Camp is where it's at

For the last four weeks young and old have taken advantage of Ardennen Bijbelkamp. We are so thankful that we have this facility and can encourage one another here. Each camp week (there are four) are organized and run by various members from various congregations working together to serve the youth and  anyone interested in learning more about God during such a great week. We have a week for "jongeren" (15 and older), for "Benjaminen" (8-11 yr-olds), "Tieners" (12-14 yr-olds) and a "Gezinskamp" for families or anyone who wants to come.

Jongerenkamp (click on the photo here to see more pictures) had the theme of "Serving". (You can see more complete compilation here on Luk Brazle's site.) It was exciting to discover together the various ways that we can serve one another and to dream about how we are going to put this into practice after camp. During the week we helped people in the village, shared candy during "snoepwinkel" (where you can buy chocoalte, chips and cola) by buying for someone else instead of yourself, and of course enjoyed "corvee" (kitchen duty).

The Benjamins learned about the gospel of Luke. Karla Verheijen worked with her father and Annette and Mainor Boalanos from the church in Haarlem to teach 23 kids during this week. This was a full week! There were also good helpers among the young people.

The teens learned all about the parables of Jesus. The members from Rotselaar pretty much took care of the organization of this camp. Although they had fewer campers, they enjoyed their time learning together immensely. Check out the photo's on Daniel's site by clicking here.


The last week of camp, Family camp, was a rainy week. While much of the world has been groaning under heat and drought, much of northern Europe hasn't seen very much of summer. But every moment that the sun shines, or that it is simply dry, we rejoice and enjoy. So the theme of Salt and Light was appropriate for our time together as well. How can we make an impact on our world, bring the goodness of God to where we are?

Each day brought a different teacher. I was blessed to teach on the first day and enjoy all of the speakers throughout the week. Family week is always a great mix of young and old, married and single - even different languages sometimes (although we do the lessons in Dutch). It is great to see how God is helping us to grow, to have this time to encourage one another, to know, as Peter says in 1 Peter 5, that our experiences are shared by our brothers and sisters around the world. Check out some of the pictures by clicking on the photo.

We are so thankful for these opportunities because we see how these short weeks, rainy or not, bless us. Tey give us challenges to take us into the rest of the year. They give us moments of friendship so that we know we are not alone. They bring new relationships into our lives that strengthen and challenge us the rest of our lives. Thank you, Lord, for Bible Camp!