Our last 2 days of teen week

The past 2 days have been super busy, so sorry for the lack of post. I've got lots of pictures, so if you're too lazy to read, you're welcome. 

Wednesday was eventful. Let me just start out by letting everybody know.... Olivia fell off the swing. This isn't just some small baby swing, this swing has the ability to make a full roundabout circle over the top if you try hard enough. And she tried, and failed. She is alive and well, but does have a few battle scars to prove it. Wednesday was also "wear your clothes inside out day" and there were some pretty creative ideas around campus. One of the boys groups all wore their camp tshirts as shorts all day, it was pretty funny. 

The Big Game was a photo scavenger hunt which was a lot of fun to do! We had a list of 25 different things to take a picture of/video doing. Our girls love it, and said that we had to upload all the pictures to Facebook and be their friends and tag them so they can remember it all. 

So a lot of the kids really look forward to a certain night at camp during the Big Meeting, which they like to refer to as "crying night." This night usually involves a more serious sermon and then an invitation. Karlis spoke a great message and then asked the kids to write how they feel on a piece of paper and put it in a bag for him to read. The kids really enjoyed being able to privately express themselves on a piece of paper where they don't have to worry about getting nervous to speak. Our discussions this night got very personal with our kids, and they asked really tough question and shared really tough stories. Crying night always makes you feel like you want camp to last forever. It's a night when these kids come to know God and feel his love and power, a night where we get to worship for hours, a night where we get to give full attention to the now and now worry about what's going on elsewhere. This night is the special night at camp, and I can speak for both of us and say that nights like these have been what have brought us both closer to God and brought us this passion for what we do here in Latvia.

To end the night, we were invited to a little thing called "tea time," where another group invites whoever they want to tea after discussion time to ask questions. We were invited to go visit a group of 15-16 year old boys cabin, where they asked us things like "why do you come to Latvia," "what are you life goals," and we even were asked "how did we get to know God?" I know you know a 15 year old boy, and I know you know they don't like to express themselves and talk about feelings, but these boys loves hearing our testimony and about our passion for Latvia, they were really zoned in on listening and learning from us, so that was pretty sweet.

Also, I got to hold a hedgehog. They just run around the campground at night. Literally the happiest moment of my life. 

Superhero Thursday! Thursday means the last full day of teen camp. But that also means WATER DAAAAAAY aka "you better wear something you don't care about ruining because you will get wet and muddy even if you don't want to because Latvians think it's funny because it kinda is funny." We had a bunch of games after lunch like water kickball, water relays, water challenges, and the ever so famous and oh so dangerous slip and slide! It was a blast and the highlight of mine and lots of our campers week. 

Tomorrow is Friday, and the campers have to go home at 1. Most of these kids go back home to a place they don't want to be. They don't have awesome family life, they don't have people that love them, they don't have people to encourage them to go to church, to quit smoking and drinking, to be kind to other people. We pray that these kids can find comfort in their lives, safety in Gods arms, and happiness through the little things. Please pray for the campers and for our leaders today that we can peacefully say goodbye to each other as the kids travel back home. And please pray that we can all control our tears and not let our upset feelings take away from the last few hours we have with our sweet girls.

Anything Could Happen

The campers are here! The campers are here! Y'all today was so insane and it's only day 1. The kids started arriving around 2 in a few different vans and buses depending on which city they were coming from. We were standing on the porch of the main house when the first van arrived and seeing these kids running towards us, hugging the Camp Hope veterans, so happy to see the faces they hadn't seen in a year - it was such a cool sight. It's weird not knowing any of the campers, especially after working with the same Street of Hope kids the past 3 years here. But I can't even explain how these kids faces lit up seeing all their old friends, the American counselors that became their friends, this familiar campsite, so excited for the week to come. 

Gable's Group

Go Fancy Snickers! I'm lucky enough to get to look over seven girls 16-17 years old this week. Y'all these girls are so cool, each of them have such a different personality, there's an artist, a singer, a clown, a quiet but sweet girl, one girl only smiles every now and then. The first day we bonded over creating our group name... Fancy Snickers... And had so much fun decorating our room for "most womanly" competition, hanging our bathing suit tops around our cabin and setting up nail polish up our stairs. A few of my girls went out and picked a few flowers to put on our pillows, literally I could have paid like $10 for the bouquets these girls put together. I love getting to know the girls in my group, and it's crazy seeing and hearing about their stories from back home, when they aren't at camp. Most of these kids come from really hard lives and camp is their escape and this can sometimes be really apparent. The girls hang onto me, hug me nonstop, sit with me without saying a word, decorate my bed, and I love every second of it. It's so crazy, one of my girls has come to Camp Hope for 11 years. All 11 years! I feel like such a noob.

