Speechless.

First of all, I want to thank you on behalf of the Jõgeva and Sihva teams for your prayers this past week.  We really felt your support throughout the week, and I can't tell you how grateful we all were to have it.  This past week left me practically speechless.  God moved in unthinkably huge ways at the camps, and I know your prayers were a big part of the life-change that occurred in the hearts of the Estonian youth.  I can't even begin to describe everything that happened, but I'm going to try to give you a brief overview.

Throughout intern training and team training we've used something called the Six Chairs Analogy.  It's a way of classifying where a person is spiritually based on which chair they sit in.  The first chair represents that student that has absolutely no interest in God or anything having to do with him.  The second chair is the student who maybe believes that God exists but still doesn't care too much about submitting to the Lord.  The third chair is the student that believes God exists but isn't quite ready to commit to "the whole Christianity thing."  The fourth chair is the baby Christian.  The fifth is the student that is slowly learning how to lead, and the sixth is the leader.  During training, we would try to define different interests or thoughts about life and Christianity that people in each chair might have.

I've seen similar analogies used in the past, but I've never seen one so detailed until now.  As we trained, we discussed ways to encourage students to move to the next chair.  In the past at English camps, most students have moved up one chair by the end of the week.  This year, at least in the Jõgeva camp, almost every student moved to chair number three or up.  Many students that showed up the first day claiming, "I don't need any god," accepted Christ on Wednesday night or Thursday morning.  

Here were the small groups meeting on Thursday morning.

I wasn't a small group leader at this camp, so I can't tell you as many specific stories about the students as I would like; I can tell you that watching students who did not care at all in the beginning submit to Christ by the end of camp was one of the greatest blessings I have ever experienced.  I did get to know a few students better than the others this week, and seeing their hearts melted by God's love was an absolutely beautiful experience.  I would love to tell you more about it if we speak in person.

We were all tired by the end of the week, but the Lord prevailed and kept us healthy enough and provided us energy to get through it all.  After debriefing in Jõgeva on Friday, we had a big after party with the campers (and it lasted until 2:30 a.m.).  Here are a couple shots from the party.

This was around 11:00 p.m. when some of the campers and leaders were playing a little soccer.

 We came to Tallinn yesterday and met up with the Sihva team, and now I'm getting ready to meet my fellow interns for breakfast before heading back to Tartu.  It was an incredible first camp, and I cannot thank you enough for your support.  I can't wait to tell you more about it all, but I'm still trying to process everything so it could take awhile!  

On a side note, I'm including a picture from last night because it was an awesome evening.  Instead of going to the Tallinn Song Festival like I'd planned, I went with some guys from the team to an old underground bomb shelter (they originally told me they were underground tombs).  We "hunted for zombies" for a while, then got back in the car to head back to Tallinn...or so I thought.  After about five minutes of driving I said, "We're going the opposite direction of town."  They laughed and refused to tell me and the other American where we were going.  I started freaking out a little (at one point I said, "I've seen 'Taken' and I know how this works!") and called Kati so she could talk to one of the Estonians and reassure me that I wasn't

 being kidnapped.  It turns out that the boys were taking me to a town called Keila to see the sunset over the Baltic.  It was beautiful, and I think it's an experience I will always remember.  

Pictures can't really do justice to the beauty of this sunset.

Thank you again for the prayers...please continue to pray for the students from the camps and for everyone that served.  God is doing big things in the lives of the leaders, too, and I know they would appreciate your prayers as they pursue His will.

Peace and Love,

Lo B.