Young Blood

     Is this what it feels like to grow old? To see the younger generation come up through and take over the program? Without getting the input of the older members of the team, I'd have to say yes. But, in this case, it's good to have young blood in the driver's seat. Allow me to explain.

Zhenya bestowing instructions to the camp.

     My home church has partnered with Big City Church in Kiev since 2014. In that time, I've seen several students come through the program and become leaders in the camp. From photographer to team leader, from assistant to team leader, from team leader to camp director. In each case, it's the younger generation moving up to take over for someone older who moves on to different duties.
     I realize I might have new readers (thanks for the hint mom) so I'll take a break to explain what this whole thing is about. The English camps (three this year) are a ministry of three Presbyterian churches in Kiev, Ukraine. Their express purpose is to bring young people (young blood) into the church body. There are two main options for faith in Ukraine. The Orthodox Church or nothing at all. The Orthodox church, especially to the older generation, is all there is. This camp is a chance to show the youth of Kiev that the Protestant church is not a cult. It's not trying to suck you in and destroy your life. It wants to share the Truth of the Gospel and Hope in Christ with everyone.
     If you want to reach young people, especially young professionals and college students, English is the way. Offer a camp with English lessons, native speakers, and fun at an extremely reduced priced and you will have a very popular program. Yes, it is slightly subversive. But the advertisements include the bullet point "spiritual development." It's right there on the flyer.

Spiritual development is the 3rd bullet point.

     Most of these students come to the camp not believing or only believing in loose terms. "Oh I go to church on Easter and Christmas. My grandmother prays. I believe in God." But through the program, the staff (many are the same age as the students) can help the students internalize the spiritual points and ask themselves what is really important. Yes, English is important. But the message that is shared in the "Way Home" presentation is even more so.
     But we aren't just giving the lessons and then dumping a bunch of spiritual terms on them. We are building relationships. We are making friendships that could last for our whole lives. And if you are going to tell anyone about you faith, why not start with your friends? This is the most important thing they will ever hear. Building that rapport is essential to keeping them from tuning it out immediately. In some ways, it's similar to the English club program I was involved in. We use English as the "bait" and then build friendships over weeks and months. And then we share our faith and our hope.
     If you've made it this far, I guess you're ready for an update about what actually happened. Where to start but the beginning? Morning came all too early after a restless night. We made it to the office by 8:15, just in time to start with the student evaluations. The evals are an essential part of preparations for the lessons. It helps us as teachers place students where we think they will best be served. We don't want to drop a beginner in the middle of an intense advanced lesson. We evaluate the students for about 2 or 3 minutes by just talking to them.
     I feel like I'm following a script in writing this. But it's much the same as previous years. After finishing the evaluations, we finalized some details, packed up and loaded into the bus. The ride was uneventful but for the construction-related traffic right after leaving.
     About an hour after leaving, we found ourselves disembarking at Zazimye. Yes ladies and gents, we're at the same place as last year. Good rooms, great food, air conditioning, WIFI! It's almost like a vacation. After dispersing to rooms to drop off baggage, we met up again to divide into our teams. (GO TEAM FOREST!) We have three teams; Fire (red), Forest (green) and Ocean (blue). My team leader, Marusya, was the camp photographer my first year here. More of that young blood moving up through the program.
     Following a very good lunch, we found ourselves in the middle of the first English lesson of the week. By default, most first day lessons are awkward. It took a little bit to get into the swing of things. But we did it and it turned out good. For the active part, we tried a variant of Scatagories using Bananagrams tiles. I think the students really liked it.

     For future reference if you want to try it, divide the group into two teams and split the tiles evenly between them. They have three minutes to make as many words as possible using each tile only once. Each unique word gives them one point. Any common words between the two teams cancels the point. I think there was some trepidation at the beginning. But once the timer started, half of the noises from each group were laughing.
     We finished off English a little early to give the students time to prepare for two hours of Ultimate Frisbee. Boy was it fun. Like last year, it was a highlight for my Monday. Throwing, playing, laughing, learning, competing. We had it all. Even a little showing off for the cameras.

He missed it by that much.

     The post-game dinner was, again, very good. Chicken, rice and carrots with a muffin. It was followed up with the Way Home presentation. Zhenya, the camp leader this year, is the one presenting.
     We got about 45 minutes for a break before the open ceremonies. Yeah, I get the irony of having the opening ceremony as one of the last things on Monday night. But that's when it was scheduled. Before coming over, the team had to make an intro video for the students to know a little more about us. I think it went over well. They seemed to laugh and cheer at all the right places.
     I think I'll finish this now as the guest band Veedstany is playing their set. For it being the first day, the team seems to be in good spirits and holding together. I'll keep that updated as the week goes on. For now, have a good night and I'll talk to you again tomorrow.