Boltenhagen Outreach Camp


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Arriving at midnight on Thursday night (after flying into Hamburg and driving for an hour or two on the Autobahn) wasn’t enough to stop us from staying up late chatting about the things of the Lord. “You can sleep when you get home,” says Pastor Konrad, with matchsticks already propping open his eyelids. (He was comparatively quiet at breakfast the next morning.)

Of course, as is tradition for our European “camps”, we are provided with an endless stream of food, from buffet breakfasts to restaurant bookings and birthday cake “birthday cake eating” was a daily entry in the camp programme.

It’s a great way to meet new saints, like the newly-spirit-filled Carina (whose story you may have read on Facebook recently) from Boltenhagen and her daughters; and also, Olga and her children. Olga was baptised in the Baltic sea at last year’s outreach camp wearing a beautiful white robe (sadly all photos have since been lost). Things are really taking off in Boltenhagen!

We had new people at every meeting thanks to the steady efforts of the saints in Boltenhagen and the afternoon outreach. The saints’ singing on the beach was a magnet drawing people in. As per usual, meetings were live-translated, and choruses were sung in multiple languages—this time Polish, German, and English.

Some of the more adventurous of us took our fears to new heights on the high-line climbing course in the forest. (We deserved the birthday cake that day.)

The next day we popped down the road to Schloss Bothmer, an English mansion with a rather colourful history (largely of neglect). Our eccentric tour guide showed up late, but with the most brilliant excuse: she had been “cleaning her kitchen”.

We then enjoyed our Cappuccino mit Sahne (ask Sabine what this is if you have never had the pleasure of trying it!) and more food in the autumn sun. In spite of four coffees in one day, some of us couldn’t keep our eyes open.

And of course, we ended our trip with more coffee and food. Thanks to the Boltenhagen assembly for organising the great camp!

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