"There will be plenty of work here. You will build houses for the people. They will be the same. No one will have a better house than another. And you'll build them the way I want them built and paint them the color I want them to be," the pastor screamed at the children, pointing at the uniform stacks of boxes and building supplies.
"You do not have permission to address our president," I hollered at one of those who dared to speak out in protest as the guards shoved her toward the cardboard jail under the playground slide. "SILENCE! This is not a game," yelled Steve at the startled prisoner.
No, we haven't been recruited into some militarized cult that terrorizes children. The Country of Progress was part of a complex project designed to demonstrate what life is like living under tyranny. The pastor acted as our corrupt dictator and Steve and I, along with several other staff members, were his henchmen. In the nearby soccer field, another group of kids ran wild, smeared paint on one another and stole and hoarded snacks in the Country of Happy People (our anarchy neighbors).
The exercise was part of a week-long kids camp experiment that gave volunteers and church leaders like us the opportunity to practice teaching methods and ideals we'd learned in the previous week's seminar. We worked alongside seasoned facilitators from Puerto Rico to learn how to disciple entire families, churches and communities through their children.
What a joy it was to watch Nick thrive in his role as camp counselor!
Over 85 children were invited to join us at the denomination's retreat center to take part in the pilot program. The 4-14 camp is a holistic model intended to minister to a child's physical, intellectual, spiritual and social needs. Projects and lessons focused on family, government, church, health, creativity, science, service, communication and business.
This project was one of many that focused on creating art to honor our Creator.
Steve helps demonstrate a lesson on architecture.
Dressed in their "lab coats", children laid on benches to observe the clouds during their science lesson.
Puppets helped the younger children understand more complex lessons.
A news broadcast helped students communicate what they'd learned and taught them about media influence.
The kids helped make a special lunch together as part of a lesson on family. Here, Steve helps a group of girls make fresh orange juice.
In order to demonstrate service to their community, the kids spent their final morning at camp volunteering.
Our time at camp was exhausting, but it was also an encouragement. This camp was meant to be a prototype to be reproduced all over Honduras. It represents a new direction for our churches who are more committed than ever to our future generation.
Believe it or not, we actually had to practice being mean for three days in order to transform ourselves into tyrants. But the tyranny/anarchy project also gave the kids an inside look at the perils of living under too many arbitrary rules or living with no rules at all. The activity and following discussion guided the children to think about authority and choosing to live under God's rule. And don't worry. We gave out plenty of hugs in the days following just in case our acting was as Oscar-worthy as we imagine it was.