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The Stairs* and the Stress
Aftercare Summer Camp, Bucin, CE campsite
2-9 July 2011
*(Psalms 120-134, the Songs of Degrees or Ascents, in an old Hungarian translation they are called Songs of Stairs)
Marika begins her report with the arrival. She calls herself: “an addict’s relative, happy mother and wife”.
Her husband attended a support group where he had found out about a short therapy program and participated in it in Ozd. Since then he has been abstinent. We suspect that this fact has much to do with her “happy” state.
"On the first day of the camp I had a pleasant surprise: many participants of the camp greeted each other with friendly hugs. Everybody was so friendly and nice; many of them came to get acquainted with us. I liked the songs, which we sang beautifully, very much and also the guitar playing. The spiritual beauty of the camp was occurred during the worship times. The “Songs of Ascents”, the pilgrimage songs – these Psalms were the theme. “I have stilled and quieted my soul; Like a weaned child with his mother, Like a weaned child is my soul within me.” (Psalm 131: 2) I felt like my fear has slowly passed way, I have learnt to quiet my soul. It was very good to attend the worship times.
I learnt a lot from the other participants in my group during the discussion times, it was good to listen to their honest confessions. I realized that if I enrich my soul with faith, I have no reason to fear. “For I, Jehovah thy God, will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.“ (Isaiah 41,13). Many times I had tears of joy when I was thinking about our situation, the wonderful change, and our presence in the camp. Thank you very much group! Thank you very much Ozd!
From here you can read the combined report of Éva Bartha and Kálmán Adorján:
This year the Aftercare Summer Camp was organized in the beginning of July at the Bucin CE campsite. It was good to see that the number of participants exceeded 90 (36 men, 29 women, 21 children, 11 staff members). It was also nice to see the children as they were closely involved in the programs, especially in the evening when they organized the camp TV station broadcasting. During the morning devotions the adult participants could hear about Salvation, laughter and tears, fear of God, forgiveness, the rule of Christ and worship based on the “Songs of Ascents” – Psalms 120-134. Meanwhile Móni Nagy and Dávid Adorján tried to engage the interest of the children (who were sometimes restless) by playing games, singing songs and teaching about Jesus’ Parables.
DThe stress, which is mentioned in the title of the report, was not caused by the difficulty of the “stairs”, the “Ascents” (Note: It refers to going up on the stairs. The Songs of Ascents is called in an old Hungarian translation “Songs of Stairs”). The main theme of the morning group discussion was the stress in relationship, in children's education, at work, about financial issues, and in the question of who is on the payroll (in the family and in the relationship).
A new aspect of the program was that in the afternoon group discussions we talked about the aims of the support groups in the different towns, how to identify and organize them, and about their importance. The subject was introduced by one of the participants, the devotion was led by another person, so everybody who wished could actively participate in the program. Our aim was to encourage the support group members to take a role in leading a group activity and run the program. It was helpful for the different groups to look into each other’s operation and problems, as well as to find help by making friends with one other. The women co-dependent groups extended invitations to each other for a visit after the camp.
Eight residents from the Therapy Center attended the camp; they could experience how it felt to adapt to the circumstances and be in the company of strangers. They had the opportunity to exercise in the camp those social skills they had learnt at the Center about which they had only theoretical knowledge until then or could use only in the closed environment of Ozd.
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