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PAGE OPTIONS: PRINT | EMAIL | REPORT ERROR | DOWNLOAD PDF TLIG International Youth Camp Youth Camp The TLIG Youth Camp in 2006 welcomed many visitors from across Europe: Seventeen Czechs with 4 small children, Myriam and Nicolas from France, Fabian from Belgium and Father Stefan from Scotland came this year to take part. Including Barbara, our host, there were 23 people from five countries. There was also one short visit from Katka´s sister, who is working and living in Brussels at that moment and made the trip for the week-end.
Stausberg
Stausberg is a small farm situated approximately 8 km away from the town Friesenhagen, in Germany. It belongs to Barbara Sierp-Karasch´s family. She is a True Life in God volunteer in Germany and she is taking care of prayer groups across all of Europe. On their farm, there is a guest-house, where up to 35 people can stay. The house is well equipped with a dining room with a small kitchen just next to it and a communal room for prayer and Holy Mass. Hidden in a little cabin just outside the guest-house, there is a small, intimate chapel for prayer and meditation. There are cattle, horses and sheep in the fields all around and beyond them the surrounding hills are mostly covered with forests. The youth , you can also enjoy a new sand hippodrome, where you can play football or volleyball. It was a busy week, but we still managed to do all kinds of things: We went for a long walk around Stausberg, visited the Zoo garden and went swimming in a lake by the town Olpe, even when it rained! We had noticed that it had been cloudy on the road to Olpe but we wanted to go swimming! We came back drenched through and through, but happy! We also sang, danced, played instruments and even played a bit of sports as well during the week! The common meals, the free time and leisure activities were all part of our experience - it was a holiday as well as a retreat! 'Pilgrimage for Unity' to Cologne upon Rhine During our week, we also felt it was important to serve our Lord as ambassadors for Church Unity. Located on the Rhine river is the old city of Cologne, centered around it's beautiful, gothic cathedral. In Cologne's cathedral, there are the relics of the Three Kings. While this is the third biggest gothic monument of the world, it turned out not to be the only one on our Pilgrimage or even the most important. Our first Unity meeting was at 10:00 am with an orthodox priest from the Armenian apostolic church. He greeted us very warmly. He let us know about the history and the tradition of the Armenian Church, and he went on to tell us about St. Sahak Mesrop, the church we were sitting in. When we concluded our meeting with a prayer for the Unity of all Christians, the priest sang one of many old Armenian hymns to our Blessed Mother.
From Theophanou we hurried to meet the pastor of the Old-Lutheran Church. We sat in a gathering room and he was telling us about the Lutheran tradition and about the activities of his church in the city of Cologne. We shared our message about unity and mutual love. The delighted pastor offered us a drink and invited us to visit the church, where we prayed together for the unity of Christians. We were surprised by how close our churches were in their traditions. Our Pilgrimage continued and we were fortunate to have a guide in the Cathedral of The Three Kings - a professional in his domain and he loved the cathedral. The visit lasted about an hour. We had a moment to bow before the relics of The Three Kings in the presbyter of the church. Among others relics, we admired a big cross in the left side chapel which is the oldest cross in the world that includes the depiction of the Body of the Lord Jesus. Not only that, but a miracle is joined to this cross: the archbishop of Cologne who commissioned the cross to be made, allowed the sculptor to leave a hole in the Lord Jesus´ head. Once, after the Holy Mass, he put the holy Host into the hole in the sculpture. The body on the cross transformed into a real, tortured human body.
After the Unity Pilgrimage, there was a surprise: a picnic by the Rhine River. We sat on the grass, ate potato salad, typical German Würstchen (Frankfurters), drank orange juice and relaxed while we watched the boats as they floated by us on the river. We also had a short walk on the quay before we returned back to Stausberg in late night hours.
Return to Camp
Witness "Father Stefan gave several speeches during our stay. Once he spoke about how sin descends from generation to generation, we are pursued for "the guilt of our fathers" (he cited from the Ten Commandments - "and I will punish the guilt of fathers on sons to 4th and 5th generation"). He said he has not noticed this place for many years and then suddenly it hit his eyes. He spoke about examples of priests who celebrated Masses for healing the family and how miracles happened; for example, people who were mentally ill recovered after many years being ill... He suggested celebrating Holy Mass for healing our families. We wrote on paper names of our relatives, close or removed, living or dead, and names of children not born. We could write whomever we thought about. So everybody had a long list of names. Before the Holy Mass we put the papers in a basket. After the introducing prayer we were confessing our sins and also the sins whose consequences we experienced in our families. In principle, these were sins of all humanity, like: "we did not honor you, Lord; we went away from You, our ancestors and us, and we forsake You voluntarily. We said: my will be done, instead of Your Will be done." It was very powerful. My family is nearly non-Christian and we also need help but we did not know that the help comes from Yahweh who created Heaven and Earth. How I long to be free from links of sin, of death!" Katerina Zapletalova, 29 years, CZ "The thing I brought back from this year's camp was that our task number one is to transmit the messages to those who have never ever heard about God and who are miles away from Him. I have worked for several years in a convent of sisters in Prague and I was always trying to transmit the messages to them. Not that I forced somebody but I had a fixed idea inside me that these sisters also should read it. It cost me a lot of energy and the result was merely... none. I am delivered from this image now. On the place where I work and live, I live the messages above all. I always wanted very much to transmit the messages to others. Now I know where to focus my attention and I pray that the good God gives me opportunity and grace to witness among those, who do not know Him. " Jana Solarova, 26 years, CZ
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