Life returns to Loksa

It was wonderful yesterday to spend time at Loksa with officers, cadets and their children. Our June ’Ready for Mission’ day was designed as a family day. We met at Loksa – which was the first time the Region has used the camp in well over a year – and the first time Lyn and I had been there for a Regional event.

The first thing we noticed when we arrived was the height of the grass and the weeds! It was like a jungle – and the unkempt state looked rather embarrassing when compared to our neighbour’s rather immaculate garden – oops!

We hadn’t intended the day as a gardening programme, but Alexey had come prepared with his

petrol powered strimmer and others quickly volunteered to help. Rakes and scythes were found in the storeroom and young and old worked together to hack away at the undergrowth.  Gradually the ’jungle’ started to clear and the place looks much better now.

 

A few of the guys took to clearing out the barbeque area and setting up a fire ready for cooking lunch. Amazing how women don’t seem to get a look in as soon as the cooking moves outside, eh? David and Kirill were great chefs! Lunch was wonderful, and as we sat around the pit and enjoyed fellowship in the sunshine we began to realise why Loksa holds so many special memories in the hearts of Estonian Salvationists.

With a number of leader’s children present we had planned to use

the afternoon session for fun and learning. Lyn had planned a ’messy church’ session as a way to introduce this concept to our leaders. After explaining the principles of ’Messy church’ we all joined in a session themed around ‘creation’.

The day came in the middle of a really hectic period for many of us – with the Region’s summer campaign starting next week. I confess, the thought of cancelling the day and concentrating on all the preparations for next week was a temptation but we are so pleased we didn’t. It was really nice day together, we really enjoyed each other’s company as we worked, relaxed and worshipped together.