Estonia Day 3 - First Night of Camp!

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” -Jon Davis

Easton and I both took a melotonin last night, yet while I got a complete and uninterrupted night of sleep in our muggy bunks, Easton’s was a sham and slept horribly. We ate breakfast and went straight to work on setting up for camp.

Setting up for camp can be described in one word: TENT. In the middle of the main field there was to be put up a massive tent, and we got straight to work setting it up. This first required raising two 50 foot—sorry, meters—tall poles, which because of their long length required a tedious bolt to be screwed in the middle. Fblt pu (sorry I smacked a mosquito on my phone keyboard). The first pole had a large crowd of five or six people working on the task to no avail, but Easton and I got to work on the other one and finished it lickitey split without breaking a sweat. Up top! The poles then needed to be hoisted upright, which we failed the first time, hitting Jesse in the head (but he was OK), but was successful the second time after a quick prayer. After the poles were up, we then went to work on setting up the tent, which required a lot of small poles on the border attached to ropes tied to stales in the ground. After this, the tent was cranked up into place and with a bit of adjusting the rope’s tightness, we were done! This took six hours.

After that, the campers started to arrive. There’s not much scheduled activity at camp, with most of the time being spent hanging out with and getting to know the campers. Popular activities today included playing volleyball, 9 square, and bracelet making. The campers were super excited and friendly and it was great to get to meet all of them and start connecting with them in such a small amount of time. It’s so incredibly cool to see the ways God is working through the local youth, how strong their community is and how eager they are to accept others into it.

At 6, it was dinner time, and we took our plates to a gazebo away from the campers to sort of regroup and debrief over how the day was going. The day was super encouraging for some and really stressful and tiring for others. It was a great way to see where everyone was coming from and to understand how different members of the team were feeling. The transparency during debriefs also greatly strengthened us as a team, helping us to trust and love each other more easily as we move through the other parts of our day and the challenges that present themselves through having to lead in such a new environment. Our team is something that I am really grateful for. Even before we left it felt like we had always known each other, and it is so effortless to communicate and joke with and be vulnerable around them that it brings a weight off my shoulders, helping me to more easily see the Estonians at the camp.

After that was our first session. The sessions were held inside the big tent, and consisted of worship and a game and a teach by Beno, a leader at the church hosting this camp. I was planning on playing bass during worship, but they had forgot to bring it from Tallinn so they had me sing instead, which was super fun. After that, we broke out into small groups to get to know each other and for the campers to ask any questions we had about the teach or Jesus and Christianity in general. Beno was my co-leader, which made things easy after he gave the message, and it was really great to see where everybody in my group stood on their spiritual journey.

To end off the night, we got to host an American-themed party for the Estonians, with cowboy hats and bandanas, cornhole, and a fire with s’mores. Our first day at camp has been a lot of fun, and I can’t wait to see what God will do next!

- Rhett Jones and Easton Hood