GongYi Home of Hope

YOUTH CAMP

The Home of Hope Youth Camp has started… Late yesterday morning the PingYu children and staff along with Ben and Michelle Godard and their three boys arrived in GongYi on a huge, chartered bus. A short time later Bob and Cindy Sayre with the XuZhou children arrived as well. However, Bob and Cindy brought some of their younger children with them in their van and in a couple of hours Kelly, (their translator) arrived with the rest of the children who all came by train… a first for many of them and they really enjoyed it!

The first order of business was to get all the children assigned to one of the three teams. Once assigned, they will be a member of that team all through the Youth Camp. The assignments are made keeping two things in mind. One to keep the teams equal in mix and age so the competitions are fair and second is to mix the children from all three homes so all the children get to know each other better.

Above three pictures, the children are lining up to get their team assignments.

After the children were lined up properly and “Team Assignments” were completed, they marched in to one of the class rooms to get their individual “T” shirts for the Home of Hope Youth Camp 2012.

The children always enjoy this part. That “T” shirts have the Home of Hope Logo in the front but the rest of the shirt is blank. The kids get to paint their own designs on their shirts along with their name and anything else they wish to add to their shirt to make it interesting. Later, the shirts will be judged with the owner of the most unique design receiving a prize.

To the right is what the Home of Hope Logo looks like which is on the front of each T shirt. Once the children all had their “T” shirts, they went back outside and each team found a place to sit while their counselor talked to them about kindness, sharing, playing fair and how they would work together to win in all the various competitions that will be held during the camp.

In the picture to the left, Lilly, one of the older GongYi girls is talking to her team. We use the older children as counselors and it works out just great! Below are shots of the other two teams making their plans. The children are competitive and enjoy the challenge of trying to win and be the top team. However, we make sure that all competition is in good, clean fun and stress that we are to care for each other, even while trying to win.

Next on the agenda was for the three teams to make their “Team Flag”. This is another activity that is great to get the children to work together. They choose a team name that must be in line with the general theme of this year’s camp and then they design and paint their team flag. Each flag and team name must have a meaning associated with a character trait the children want to have in their life. To the Left we have the “H” team… “H” for Helpful. Then there is the “S” team… “S” for sharing. And then the “K” team. “K” is for Kindness.

We will be sending out daily emails with pictures from the next few days of the camp as well as keeping our web site updated with the camp activities.

We hope you have enjoyed this short glimpse into the Home of Hope Youth Camp for 2012. It’s too bad we can’t show you everything that happens from the activities on “Water Day” to the last day’s “Talent Show” and all the teaching and character building that goes on all during the camp.

Blessings!