This morning I am back in MGA at our base camp of sorts. It is a home we have been in for about four days out of seveteen. We have been a Gringo Traveling Circus traveling from wonderful family to wonderful family. I think we are going to be here for a few days but hey you never know.
We just got back from a visit to Vida Joven Camp. We traveled to Matagalpa up in the mountains of Nicaragua. It is a beautiful place and a wonderful mountain climate. It is just like being in Colorado. The vegetation is a bit different with the trees being more like the large trees of California but up in the mountains. We were driving and talking and Jeannie mentioned how it feels when you drive up the mountain you could be anywhere in the world and then you round a turn and there is a mix of Daniel Ortega signs and signs we can’t read telling you what the folks are selling or doing in their shops. Tire shop? Dress shop? No idea…but when you drive up the mountain you can see the beauty of what God has created and it is the same as where you are today. Just different signs.
As we climbed the mountains the air got cooler and the coffee plants began to cover the mountainsides. We came to the camp and drove through the middle of camp and parked on the baseball fields. We are early and there are no campers yet and we had about two hours to walk around and shoot some pre-chaos footage. We get a great tour and meet some wonderful people most of whom are Nicas and speak very little English. The camp is amazing. It is nestled up a valley and is surrounded on all sides, there is a small lake in the heart of the camp and it is surrounded by games. A zip line, canoes, a rope swing, and various other ropes and tubes that we will see in action the next day. The cabins circle the main dining hall, snack shop and offices. There is a large open air gym by the lake and at the top of a steep climb (one I made too many times with kids) is a baseball field and more ropes courses around it.
There was a great anticipation building. The program team was practicing the first of their skits, some leaders were praying in the gym, and there was a ton of action in the kitchen. The cooking for 250 kids is done outside on open fires. I was reminded of Crooked Creek and how we were there ahead of campers and the leaders all were hanging around doing the same things these kids were doing. It started to feel like camp.
All around us are leaders carrying fake swords and dressed in costumes. They all start towards the main road they were planning the attack. The campers would get off the bus at the top of the hill then walk down the roads and through some trails to get into camp all in true Young Life fashion. The leaders were there with water balloons to welcome them it was a great way to come into camp and kick off the best week of their lives. The Greenways and others have done an amazing job of making do with what God has provided and it looks and feels like Crooked Creek on about one one thousandth the budget. It was the same.
As kids started pouring into camp it was amazing watching tons of kids from the second largest city in Nicaragua. A very poor place. But it was the same. The kids were the same. If you have ever been to camp you will know what I mean. There were the cool kids, too cool to participate. The all in kids, that were in for the adventure and were running around crazy. There were the scared kids, the ones walking alone from one place to the next. It was no different than when you walk around Crooked Creek. All set on a collision course to be dramatically impacted by the One that created it all. Jesus is there and He is moving and swirling around this camp and you can just feel all the lives crisscrossing in this massive weave that only God could be managing and shaping for His purposes. It was the same. And I love being around it.