The idea for this camp came from Katelyn Creech, daughter of KWO board member Cherie Creech. In August of 2012, she attended a “Foundations Camp” for incoming Texas Tech freshmen. The purpose of that camp was to help build relationships between students, and give them a new support structure of Christian friends that could help make them successful during their time away from home. She was deeply impacted by that and so thought it could be applied to our Kenyan orphans who are leaving their orphanage home for the first time to attend this Training School. It was a Spirit led decision that is paying off this week.
About 45 students have just arrived at the John and Mary Sure DeFore Vocational Training Center. Here for the next year, they will learn a trade and some life skills that will allow them to be able to earn a living in the future. But this week, they are ours! The team that has traveled here to conduct this camp is an awesome group of young people, with some more “seasoned” travelers thrown in. They are Katelyn Creech, Hannah Sharp, Eliza Marks, Morgan Neale, Shelly Durham, Patrick Weeks, Blaze Wooten, Ryan Rampton, Tyler Snelson, John Bartholomee, Cherie Creech, and myself. We are joined by Kenyans Francis Mbuvi, Stephen Owino, and Joel Njue.
Yesterday began with a large group session, with worship songs led by Joel, a devotional from Katelyn, teaching by Francis, and staff introductions. We then divided into smaller groups with each “counselor” taking 3-4 to work together on the material of the day. Today the theme was unity. These students are coming from our 14 orphanages, speaking 6 or 7 different mother tongues as well as Swahili and English, so learning to become unified through their common love for Christ is essential for a successful year.
Each student received a bible, notebook and t-shirt and they also played large group games, and group exercises, led by Ryan Rampton, to build unity and understand the reason it is so important. We repeated the large group – small group pattern in the afternoon, adding in a drama to illustrate the importance of speaking the same language. We finished the day with a “Dance Party” where our counselors taught group dances like the cha-cha slide to the Kenyans and they taught us how they dance as well. It was great fun!
Overall, it was a great day. They students are responding very well to the Americans, they are so happy to get to know them, and logistically we are doing fine. No one has been very sick, and the team of counselors is jelling nicely. Check out some pictures on the KWO Facebook page, and I will continue to report and post pictures daily. Tomorrow our theme is Family, so your prayers are appreciated.
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