Category: Deaf

Earlier I wrote about our camp in the northern part of Mexico. Next week we have our camp for the Deaf in the Yucatan peninsula region. Currently it will just be our church, but in the future we would like to see Deaf from all over this region of Mexico attend.

We are going with an Olympic theme for obvious reasons. We have a few events that we will borrow from the real games to play out in our own setting. We also have medals that we will present the winners. The medals are all identical, but the ribbons will indicate Gold, Silver and Bronze.

We will use a hula hoop to play discus. This should be pretty easy for the less physically capable.

Shot put might be a bit tougher. The shots will be water balloons. There might just happen to be a few people who get hit with these. Certainly a lot less painful than a 16 lb. shot.

Archery will be performed with darts and balloons.

The Triathlon will be a combination of three common items: jump rope, hula hoop and baseball bat. The jump rope will be used to jump while moving from one point to another. The hula hoop will be rolled along a designated path. The bat will be at the end of a run. The contestant has to put their head on the bat and spin around 10 times and then try to make their way back to the finish line. A timed event of course.

One of the unique events we will be doing is a team standing long jump. This will be a relay type event. The team members will be in a line in which the person at the front of the line will take a standing long jump. The rest of the team will move up to the landing spot and the next member takes their jump. This continues until all team members have a chance to jump. The team that jumps farthest overall will win.

There are a few other events planned, but that is the idea of our games.

We are expecting about 20 people at camp to make all this happen.

I have put off writing a post about our camp in Saltillo partially because I did not know if it would appeal to a wide audience and partially because it was one of those weeks that I have very mixed emotions about.

Camp
The reason we were in Monterrey a couple of weeks ago was to head up our Deaf camp in the northern part of Mexico. It is called Campamento Henson named after Missionary Ron Henson who worked many years with the Deaf in Monterrey and Guadalajara as well as many other places in Mexico. I have been the director for the last 3 years. That just means that I get to be the one to make the final decision and feel the pressure when things go wrong. For the most part, this camp just runs itself. Many of the people who go to camp have been going for more than 10 years.

Location
This year we were in a bind in that the camp we had reserved did not have us written down for the right dates. That caused us to have to look for a new camp location. By the time I finally got one nailed down, it was well into the new year. We were very grateful for the location we were able to get

This location was nice in that it was nearer to many of the churches than we have been in the past. We had people from 11 different cities at camp. The camp site was also at 7000′ elevation. That meant that it was much cooler than we experience here at sea level in the south. They have snow 6 months out of the year in the area. Unfortunately, this is not one of those months. One night it got down to the low 50s. That is not too terribly cold, but the rooms we stayed in are not sealed for the cold weather. It was like sleeping in a tent. I think most people enjoyed the change since most everyone is experiencing much warmer summer temperatures at this time.

Results
There were 109 campers and 7 accepted the Lord as Savior. It was a very successful week along those lines. We had churches that brought quite a few more campers this year than in the past because the distance was changed in their favor. There were almost 20 campers more this year than our previous high year of recent camps.

Tight Quarters
The camp ground that we used was well equipped for 70 people, but we had 109! There was plenty of space in the auditorium and dining areas, but there just were not enough beds. The camp is still in the process of building. They have plans for another dorm which will add 25 more beds. As it was we had several people sleeping on the floor in the dorms. Some of us slept on tables in the dining room. I am disappointed that one of our churches was not able to come, but I am also not sure where we would have housed another 20+ people.

Activities and Staff
We had some fun activities. We were able to go on a hay ride and play on a zip line. For me it was my first experience with a zip line. It was fun.

The staff at the camp was great. Though there were some struggles with the facilities being too small and not having enough water to keep us well cleaned, I cannot praise the staff enough. We have been at other locations  where the staff was very helpful and we were told that if we needed anything to let them know. At this camp though, the staff stood around and said “What can I do for you right now?” A small difference, but it was very noticeable. The camp owner/director even offered to do a craft project with the campers. That was a blessing since one of our big activities each year is the daily craft. But because of some people not being able to make the trip, we did not have enough crafts planned. The camp director had no idea that we were needing help with a craft, yet he was there to step in and take up the slack just by offering.

Some Struggles
There was not enough water. They truck in about 1500 gallons of water a day. That is cheaper than drilling their own well. But, for the number of people we had there, the amount of water was not enough.

One of our main preachers has been under the weather and was not able to come. I knew a couple weeks in advance that there was a possibility of his absence. But it was not confirmed until the day before camp started.

Another preacher informed me 3 days before that he would not be able to make it. His problem was that his transportation fell through. We were able to route some other people through his area (several hours out of their way) to pick him up and bring he and his wife. That was a huge help.

