The girls' camp from Allegan, Michigan 2024 occurred from July 27th to August 3rd at the Protection of the Mother of God Monastery. The camp started Saturday, July 27th with receiving the girls and accommodating them to their room. The room selection at first was made based on the girls’ age, but accommodation was made to ensure each girl felt comfortable with her room selection. Most of them knew each other from last year's camp but later the first activity allowed each girl to introduce themselves by stating her name, the city and state where she is coming from, and sharing the town where their parents or grandparents are from Romania. On the same day, the girls were made aware of the camp’s rules and regulations as well as the monastery's conduct to ensure their safety and daily routines and schedule. Next, the report will detail the camp progression per daily activities.
Sunday, July 28, the day started with the Divine Liturgy. The girls were invited to join the monastery church choir and conducted to sing the Divine Liturgy songs. The girls were also invited to read the prayers and participate in Holy Communion. A detailed schedule was posted on the lunchroom door. The schedule included the daily activities but also the daily girls’ attributions like setting the table before and after each meal, reading the prayers before and after each meal, and being responsible for cleanup and light housekeeping.
After lunch, the day's activities were logical games, Romanian lessons, and Choir. For the logical game activity, the girls were divided into groups based on their age, and board games appropriate to their age and logical abilities were invited to play. Some examples of games are memory blocks, where players must remember which tiles on the grid are matched with their identical, for the second station we had the game of Life, this game is a family board game that simulates a person’s life from early college path or career path to retirement, the third station was Azur which is a pattern building and tile placement game with some logical acquisition rules, the fourth station was the old Romanian game “telefonul fara fir” and the last station, the fourth was the Gaga Ball, which is a game like a dodgeball played in a gaga “pit”. The game combines dodging, striking, running, and jumping to be the last person standing.
The day continued with the Romanian lesson. For this lesson, the chaperon gathered the girls to sit comfortably in a circle and the girls were introduced to the roles of the subject, verb, adverb, and adjectives in sentences and applied the theory to Christian Romanian stories where girls read in Romanian and the text syntax was discussed to ensure the Romanian metaphors were discussed and explained. Next, for the music lesson which took place in the church, the chaperon taught the girls two songs dedicated to the Holy Mother of God. The day ended with dinner and evening prayers.
On Monday, July 29th, after the morning daily routines, Father Paisie, prepared stations for painting icons on glass. He introduced the girls to this art by explaining the steps for this type of painting.
After lunch, the girls participated in Catechism. The lesson Father Petru held was the meaning of Love as it is defined in Corinthians 1:13 by the Apostol Paul. He held an open lesson with explanations and meaningful citations from the Holy Bible along with answering the girls’ questions about this subject.
On Tuesday, July 30th, the girls participated in Arts and Crafts activities. For today, during this activity, the girls were introduced to slime making process and linocut print on T-shirts. Linocut or Lino printing is a way of making art that uses linoleum, a soft material, to create pictures or designs. For this activity, The Holy Mother of God was printed on white cotton t-shirts for each girl. Arts and Crafts lessons continued with the Catechism lessons conducted by Father Petru. Today, the lesson was about Happiness. Each was explained in detail by Father Petru who told real-life stories to capture the girls’ attention and their understanding. The evening continued with the Campfire and the well-known smores on the monastery campground under the observation of the chaperones. We ended the day with the evening prayers with Father Petru in the monastery church.
On Wednesday, July 31st, the chaperones and Father Petru organized a field trip to a peach orchard. This trip included: a petting zoo, lemonade stand, tractor rides, peach picking, corn maze, and blueberry picking. The afternoon continued with the girls returning to camp. One of the girls' strongest wishes to Father Petru was to hold a midnight Divine Liturgy. For this reason, the day ended sooner than the rest to allow them to have quiet time and rest.
On Thursday, August 1st, the girls continued with Arts and Crafts activities. For today, Miss Maria introduced them to the Byzantine decorations. The lesson was about decorating Byzantine crosses with glass beads and modeling with air clay to create Horezu-inspired decorative small clay plates. After the arts, Father Petru continued with Catechism lessons about kindness. The class was an open conversation with questions and answers from the girls. Father Petru told them several stories to ensure their understanding of topics around Kindness. This evening, Father Petru invited the girls to the church for Holy Mother of God Paraklesis.
Friday, August 2nd, started with the morning prayers, breakfast, and Catechism. Today’s Catechism's subject is Faith. The girls’ favorite teaching method to father Petru is storytelling.
Today we celebrated Nicole’s birthday, and the girls were happy to share this special day with her. After lunch, the girls organized the lunchroom and their rooms and hallways to ensure the monastery would be ready after their departure. In the afternoon, Father Petru blessed the water, and he blessed the icons the girls painted with Father Paisie.
Friday, August 3rd, the girls with the chaperones and Father Petru prayed together for the academic year to start once they returned home.
