Water Olympiad

Wow. These two weeks have been absolutely amazing. The relationships have gotten stronger and, like Meredith said, it has gotten so much easier to approach the French students and just start talking. Sometimes, though, talking isn't always a good thing. I am in a room with three other French girls-Oriane, Stephanie, and Sophie(all 17 years old) and one other American who is 16. Pretty much every night...except maybe the first couple awkward nights...we have gotten scolded for talking too late into the night. After our talks during cabin time, it is so hard to go to sleep. We just want to keep conversing with each other. The counselors usually have to tell us to be quiet at least twice every night. But in my mind, this is not a bad thing becuase it makes me get to know the French girls as much as possible = ) And I feel that night time is the best time of the day when girls are willing to open up easier-both to talk about their lives and ask questions. So I am willing to get scolded for staying up if it means I can get closer to my roomates = ) Oh and by the way, Stephanie has dread-locks and they are growing on me...I may want to get dreads when I get home = )

Today was a very, very hot day. But the water olympics made up for the heat. We started the day pretty normal. Prayer time first thing in the morning ( I admit it is getting harder and harder to wake up every day ), breakfast with tons of bread and coffee and cereal, and then our large group talk. Today, Joe talked about the story of Mary and Martha. It was very engaging. Chris Yake gave his testimony afterward which added to the talk. He talked about the death of his friend and how this affected his life. As I looked around the room when he was done, I saw at least three people crying because his story was so moving and honest.
After large group, we had workshops. These are definitely a highlight of the day because it gives us Americans a chance to talk and converse and have fun with a smaller group of French kids. All of us Philly kids usually host some workshops. I have been in charge of cooking twice. We made banana boats one day and yesterday we attempted to make dough boys. But, Thomas didn't want to build a fire so we just made them over the grill. Usually to make dough boys, you use pancake mix and water, but because this is France and pancake mix isn't easy to find, we made our dough from scratch. It was crazy to say the least = ) Not to mention the barbecue grill made my group twice as hot. It was hard to get closer than five feet from the grill because of the intense heat. But, it was fun and messy and everyone had a great time. I admit that they did not taste the best though. Oh well...it was an experience = )

Pretty much every day we take part in a large group game, ranging anywhere from sports to memory games to crazy physical games that make you wonder who in the world made them up = ). The other day, we were all split into groups and had to move from station to station gaining points. Then, we had to play a memory game with a pizza box and about 15 different objects-very interesting. Congrats to Jennie Holland's team for winning this challenge and earning free coupons for the snack bar! So today we held the Water Olympics, compiled of various games involving (thank Goodness) water. And at the end, we all had a blast getting wet and filthy on the slip and slide =)

I have to go because we are about to have small groups. My group is called Igor. There are about 7 of us campers and we usually play a small game and then get into the Word. It is very enjoyable helping the Frenchies to speak English and engaging in the Word along with them. I would write more, but the bell just rung.
Keep praying that God will give us energy and strength for the next few days. Hopefully we will have more chances to share Christ with the kids.

In Him,
Natalie Scott