This year’s youth camp was held at Ogembo Dec. 5-11. The site is on a Church-owned property, which offered the campers an amazing and a relaxing view of the beautiful green scenery of Gusii. It’s a land of wonderful, favorable weather conditions and plenty of fresh foods.

The setting affords everyone in attendance an exciting, spiritually rewarding seven days of fun and challenging activities while learning about God’s way of life. The themes this year were “Accepting God’s Authority,” “Listen to His Word” (Zephaniah 2:1-3, Psalm 34:11), “Live and Develop Jesus Christ’s Holy Character,” and “Learn to Obey God” (Proverbs 1:7, 8:13).

This year, camp attracted more campers than the previous years. In total 115 campers (72 girls, 43 boys) and 34 staff members attended.

All campers and staff were housed in tents pitched on the church ground. Because of the large number of attendance, we had to ask for 10 extra tents from Nairobi. On the first two nights we had to accommodate all male campers in the church hall.

Meals were prepared by the kitchen staff, which combined efforts with the campers. The day’s meals included breakfast, lunch and dinner, which were served at the church kitchen. Occasionally the campers enjoyed chewing sugarcane and eating avocados.

God blessed us with wonderfully beautiful weather all week long and held back the rain, which is normally experienced on most days in the area. We at one time wished it would rain since we were going to run out of water. Thankfully a neighbor assisted us with his tank, which was full of fresh water, and this saved the situation.

We enjoyed many well coordinated activities. Each day started with Christian living, then the campers joined different activities such as team building, knitting, volleyball, football, boy talk, girl talk, public speaking, journalism, capture the flag, camp improvement and drawing. The campers were also given an opportunity to learn new skills like tips on driving and road signs.

The week-long activities and the unique combination of efforts on the part of the experienced staff with their close interaction with campers offered everyone an opportunity to form strong friendships as they developed godly character.

All in all we give much thanks to God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior for the many blessings that were evident at camp. We thank Him for the protection and good weather conditions all week. We also give thanks to the staff who tirelessly combined efforts to serve the campers, and the youth themselves for handling themselves responsibly during their seven-day stay at camp. It is our sincere prayer that all they learned at camp helps them as they grow into God’s family.

Thanks very much for your continued support.