Fall has officially started, and summer seems like such a long time ago, but I realized that I had still never taken the time to share a little more about the summer camp I was involved in with the church. And since we just had a follow-up worship service with all the campers and helpers a few Sundays ago, I was reminded again to share some pictures and a little about my experience. Plus, and this will make more sense in a minute, this October/November marks the 25th anniversary of the Peaceful Revolution and the fall of the Berlin wall. So, anyway, here goes!!

Summer church camp here is a lot different than what Elyse and I are used to in the States. Rather than heading out to an established retreat center type of place - with dorms, cafeteria, swimming pool, etc. - the church here holds their camp each summer in a small town outside of Dresden. And they start with an empty field and build *everything* themselves!! Tents for sleeping, a big kitchen tent for cooking, shower tents, large tent for the worship services, electricity and water has to be run, and so on. Many things are also built by the campers themselves out of wood throughout the camp. A week before camp starts, a setup crew heads out to begin preparing, then there's a week of kids camp, a week of teens camp, and then a full day or two of tear-down. I know of at least one guy who was there for the entire three weeks! It's amazing what an undertaking the whole process is!!

Part of the camp, including some of the sleeping tents, the big tent, the "Grillenburger Tor," and the best part, the DDR-made Trabant ("Trabi") parked in the carport.

And as if that wasn't enough, every year there's a theme that the camp is based around. But, it's not just a theme that guides the decorations and sermon topics -- it's a entire story that the campers get to live through and experience throughout the week. Last year, for example, the theme was pirates, and they had to look for treasure and fight the British army, and they built an actual ship complete with mast and crow's nest! This summer, for the kids camp, the theme was Samurai, and for the teens camp which I helped out with, the theme was East Germany, the German Democratic Republic, or "DDR" in German. I, and many of the other workers, I think, were quite interested to see how this theme was going to work out. It's certainly a sensitive topic and a piece of history that's not far in the past. But that was at least partly the goal of using this theme too - to give these campers a chance to learn a bit about the history of this part of Germany. They were all born after the fall of the wall (in 1989), but their parents grew up in and lived in the DDR.

There's so much that could be said, but the main plot of the story was this: the kids started out in "Moscow" and were sent back to Berlin to help prepare for and celebrate 25 years of the DDR. They then set out on a two day tour - where they have various tasks to accomplish and sleep outside under a temporary shelter they build themselves - and eventually make their way to the main campsite. My main role for the week was as the worship leader, but they also gave me different roles to play throughout the week. Here's me in my official border control hat, about to check the kids passports as they enter Berlin.

The big sendoff in "Moscow" on the first day of camp, before they head out on the two day tour to the main campsite.

The kids were supposed to get the impression at the beginning that everything was great, and that this was going to be a wonderful celebration, that socialism is perfect, etc., etc. But, as they week went on things started escalating, and it became more and more clear that the system was no good. One morning, for example, the kids woke up to discover that a wall had been built around the camp! Of course, according to the Party, this was not meant to keep them in, but for protection, to keep the enemies of the West out! The same thing was said when the Berlin Wall went up. After the wall went up, they couldn't go to the lake to swim, and anyone caught outside the wall would be punished.

The camp, now enclosed behind the wall (fence).

Throughout the week, there was also a guy playing the character of a revolutionary, who was working to try to start an uprising, and just fighting the system in different ways. So, one thing he helped organize were some secret activities outside the wall. There was a lady teaching hip hop dance, and they had me (as the American!) teach some of the kids how to play baseball, the game of the enemy! (Actually, baseball wasn't necessarily forbidden in the DDR, but it made for a fun activity for the kids! It is, of course, not really possible to recreate the DDR at a week of camp, but the idea was to give a least a little bit of a feel for what happened in that time, and some things, actually - like the speeches of the government leaders praising the Party and the Soviet Union, and the daily newspapers filled with propaganda and spin on the previous day's events - were a lot like the "real" thing.) Word got out about our secret activities, and the camp security came and chased us down. I and a few others were "arrested" and had to go without dinner that night. They actually did bring us dinner, but we had to eat it in secret away from the campers, just to show you how seriously they take the story!

The 25 years of DDR "Celebration." The kids had to build the stage, make all the decorations, and then sit there and listen to boring speeches, including some actually in Russian with German translation!

Towards the end of the week then, the revolutionary had been trying to get a revolution started, but the pastor character continued to preach that they needed to be peaceful. And finally, on Thursday morning of camp, all the teens together decided they would refuse to line up in front of the gate for roll call, they ate breakfast together on the lawn, sang songs, and later that afternoon, the "government" was forced to submit to the will of the people and the wall fell, the camp security force was dismantled, and the party leaders in the camp fled! (Well, they let them come back too, but they were no longer in character as they had been, day and night, for the first five days :-) ). This peaceful revolution was also very similar to the way things really happened that fall in 1989. There was no bloodshed and no violent revolt, but instead peaceful protests around the east and people who became increasingly bold and unified in their demands for freedom and equality. It is said that at this time there was a high ranking soviet official who made the statement, loosely translated, that, "we planned for everything, but we hadn't counted on candles and prayers."

The morning of the Peaceful Revolution. Some of the graffiti on the wall is even in english!"Love one another"

One of the most powerful parts of the camp was on Friday night, when a Lutheran church pastor, Theo Lehmann, came and shared about his experiences living through and working in the church during the DDR. SoLa DDR was exaggerated and needed to be still fun for the kids even while trying to give them a taste of the struggles that were faced. The real DDR was much more subversive and secret. One of the main stresses in life was that you never knew who might be spying on you or what the consequences would be if it was found out you were doing something that the party did not approve of. Pastor Lehmann told about how a young man who was like an adopted son to him and a married couple who were best friends with he and his wife, had been spying on them and reporting to the government for years. I think this night, more than anything, was great for the campers, and for me, to learn some more about life in that time.

It was a great summer camp, and a wonderful experience for me! Elyse was absolutely amazing and took care of both Oliver and our dog Bruce for a whole week while I was gone. But, they did come out to visit me one day, and since it was after the fall of the wall, we got to play baseball again without fear of being arrested!!

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SOLA - "Sommer Lager" - Summer Camp, and the Fall of the Wall!

Ryan and Elyse Dillon