Meadow takes to blogging again

Hello world.

I left you hanging with part 1 of what I envisioned would be 4 parts of our grand European adventure. There was to be London, Paris, Italy and Switzerland, and the French camp. Only I didn't end up posting beyond London. And then I didn't end up posting anything ever, and I lived my life and made a human and bought a house and now that human is 10 months old and I'm breaking my blogging fast to tell you about that French camp experience.

The camp is put on by a Christian organization called La Ligue which has a longer name, something with the Bible in it, but La Ligue is their hip re-brand. Anyhow. They put on about 10 summer camps all over France with different themes (Horses! Surfing! Baccalaureate preparation!) including "American!" The draw of the American camp is that you can come face-to-face with living and breathing Americans. The camp's programming is run by two churches in Nashville TN and Orlandoish FL. I found out about the camp through BIOLA University's magazine that posts info about their grads in the back, one small blurb announcing that a couple who lived and worked in France was looking for people to come and help out at a summer camp in France. I called Randy Kent and told him a bit about myself and let him know I was interested in being at the camps, and he let me know he was interested in having me, because the more the merrier as far as round-the-clock translating and interpreting goes.

The main building with some dorms and the dining hall.

Dean and I planned our European adventure to butt up against the dates of the camp. Dean flew home and I waited at the airport with no way to contact anyone but my notebook with "LOL and Sun and Fun" scrawled in messy letters and held hopefully out to passengers escaping customs. After about 5 hours someone looked at the sign and said, "That's us!" We met up with all the other people and bussed the 2 hours to camp.

We had a day to decorate and meet in our teams before the kids showed up. There are two camps that run at the same time, one for elementary aged kids, and one for jr. high and high schoolers. I worked with the littler kids and was the main translator for the morning meeting, recreation and craft time. In the evenings a Frenchman and local school teacher came and we split translation duties for the evening meeting. It was exhausting and exhilarating. I was using my language skills in ways more important and critical than ever before. I spent my off-times reading through the passages of the Bible we would talk about next, looking up words like forgiveness (they say to give grace), confess, fishing nets, a great light appearing from heaven. And all though I felt inadequate at times (kids are so hard to understand sometimes!) the level of my French and the words in my vocabulary were perfect for those 5-11 year old hearts.

Around the fire

 There was hiking, kickball, foursquare, cup-stacking races, painting, gluing, cutting, racing, singing, campfires, delicious meals, tears and whining, scrapes and bruises, laughter, loving. There was summer camp, quoi.

View of Guebwiller from the upper field.

Singing and dancing.

Tagine for dinner.

Both camps together.

Small group time.

This summer, Dean and I are going back, with Ward. This summer I will be working with the jr. high and high school campers, which is so perfect. I love older kids. It's what I've made my career, bringing knowledge and Truth to students. I'm looking forward to the challenge of answering the tough questions these students will ask and getting to engage with them, hopefully more personally, about what it means to be a follower of Christ. I'm excited for the chance to continue the relationships we will make at camp on Facebook and other social media because the older kids are online. I'm excited about the opportunities for discipleship and mentoring we will be able to establish.

Are you interested in helping us get there? We're putting together a prayer list for people who would like to be praying for the teams going and for the hearts of the kids attending. You can sign up here. We've set up an account at GoFundMe. If you would like to support us financially, you can do so there. Would you like to know some other ways you can help? Let me know by sending me an email at meadow.brianna@gmail.com.

Thanks for joining with us!