Camp 2013 Saturday

Camp 2013 Saturday, a set on Flickr.

The last day of camp has arrived. Camp sure goes by fast. It just seems like yesterday we were welcoming campers and playing Midgett madness. As with each day this week, we had a cool night and woke up to a cool morning; however, the temperature quickly rose by mid morning.

We went through our morning routine one more time. Breakfast, flag raising with the flag talk given by Jeff Wilson, and cabin cleaning.

Today a part of the morning devotional was led by Drake Akin's cabin.

The study today moved to Scene 5: God empowers man to walk with him. Russ led the study for the older campers and Sherry Murray led the study for the younger campers. They talked about how we are called to be a part of God's story, that now that God came to earth and walked with us, that we are now empowered to walk with God. God desires for us to be part of a collection of people that walk with him.

The golden broom was given to Lauren Bean/Sara Moran's cabin for the girls and Drake Akin's cabin for the boys.

Activities this afternoon were sweetheart kickball for the younger campers and a hike to buzzard's roost for the older campers.

Tonight is the night many parents join use to witness the championship ball games, and to witness the baptisms of those who are committing their lives to Jesus. All the campers enjoyed the final softball and volley ball games today.

Tonight is awards night. There are awards given in a number of categories to each camper such as "Can't catch a break in athletics". The awards are enjoyable to see.

After a devotional time, we went to a beautiful spot in the park to witness the baptisms of eight people. The ones baptized were Mark Hager, Courtney Hinton, Luke Lineville, Gabrielle Burke, Abigail King, Elise Lovell,  Ramey Keopf, and Chole Young. We returned to camp for some devotional time in the B lodge to end our last day at camp.

Tomorrow we will leave the park and go to church Sunday for the last camp activity.

We woke up to a cool morning, but it quickly turned into an extremely hot day. We had advance warning about the heat so preparations were made so that we had plenty of water and Gatorade for everyone here. All have been warned to drink plenty of water throughout the day. Also since the games were played in the hottest part of the day today, we took regular water breaks during the games. As long as we stayed in the shade, the temperature was bearable. Once the sun went down, the temperature has dropped to a pleasant level.

We went through our usual routine. Breakfast, flag raising with the flag talk given by Kyle Taylor, then cabin cleaning.

During the morning devotional, Andrew Murray's cabin led the devotional time. Once we get to this point in the week, we see the worship becoming more open and free.

We are on Scene four today: God walks with man in the flesh. Russ led the study for the older campers and Donna led the study for the younger campers. They talked about how Jesus came in the flesh and showed us how to walk with God.

The golden brooms were awarded to Lauren Bean's cabin for the girls, and Chris Burgess' cabin for the boys. Also gifts were given to Rick Mclintock and Steve Gaines for their fifteenth year at camp.

In crafts they unveiled their stepping stones, and finished work on their candles and any other crafts. Today is the last day of crafts.

We played softball and volleyball games today.

We went to the pool again tonight. There were contest for the "Statue of Liberty" and biggest splash contest. Also there was a very funny contest where the campers were asked a question after they had jumped off the diving board, and had to answer the question before hit the water. There was a group of counselors giving the information for the questions that mostly involved asking the camper about their romantic interest in another camper.

Tonight for devotional time, we walked to the ball field in the dark. Once there Danny shared some words from Scripture, and each person went to the candles in the middle and lit a candle they were holding. As each person lit a candle, the light grew stronger and stronger. It was a lesson to show how the light in us helps to light up a dark world.

It was a powerful way to end the day.

Today we wake up after a cool night to greet a cool morning. Today is the day we sleep later. Given the level of activity, it is good for the campers to get an extra hour and a half of sleep. Breakfast normally starts at 7:15, but today breakfast starts at 8:45.

After breakfast and flag raising, the campers went for devotional time and bible classes. Kendall Hooper gave the flag talk today.

Continuing to follow the movie theme, we are in Scene 3: God calls a people to walk with him. Sherry Murray led the classes for the younger campers and Danny led the classes for the older campers.

We all were given a rock today to represent the hard things in our life that make it difficult to walk with God. The younger campers took a journey the mess hall to the entrance to camp. One the way they encountered "manna", and "water from a rock". All of this was in the context of Israel and their wandering in the desert.

Danny talked about how God led the nation of Israel with a cloud by day and with a pillar of fire by night, how with this God was always in front of his people. He talked about how that even though God works through individuals, that he always wants his people to walk with him. That was true for the nation of Israel and that is true for his church today. The older campers were encouraged to go and pray about the things they had heard.

The golden brooms were won by the X-men for the boys, and Brianna McVey's for the girls.

