I just want to say thank you to all those of you who helped with putting together this workshop and those who could help with staff, whether it was cooking, group leading, assistant group leading, lecturing, and so forth.

This was our foundation workshop for the rest of our summer along with all workshops that are to come in the future years. There were many high expectation of Garrun, Kayo and me as to preparing. I’m not sure if we were able to meet all those expectation, but with the time we had to focus on it, this middle school workshop was a great success.

We had three states outside of Ohio come to join us for our four-day retreat at Camp Agape. Those included Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee, and Illinois. It was so amazing to see so many new faces and get to become friends and family by the time the workshop was finished. I’m sure it was very difficult at times for kids 11-14 years old to sit through three lectures a day, but to my surprise I found that they were very attentive and interacted with the lectures very well.

Our theme for the workshop was "What’s Love Got to Do with It?", with each lecture touching on the subjects of the Four Great Realms of Heart and living for the sake of others. Our lecturers included in chronological order: Garrun Abrahams (What is Love? Along with Children’s Love,) myself (Brother/Sister Love,) Rev. Schrattenecker (Parental Love,) Rev. Lamson (Conjugal Love,) Craig Smith (Living For the Sake of Others,) Paul Tobkin (God’s Love,) and Annette Yamakawa (Overview of all Types of Love.) Each did a phenomenal job giving the opportunity for all the children to learn what was needed to learn.

Many thanks are given to each group leader and assistant for keeping the groups focused and on task. We had many enthusiastic and well equipped group leaders who could relate with the children well and keep a heavenly atmosphere throughout the camp. Special thanks are given to Trimon Lamson for preparing a relay race and scavenger hunt, which the kids enjoyed a lot with many fun and challenging activities incorporating good team work and determination. Also a special thanks to Rev. Lamson and Uncle Alexei for bring any and all things that weren’t brought in the beginning and were needed to make the camp a memorable one, including t-shirts to be decorated, candy for prizes, etc.

According to phone calls received by Rev. Lamson from the parents of the participants, their children had an amazing experience. This in turn inspired other children in the church community to look forward to next year’s summer camp so that they may participate in it as well. Although many things could have gone much better, as our featured film stated in the end, "With God, all things are possible," and this middle school workshop could become a great success. I want to thank God and everyone once again for staffing and thank the participants for coming. Without everyone’s support and involvement, none of this would have been possible.

With much love and thanks,

Jason Tobkin