Lara Muir from France helps the girls make  their candle holders.

Paul Kieffer shows how to decipher a message  sent via morse code.

Campers and staff enjoy challenging games  played with a large parachute.

Campers and staff pedaled hard to complete  the uphill 8 mile outbound trip.

Staff member Jesmina Allaoua and campers  enjoy the view from the "Hermannsdenkmal".

Campers and staff pose for a picture at the  top of the "Externsteine".

14 children and 9 adults from Belgium, France, Germany and Switzerland attended summer camp from August 2 to 7 just east of Bielefeld, Germany at the hostel "Naturfreundehaus" in Oerlinghausen. The camp was the third one hosted jointly by UCOG and the Vereinte Kirche Gottes ["United Church of God-Germany"]. This year special guest Lara Muir from southern France was part of the staff.

Following a brief orientation meeting on the afternoon of the arrival day – Wednesday, August 2 – campers learned how to make decorative candle holders. In the evening the first morse code class was conducted by UCOG President Paul Kieffer, who has been a licensed ham operator in the United States for 40 years with an Amateur Extra class license (K4PVK). Campers learned the international alphabet by letter groups and then challenged their teacher to decipher their morse code messages.

On Thursday (August 3), the first full day of camp, campers enjoyed various games played with a parachute. In the afternoon the group walked 1.5 miles through the forest to the nearby Oerlinghausen glider airport, which is the largest of its kind in all of Europe. A sunny afternoon provided an opportunity to watch dozens of starts and landings on the parallel grass runways at the airport. In the evening campers practiced the song selected as this year's special music for the children's choir at the Feast of Tabernacles.

Friday's main activity was a special "bicycle" ride on train tracks. The group traveled by car to nearby Rinteln, where the train line between and Rinteln and Barntrup is no longer in regular service. Instead, the tracks have been leased to an outdoor activity group that provides special cars propeled by bicycle chains and gears. Staff members accompanied campers on the uphill climb of 8 miles before the group turned around at 2 p.m., the time set for one-way traffic on the tracks to reverse. Local member Elisabeth Hellmig met the group along the route and prepared a barbecue lunch of sausages, a green salad and potato salad. On the downhill stretch back to Rinteln staff members did not have to provide much help pedaling. The campers enjoyed seeing how fast they could go on the descent.

For the daily interactive Bible study, campers were divided into two groups based on age. The theme for this year's camp was the Ten Commandments. Using various puzzles and other craft materials, instructors Hermann Göhring and Paul Kieffer helped the campers see some of the underlying principles found in the basic points of God's law.

On the Sabbath campers were divided into two teams for a Bible quiz competition conducted by Paul Kieffer. Questions for the quiz were taken from the book of Genesis and were divided into four categories by degree of difficulty. In the afternoon, visitors from the local Bielefeld congregation joined the group for Sabbath services. The campers performed special music prior to the sermon, a Powerpoint presentation by Paul Kieffer. The sermon covered an overview of the Ten Commandments and showed how the theme of freedom from slavery still applies to today's world. After the afternoon service, the group had coffee and cake, a German tradition for mid-afternoon. In the evening campers, staff and visitors enjoyed a barbecue dinner.

On Sunday, the last full day of camp, the group traveled to nearby Detmold by car to view two historical sites. The first stop on the day trip was the "Externsteine", an unusual natural stone formation of several large boulders used anciently as a site for cultic worship. After visiting the "Externsteine", campers enjoyed a picnic lunch on a nearby meadow, followed by more games with the parachute. After lunch the second stop was the "Hermannsdenkmal", which was completed in 1875 and commemorates the victory of Germanic chieftain Arminius ["Hermann"] over three Roman legions in a battle fought in the Teutoberg forest in 9 A.D. Hermann's victory ended Rome's attempts to extend its dominion eastward in Germany beyond the Rhine River. After returning to the hostel and enjoying a final evening meal, each camper received a certificate of participation that emphasized his or her contribution to the camp.

Despite weather forecasts predicting rainstorms from Thursday through Sunday, it only rained briefly on Wednesday and Saturday afternoon. The weather otherwise was cool and sunny. "Naturfreundehaus Bielefeld", the venue for the camp, utilizes volunteer supervisors during the year. Its members are expected to volunteer a couple of weeks a year to provide oversight when groups use the venue. This year's volunteer supervisor was the same one as for the previous camps. He called us a "low maintenance" group and said he will schedule himself again next year when summer camp 2007 is in session during the last week of July.