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Our second full day at Hye Camp, Tuesday July 29, 2003, was a typical Hye Camp day: Schedules to follow, appointments to keep, food, fun, fellowship, and a couple of surprises in store.
The staff provided yet another wonderful breakfast to start the day on the right foot. By 8:30 a.m. the collection of campers had moved from the dining hall to the chapel for the morning worship. Fr. Yeprem once again led our worship service. And, as we've come to expect of him, he provided another gospel reading that campers and counselors alike could relate to.
This morning's topic offered thoughts on the power of love in the Christian faith. Quoting from 1 Corinthians 13:13, everyone recited out loud the verse "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."
For the second day in a row, Fr. Yeprem's sermon contained a challenge to the campers. On Monday campers were inspired to perform acts of caring and compassion towards each other, and today the campers left the morning service with the impetus to perform loving acts towards one another. As Fr. Yeprem would later find out, there is no end to the love and compassion the campers express towards each other.
Following the morning service, the camp went through the first division of the day and the class rotation began. The arts and crafts classes had spent the first day creating crosses and pins illustrating the meaning of the colors of the cross. Today's classes wrote postcards home. Campers also decorated beach balls and created bead necklaces, both to serve as memorabilia for this unforgettable 2003 session.
Campers in the arts and craft class were also presented with a special challenge. Each camper was given a sticker containing a Bible passage reference. They had to look up the passage in their free time, summarize it in their own words, and report back in the evening with what they read. The overwhelming response to this voluntary activity was impressive.
The culture class, after spending the first day teaching tavloo, embarked on dance lessons, featuring all of the classic and popular line dances. Religion class varies by age, however a sampling from the oldest group included a discussion as well as some exercises on Acts 2:1-47.
The afternoon sports sessions were structured to provide campers with a chance to practice many of the events they would be participating in during the week-long Olympic competition. After a nice relaxing swim and a bit of free time to clean up, the campers realigned and sat down for dinner. Dinner was filled with anticipation over the upcoming volleyball, ping-pong, and tavloo semi-finals, as well as the opening rounds of ultimate frisbee.
Following the athletic competition came the big surprise of the day, the return of Maestro Khoren for yet another year. Maestro Khoren led campers through a blend of upbeat folk songs as well as instructing them on the finer points of singing the more common songs of the Soorp Badarak. Maestro Khoren's singing provided the perfect lead-in to the evening worship service.
It was back in the chapel that Fr. Yeprem asked for camper encounters of extraordinary acts of love towards one another, and for the second day in a row he didn’t have enough crosses to pass out to everyone that reported back to him.
Posted by Jake at July 29, 2003 04:41 PM
