Training Camp is over and the FYM’s are now out on the field. What a great two weeks God gave to us. The days were long and the nights were short. I worked so hard that right now I am at home sick, running a fever. But God is on the throne and that is all that matters.
On the first day of camp, we had the kids go through a refugee camp experience. I want to share you with the journal entry of one of the girls, Connie Donlon, in Kenya. She tells it better then I could.
September 08
refugee camp
let’s just say my first day of training was…intense!
a real camping experience… except for our first day……
6:30am
raided
awaked by horns and yelling
“YOU HAVE 45 SECONDS TO GET ON THE BUS OR YOU WILL BE SHOT”
7:00am
still on the bus (in my pajamas).. all our heads down, eyes closed
7:30am
lined up and interrogated (we had been given families the night before, I had a husband, 3 kids (other FYM) and a baby (doll)
my family was placed in a separate line because we are christians
8:00am
forced to walk through the forest to our final destination
my family not given any money, food or a tarp for shelter because we are christians
8:30am
everyone had arrived to this marked off area
we were told that we were now in a refugee camp safe from the raiders in our home country
10:00am
food and washroom stations opened
washroom station is the forest floor behind a tarp
no money for food, water, toiletpaper or a bottle for the baby
12:00pm
was given a tarp by a nice family with two
set up camp in the safe zone and recieved our lunch (one cup of water for 5 of us and a piece of bread each)
it’s hot and we are sweaty
1:30pm
red cross parenting seminar..
without food for the baby, breastfeeding can transmit HIV
our baby is now infected
3:00pm
still really hot.. nothing to do but sit around..
some people tried making fires, others played baseball with a branch and a crushed can
stations opened again
found someone to buy us a bottle for our baby
3:30pm
someone got a fire going….smuggled in a lighter
4:00pm
starts to rain
all of us try to stay under the one sheltered tarp tent
5:00pm
still raining.. our tarp and belongings are soaked and covered in mud
5:30pm
rain lets up and spits for about 30 more minutes
our camp is raided… the men have paintball guns and shoot some refugees
they kill a baby and take everything they can
6:00pm
dinner… a rice cake OR a spponfull of bland porridge (no plates or bowls provided)
8:00pm
still there.. still wet… very dirty and everyone is smelling pretty badly, not to mention hungry
given up hope of going back to camp that night
settled on the idea of sleeping on the wet ground under the stars
another baby is dead
9:00pm
fire is still going
we start a prayer service
not for us
but for people all over the world who are expreiencing life like this without the hope of going back home any time soon
it’s really impactful… prayers are lifted, in turn our spirits are too
10:00pm
people had been singing worship songs for aout two hours
all 200 of us gathered around the fire
10:30
the guy in charge comes out and takes us on a prayer walk
in the dark through the fields and mud and hills
it’s dark and we are very tired and hungry but no one made a sound
just prayers for the refugees
some of whom we may be ministering to in the near future
11:30pm
we arrive back at camp for one more piece of bread and cup of water
we have fasted
fasted for those who have no choice
fasted to get our hearts right with God
the mock refugee camp was a total violation of human rights
it was disgusting, filthy, frustrating but incredible
we grew as a team and as families
but the purpose of the camp was not to frustrate but to get us in the frame of mind
frame of heart
the purpose was to come to a point to ask God to make our hearts break for what His heart breaks for
break our hearts for his hurting people.
it did that… and more
Amazing. God is always in control. Love and prayers to you all.
Wow! That sounds like such an amazing experience! Very powerful. Do you think you could email me your plans/notes for it sometime? I’d love to do something like that (but a little less intense) in youth group sometime!!!
In His Grip,
Matt
PS- love the picture of Brandon up in the article! Hardly recognized him with his hair like that…
WOW! Very intense! What a great learning experience.
Hope everything else is well with you and your fam.
Hey,
That sounds more like concentration camp than refugee.
Did I miss what you are training that hard for??
Exciting, but, wow someone could get killed in training.
Tim
no words…
Glad to get an update from you guys!
hugs
kristen
Heh…what a day! It was a great learning experience and I’d honestly do it all over again because I learned SO much about myself & what I’m doing here…wow…yes…I miss it!
What an awesome learning experience you provided, and even though it was for less than a day, someone wonders if it was more like a concentration camp than a refugee camp. Wow, I can barely fathom making such a comparison with what you did. Less than a day without much food and water, getting soaked (but they weren’t in cold temperatures)…really, this would be a Ritz-Carlton/Hilton type experience compared to a real concentration camp. And to be honest, it’s not close to a refugee camp (though I believe you did as excellent a job as was possible). The truth is, the beatings, the constant deprivation, the emotional abuse…those things couldn’t really be recreated in your mock-refugee camp (nor should they have been), but you moved your participants a bit closer to a place of deeper compassion for those they will be encountering. Thank you for doing this.