Parádfürdő, Hungary – During 9-14 of July, over 70 campers attended a Nazarene family camp from six different towns and villages in Hungary to have fun, rest, worship and learn together. The theme for the camp was “Communication with myself, one another and God.” We taught in four age groups, in six groups altogether. The evening devotions were led by the youth and were dynamic worship times with great music, drama and prayer.

It was wonderful to worship together with neighbors, friends and colleagues of Nazarene families as they discovered God and met His family for the first time in their lives.

More than ever, to come to the camp required a great effort and a hard decision for many of the participants. Employers are less and less willing to give the vacation times as requested by the employees. Due to the poor economy and a continuous decrease in salaries, it is harder and harder to afford a vacation other than staying at home. A lot of people made the decision in faith to come to the camp.

The Nagy family, Reka and Tibi with their two kids, Kristof, 9, and Bence, 5, came at an invitation of a Nazarene colleague. It was their first time to attend.

“We love this camp,” said Tibi as he was finishing up his bowl of bean goulash during the cooking competition on Thursday night. “These Christians are with their foot on the ground. We were prepared to be strangers, but were friends from the first moment as if we have always belonged here. All that we were learning was something that we have been seeking for. This is what we believed, but could not find any friends who think in a similar way. We have felt so lonely. Now we have plenty of such friends.”

One of the youth, Daniel, 19, said he keeps coming back because of the great youth and friends who can have the fun together as well as engage in very sincere, deep talks during the youth late night events.

Lina, who was talking with her girlfriends in the camp tea house, said, “I do not know what would be my life if we did not have this great youth...I would probably be in the wrong place. I love them!”

The Communication session for married couples became very practical and intimate as couples learned about the languages of love and respect, and made a temporary tattoo for their spouses with those words. The hugs, kisses and tears between the spouses were a spontaneous response at the end of the session.

Certainly the sport competitions, craft afternoon, the hiking, talent night, the flashlight battles at night in the forest and the courage competition in the hills gave the group plenty of opportunities for fun and enjoyment.

At one point, the group realized that in the youth group there were campers whose parents started to bring them at the age of 6 months, or 2, 3, or 4 years old. This year, a 22-month-old, Hanna, was the youngest; her parents started to come when they were still single.

Zsolt, 20, for whom it was his third time to attend the family camp after he got connected with the church, said, “I want to be involved in working for this camp; give me something to do next year.”