Free for All!

It is hard to believe it is already Monday and we are back in school!  The long Christmas break - 4 whole weeks - seems to have really flown by.  But no time has passed by quite as quickly as our week hosting Passport Liberia here on Ricks' campus.  We had almost 100 students share in a week of learning and fun and worship and work and general craziness (in the good sense, of course) here in Liberia. 

I don't really know where to begin to summarize our week of camp.  So much happened!  Sunday was our opening day; the campers arrived, registered, and settled in to the girls' and boys' dorms.  For some of them, this was quite normal; for others, however, staying in the dorm was a new and exciting experience.  That evening after dinner we all gathered together for Opening Celebration, a time of excitement and celebration of the week we are preparing to share.  Afterward, the campers met with their Bible study groups for the first time - groups consisting of girls and boys from all different grade levels, many of whom would not typically spend much time together during the regular school year.  After Bible study time we gathered together again for Vespers, a short worship service to prepare ourselves for all that God would teach us throughout the week. 

The next 4 days were packed!  We all gathered together for morning celebration to begin each day.  It amazed me how much energy the campers seemed to have each morning - genuine energy, not energy feigned to give the appearance of excitement.  From there campers would spend the morning and afternoon in three different activities: Bible study, recreation (low ropes course), and missions. 

Each day in Bible studies the campers learned about a different freedom: freedom from the need to prove themselves, freedom from shame, using their freedom to free others, and freedom to become who God has created them to be.  Out on the ropes course, the students had to work together to accomplish a number of challenging tasks.  They had to trust one another, work as a team, and think creatively about solutions to seemingly impossible problems.  I was amazed by how well everyone did on the ropes course and believe that there were definitely some life lessons learned out there!  For our mission projects, the students were building incinerators of red brick and mortar (a mix of dirt, cement, and water) where trash from the campus can be burned (it is currently thrown in the bushes or piled on the ground and slowly burned in an open fire).  Although the incinerators (3 total) were not completed during the week, significant progress was made and the students at Ricks will work to finish these projects over the next few weeks.  These new structures will certainly help us to be free from trash!

Each night we all played together at a party - "rec party" on night one (fun running around outside), a dance on night two, learning the Grand March (a traditional Liberian dance) on night three, and a variety show (Ricks' Idol) on night 4.  The campers really had a blast at these, and it was fun for me to be able to dance with some of my students and have them see me outside of the role of "strict Ms. Wegman" for a few days! 

We also celebrated in worship every night, singing songs, praying new prayers, hearing scripture, and learning from sermons preached by a different person each night.  I even had the opportunity to preach one night - a first for me, but an experience I definitely enjoyed.  Worship was truly moving.  There were moments when I would begin to feel frustrated because worship did not look exactly like I thought it should - it was noisy and somewhat chaotic, not quiet and reverent as I often think of worship.  But the noise and the energy and the soul that went into each night made worship a truly meaningful and essential part of Passport.  I hope the campers were able to experience God in a new way each night through a new and different kind of worship - I know I did. 

Finally on Friday we wrapped up with a short Bible study and a celebration of all that happened throughout the week.  We sang some favorite songs from camp (YMCA was amazingly popular!!) and gave final challenges to the campers.  We closed by taking lots of pictures in front of the school and saying our goodbyes. 

Passport Liberia 2010 seemed to pass by in the blink of an eye, similar to my overall time here in Liberia.  But it was a truly great week spent discovering the freedom each of us have in Christ.  Check out my page on Picasa for pictures (and more on the way ASAP!)!!