Olivia's Group

One of the best parts of meeting all the girls in my group was asking them what their favorite part of Camp Hope was since it's my first year and they are all returners. A few of them said that they loved water day and hanging out with friends but one girl said she loved the "Big Tent" time because they got serious and really talked about stuff. This really meant something to me because even before I had seen it with my own eyes, I saw what an impact camp had had on her. Group time was special because they all opened up in their own way. Even if they only talked in Latvian, I felt blessed that they were opening up at all on the first night. I can't wait to get to know more about these girls this week! 

We had dinner, night discussion time, and then we had "tea time," where we get together with our group and talk about what Karlis discussed at the night meeting. We talked about the 4 steps of believing in God and creating/having a relationship with him. Our campers are all over the spectrum, some following and totally in love with Jesus, while others don't even believe in a God. It's interesting getting to hear how honest these kids are when talking about it. So many of them want to know God's love and want to be a Christian, but they are so confused as to why so many bad things happen in their lives. But that's what we are here for, to help them know that life isn't always going to be dandy and bad things happen to everybody, Americans and Latvians, everybody. But when we have faith in Christ and know that he is on our side and has our back, we can get through anything. I love sharing my testimony with my girls, it helps to create trust and a relationship with them that's real. 

Day 2 of camp has been eventful. It's crazy hair day and you can't even imagine the crazy hair we have seen from these people. Latvians are very resourceful to say the least. We started today with a staff meeting full of prayer, both in English and Latvian. It's pretty neat hearing prayers and feeling its power in another language, it's one of my favorite things. We spent all day outside playing gaga ball, swimming, singing and dancing, and at crafts they made tie-fleece-blankets. We have an ever so popular night game tonight, which in Latvia usually means running around in the woods at 11pm in pitch black night with your hands zip-tied to your team trying to find some sort of treasure. And lots of bugs. It gets really intense. So we will let you know how that goes. Over camp has been so amazing so far and it's only the first full day... The Texans are still alive and kickin, so that's labi. (That means good in Latvian)

Also, we have a camp-wide blog going written by our American AND Latvian team, and I run out of internet quickly, so you can check that out if you want to know more! (Red & Mansfield family) 

https://hopecamplatvia.wordpress.com

xoxo, Gāble un Olivija

Like Home

Well, we made it! Hardly though, Clark, you'd be so proud of us. We went through 3 different airports all by ourselves and didn't get yelled at or get too lost. We cut it close though - sat in the wrong gate for 2 hours and realized we were at the wrong place 30 minutes before take off so we had a little but of a workout speed walking to the right place. But we made it! We landed in Riga with the hopes that one of our friends would pick us up... after them joking around with us saying that we had to hike to Vilandes (the church that we stay at in Riga) and we never know what to expect with them.. But luckily we walked through the doors from baggage claim to see Tabita, Arvis, Girts, and little Amelija! We hugged, grabbed our suitcases and got in the car back to Vilandes. Home! 

We dropped our bags off at the church, changed out of our 17 hour travel clothes, met up with Valters, another of our Latvian family, and walked to Old Town for the only reason we actually come to Latvia. Pelmini. Heaven. Kidding, not the only reason we come, but I'm totally serious when I say the only reason we kept positive during our travels was knowing and telling each other "pelmini was at the end of the tunnel." 

We woke up Saturday morning, had some coffee at Coffee Inn, breakfast at "the muffin man," and went to pick up the rest of the American team from Virigina from the airport. It was crazy and wonderfully different because we knew no one coming through the doors and there are thirty-five of them. If I could verbally italicize that too I would. Thirty-five! But of course, thirty-five amazing people. It's amazing to see the love that I have for this country and for these children reflected back at me in thirty-five people's eyes. (Thirty-five!!) God is good. These guys are Camp Hope pros. They've put on an astonishing 11 camps and from what I hear, they are life-changing weeks. 

The only thing you really need to know about the camp grounds is that we have yet to be able to pick our jaws off of the ground. Beautiful is an understatement. We are surrounded by a lake on all sides and there are cabins for us and all our future campers. You will all see pictures but I assure you, they will not do this place justice.

Tomorrow we look forward to a day where we can sleep as late as we want (something I have never heard on a trip to Latvia before!) We will spend the day setting up camp until our Latvian leaders arrive tomorrow evening. Currently we are trying to tell our brains that it is bed time despite the fact that it is still very light outside and it's 11pm. The sun just can't get enough of us.

xoxo G&O