Camp Mkunda: changing lives

This past week we were in the lovely village of Mkunda for camp. What a turnout! We had around 95 youth in attendance. Village life was different here, in some ways more comfortable, and in other ways more difficult than our experience last week in the village of Ngoma. I won’t share to much about that aspect of our week, although Shaina goes into more details about village life in her blog .

Skits with the translators. This one was about the effects of gossip!

Henry invited us into his home to meet his family. They are truly wonderful. I was so touched by their hospitality!

We visited an adorable old man that does iron forgery. So cool.

Thank you for your prayers this past week. God was truly working in the hearts of the campers this week. I’m amazed at all the little ways he intricately designed His plans for camp this week to honor and glorify His name. Darling reader, I have wonderful news: at least 14 people came to know the Lord this week! Praise the Lord! Be praying for these new members of the family of God as they return back to their villages and home churches. May they grow in the knowledge of God’s Word, show the fruit of His Spirit, and share the good news of Christ’s love.


Guys cabin doing their personal devotions

Along with that, I truly believe God was working in the hearts of the campers with the True Love Waits theme for sexual purity. It has been humbling for me teach about HIV and AID’s, a big issue here in TZ. Although it was a difficult topic and it wasn’t the easiest for me to answer some uncomfortable questions, I have become so passionate about enlightening these campers and encouraging them to pursue sexual purity. Here’s one story of God’s providence and a life changed:

memorizing scripture.

One of our counselors was going through one of her true love waits sessions and in her group was a young women who already has a child out of wedlock. Convicted of her past mistakes and burdened with the insecure future ahead of her, she asked if any man would ever accept her as a wife and take her child as his own. God’s hand was so upon this situation that this counselor had gone through the exact same situation in having a child out of wedlock and is now happily married with several children to a godly man. She shared her testimony of the many difficult years of waiting and raising her child without a father until she she met her future husband. For the first time in this young woman’s life, she was given hope for her future. May God give her the endurance and faith to pursue sexual purity and raise her beautiful child to love the Lord.

On a lighter note, this week several members of my choir attended camp. I was thrilled to have some familiar faces and get to know them better in a non-choir rehearsal type environment. Each night at camp we have a big evening service. Most of the village shows up and it’s full of singing, dancing, preaching, and skits from the campers.

Shaina and I looking out of our room window!

Village kids sleeping at the evening service... so precious!

Since it was such a big camp this week, the services lasted for around 3 hours each night. We definitely struggled to stay awake the entire time. Shaina and I were often huddled together in layers of Kongas, surrounded by curious village kids (we didn’t mind that so much because they kept us warm!).Each night my choir personally came and invited me to sing with them for the service. Not that I’m so great or whatever (as you’ll soon see) but they get a certain level of respect from the other choirs by having a Mzungu (white person) in their choir... Anyways, I was honored that they personally asked me to join them, and so naturally I couldn’t refuse. They assured me the dance steps were quite easy… yeah. right.
The first night, the M.C. called my choir up and I joined, nervously looking around me as the huge crowd started whispering excitedly at the sight of me onstage. The song began, and I caught on OK. This was one of the harder dance songs, but they stuck to the choreography we had practiced in the past so I survived, until… a spontaneous dance break. oh. no.
Now, around here there are some dance moves that are all the rage among the locals. For most of these, I’m pretty sure God created white people to be fully incapable of ever successfully imitating these “moves”. Well, wouldn’t you guess, darling reader, that it was one of these moves that my choir decided to freestyle. Although I was mortified at the situation I had been trapped in, I realized it was all or nothing, and braced myself to throw down some totally awesome white girl moves.
With my whole heart, I made a sad attempt to imitate them and the crowd just erupted with screams of laughter and shock. I can’t blame them, for I can imagine how comical the scene must have been. Although it was super embarrassing, in retrospect I had a great time and I gained a certain sense of camaraderie and humor with my choir members that I never would have had without that unfortunate experience.

Farewell, Mkunda. Kapenta, brace yourself... Camp is coming to you!