Faith Baptist Church Junior Camp

The week after MK camp was Junior Camp at church in Riverside where we attend. Junior Camp is very similar to VBS, but with more team competition. Joshua and Caleb were able to attend and I (Sophie) was able to help throughout the week in small ways. It was a joy to be able to stand in the background and see most of the work done by Zambians. Another missionary helped lead singing and I helped with craft time. A couple of MK teens helped as team counselors, but national church members did the rest.


Bible lessons were well-taught and focused on salvation while teaching five things that God cannot do. A number of children were counseled after the lesson each day. We praise God that both Joshua and Caleb raised their hands, were counseled and prayed for Jesus to save them. They are still young at age 6, but we know that they may be able to understand and truly be saved. We are praying that God will give us wisdom as we continue to nurture them in the Bible.

The variety of games throughout the week were fun for all the children. On the final day of camp, the director came in costume just to make the kids laugh. It worked. He did a great job organizing all that needed to be done at camp. The week went very smoothly and God was glorified in all that was done.

Another aspect of camp was verse memorization. There was a daily verse each day, but the kids were also given sheets of extra verses they could learn for extra points for their teams. The children who memorized the most verses were given prizes on Sunday. One of the Zambian girls memorized 111 extra verses! This included a couple whole chapters from the NT. She has an amazing mind and wants to be a missionary doctor. It will be exciting to see how God uses her. There were only two six-year olds who learned any extra verses. Joshua and another MK from another family both memorized 9 extra verses. He received a certificate, candy bar, stickers, and sidewalk chalk as his award. I'll post chalk pictures later. The campers who were able to come on Sunday sang some of their camp songs for the church. They did a great job. Several of the campers were chosen to recite verses in front of church too. Joshua was supposed to say three verses. He messed up on the second one and never got to the third, but he did ok and the church clapped for him anyway. Kids aren't perfect.