The facility that we used is a Christian school campus (the only one like it in the country). It had great sports fields and they converted the main classrooms into dorms so about 15 students were in a room.
For the Lakeside Bible team this was something new. The previous five or six years they came to Albania and conducted a discipleship camp, which has always been great, and is now a reproducible model that we can use on the ground on our own here.
They did a great job with this camp. Their team was awesome, mixed with people who have been here before and people who have not. They started off their trip rough because as soon as they landed here one of the team members didn’t have the proper documentation (unknown to all of us) and so she was sent back to the States. Thankfully, however everything turned out great and the Lord answered many prayers along the way.
The majority of the students at this camp were non-believers from an English school that is run by the mother of two of our student leaders. We had about 30 students from her school and another 10 from one of the orphanages that we work with in our church.
After a week of hearing the story of God and discussing things that they have never discussed, like the ten commandments and what they really mean, I think for many it brought life to God’s Word.
In fact, in my (Justin) small group I ask my students two final questions on the last night. “How many of you before you came to camp believed that Jesus is God?” None of them raised their hands. Then I asked them, “How many of you now believe that Jesus is God?” ALL of them raised their hands, and I don’t think it was out of peer pressure either. I think for most of them they finally heard the story of God from creation to the risen savior and where able to talk through the process and everything finally made sense. The biggest challenge that we faced and still do face is that the students believe that but their identity is still Islam, that is what they were born into and what they believe they have to be. It is not just belief for them it is a way of life, more of like a nationality or ethnicity then a belief system. If you change your religion, you forsake your family. But that was a significant step for them, acknowledging that Jesus is God.
By weeks end the Lord added to His number and 8 professed faith in Jesus. We are praying that more do, so please pray for us as we follow-up with them.
(Above): The playing fields were donated by Adidas from Germany. The facility that we used is a Christian school that is run by some German missionaries.
(Above): Dancing to the theme song. We also did the Cha Cha Slide every night.
(Above): This was at the beginning of the week there were a lot of "sitters" for the dance, but by the end of the week everyone was out of their seat with exception of the few who were too cool.
(Above): Elio (Albanian student leader) was the only guy on our team who knew every dance move to the theme song from Josiah Venture.
(5 Above): English Classes
(Above): Some of the girls who got saved, pray for lasting fruit! All these girls are orphans, now they are apart of the family of God, a good story of adoption wouldn't you say?
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