'Everything is halleluja...'

 New Year's Eve Camp in Wisla 2011-2012

Thanks to the support of a group of our Northern Irish friends, a group of sixty children from all corners of Poland could take part in the 2012 New-Year winter camp in Wisla. Again the noise of childrens’ voices, laughter and shouts filled the Baptist Church where we stayed.

This the first time that I went on a camp run by the Radosc Foundation, so for me everything was new and I was nervous wondering how I was going to cope among such a chaotic group of kids. However Henry’s peace, Lukasz’s encouraging enthusiasm and the joy of The Irish team and the other leaders made me feel at home.

The daily worship time for the whole camp brought us all closer to God, and for me personally this was a refreshing time where I was filled with joy.  The enthusiastic singing encouraged the real worship of the Lord even from the youngest at the camp. It reminded me that Jesus said that we “must be like children to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”

 “Raspberry” and “Blackberry” aka. the leaders Dorota and Marta truly kept the meetings interesting. With fun they managed to present the daily message from the Bible. They explored the daily themes through reading Bible verses and singing songs so that always these verses would be known deeply in the childrens’ hearts. “Love your neighbour as yourself” was shown by a funny sketch about the relationships between people. “Jesus is my Rock” Blackberry would energetically stamp her feet to show how strong is our God and how we can depend on Him.

The super slogan „Everything is Hallelujah” was the result of the verse that we studied „Whatever you eat or drink, do everything to praise the Lord.” So HALLELUJAH is our PRAISE OF GOD in our daily lives. This is how we are to cope with sinful thoughts that invade our thoughts or are expressed through swear words, This message was very important to the teenagers. I believe in the verse, “if you stand against the Devil he will flee from you” and I hope this helped the children with the daily pressures of modern life.

 Every day the Northern Irish Team also gave testomonies showing how they solved problems in thiet lives by reading the Bible, prayer and finding support from fellow believers. 

As well as meetings the leaders also took the children outside everyday in the fresh air. However there was just enough snow for the horse drawn sleigh ride. But the next day God tipped out a whole bag of snow and the mountains looked like a white-winter picture. Everyone, old and young, climbed to the top of the mountain to the border crossing and put their feet in the snow in the Czech Republic.

 On Saturday all the campers showed their strength on the icy ski slopes. There was so much traffic of skis, snowboards and little sledges. Thanks be to God for so much fun!

 After such adventures outdoors there were different workshops awaiting the children, and none of them were boring.

 The kitchen served tasty food to everyone and the Christmas Chocolates were heavenly.

God was with me every day and I am full of thanks that I was able to take part in His work for me, sharing the Gospel to the „whole world” which are those people who came on the camp, Even though all the leaders  were tired at the end we know that our „difficulties were not in vain”.

author: Danusia Czerederecka
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