The 200lb Man: More about English Camp...

I was in Serbia for fifteen days with almost no communication with my wife. In spite of that, it was incredible.

We were part of a group that put on an English camp just outside of a little town called Opovo, which is just north of Belgrade. Google Earth it if you really need to know. The camp was held at a Bible school which we affectionately referred to as the HUB (pronounced "Hoob"). It was a very cool place. The property had a high wall surrounding it (which I tried to climb once before realizing that gravity works in Eastern Europe just like it works in the States) and a big medieval-style gate which, instead of making me feel secure, made me wonder what would be trying to get in at night.

Anyway, there were about sixty people or so at the camp, a combination of "native-speakers" (foreigners whose first language is English), translators, students, and facility staff. We had quite a mix of nationalities, including Serbian, American, Irish, English, Hungarian, Romanian, and Australian. We even had one guy who lived in Portland, Oregon, was born in Canada, and whose parents were from the Philippines. He was kind of an over-achiever.

The students were amazing. They all spoke English at different skill levels so they were divided up into groups appropriate for them. Each class had a teacher (some had two), native-speaking helpers, and at least one translator.

It was evident from day one that this camp was more about relationships than it was about English. I think the students picked up on it right away, too, because they warmed up to us more like we were friends than teachers. We didn't make much effort ourselves to keep that teacher/student barrier intact. In our class, one of our first exercises was to stand in a circle, say our name and do a dance move. Then we went around the group and said everyone's name and did their dance move. We all looked ridiculous but that kind of became a theme that week. It should be noted that, during this name-learning exercise, I invented a dance move which is no doubt racing across Europe like wildfire. It's called "the walker." You'll know it when you see it in a club this time next year.

We did the typical camp stuff: games, skits, water balloons, less bathing than is probably reasonable. We also shared the Gospel with a bunch of amazing kids who don't hear a lot of encouraging news. These kids are encouraged, not to seek a meaningful relationship with God, but to go out and experience life (i.e., drink and do drugs and sleep around while they're still young enough to survive that kind of lifestyle). The kids were great. They didn't give us the kind of groaning and eye-rolling we had expected. Many of them were very interested and open. It was a humbling experience to be a part of something so cool.

There's lots more to share, but I wouldn't be doing it justice. It's an experience that I was blessed enough to be included in and I need to accept the fact that I can't copy and paste it into everyone else's brain, no matter how hard I try.

There are tons of pictures, though, some cool, some embarrassing. I'll post some over the next few weeks. Like this one:

This is me telling a story to Rachel and Erin, two of my American teammates, and Davor and Mirjana Janecic, two of our hosts. As you can see, none of them understands a word I'm saying.

Here's another: