Champs Camp 2018!

Every year in June, one of the biggest events for the Kuslanova Church of Christ comes along—Champs Camp. Technically, it’s two events since the church hosts two versions of the same camp at different locations which makes it more accessible to people living in different parts of the city.

Our theme this year was “Jesus Rescues!” Each of the four days centered around a different problem that Jesus rescues us from: loneliness, worry, sin, and fear. We also had a “shipwrecked” motif (hence the palm tree and our pirate-themed skits).

Last year the camps were during two separate weeks, but this year, they ran simultaneously. Savannah and I worked at the bigger camp on the south side of the city in a park called Jarun, so most of the pictures will be from that camp.

We started off with something new this year, a weekend retreat with the counselors (some from America and some from Croatia—mostly teenagers) in a neighboring village called Samobor.

We wanted to give the group from America (from the South Side Church of Christ in Lexington, Kentucky) and the local Croatian teens a chance to become a team before we started the camps this year, and it worked really well!

We played games together, ate together, explored the village together, and worshiped together. Some of the American teens even shared their testimonies with the group.

When Monday rolled around, the first day of camp began. The weather was warm and mostly sunny all week, and summer in Jarun is green and bright.

I was a group leader for the green team and Savannah taught the craft station for all the teams.

I didn't have a single wild kid in my group. Everyone was very laid back and well-behaved.

Above is my group with Savannah at the crafts station. The youngest I had were the three girls at the closest corner--5 to 6 years old. And the oldest were two 12-year olds.

One of my favorite moments was with the two girls on the left here (Antonija and Ema from left to right).

It was their first time to camp. They were already close friends, so they never seemed lonely, but they were timid in joining others in singing or talking.

In downtime, they'd often pull out their phones together, so one day I decided to join them.

They couldn't speak any English, but what Croatian I did know was enough for them. We showed each other pictures of our pets and talked about our favorite phone games. Soon other kids came to sit with us and joined in.

It was nice to see them make a connection with everyone.

On the last day, we invited all the parents to come early to pick up their kids and eat a late lunch with us. Many people came and stayed for at least an hour after camp was over.

Camp ended on Thursday, but we continued our time with the teenager volunteers on a trip to the island of Krk about a 3 hour drive from Zagreb.

All of the Croatians that volunteered started out as campers themselves.

There isn't really anything like a youth group for them here, so when the group from America comes and shows them what a tight knit group of Jesus-followers looks like, that really inspires them.

We want to give a big thank you to the South Side CoC group; you all were great!

The summer doesn't end now; youth camp will be here in less than two weeks! We will have plenty more to share, so stay tuned!