Christmas Camp 2006

monday night, as i nearly collapsed from exhaustion, all i could think was, wow, it's over. camp finally happened, and it's already over! we'd talked and dreamed and planned for this camp for months, and once it finally came, everything happened so much faster than i could have imagined.

the idea came from wanting to do something really fun with students, to get away for the weekend and really build relationships with them. we decided on christmas because, well, it's a good excuse to have a camp and share the true story of christmas, as well as some fun traditions. but for a while, it seemed like camp might just be a dream. a lot of plans changed with all the craziness and transition of the past few months, but we worked hard, and by God's grace, all the details fell into place (some at the VERY last minute!). it was a truly amazing weekend, and well, i'll let the pictures tell you the rest...



no, we don't travel light...we had a TON of stuff that we'd worked on all week, from decorations to gifts and cookies and so on


packed in the bus and finally on the road


playing some group games after arriving at camp


Deepali, Preeti, Sophy, Ruth and Alisha putting up decorations in the meeting hall


the guys were totally into the basketball court during free time...


...while some of the rest of us played around with the volleyball!


enjoying chai and coffee with Shabnam and Sharareh from Iran


saturday afternoon we went on a trek/hike. the camp director took us out to the trail in his truck and it was quite a crazy ride


it was a long trek, but we enjoyed a nice sunset near the top


i'm kind of clumsy though, and i totally busted it on the way down the trail. fortunately it was more funny than painful, so me and Lulu took a picture


after the trek, we spent the evening talking about the Christmas story and the gift of Christmas. we also played some fun games and had a really great evening.


then later that night, we had a bonfire, which was fun, but a little out of control because of the wind


we also sang Christmas carols in the candle light (well, while we could keep the candles lit in the crazy wind)


and of course, we had lots of goodies, like candy canes, or shepard's stick candy as Kenneth dubbed them!


supposedly it's a tradition in Iran to jump over a bonfire on new year's eve, so Zia showed us all how it's done...


Alisha was next, and as you can see, she totally pulled off the fire jumping with style. kind of reminds me of playing super mario brothers back in the day...


then Zia and Alisha decided to join forces and show off their skills


Preeti couldn't be left out of the fun, so she jumped too and just barely made it over the fire...


Sunday morning we got to do the climbing wall and go kayaking in the lake. this is Deepali and Ruchi waiting for their turns on the wall


Preeti attempting to make it up the wall...


is she going to make it?


Kambale reaching for the bell at the top


Ladan climbing the wall


Ruth and Sahil enjoying the kayaks


Lulu had a little trouble getting out of the kayak...


me and Preeti hanging out by the lake, watching people kayak


Zia chasing after Deepali!


some of the guys playing around in the lake


me and some of the guys after they went swimming


group photo--here we have 28 people, from at least 8 countries!


poor little preeti, always getting picked on :) this is one of the last pics we took, right before we hopped in the bus and headed home. it was an incredible weekend, and i hope you've enjoyed these pics. i'm out!