YL Zababdeh Camp

First day of YL camp!

So we have been at camp for 3 days now. We have all been given responsibilities and jobs to do. Hannah and Rachel have been leading music at club, Bethany is our Sound Tech, Tracie and I have been leading worship and devos at the leaders meetings as well as some head leader stuff, and Randy has been doing a little bit of everything, including staying up until the wee hours of the morning helping to get kids back to their cabins! It has been very fun but also challenging as we do not speak their language so it can be hard to communicate. But the kids and leaders have all been pretty gracious about things! 

Praying before kids arrive at camp...

Getting ready to welcome kids!

Kids coming into camp off the buses!

Camp tour with Program team

Tour of the pool and watching selected kids and leaders dive in or go down the water slides. It was so hot they should have just let the kids jump in with their clothes!

Kids waiting to go into the club room. A leader started playing a drum and they all started singing arabic songs and jumping and dancing. Lots of energy that was contagious and fun to watch. They are so excited to be here! This is the only thing all summer that these kids will get to do away from their town. It is a huge deal for them

Prepping for club...

Singing at Club

Girls pull apart guys at club. So fun but soooo hot in that room afterwards! 

 Giving the club talk

Scary rickety bridge we had to cross every day to go to the upper room for the leaders meetings every morning.

night swim pool party with glow sticks. A bunch of us hid in the slide above the pool and threw glow sticks in...

 Yesterday during free time we drove about 5 minutes over to the Herodium. It is a truncated cone-shaped hill, located 7.5 miles south of Jerusalem and 3.1 miles southeast of Bethlehem, in the Judean desert (the West Bank). Herod the Great built a fortress, a palace, and a small town in Herodium, between 23 and 15 BCE, and is believed to have been buried there. Herodium is 2,487 ft above sea level the highest peak in the Judean desert.

 Archaeologists believe that the palace was built by slaves, paid workers (contractors), and architects. Herod was considered one of the greatest builders of his time—his palace was built on the edge of the desert and was situated atop an artificial hill, geography did not daunt him. The largest of the four towers was built on a stone base 18 meters in diameter. This was most likely where Herod lived; he decorated his rooms with mosaic floors and elaborate frescoes. The other three towers, which consisted of living spaces and storage, were 16 meters in diameter. Outside, several cisterns were built to collect water that was channeled into the palace.

 Herodium was conquered and destroyed by the Romans in 71 CE. At the beginning of the Bar Kokhba Revolt sixty years later, Simon Bar Kokhba declared Herodium as his secondary headquarters. Archaeological evidence for the revolt was found all over the site, from the outside buildings to the water system under the mountain. Inside the water system, supporting walls built by the rebels were discovered, and another system of caves was found. Inside one of the caves, burned wood was found which was dated to the time of the revolt.

We are Super heroes plotting our next move...

This was the response when Beth asked them to express their true emotions. It was over 100 degrees with no shade.

For some reason this website randomly edits my pictures by taking all of our freckles out. We are offended, freckles are cute!

View of Jerusalem and surrounding land from the top of the Herodium.

Camp has been amazing. It is so fun to see the leaders interacting with their kids and doing the same kinds of things that we do with our kids in the states... getting them to go to bed at a decent hour, asking them to sit down and be quiet at club, shooting them with Super Soakers at the pool, girls not wanting their picture taken until they can adjust their clothing and hair. Our cultures are so different, but teenagers are pretty much the same all over the world. We have an amazing opportunity here to teach and serve, as well as see God work in the lives of youth. The message is the same and it is being heard all over the world thanks to obedient leaders and staff answering God's call. So thrilling to be a part of and also to recognize that we aren't an island in Billings, MT and neither are they an island in Bethlehem, Palestine. YL has created an amazing family network that reaches past any color or race or divisions. It is the love and acceptance that can only come from Jesus, the author of it all.
So very grateful for the blessings that God provides through the avenue of YL.

37 The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. 3 He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” 4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. 5 Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. 6 I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.”

7 So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. 8 I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. 9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: "Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” 10 I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.

11 Then he said to me, “Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.’ 12 Therefore prophesy, and say to them, "Thus says the Lord God: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. 14 I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act,” says the Lord.