Camp wrapped up with several intense evenings of preaching and at least 50 campers gave their hearts to Christ, including all of the children! As the camp director said, “This is what it’s all about.” The final night was an all-nighter, and they showed a Louie Giglio film about the stars.

We said “Goodbye” to the campers Friday morning, and the staff later after an outdoor “shashlik” (shishkabob). We are spending Saturday in Red Square, then home on Sunday.

It is ironically satisfying to think that this campground where we are sharing Christ’s love was originally built for training young “Pioneers,” the Communist version of Scouts for kids.

After six days of lessons, the camp hosted an elaborate “American Party,” complete with a dancing babushka, who won the dance-off against her teenage daughter. Many of our team performed a touching, wordless skit that explained the gospel. In the midst of all the activity, four campers gave their hearts to Christ.

Lessons resumed on the eighth day, as the camp begins winding down. Please pray for these final days, and for safe travels for our trip home. We look forward to air conditioning and iced sodas.

We arrived at camp around noon on Tuesday and jumped directly into camp activities, not even unpacking until evening. Several of us are assigned to permanent groups; others rotate to give campers a chance to talk with “native speakers.”

There are 200 campers here and 50 staff; among the campers, at least 90 are have had little or no exposure to church or Christianity.

We could not have found a better way to sample authentic Russian cuisine — Nina at camp is a great cook. From our train to camp, we saw that every “dacha” (country house) has its own vegetable garden, and they make great soups and slaws with the produce.

Our days consist of morning Bible study, exercise, morning assembly, English lessons, games and crafts with the kids, sports, evening assembly, and spiritual discussions over late night “snack.”

Internet access is spotty and slow, so we will not be able to post daily or send pictures, but we will when we return.

Thank you for your prayers and support as we broach spiritual discussions within the campers’ limited vocabulary, and please pray for our continued health.

Entry One: (in Moscow): Mostly uneventful, with the exception of travel delays and the inevitable lost bag (Chris’).

Thank God for Mark who has made navigating the trains and Metro a breeze. Traditional Russian buffet food for dinner at a restaurant called “Yolky Polky” and a trip to the grocery store before crashing at two host apartments in Moscow. We have been up for 27+ hours and are ready for some sleep.

Tomorrow: Onward to camp! (Not sure whether we will have internet access there.)

One of the daily rituals that we have experienced is watching the campers stand up and sing to receive their camper mail from family and friends. On this day, the female counselors tricked the male counselors with sending them email so they would have to stand and sing. We all got a good chuckle watching Darren, Chris and Scott. Way to sing guys! The evening lesson on sacrifice and love were presented by Dana and Darren. We have been fortunate to have such talented and gifted teachers on our mission team. Praise God for all he has provided to everyone at Camp Challenge this week.