The afternoon activities were sweetheart kickball for the younger and the hike to the bottom of the falls for the older campers. I'm always amazed at the apprehension that the younger campers have before the game. Before the game they are given a talk. Jonathan gave the talk to the boys, and Kendall Hooper gave the talk to the girls. The first year campers take in these talks with wide eyes. Sweetheart kickball was a big topic of conversation among the younger campers today.

On the hike to the bottom of the falls, our older campers received a big compliment. Steve Gaines had a conversation with a gentleman on the trails who commented on how courteous and nice our campers were on the trail. Apparently this gentleman encountered another group that was rude and had practically forced him off the trail.

Tonight we went to the pool. The campers enjoy playing in the pool, jumping off the diving board, and sitting together and talking. The contest tonight was a "synchronized" diving contest. The campers tried jumping off both diving boards in unison.

Entertainment was provided by Larry Beard, Danny Gregg, and Lisa Greg. Colton Sweet performed Long Black Train. Frank Batson provided the bass on Elvira. Michael Clinger, Trey Clemmer, Grayson Erwin, and Carson Gregg gave us a rendition of "Sweet Home Alabama".  David Peden and Kyle Taylor provided choreography for wild fire. Steve Gaines, Billy Seal also joined in the singing.

Tonight ended with some worship in the mess hall for all campers, and then in the B Lodge for older campers.

We woke up today to an absolutely beautiful morning. The weather up to this point has been quite pleasant. We understand that hot weather is coming in a couple of days, but we are enjoying the good weather while we can.

Today starts the second full day of camp and we are falling into a routine. Breakfast, flag raising, cabin cleaning, staff meeting and then morning devotional. We have some of our young men lead a part of the morning devotional, and Jonathan Clinger's cabin led that part this morning.

Today we started exploring Scene two from our movie theme: "Man walks away from God ".

Danny led the Bible classes for the older campers and Donna King led the classes for the younger campers. Danny talked about how when God come looking for man in the cool of the day that he found that man had put himself in another story. However, even though man walked away from God, God still provided for the man in the form of skins for clothing. Danny talked about how something had to die for man to be clothed, and how that was pointing to Jesus. Danny also talked about how in temptation there is always a promise of something better, but the story of temptation comes up empty.

Donna showed the campers some items, one being unlimited money. The catch was that the campers would have to walk away from everything, starting with camp and including everyone they love including their families. No was one willing to take those terms. She walked them through the story in Genesis, and ended with an activity where part of the campers were blindfolded, and  paired them with a voice they could trust. They started the activity with everyone separated, and everyone giving instructions at the same time. This represented the situation in the world with competing voices that vie for our attention. She then had their trusted partner come close to them and guide them through a walk that they took.

Yesterday, the campers put their footprints into sand. Several adults then filled the footprints with plaster of Paris. It was a mad scramble to get the plaster poured before it setup. I'm proud to say that some of the footprints were uncovered today and that the result was wonderful.

In crafts today, they worked on the cabin crafts. Each cabin collectively designed a stepping stone. These stones will be placed in the prayer garden at church. The campers also worked on assorted crafts once they had finished work on the cabin craft.

The older campers played sweetheart kickball today. This activity start with the boys and girls on separate fields playing different games. The boys play kickball with constantly shifting base lines and sometimes two kick balls. The boys play where they get you out by "pegging" you. In contrast to the boy's rough and tumble games, the girls play games such as red rover. After some free play, they start the sweetheart kickball game, with the boys approaching the girls on one knee and asking them to be their "sweetheart" for the game. This entire time allows the kids to play freely and they have a tremendous amount of fun during kickball.

During lunch today, the golden broom was given to Andrew Murray's cabin for the boys and one of Janie Loudermilk's cabins for the girls

The younger campers hiked to the bottom of the falls today. The view of the falls from the bottom is quite amazing. I'm proud to report that all made it down and back up with no problem.

Tonight's entertainment was karaoke. Some of the staff and all of the cabins participated in performing a song they had selected. Camp karaoke night is something that cannot be described, it has to be experienced. Tonight was quite a fun night.

The night ended with a devotional with the campers in the B lodge.

We woke up to a beautiful morning to start the first day of camp. It is quiet and peaceful here in the mornings with deer grazing around the area. One of the things we experience here at camp is the unparalleled beauty of nature and peace that the setting here at camp gives to us. It truly strengthens our belief in the living God.

The first order of the day is breakfast. Apparently the campers got to bed and got some good rest. We saw a chipper set of campers arriving at breakfast. We will see the march to breakfast be quite a bit slower and the campers grow more groggy as the week wears on.

