Bathed in the Holy Spirit

Wow

It has been two weeks since me and the team of 45 facilitators headed to Scripture Union’s Youth Camp at Busoga College Mwiri. Our bus was the last to leave the Scripture Union office on that Friday, April 23rd, so we arrived late to camp. Heading up the mountain I could see the lights of Mwiri just beckoning us to reach. When we arrived, the worship team and some of the 376 youth were already praising the Lord. I knew this was going to be an amazing week. My friend and roommate for the week, Susan, and I got settled and then headed to work in the kitchen. It was late but we got the youth served, had a quick facilitators meeting and finally headed to bed about 1am.
Sure enough the alarm went off at 5am, argh 4 hours sleep, but it was ok cause I was strengthened by the Lord. I got myself ready and then woke up my Shine Family Group by 6am. Shine Family Group is a group of 12 girls that resided in my dorm that I was in charge of for the week. I woke them every morning; we would do a morning prayer, talk about our morning verse and then walk down to the main hall together for “morning glory”. Morning Glory is praise and worship before breakfast and it was awesome! Nothing like starting your morning off with 300 plus youth and facilitators praising the Lord!
After Morning Glory the youth went back to the dorm to bathe, get ready for the day and come back for breakfast. It was time then for the facilitators to have our morning meeting. Susan and I usually only got to sit in on half the meeting because duty called in the kitchen. Every morning we would butter about 15 loaves of bread and then others would cut them, as the cooks prepared tea and boiled eggs for breakfast. Then it was time for us to serve.
Following breakfast the whole camp would meet for a general assembly, have praise and worship and then each day a speaker would come in to talk to the students about different youth topics; self esteem, standing out, purity of mind, putting off sin and putting on the Lord. These speakers were wonderful and not only did they impact the youth but we facilitators too.
Then all the students went out for quite time with the Lord. As you may know, this is such an important time during the day to grow our relationship with the Lord and we wanted to make sure that the youth knew how to “do” this quite time. The first day, I had several of my Shine Family girls ask me what “quite time is and how and why do we do this”. I was so glad that they asked me. So I explained it in more detail and from that day on they were excited about quite time. We would meet as a family group after each quite time and they would talk to me about what they learned and experienced with the Lord during their time….it was awesome to see how the Lord moved them!
Susan and I were then on duty again to serve “tea”. You know Uganda was a British colony for many, many years, so they have adopted into their culture, Tea Time. This occurs every day mid-morning and every afternoon about 4 or 5. We would usually serve tea and biscuits (cookies) or chapatti (flat bread-like a tortilla) during these times.
It was then time for me to rush off for my Bible Study Group. This was my favorite time of the day!! I had a group of 10 boys and girls. Each day we would talk about the difference topics that the speakers spoke on and re-emphasize them; self esteem, standing out, purity of mind, putting off sin and putting on the Lord. This time allowed me really get to know the youth in my group and learn about them. We could go deep into the Word every day and I could ask them questions that allowed them to think, grow and ponder God’s Word. They also gave me some amazing insight too and I was able to learn from them too. It was such an awesome time! In the 4 days we were together we grew close. I really enjoyed being with them; Paul, Loyce, Amos, Rebecca, Peter, Sharon, Joshua, Godfrey, Joel and David. I’m still in touch with a few of them via text and e-mail. I’m so glad to know them and thankful for how they impacted my life.
After our Bible Study time we had lunch so it was time for Susan and I to serve again. Serving lunch and dinner tended to be a very hectic part of the day, but also rewarding because I was able to see all the students and especially the ones in my Shine Family and my Bible Study. After lunch, Susan and I lead a Health, Nutrition, and Hygiene workshop. There were 8 workshops (4 different) each day, and we lead 1 of them, then the students rotated each day so they had an opportunity to attend all of them. The workshop was a great time to interact on a smaller level with the youth. We had many interesting questions from them!
Again it was tea time and proceeding tea the youth went out to the pitch for games like, football, netball, volleyball and Frisbee. As you can see we exercised the students spiritually and the physical too! Then it was time to wash-up and have dinner.
We had different programs every evening after dinner; SU Club Moment, Culture Night, Worship Night and SU Club Contest Night with ending campfire. My favorite nights were Culture Night and Worship Night. On Culture Night everyone, including the facilitators, dressed in some kind of African Cultural clothes. There were at least 12 groups that were registered to go up on stage, tell about their culture and even perform a dance, song or skit about their culture. It was great to see the traditional dress and dance from all over Africa. On Worship Night we sat as Bible Study groups for a candle light dinner. After dinner everyone was given candles to light and we worshiped the Lord. It was so amazing and beautiful! The songs of praise filled the air as the flicker of the candles eliminated the hall. I certainly felt bathed in the Holy Spirit that night!!
Each night before bed we would meet with our Shine Family groups. I would pray with my girls and then talk about the day. Some nights we would talk for a hour or more about how the Lord impacted us during the day. It was a great time!
Well as you can see camp was a wonderful, Blessed and amazing experience! As our coaster was exiting the gates of Mwiri and driving down mountain I felt this sense that I was in the Holy Spirit on that mountain. I then knew I had been bathed in Him all week. Thank you Lord for ALL you showed me, how you grew me and all you let me experience in those 6 days!