It is pleasure to announce that the YWAM Riga ministry, Wings for Wheels, had its summer camp called “Challenge 4“ at Raiskums’ boarding school 2nd – 9th of July, 2011. We had 23 Latvian and Russian speaking participants with mobile disabilities (and some with sight problems) from all over Latvia. We had 24 assistants/helpers from Latvia, Estonia and Finland to facilitate the camp.
It is already known for us that “Challenge camp” is not only challenging for participants, but also for us organizers. Raiskums Boarding School is the special school for children with mobile disabilities. It means we did not need to make food by ourselves, we did not need to bring in beds, did not need to worry if it is possible to use shower with wheelchair etc. But this camp was much more expensive to run than previous camps. Two weeks before we needed to make payment, we did not have the money and we already started to think that maybe we need to cancel the camp. Same day big amount of finances came in and it opened the way for small incomes and by the end of the camp we had all the finances needed. God was faithful, again!!
Having a camp in new place gave us also new possibilities and new ideas to add to our regular daily schedule. We had a quiz to challenge brain “muscles”, we had morning exercises to challenge sleepy bodies, photo game to challenge acting skills, orienteering with interesting tasks to challenge not to get lost in new area, sport and games to 
challenge physically and two physiotherapists to challenge participants’ bodies. We also had lectures to challenge people spiritually. This year we spoke about how to treat low self image, how to understand God’s calling in your life, what to do if life challenges your faith and how to use difficulties to get closer to God.
We also had new challenges and three different art workshops. In the first, participants were allowed to let their fantasy fly and to make a collage using their own photo and old magazines. We saw how everybody was able to give themselves a new personality and to become a hero, a knight, a model, a celebrity etc. We did get really interesting exhibition with all these collages. For a second workshop we invited a man who taught us glass blowing and how to make jewelry from glass. Every brave participant was able to make something from glass. It was not a problem if he/she was blind or was not able to use hands properly, because master was all the time there and guided hands to make something beautiful. During third art workshop everybody was able to use leather and pearls and to make their own jewelry. People really liked the possibility to make something with their own hands.
During evenings we had planned to have more peaceful events like movie night and funny games evening. We also did trip to Uganda (because of lack of transportation we couldn’t fly there, but with the help of Kaspars who shared photos and stories we visited Uganda). For the first time we were able to have a campfire evening. It became everybody favorite activity in the camp.
For the last three years we have had rope course to challenge people physically and to show for them that there is no limitation they can do. This year we were too far from YWAM Valdemarpils and were not able to go there. Instead of this we went for rafting on Gauja River. It was challenging already to get down to the river with 14 wheelchairs (adding other people with mobile challenges), to get divided 
into three rafts and to have two hour drive on the river. We were warned that it can be a bit hard for people in wheelchairs to get up to the mini Zoo where we wanted to go, but we decided to face this challenge and not to give up. It came out that we needed to do some ‘mountain climbing’ in sand in a very narrow road close to the deep ditch which for many of us seemed impossible to conquer. After hour of planning, carrying, pushing, aching backs and exhausted men, we had all the participants up to the hill and ready to go to the Zoo. One participant in wheelchair wrote in last day for a feedback paper: “Thank you for hard work during rafting day. You did indeed rise us up on wings, because you gave us possibility to experience everything other participants did”. After reaching the destination we met many llamas and camels and the day was complete and the memories will stay with us long.
It was the first year when we had worship leaders joining our camp. It was also the first time that we had Pentecostal pastor joining us for a week helping assist a participant, leading church service and helping to lead at least one 
participant to the God (there were maybe more, but at least one person came to us to announce it). God is great!
Even the weather forecast promised rain and thunder for all the camp week. However we only received a little rain and none of our outside activities needed to be cancelled. We were laughing that it is good we will not have longer camp, because local farmers would be very unhappy to have such a nice dry weather for all the summer 🙂
We want to thank everybody who prayed, who gave financially and who came to help us. For some of the participants it is the only time in the year they are getting out of home and meeting other people. Many participants were Christian, but not able to visit church. This camp gave for them possibility to have fellowship with other Christians. Thank you so much that you made all of this possible.
God bless you!
Wings for Wheels team:
Evelyn, Kaspars, Rasmus, Ailita, Baiba and Sanita
More photos are here