This year's church camp was marked by difficulties.
We were trying something different this year. Last year's camp cook spent most of her time cooking and very little time participating in the camp's activities. So this year we decided to have a different cook for each meal which meant that no one person would be burdened by all the cooking. What I didn't consider was that instead of one person dealing with food, etc, we had five people dealing with food. (Each family was asked to bring a picnic to kick off the camp dinner on Friday night.)
One Friday morning, we found out the folks responsible for Saturday's lunch were not coming and not able to take responsibility for their meal. That left us about five hours to decide on a meal for 43 people, get all the supplies together, and prepare whatever parts of the meal would need to be prepared ahead of time. That is not so easy to do in a place without supermarkets.
Added to that, Ganpurev and I understood that we had a truck at our disposal and were intending to use the truck to haul much of the luggage that was headed for camp. The owner suddenly needed his truck and withdrew his invitation to use it. So here we were only hours from leaving without a truck and without a meal. But God put both those things together for us.
All week long I have been battling with allergies. The medicines that I have tried here are not proving very effective in reducing my symptoms. But Friday afternoon before we left was particularly bad. Compounding the problem, I suddenly had some serious intestinal problems that I thought was going to keep me close to a restroom for a day or two.
Sitting in a small room, I prayed, "Lord, I can't be effective at camp if I have allergies and these other problems. I need your help." Not long after that I felt better. The allergies were a problem on and off at camp; but the intestinal problems did not come back until Monday morning after I returned home.
Then Friday night and Saturday morning the Mongolian group next to us serenaded us with Mongolian long songs all night. I mean all night. From just after midnight until around 7 a.m. they drank and sang Mongolian traditional song after Mongolian traditional song. Frankly, had they been singing rock and roll, it would have been much worse. But still, seven hours of Mongolian traditional music when you really want to sleep is not as pleasant as it may sound. No one got much sleep that night.
And still we had a great time! God is good. All the food was good, no one was sick or injured, people were attentive to the preaching, and everyone who spoke to me about it said that they had a great time! One fellow remarked to me that he felt as if he was getting rid of two or three years of built-up stress.
We also had a Bible question and answer time with some excellent questions and some great answers. Most everyone enjoyed it, and many expressed to me that we should do it again.
Thank you for your prayers. Pray that God will cause the seed planted to grow.
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