The planning began in January of 2015, when Jorge de Campos, director of the Church’s efforts in the Portuguese speaking countries, made a request to Roy Holladay, operation manager for Ministerial and Member Services and Steve Nutzman, national coordinator of United Youth Camps: “God has placed in my mind the thought that a Youth Camp in Maloca de Moscou, Brazil, would be greatly beneficial to the young people living there.”

In April of 2015, Len Martin accompanied Mr. de Campos to the area, and after evaluating the existing conditions, they proposed the idea of a youth camp to the brethren. The idea was received with great enthusiasm. So now the work had to begin.

We needed dorms, upgraded shower facilities, upgraded kitchen equipment, a playing field, all the sports equipment, and of course we needed the financing to make it possible. The cost of this entire effort was split into two separate Good Works projects. The first project is related to the building materials needed and the second project focused the cost of the travel expenses as well as purchasing the sports equipment for the camp.

The local brethren donated all of their time and worked extremely hard on the improvements. Keep in mind they used basic hand tools; no tractors, dozers, etc. The brethren cleared and prepared a field approximately half the size of a regulation football or soccer field. They constructed a beautiful new brick and stucco bathhouse and pavilions with thatched roofs for “dorms.”

We determined to bring four counselors from the U.S. (two male, two female) and pair them with four counselors from Brazil. It would be an opportunity to “shadow” along others with United Youth Camps experience. Mr. Martin developed a schedule of activities and made copies of the Christian living classes used at our U.S. camps this past summer, and Mr. de Campos translated everything into Portuguese.

Activities included kickball, ultimate Frisbee, football, baseball, speedaway and capture the flag. The daily educational activities included a morning compass check introducing them to the “Seven Elements of the Zone,” Christian living classes and an English language class. In the evenings we had minute-to-win-it games, a game night, and a dance.

Thank you to those who donated to this project. Plans are already being made for next year’s camp, and there are still many improvements that need to be made. If anyone would like to consider a contribution, the information can be found at: http://goodworks.ucg.org/projects.  

To see more photos from this project check out the UCG Flickr.