Retrospective

Well, both July and August were busy months. A lot of things have happened and now thinking back it seems as if two years have gone by and not two months. A definite highlight to us as a family was the fact that Pieter, Anneke’s brother came to do a youth camp. He flew into Odessa few days earlier and we were able to have a good time of family fellowship together.
Camps went well! Youth camp has been a definite blessing. Even while meeting with the campers before the camp and gathering their applications it was obvious that the Lord was putting together a very unique combination of believers and unbelievers for this camp. It seemed as there was no time needed for the campers to break the ice with one another, they just clicked together almost instantly. It was interesting, like always, to observe the way the Lord worked in the hearts of the unbelieving campers and warming their hearts up to Him. When the invitation was made 12 stated that they would like to follow Christ. We are rejoicing for the work that the Lord has done in their hearts and the hearts of those who have not received His sacrifice for their sins but were challenged about the choice they would have to make: to choose the path of forgiveness and salvation or the path of damnation and destruction.
Family camp was very different and challenging in a way. We really struggled to get families this year. And I guess the most difficult thing was that the families who would sign up would change the amount of members that they would take with or just completely cancel out. Few days before camp about 16 campers canceled out and it made the camp really small, however we do trust that the Lord has brought the ones that he wanted to see in this camp. God has blessed us with a good camp. Two people made a public confession to follow Christ, praise the Lord for that!
The pictures above: from left to right, a group photo of the family camp, a group photo of the youth camp :) If you have fast internet, also see the "scrapbooks" at the end of the posts from this month to see more pictures of the camps