Gorom-Gorom Kids Camp - August 2007

• Kids Camp Video. A short video of the camp.

The Kids' Camp was a great success. It was run by the two churches in Gorom-Gorom and my home church, Glenwood in Cardiff. We were expecting about 100 kids, and ended up with about 250, most of whom were from local Muslim families. It was a great week, and for weeks afterwards "Jesus songs" could be heard all around the town.

We held the camp in the local secondary school, the classrooms functioning as dormitories, with at least 50 children and two monitors squashing in each classrom with their sleeping mats. As it was the middle of rainy season, the school grounds at times became a bit of a quagmire, but no-one minded. Apart from the goats - which tried to share the classes with us when it rained.

I am sure that the parents were glad to have someone looking after their children for a week, and expecially that they were being well-fed three times a day during the hardest time of the year for food. Women from the local churches got together to do the cooking. With 200 children plus about 30 adults, they seemed to be cooking constantly throughout the whole week!

The local pastors and Christians organised the camp and invited a small team from Glenwood to come and help. Pete and Maggie came, and we were joined by Trudi (a Dutch lady with Horizons in Burkina), and Haoua, a Fulani Christian lady. It was a great team, and a privilege to work both with the local pastors and with our little team. We had a week of games, Bible stories, singing, craft work, juggling, sport, and tree-planting.

About 100 children were from Christian families, and 150 from Muslim homes. the pastors said they had never run a camp with Christian and Muslim children before, but by the end were talking of doing it again. It was great that so many Muslim families should be happy to send their children to spend a week on a Christian children's camp. One strong Muslim came the first night to take his children away, angry that his wife had let them come without asking him. The next day, he brought them back and apologised for his bad attitude the day before.

It was the first such camp run in Gorom-Gorom, and the first time that the different churches in Gorom-Gorom had joined together for such a venture. It was a real collaborative effort. The pastors set the programme, but were quick to adapt when the situation was so different from what they expected. We had times with all the children together, and the attitudes of the Christian children was a great influence in the camp.

The pastors also asked us to take just the Muslim children for some sessions, so that everyone could get teaching that was relevant to their level. Pete did juggling and told stories about Jesus. Maggie had brought some craft material, and it was great to see children who had never held a pen before, learning to design their own bags and masks. Trudi had brought her guitar and was always a big draw, as she sang in French "Il n'y a vraiment personne comme Jesus" ("There really is no-one like Jesus"), with all the kids joining in.

Video

Here is a short (4 min) video of the camp. The quality is not brilliant, but it gives you an idea of the fun we had:

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