Hyd CYC camp

After the meeting on the previous Sunday I was asked to prepare 3 evening activities and an afternoon sports day for the CYC camp the following weekend.
Anyways, that gave me something to do during the week when I got back!! There is NO rest for the wicked.
It was nice to be back and see Sarah again, she's like my Indian sister at the moment!! When you do everything together for 4 months, you do really miss each other when you're separated :-)

Thursday morning I was bustling around collecting last minute things like newspaper and plastic balls to play games that I've been brought up with and a few extra things like mangoes and biscuits for just in case food :-)
When I arrived at Shunem on Thursday afternoon all the children were back from their holidays and greeted me enthusiastically when I came through the gate:-) After being helped to remove a massive ant colony that had settled itself in the bathroom that i planned to use for the weekend, I got the children to help me roll up newspaper and stick it together for the hockey game.

The book chosen to look at for the weekend was 1st John, and it was such a good choice, especially for discussion groups. Each session was started with a 5 minute summary and then we split up to discuss the questions on our worksheets. Maggie and I worked together as leaders for the girls group. The girls here are quite shy and often won't speak out if there are guys in the group, so it was nice to have a sisters group and we could freely discuss the issues.

I love looking at the theme of light throughout scripture, and we chose that topic to discuss on the first day. On the worksheet there were quotes from 1st John and John to lookup first to learn the context, then there were a serious of questions to answer and quotes listed as hints.

For the get to know you night, Maggie first handed everyone a name of somebody else in the room and they had 5 mins to meet the person and get to know them and report back. It was a good way of breaking the ice. The hockey game was also a success, they'd never played it before and really enjoyed it and everyone got very competitive which was fun to watch:-)

The weather was still very hot in Hyderabad, and Cathy and I decided that we'd sleep on the roof at Shunem so carried our mattresses up. I wet my sheet expecting the weather to still be cold, but there was a cold wind blowing all night, and I don't think I slept a wink up there!

Friday afternoon I got the softball and bat and took some of the little ones from Shunem, and some of the older ones also joined in, and we had a very rough game of softball. Some of them picked it up immediately, but it was just strange without gloves, or the bases..!!
In the evening we had a quiz, but it was quite difficult with the age groups involved, and some people enjoyed it and some people didn't. Unfortunately everyone was so tired that they didn't want to sit still for long, that the meditation prepared by Brother Nani had to be cut very short.

Saturday in the afternoon we took a hike to a park with a lake in it nearby. It took us so long to walk there with everyone walking at various paces, that by the time everyone had arrived and received an egg puff and some Rasna (typical VBS refreshments) it was time to turn around and walk back home.

Saturday evening was our praise night. I'd prepared a short meditation on Love and Jon Hewitt MC'd and had about 20 quotes read out in Telegu Firstly looking at the Love of God, then at the Love of Jesus and finally at what should our response be to that love. Between each section we had an English song that they'd learnt during the camp. Then there was a 10 min break where people could just meditate on that Love, or say a prayer, and then each ecclesia sang their Telegu songs.
In Australia, it's very common to have time to meditate at the end of a praise night, but in India, they didn't really seem to understand the concept at all. Oh well, I don't think it did them any harm!! Maybe if it's done again, they'll get it?

Sunday morning Tej gave a beautiful exhort on the topic of mercy, which linked really well to what we'd been looking at the whole weekend on Love. After lunch everybody left.

The Shunem children were in the process of changing schools back then, so as Sarah and I were about to leave we spied the dining hall filled with books, and plastic, and scissors and children very diligently plastic covering their text books and exercise books for the start of school the next day. It was so nice to see them all busy working together. The elder ones covering the younger ones books.