One of my teachers was not able to make it. She was going to be teaching the ladies each morning. Camp started on Monday evening. I did not know for sure until mid-morning Tuesday that she was not going to be with us.

To get the week started, I was about 2 hours late arriving at the camp ground because the group I was riding with had a van break down. That 2 hours was something that I struggled all week to recover. It seemed to never happen. We have mostly done well in the past with keeping things on schedule and getting the activities started on time. Starting everything late on the first night set the atmosphere for the week. Most of the services started 5 to 20 minutes late. When you are trying to pack in as many events as you can in a short period of time, it is important that you keep things on schedule. Many of the speakers are used to preaching in their churches where there is no time limit, but unfortunately we have to set limits while at camp. It was not unusual for me to have to stand at the back of the auditorium and signal to a preacher that he had to cut it short because he overshot his time by 30+ minutes. Personally, if I cannot say what I want to say in 30 minutes, then I am trying to say too much. When you preach for more than an hour and still have to be cut off by the man in charge, then you are definitely trying to say too much.

There were some stressful times trying to adjust the schedule for all the changes.

Finances
We were also several hundred dollars short on being able to pay for the camp. This is something we have never had a problem with since I have been running the camp. But through a long series of events here and there, we ended up short. Fortunately, God showed His hand of control and power and we were able to leave the camp owing nothing.

Conclusion
It was a very mixed bag of emotions throughout the week. Some very wonderful things took place as well as some tough and stressful events. Fortunately there were no life threatening issues that we had to deal with. I have gone through that before, and it is not an experience a camp director ever wants to repeat.

Next year I will not be in the country to work out all the details of camp. I am still planning to be very involved, but am glad to push some of the detailed responsibility off on one of the national pastors. I will be at camp to deal with problems and inevitable crises, but when things go right I will be able to point to the national and thank him for the great work he did leading into camp.

From a final result point of view, the camp was extremely successful. From my point of view I went into this camp the least organized I have ever been. The fact that it was pulled off so well is a testament to the great national pastors and missionaries who have been doing it so long they just rolled with the punches. I am personally embarassed by the behind the scenes mess that I seemed to constantly struggle with, but am thankful that no one but me really saw the fragility of my house of cards. I have kept you in the dark on so many other issues that I did not even cover in this post..

I thank God we were able to see 7 people saved and church people encouraged to go home and have a stronger personal relationship with the Lord.

Today was the day that we were having our big event at church. We had been inviting the neighbors from near the church as well as friends and family of our Deaf who regularly attend.

Normally on a Sunday morning we will have between 10 and 17 at church. We have had a high day of 25. Today we were pleased to see 36 people in church with us. 13 of them were first time visitors. It was an exciting day.

We split up the duties between Bill, our co-worker, and myself for the speaking this morning. Bill told about the history and planned future of the ministry. I gave a Gospel message. We had 2 ladies (hearing) accept the Lord today!

After the service we had a meal and sat around and talked for a while. It was just a generally exciting day. We only took 86 pictures, so I will have to dig through them and see if there are any worthy of uploading. I would just do it right now, but the camera has already been packed for a long trip. When we get to our destination I will try to get a couple pictures uploaded.

You can always tell when I am having to do real work…there are fewer posts on the blog.

The last few weeks have been tied up with some exciting projects. One of the biggest has been some improvements we are making at our church building. We painted early in January, both inside and out. We were helped by a group of college age young people. They did the bulk of the work. The final touches were put on by our co-worker and me.

We also built a platform. Since we are a Deaf church it is hard to be on the same level as the church people. You can never stand for any announcements or singing because no one beyond the first row can see the speaker. Our new platform is only 8-3/4″ off of floor level, but it makes all the difference.

The way we built it was put down a series of concrete blocks and laid a 3/4″ sheet of wood on the blocks. To keep the MDF wood from sliding we put some thick shelf liner between the bricks and the MDF. This has the added benefit of leveling out the inconsistencies in the concrete blocks. Tonight we put an aluminum edge on the platform so that we don’t bang up the front edge of the boards. It is about 12’X6′. Since the back wall has an angle to it, we had to be creative in getting it to all fit.

We have also put up new curtains in the main sanctuary and in the bathroom. The curtains in the bathroom do not serve to hide the sunlight. There is no outside wall. Rather, we use the curtains to cordon off a section of the room that we are using for storage. It dresses up the room and hides all the junk.

There have been a few other improvements that we have done, but those are the big ones.

This weekend we have been promoting a special day where we want to show off our new wares. We will have a special service in which we give the history of the church as well as a Bible message. Then we will sit around and enjoy lasagna and Coke.