Escape 2012: Marvels

 "Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous deeds among all peoples."  Psalm 96:3

I cannot believe that I did not write about this sooner...I nearly forgot as life has swept me on to other things.  However, our middle school retreat last month is worth telling you about, so here is goes...

Our "Super" staff :)

Over 200 American middle schoolers living on military bases across Germany gathered for Escape 2012: Marvels.  It is an annual retreat that students look forward to each February.  Between our two middle school groups, we brought 22 kids along with 6 adult staff (including me!).  I was really excited to be back at Escape!  I have not been at Escape, working directly with students, since before I had kids.  I went along as camp support staff for a couple of years when they were babies, but I had not attended at all in the last 3 years.  This year, friends graciously took our two kids in for the weekend so that I could be free to go and be with students.  I must admit, it was a harder transition back to camp than I thought it would be.  I'm getting old!  I know that sounds silly coming from a 32 year old, but it took me a lot longer to bounce back after camp than it used to...having two young kids in the house waking me up early didn't help.  :)  I forgot how utterly exhausting 4 days of nonstop students is....but totally worth it!

My small group

Anthony's small group

I have been volunteering at one of our middle school youth groups this school year, so I had some relationship with the students going in.  However, there's nothing like a weekend away together with lots of games, meals, and talking sessions (not to mention cleaning up vomit in the middle of the night) to bond you!  It was a great opportunity to get to know girls better and hear what is going on in their hearts and lives.  Many of our students are searching to make their family's faith their own.  They just aren't sure how to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ even though they believe in Him.  It was exciting to see their young minds and hearts stirred as the Lord spoke to them through our daily sessions. 

What 200 middle schoolers praising God looks like

Who God is to them...

Game time

Our own children did really well with us away for the weekend.  It was fun for them to get a weekend with friends, and bonus for us, our friends finally got Masami eating more regularly and over a hump with potty training. It was such a gift to be able to be a part of ministry and feel like my kids were getting a fun opportunity too!  Just for fun, here are their goofy faces...

When Pandamania leads to Pneumonia

We spent another week volunteering at VBS at our chapel.  We had much the same roles as the previous week, but they crammed 5 mornings of VBS into 2 long days.  It went well for the most part.  The pre-schoolers that I was working with had some melt-downs in the middle of the day and several took naps.  Our kids did great.  Even though this week was a repeat for them, they still enjoyed the songs, stories, and crafts a second time around. In the week since then, it has been really fun to watch them further process what they learned and hearing them say "thank you God!" as they realize His hand in their day. 



Anthony's middle school group had a great turn-out of teens who volunteered at VBS.  Then, after the first day, they loaded-up, headed to dinner and did a scavenger hunt at the mall on base.  They all slept over at the youth building and volunteered at VBS the next day.  The teens had a great time and were a big help.  Here is a music video they made for VBS:



I guess it was all just too much for Anthony, though.  The morning after VBS was over, he woke-up with a fever and feeling sick.  After spending the weekend struggling through with no sign of his fever lessening, he went to the doctor on Monday.  Turns out...he has a pretty serious case of Pneumonia.  His blood test came back with numbers off the chart pointing to a very bad infection.  He is currently on bed-rest until Monday which will probably be extended into next week.  Please pray for a quick and full recovery!

Pandamania

We spent much of last week at Vacation Bible School on base. It ran from 9 to 12 each morning and had nearly 200 American military kids attending. The theme was about how God is wild about us even in the midst of the crazy chaos of this world. 

Anthony was overseeing teen volunteers, running sound, and organizing activities for the teens on two of the afternoons.  I taught pre-school bible for about 90 pre-school kids which was completely exhausting.  I don't know how teachers do it!  Kids were divided into "crews" of about 15-20 kids, so each day I taught a lesson 5 times.  Many of the lessons were quite active (like when we journeyed with Jonah in hiding from God, "swimming" after getting "thrown" from a boat and climbing through the tummy of the fish).  The most fun was when I got to teach Alethia and Masami's crew each day.

This was their first year of attending VBS.  Masami was a bit on the young side for it, but still did well.  They really got into the songs and trying to dance and do the hand motions.  They also had a great time shouting "Thank you, God" after key phrases throughout the week.  We laughed whenever Masami tried to sing one song in particular.  The line is, "He's wild, he's wild, God is wild about us" and Masami couldn't exactly say "wild".  So it came out as "wide",  "blind", or "pied".  Anyway he said it was funny because he was so excited.

We spent the weekend recovering.  Pray for us because we get to do it all over again this week!  The Army Chapel community is hosting another round of VBS for kids on the other side of town.  It'll be a bit smaller and we are cramming 5 mornings of VBS into 2 long days.  Also, Anthony is hosting a Middle School service project.  Students come serve at VBS and in the evening will get to do a scavenger hunt and have dinner together.  They will sleep over at the youth building and serve again the 2nd day. 

Needless to say...we will be laying low again next weekend!


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ESCAPE 2011

Today Anthony headed out with over 30 middle-schoolers from our ministries for our annual outreach camp, ESCAPE.  They will join almost 200 others for four days of fun and spiritual fuel.  A team of college students from our Alma Mater, Multnomah, have flown out to help facilitate camp.  Also, our soon-to-be-full-time ministry partner, Heather, flew out to meet students and help out.  She will be with us for the next two weeks, then will go back to the States to finish raising her support before joining us more long-term.  We are so excited that she has the opportunity to be here for camp!

This camp is very important for so many of our middle school students.  Often it is through these weekends that they meet Jesus personally for the first time and make significant steps of faith.  Please pray with us this weekend for our 32 students!  And please pray for our staff this weekend...

Shaun

Drew

Anthony

Gin

Heather

Pray for their stamina (200 middle-schoolers, not much sleep, and a lot of activity), their connection with students (some are newly involved and don't know many of the students), their sensitivity to the Spirit's leading as they facilitate small groups and meet one-on-one with students.

Thank you for empowering our ministry with your prayers!  We are so grateful to have you standing with us!