Outtatown Site 2: South Africa: Bird River Bible Camp

Written on Thursday, September 27th

Meaningless! Meaningless! ...Utterly Meaningless! Everything is meaningless (Ecclesiastes 1:2).

These words and thoughts seem to ring true in a world void of God, hope and light. However, throughout this week, after studying various parts of Ecclesiastes, we came to understand that this meaninglessness cannot take a firm hold on our life once we have discovered the saving grace of Jesus Christ. Our main speaker this week, Jamie Howison, spent some time with us looking into the various scriptures of Ecclesiastes and Psalms and then connecting the messages and creating parallels between them and certain songs of today’s popular music. We studied musicians such as Pedro the Lion, Sufjan Stevens, Bob Dylan, Steve Bell and a few others. We were able to discover new connections from these songs we knew well, and we were then able to recognize the Bible’s influence in the lives of the artists, whether these influences were positive or negative. This innovative way of studying the Bible was exciting because the stories of ages ago, which come along with the preconceived notion of being dated, could be related to the situations many of us face today in our lives and the lives of those around us.

In addition to the many new things we are learning, there have been some exciting events occurring in our community as well! On Sunday we kicked off the week by attending the MUD Café at CMU. At this service, our very own Rachel Kamps, Dave Attama and Joanne Schapansky were each awarded a $300 voucher to an MBMSI program because they had won the Amazing Race challenge we all took part in last week in Winnipeg.

Our week has been filled with more fun each day as games of Frisbee continue, our newly formed site fitness club continues to run after snack time, and with the falling of rain, mud football was expected to break out at some point. The mud was calling the names of some of our friends as they jumped, rolled and fought through thick mud pies in a battle for the pigskin. Carrie was still chiseling the mud off her face the next morning while the washing machine destroyed Deanna’s unmentionables.

Nevertheless, everyone was cleaned up enough to join Site 3 at Pinawa for a seminar on AIDS; we heard inspiring stories about what’s currently happening in Africa regarding the AIDS epidemic, and we became excited to receive a foretaste of some of the things that are in store for next semester. Wednesday morning we woke up excited to leave Bird River for a little while (even though it already feels like home), to see some of our friends from the other site, and for many of us, to receive the long awaited internet access and cell phone reception!

As we wind down our week here at Bird River Bible Camp, we are all scattered around camp preparing for the meticulously planned Talent Show occurring this evening at 7pm, thanks to the motivated and ambitious Entertainment Committee! It will be an evening showcasing the diversity and many talents of our fabulous new community.

Tomorrow we will head our separate ways for the homestay weekend before we all come together again to head off to the glorious Western side of Canada on Monday. Please keep us in your prayers!

By: Jen Nickel

It's crazy how close our site became in so short a time, like family. Looking back already it's funny how nervous and awkward we were. The first day at CMU sems like months ago and it's like we've all known each other for years.

After a long drawn out welcoming day, we headed to Bird River Bible Camp. During the three days we spent there we had sessions lead by John Unger during which we spent time mapping out our lives and looking at how the the things we've experienced in life have shaped who we are today. We also played a bunch of games in order to get to know each other better and ate WAY too much food. Some of us bonded by playing frisbee and exploring the camp. Unfortunately we had no access to telephone at camp (the phone tower had been struck by lightening), so one afternoon some of us bonded on a long walk to the nearest payphone.

Prior to drop-off day I had been terrified and filled with doubt about whether or not I should be going on this program, but even after just a few days I was reassured that this was where God wanted me to be and I can't wait to see what the next eight months will hold.

By: Lauren Sonnenberg