Arts and Crafts Camp 2020 – Our 12th Camp

From January 14-16 we held our 12th annual arts and crafts camp. 21 3rd-6th grade girls from 7 different children’s homes attended the camp. We held it at Youngnak Church in Seoul (thankful to Youngnak IWE for reserving the room for us).

We are now at the point that half of the girls attending weren’t born yet when we held our first camp back in January 2009. This camp also marked the first time a girl who attended the arts and crafts camp in the past (2009, 2010, 2011) returned as a volunteer. She did a wonderful job!

In camp tradition all the volunteers lined up each morning to greet the girls as they were called in one by one. This little third grader was attending the camp for the first time (day one)…

For the first craft the girls made mailboxes. These mailboxes were used throughout the camp and then at the end of the last day the girls were able to take them home and read all the letters the volunteers and other girls had written them. Here is one of the girls from my home with her volunteer…

I’ve been teaching these twins English at my children’s home for four years now…

We like to have show and tell after each craft. Despite this being the very first craft, almost all the girls lined up wanting to share. In the past usually no girls would want to share the first morning (insecurity/fear). It was sweet seeing so many of them go up to the stage.

The second craft on day one was a fun one for the kids but an intense one for the staff, including our photographer (Sky). The craft was “shrinkles” aka “shrinky dinks.” The girls drew or traced one a large piece of plastic and then the staff used heat guns to shrink the plastic down to small sizes for keychains or decorations. The kids liked this craft a lot!

My other twins Soo Bin (glasses) and Soo Jin posing with their goodbye snacks after day 1…

And here are sisters Eun Young and Eun Byul with the twins behind them…

Another new girl being welcomed in, this time on day 2…

I took this picture and the next one (patting myself on my back). I loved seeing the interactions between the girls and their paired volunteers. Our volunteers were so patient and so loving.

This girl came to the children’s home where I serve when she was an infant back in 2007. She is graduating from elementary school next month. Time flies! Her volunteer did a great job working with her.

Director Jee with two of the girls…

Kids were given a chance to give compliments. It’s always sweet to see them learning how to both receive and give affirmation.

Our day 2 morning craft was candy jars (like gumball machines). The girls were very creative! I wish I could show them all.

With Eun Byul

After lunch each day we did different activities before starting the afternoon craft. On day 2 we played a lineup game.

Cute kids and loving volunteers

On Day 2 we also had a visit from Vatos Urban Tacos, a restaurant in Seoul that has sponsored our ministry for a long time now. They provided each girl with a new sweatshirt/hoodie (and made sure to provide them in each girl’s favorite color).

Director Jee asked for a few girls to model their gift. This young girl had been a bit shy the previous year. Her volunteer last year had to show a lot of patience and give a lot of encouragement, and thanks to all of that volunteer’s love she was built up a lot. This year she was excited for the camp and much more open, confident, and free. I was blessed seeing her willing to jump on the stage and show off her gift. I also loved hearing her loud, free laugh during the different games. I’m so thankful for our loving volunteers!

A sad reality is that most of these girls get very little focused, positive attention growing up in the orphanages. There are too many kids and too few workers. I feel like our camps are like love-incubation time for the kids.

Sky with another 6th grader who has attended the camp 4 times now…

Our day 2 afternoon craft was gingerbread houses (using graham crackers). This girl made a BTS concert for her house (BTS is the most popular boy group in Korea… and perhaps in the world).

Again, I loved seeing the interactions between the volunteers and the girls throughout the camp.

On day 3 the girls made picture holders in the morning using a piece of wood as the base and wire. The girls painted the wood base and they were creative with the wire. This young girl posing with her picture holder shared with us how excited she is to bring her younger sister next year since her younger sister will finally be old enough for the camp.

We displayed the crafts for the girls and volunteers to be able to see.

We also had time for writing letters to each other. This girl wrote me a silly note and laughed as I read it out loud.

On Day 3 a number of the girls wore their new hoodies and wanted to model them, so they grabbed Sky to take pictures of them.

Cute kids.

After lunch we played another game (find the leader) and the kids laughed and laughed (especially Eun Young :)).

Then we had time for nail painting…

Face painting…

And card games

I’ve been serving at Geon Children’s Home for 14+ years now. Most of these girls came to the home as babies. I teach them all English and/or basketball. I love these kids so much!

Some of the girls cried as the camp ended, particularly our 6th graders who won’t be able to return to the camp. Even one girl who had been stoic and quiet with only a thin smile cried on her way home after the camp. She had attended the camp for four years and expressed how much she will miss it.

My staff (Jee, Mijeong, Sky, myself) all desire to have our own orphanage together. While we love these camps, we still have to send these kids home at the end of them. We long to have our own kids with well trained workers like the volunteers who serve at our camps. Rather than the kids only having a few days of “love-incubation” they can instead be raised every day in that loving environment. Please pray for us that God will guide us with our next steps and open doors so that we can have our own children’s home.