Youth Camp – 2011
At last the exciting day everyone has been waiting for has arrived….
A little before noon, Bob Sayre pulled into the GongYi Home of Hope yard with quite a few of the XuZhou children. The rest of them will be arriving by train later this evening or in the morning. They are being escorted by Kelly, the XuZhou HOH assistant administrator.
About twenty minutes later, Ben and Michelle arrived with their children from the PingYu Home of Hope! All of a sudden the GongYi Home of Hope tripled in size! Of course we were ready for them and so excited for their welcomed arrival.
Pre Camp – Registration, Room Assignments, and Fun!
Day Two – Day one of the schedule
Please click on the “Play” button below to see some snapshots of our activities on the 2nd day of the Home of Hope Summer Youth Camp!
We had face painting, “T” shirt painting, more swimming of course, divided the children into teams, some weird “Kleenex” box… “shake the ping pong balls out” game along with good quality teaching and character building.
Ben and Michelle Godard, administrators of the PingYu Home of Hope are in charge of the planning and implementation of the Youth Camp and they are doing an awesome job! Bob Sayre and Nathan Bell do what we can to help but they are the driving force that makes this go each year! Yeah!!!! Ben and Michelle!
Day Three – Day two of the schedule
Today was water day and it was planned and scheduled to get everyone wet… and that is exactly how it turned out!
The day was hot and so the ‘getting wet’ part didn’t bother anyone… in fact it was quite enjoyable…
There was one activity that involved the children dividing up into their three teams (GIFT, POP and FIRE) and passing water balloons to the head of the line where Bob Sayre (XuZhou Administrator), Nathan Bell (GongYi Administrator and founder of the Home of Hope Orphanages) and Ben Godard (PingYu Administrator) were seated… one in front of each line.
The objective of this exercise was to get the water filled balloon to the front of the line and then break it over the administrator’s head, covering him with water.
When the balloon got there the captain of that team would then break the water balloon over the administrator’s head and it would count as one point.
Of course many of the balloons broke along the way so everyone got a little wet but for sure, Bob, Nathan and Ben got the brunt of the dousing! “Water Boarding” for sure!
We hope you enjoy this slide show.
The last day – Sunday, July 24, 2011
The children lined up right after breakfast and it was already hot. They were told about today’s schedule and then were all given popsicles… and they had a hard time eating them before they melted… (Oh for yesterday’s water games!)
Next came an activity that ended up touching my heart too the core.
First of all each child was given an envelope and were told to decorate it nice and pretty and then to place their name on the envelope in a very VISIBLE location.
Once all the envelopes were done, the Captains of each team hung the envelopes on the windows in the play room. These are the “You are Special cause you are Loved!” envelopes.
Then the children were told by clear explanation that throughout the day, anytime…. anyone could write a short note and tell why he/she liked you so much and slip it into the envelope of the child they were writing to.
The touching part is shown so well in the picture below.
The center picture is of one little girl who gazed at the envelopes for a long, long time. We couldn’t help but wonder what was going through her little mind! Maybe, “I have never been told I was special before…” or “Will someone really write me a letter and tell me I am special and they love me?…”
We often need to remind ourselves what these children have gone through and what they HAVE NOT had in their lives that so many of us take for granted! Like ‘being loved’… ‘being thought of as special’….’being cared for’…. if nothing else, ‘just being liked for who I am!’
Later others were seen staring and looking for their own messages… Everyone needs a little love! That’s for sure!
Other Activities
This concludes our coverage of the Home of Hope, 2011 Summer Youth Camp.
We hope you have enjoyed your visit! We apologize for the lack of professionalism in the creation of the film clips and snapshots, but our specialty is in ‘children’ not journalism! Thank You for understanding.
Posted: July 22nd, 2011 under Our Children, Special Activities, Uncategorized, Visitors.