day 5

Last day and Bev was still not doing that well so she wasn't able to join our team. Our whole team knew it must have been bad if she had missed two days of camp. Bev has such a passion for AIA ministry and such a great love for the coaches and kids, that if she isn't able to come, she really isn't able to come. So we spent a few minutes praying for her and doing devotions again. Friday is a bit different from all the other camp days, we don't do skills, fast footwork, juggling, or euro cup. After the fun run and group game we do a soccer olympics. We divide all the kids into 4 teams and each coach sets up a station where the teams try to score as many points as they can. Afterwards we award the winning team with plastic gold medals from dollar store and the kids love it. After olympics we have coaches' corner, where we talked about being on team Jesus, and how we have to support each other as Christ followers and practice our "spiritual skills and drills". After lunch we just play world cup and the winners get to pose with a trophy. Like the end of every soccer camp I've helped at, it's always a bitter-sweet moment. Your glad that it's over and you can relax for a bit, but at the same time you miss the kids so much. It always gets to me when a kid comes up to me and hugs me before they leave. Sometimes you build such good relationships with certain kids you don't want it to end, and it's sad to think that you'll never see some of them again.

Overall this was a good week, my team members and I had to work out some jitters and nerves at first, but now that the first week is over we're hoping that the next camp will go even better. Next camp is at Crossfield and the camp we're doing is actually my head coach's home church.