Contemporary Music Camp

One of my favorite things we did this summer was go to Toral for 2 camps. This blog post is about the first camp, a music camp, which was for 10 days in August. Toral has become a second home for us and we really love our time there! The boys love the extra space, freedom and dirt!!

This camp is one of the most popular camps. People, mostly young adults, come from all over Spain to participate in the camp. Every morning, after breakfast, there would be a service with amazing worship and amazing preaching. One benefit to musicians coming together for a camp is the really great worship music we enjoyed. Which set the stage for Gus to preach every day on the One Anothers.

Another great aspect to a camp in Toral is the fellowship. We met new people and spent time with friends who came from our church. I also had a LOT of practice speaking Spanish. People from other parts of Spain have other accents than the people in our region, so it is always harder for me to understand people who live in other states. But that extra effort is so good for me and I saw my Spanish improve by the end of both camps and all that time I spent in conversations.

We brought the boys bikes and they really enjoyed riding their bikes. There are two locations in Toral, one where we ate and the other where we sleep; it's about a 10 minute walk between each place. So the boys rode their bikes back and forth before and after each meal. It was a highlight of our time in Toral for the boys.

The weather for this camp was warm. The month of August in León is the hottest of the year but it still doesn't compete with the heat of LA, which is a good thing because we don't have air conditioning. The heat wasn't unbearable and during the hottest time of the day everyone goes inside for a nap. The boys also swam in a swimming pool almost every day and really enjoyed those swims.

My favorite time of the day was after lunch; they had a little stand that sold ice cream, and every day we each bought our favorite one. I literally looked forward to my ice cream bar all day! And it was right at the heat of the day so perfect timing.

Cael could even eat ice cream and ride his bike at the same time! Coen, however, was still not as talented.

Every day the camp was filled with the beautiful sounds of music the students were working on. They practiced all week for a performance at the end and it was fun to see their progress during the week. The students worked really hard and learned quite a bit by the end of their time in the camp. We went to one of their performances and enjoyed the music and fruit of all those practices.