Camp Wesley / Paplaka Trip

On Friday, we took our second trip to Liepaja.  This trip was to see Camp Wesley and the Methodist Church at Paplaka.  Reverend Inese Budnika was gone during our first trip to Liepaja.  She is the minister at the Paplaka Church, as well as being in charge of the camp.  Friday, we inspected both facilities.  On Saturday, we helped at a cleaning and maintenance day at the camp.  Sunday, we attended the Methodist Church in Liepaja at 11:00 am and service in Paplaka at 2:00 pm.  They were very nice services.  It was Mother’s day here also.

Church Service at Paplaka

The Paplaka congregation has been an active Methodist congregation since the 1990’s, but it is a rural congregation.  The church is located in the town’s cultural center, which was built during Soviet times.  The building also has the town’s store and space for residence to make traditional craft items. 

 

Paplaka Cultural Center & Church Location

Paplaka Sanctuary

Paplaka Fellowship Hall

Traditional Craft Room

Camp Wesley was dedicated in 2005 and has been making improvements each year since.   As you can see the camp was originally a vibrant farm.  The barn is named the Alabama Building because the Methodist Church’s Alabama Conference made a large donation to renovate the building – which now includes a commercial kitchen, dining hall, flush toilets and showers.  The Holston Conference also made a donation for work done on the house.  

Camp Wesley

Alabama Building

 Top Floor of Alabama Building

 

Dining Hall

Kitchen

Our Host Rev. Inese Budnika

Camp Wesley is looking for summer camp and construction teams to come.  They have several landscaping and construction projects they could use some help with.  One of them is to build 4 wood cabins.  They have platforms where tents are now set-up for the campers.  It would be better to have wood cabins, built on the platforms, for the children and youth to stay in.  On the coast, storms can blow in quickly and being in wood buildings would be reassuring for the campers. 

Let me know if you would like to help in anyway. 

Stay tuned for my next report.