The Summer Camp was a wonderful experience.. Because of it, we learned many things from God's Word. There were 7 sermons in all, each dealing with the beautiful and important topic of the Fruit of the Spirit.

We learned about love and that it gives unselfishly for the well-being of its objects. We learned about joy. This joy is real, founded and rooted upon God, the Giver, instead of only on the gifts of the Giver, and is oftentimes mingled with Godly sorrow.. Then, we learned about peace, which is the absence of sinful anxiety. We learned about patience, which is slow to anger and does not retaliate a wrong done against it, about kindess and goodness, which blend together to produce a kind, sweet, and gentle giving, and faithfulness, upon which others can rely and depend.

This fruit of the Spirit, however,does not grow overnight. First, the seeds must be planted. Without the Holy Spirit in your life, you can never produce His fruit. You may have something that resembles it, but be assured, if you have not of the Spirit, you will never have of His fruit. But if you have of the Holy Spirit, you can prouduce this fruit, and you will produce it, no matter how adverse things seem to be against it.

Then, we must strive to cultivate the fruit. They will not appear on the same day they are planted. We must patiently wait for their appearing while pursuing them with faith. Like a farmer, we must be patient and persevere, not giving up immediately when things seem impossible.

If we go on in this way, through the strength of God alone, we will begin to see the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We will harvest of this fruit, and not only this, but of eternal life, which is the result of a holy life.

Let us pursue the fruit of the Spirit with all our hearts! Let us be patient and persevere, like the farmer. And let us always trust in God's strength, for without Him, we can do nothing, but with Him, we can do anything.

THE PREPARATIONS

Before the camp, a lot of preparing was done, camp committees were formed. There was one in charge of the quarters, the games and fellowship, the cleaning, the registration, the finance, the security, the transportaion and the sound system. These committees worked very hard to prepare what was necessary before the camp.

The meetings began long before the camp. These were quite frequent, composed of updates of the sinking fund and other important matters.

And then, there was the rummage sale. It was a fund-raiser to sponsor those who could not afford the camp fee. Accordingly, Church members sold their clothes, books and appliances to each other. The money went to the Church for the camp.

Right: The teams created an original jingle about the camp's theme: The Fruit of the Spirit.

Left: The teams were very resourceful and each made these creations out of only paper plates, balloons and streamers.

Finally, there were the visits to the camp site itself. The heads of the committees went up there to check the place and to see what needed to be done. By doing this, they were enabled to make good plans for the camp.

We prepared a lot and in the end, all went well. But this was not because of all those preparations, but because the Lord blessed the work of our hands. The horse is prepared for battle, but victory belongs to the Lord.

Highlights

During the bonfire of the last night at Tap-tap, each team made a short presentation on the camp's theme. The skits were fun to watch and the teams tried their best to apply the messages. Talents were displayed and it took the judges quiete a while to decide which was the best.

We asked the Quarter Master what time he would ring the bell the next day. He said he would wake us up at 5:30. The next morning he started to ring the bell at 4:30 and began to go back and forth to and from the canteen with hot water, coffee and cream so all who wanted coffee could drink. He was a very zealous and faithful Quarter Master. (Anonymous)

In the evenings, there were so many bees swarming around all the lights. During one session. I sat directly under one of the lights. The bees there kept going to me and clinging on to my shirt. Bong and I had to excercise self-control. (Grace Reganot)

Panky was so funny in the games! He looked like he was slowly getting paralyzed as he fell with the balloon between his legs. (slow-mo guy). ~~~ In the middle of the night, we heard a child crying. Could it be Aldrienne? The next day, we learned that Shany was attacked by til-as! ~~~ Did you know that Djan-djan rode his bike from the church building to CREMDEC? He could be the next Tour de France champion.

I think the most extraordinary thing about the camp was the cold weather. I was sleeping in a tent and as we slept, it rained so hard that our tent began to leak. ~~~ The smallest camper was Isabel: a small dog in a red vest.

During the camp, we had fellowship for three days together and we also enjoyed some good fun.

We were all there, one big family, the Church, together for three days in the beautiful mountains that God Himself created. We had time to get to know and to love each other better and we enjoyed each others' company and fellowship.

We also shared some good, whole some fun. There were games on the first and second days of our stay, games in which everyone could join. They were quite simple - relay racing, steal-the-bacon, a contest in which each team had to create an original song and many others.

On the last night, we had a bonfire. It was such a beautiful night and the fire burned so brightly. Around it, all the campers sat, some on small chairs, taken from the ampitheater, some on bundles of wood and some on the damp grass. There, each team had to present some sort of play about the camp's theme: the fruit of the Spirit. There were three teams, therefore three presentations, each nice and funny but with something good and true to learn.After these presentations, most of the campers returned to their own sleeping places to rest, but some of us remained and played some games until the fire burned low and the new day was close to dawning. We all had such a wonderful time.

And then, there were the meal-times, which we all shared in the cozy and brightly-lighted canteen, the sweet and unbroken hours with God in the morning, and the calm rest we enjoyed each night.

It ended so soon, on the bright morning of the third day. But, if it is true for everyone, we were not the same people who arrived there three days ago, for we had learned and benefitted so much from all that had happened.

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