Cherokee Trip Update 3

Monday morning was a bit rushed, but everyone enjoyed the breakfast casserole offered as well as the worship songs provided by paster Carlos, Ken, Adelaide, and Annalise.  After breakfast and devotionals, we packed up and headed to the Boys and Girls club.  Upon arrival, many of the team members were reunited with kids who remembered them from last year.  It was touching and exciting to see everyone again and the turn out for morning soccer was encouragingly strong.  Science camp had about 20 participants which was a comfortable number for the amount of Redeemer helpers available.  

Before each group separated, the kids watched the first installment of Redeemer’s Lazarus skit, which left many of them with questions.  Before the day’s activities got underway, there were a few moments were many of the team members had a chance to sit down with the kids and talk with them on a more individual level about who God is, what makes Him different from us, and what that means for our lives.  The kids were not shy about asking questions and their attentiveness was even more encouraging.  

In science camp, the kids enjoyed making fun lamb puppets out of paper bags and cotton balls meanwhile in soccer camp, the kids divided into teams and performed soccer drills and then scrimmaged. During lunch we had a chance to talk with the kids about the past year and simply hang out which was refreshing and enjoyable.

Following the Boys and Girls club, the team had some downtime by the river.  The kids skipped countless stones and built towers coming up out of the river made of larger rocks.  The girls claim theirs is the tallest with 30 rocks.

Shortly thereafter, it was time for the evening soccer camp and the group headed down to Wolf Town’s stickball field (the one newly occupied by soccer goals), but were presently confronted by a thunderstorm.  The leaders attempted to look into gaining access to the indoor gym on the property but somehow, the alarms were tripped for the gym, triggering blaring sirens which continued for a good 5-8 minutes or so.  Eventually the alarms stopped and so did the rain around the same time.  We decided to stick to the outdoor field.  

Evening soccer was pretty fun!  We had a relatively small turnout, but the kids who came out had a good time.  Right as we were breaking for snack and preparing for our skit, we looked up and saw ominous, dark clouds approaching.  About five minutes later, I turned around and saw what appeared to be a curtain of rain behind the field about fifty feet away from us.  The curtain of water advanced towards use and in less than ten seconds, the deluge was upon us.  As the kids and their parents bolted for their cars, the Redeemer team worked as quickly as possible to tear down what was set up in the field, but in the end, we all may as well have been dunked in the river and then taken a shower.  Furthermore, a few kids were still left on the soccer field because their parents had not come to pick them up yet.  A select few brave missionaries remained on the field and continued to play with the kids despite the downpour.  

After all was said and done, we made it back to camp and were treated to steaming hot, gigantic portions of lasagna, warm buttered biscuits, salad, and cookies.  Everyone dried off and rested, the kids played games inside the cabins, and the day closed peacefully with an early bedtime.