Touching hearts and nations

Dear friends,

Our 17-day April camp was a great success! We had a few days off and it was back to normal ministry for the last two weeks.



Roasting Marshmallows!



The first three days were leadership training with all of the leaders of the camp. The first full week was children’s camp, and the second week was youth camp. We had about 60 or 70 kids on children’s camp, and about 50 youth on youth camp. But! The really amazing thing is that there were less than 10 youth camp registrations two weeks before! The camp is an outreach mostly to urban young people who are introduced to the Gospel on camp. The time with the kids and youth was really incredible and we saw a lot of passion and growth in these young people.



Piet and I invited three of our strongest youth from Refilwe YMS to join as leaders. Ishmael, Itumeleng, and Siyanda served whole-heartedly and really enjoyed themselves. Itumeleng, age 21, plays the drums for the worship team at our church and on camp he taught three or four kids to play drums! As always, there are problem children at camp. There was one little boy in particular that no one could get through to. On one occasion he threatened to run into the electric fence if we didn’t open the snack shop. But whenever Itumeleng spoke to him, he was suddenly fine. He was such an awesome leader, and out of 20 leaders, he received the best leader award! Congrats Itumeleng, we are so proud of you!!

Itumeleng receiving his award!



Although we loved the children’s camp, it was very draining so we were glad to move into the youth camp where they could look after themselves a bit more. Piet and I basically coordinated the entire two weeks ourselves. We are thankful that we had strong leaders to back us and support us.



The youth camp was a lot more active. We played night games, a blindfolded hike, bon fire, sunrise hike, fear factor, paintball, go karting, and more! Because of the maturity level of these youth, we were able to do teaching games and we even burned all of our fears and anxieties that we had written out.

Piet had the opportunity to sit down with one young man who had really been through a lot in his life. He has been coming to camp for years and even all the leaders said this year something had happened in his life. Even after two weeks, I saw him leave as changed person and one who was ready to forgive those who had wronged him.

Small Group Time

We praise God for all that has happened in and through this camp. Thank you for all of your prayers and support in making this work possible.

Piet and I are so happy where we are at. We feel that we are really making a difference in the lives of young people.

Love perseveres,

The Bakers