There are table inspections after breakfast with the losing table having the privilege of cleaning the dining hall.   After the inspections we move outside for the flag talk. Michael Clinger gave the talk and talked about how the flag inspired Francis Scott Key to write the Star Spangled banner, and how we should cherish the flag and the freedom the flag represents.

After the flag raising the campers go to clean their cabins. During that time the non counselor staff meet to get an overview of the day's events, and get in a circle and pray for each camper. This is an activity that takes place each day.

Today the bible classes were led by Russ for the older campers and by Sherry Murray for the younger campers. The classes were centered around Scene 1: God walks with man.

Russ started by sharing how his belief in God was challenged by a college professor. He talked with them about knowing why they believe in God. God is real and that God did create the universe, and created people, and asked why he created people. One of the campers response was... God wants someone to choose to love Him. Psalm 139 he knit us together in our mother's womb. He talked about how we walk with our friends and that God wants us to walk with him.

Sherry  talked to the campers about the Lights, Camera, and Action that is part of our movie theme. The light is the word of God, camera is how we fit in the picture, and action is what are we going to do about being part of the story.

As part of the bible lessons today, each of the campers put their footprint in sand and plaster cast was made. The foot print was to remind them about their walk with God.

A few campers have been to see Nurse Murray with a variety of maladies. We are thankful to report nothing more than a hug and a little rest could not handle.  One of the things she checks for is whether or not the campers have been bitten by the love bug. The strong rumor around camp is that the tooth fairy will be visiting tonight.

The activity today was the nature center hike. The hike is .9 miles starting at the top of the Falls and ending at the nature center. The older campers got to go into the nature center, enjoy the air conditioning and a video on the history of the park. Something was happening in the nature center and so the younger campers did not get to enjoy the air conditioning and video.

During craft time, the campers worked on making candles, making stepping stones, and making washer necklaces. Washer necklaces are made by using standard washers that you can buy at the hardware store and stamping those with metal stamps.

The cabin inspections were won by Cassie Crocker's girls and Drake Akin's boys. The winners get the coveted golden broom while the losers get the privilege of cleaning the bath houses.

Athletics started today with the campers competing in volleyball and softball contests. Church camp games are more about fun and fellowship than about winning. Each camper regardless of their natural athletic talent are able to compete and experience success in these games.

Tonight was camo night. Many of the campers dressed in camouflage attire. The contest tonight was a duck calling contest.  Many of us commented about the impact that reality television has on our culture. We doubted that very many of our campers would know what a duck was if it wasn't for the Duck Dynasty television show.

We ended the day with some devotional time. Spending time in worship is a great way to end the day, and it is also a great blessing to see the campers engaged in the worship.

Church Camp 2012 is underway. Today the final preparations are made to receive campers and also today marks the end of several months of preparation and starts the joy and excitement of another year of camp.  The theme  of this year's camp is GodWalkers the theme verse is found in I John 1:7

"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, Son, purifies us from all sin."

The GodWalkers study is using a movie theme. Here are the scenes that make up this movie.

Scene 1 : God walks with man.

Scene 2: Man walks away from God.

Scene 3: God calls a people to walk with him.

Scene 4: God walks with man in the flesh

Scene 5: God empowers man to walk with him

Overall we want to show how God walked with us, how we turned away from him, and now because God walked with us in the flesh, we can through the power of God's spirit walk with him.

One of the things we recognize is that being a part of camp is to be a part of a story that started with the vision of the Midgetts and the Jones and a story that has been carried forward by numerous campers and staff over the years since the first camp.

The arrival of campers is an exciting moment. For so many campers this is a day of great joy. Finally they are at camp after weeks of anticipation. The first thing all campers do is to go to their cabin, meet their counselor, meet their fellow campers, and get settled into their cabin.

The second activity for the campers is to come to the mess hall for the first devotional. After some devotional time, they go out and hug and say goodbye to their parents.

Once all of this is finished we all go to the ball field for Midgett madness. The campers join their teams and engage in a classic and interesting mix of games. One of the purposes of Midgett madness is to help funnel the emotion and energy of the first day of camp in a productive way. The teams are a mix of younger campers to older campers and are coached by counselors. These games allow the campers to start a bonding experience with their fellow campers and with the counselors that grows deeper as the week progresses.

The day closed with devotional time. The campers are encouraged to get a good's night sleep so they can be rested and ready for a full day of activities on Monday.

We covet your prayers. We all want to spend this week drawing closer to God and closer to each other.

Last Year's Video

Last Year's Blog

Check out the blog for Camp 2011!

http://donelsoncamp2011.blogspot.com/