Camp Korat

I just spent the better part of my week at a camp with my church. It all started with a long 6 hour drive to the camp, which is located in a city, if you can call it that, named Korat.  I didn't believe we were there when my car pulled into a park that looked like Disneyland, but it was for sure the place where we spent the rest of our week.  The park was so weird, Leah and I were trying to decide what it used to be; maybe an old amusement park, maybe an old golf course, but we were told it was an old boy scout camp- which I guess makes a little bit of sense.  The park was covered with obstacle courses and large fake animals, with some real animals like wild buffalo and an ostrich.  

I felt like I was in a magical/foreign place.  

The setting, as described above, was surreal and the experience with the people was definitely interesting as well.  The whole language barrier thing camp into play the moment the meetings started.  Even though I had Leah, I still felt way out of the loop because everything was done in Thai, except for the sermons which were translated into Thai.  Song service and game activities were hard to follow because I just didn't understand what was being sad.  It got a little aggravating at times because I really wanted to be involved, but couldn't be because of my lack of understanding.  

Even though I couldn't follow what was going on, I could enjoy it from time to time.  It was awesome to listen to the people sing, and see them enjoy the games they were playing.  They were having a really fun time, and I would even laugh, too because seeing them laugh made me laugh.  I was happy to see them happy.  

The routine of camp was a little exhausting.  Everyone, mostly, rose at 6am to exercise, eat breakfast at 7, have meetings until noon, eat lunch, have more meetings and games, eat dinner at 5pm, and then have a night meeting and more games, which would last until past 10 at times.  The days at camp were long because of how busy they were, but for the most part it was fun.  Leah and I worked with the children because we figured this would be the easiest thing for us to do given the language barrier.  (We just aided in whatever activities the people had organized for the kids.)  And I'm really glad I did this because the kids were ADORABLE.  Seriously, I think I saw the cutest kids to ever exist on the planet.  There was this kid named Isaiah, man was he a cutie.  I could have taken him home with me.  Anyways, camp was fun and exhausting. 

I had a great time, and I am so glad I had the opportunity to be involved with such a big camp.  All of the SDA churches from eastern Thailand gathered in this one place for this week.  It was great to see how many people came out.  Really, when you think about it, it's miraculous that these people are adventists.  Think about it.  Buddhism is a far cry from Christianity, the two religions don't serve the same god.  To hear about a foreign god, believe it, and convert to it's belief system is an amazing process.  I'm so happy to see the church growing over here.  It's good that these people over here can be so open minded to Christianity.  

All in all camp went well and I had an awesome time! It's great to see God at work in the people over here.