Report on Meeting with Hungarian leaders

A meeting between representatives of the EEFC council and the leaders of the camps in Romania and Hungary finally took place in Debrecen on Saturday 27th March. Philip, our treasurer, and I had planned a meeting for earlier in the year but had to cancel due to unexpected weather conditions. Unfortunately, Philip was unable to be present at the March meeting but our camps co-ordinator, Sam Thompson and I had the great joy of meeting with our Hungarian and Romanian brethren to review last year's camps and make plans for camps 2010. In a spirit of cooperation and concern for the spread of the gospel through the work of camps, we had a very profitable time, learning lessons from what had gone on in the past and benefitting from the different abilities and experiences of those present. It was good for me to finally put faces to names that I had heard and meet those who had given such faithful service to the work of camps.

The main purpose of the meeting was to arrange things for the summer camps 2010. It was decided to have a single theme for the talks for all of the different camps, and the theme chosen was the Life of Christ as reflected through the Christian Calendar. The idea was that as the young people would be familiar with such festivals as Christmas, Easter and so on, it would be good to teach them the real meaning of the celebrations. It was also agreed that the Bible studies should focus attention on individuals in the Bible associated with those events. We agreed to prepare a booklet on the talks and the Bible studies.

We have provisionally agreed to hold a camps conference/reunion on the 18th September in Budapest, not just for the council, but also for all those who have been camp leaders. Budapest was chosen because it is relatively easy to get flights to & from the UK. It is hoped that this may become a yearly event held alternately in Hungary and Scotland. We should be able to give more information at the training day on the 8th May.

Thomas C. Donachie