What Happens at Camp?

Days start early. Breakfast served family style followed by a youth leader meeting to talk about the theme for the day. While we were meeting, Zack met with the youth for quiet time. Then we all met up again for morning celebration.

Morning Celebration starts with silly skits, spirit competitions, and some shenanigans. 

When it's free time, take a nap, because you'll need it. It all starts again early the next day.

Celebration

Twice a day, we meet with everyone else at camp, about 2,500 others, for worship. It was always incredible. As I asked the youth what their favorite part of camp was, student after student, told me worship. It was phenomenal to watch our kids worship with total abandon.

They dove into the Word like it was finals time, cramming every bit they could in before the closing prayer. Students were not only attentive, but enthralled with the speaker, the content, and their Savior.

After Celebration in the evening, we had a meeting with our whole church group. Wednesday Zack invited a man who was a Compassion International sponsored child and is now working with Compassion, just finished his Bachelor's degree in Accounting, and is serving his people back in Kenya as a pastor.

Spirit Competitions

Each church is added to one of four spirit teams. This year we were Green Rumble... and we went for it. We like to win! You were green, paint yourself green, yell for green... all week long. We saw capes and tutu's, tribal paint, and even fanny packs! in team colors!

Rec Time

Water Day

Each day at Rec students play and are challenged It's just for fun - lots of fun. At the end of Rec there is always a devotion, led by one of the camp staff.

The first day was water day and each station was designed to soak the kids. They played with sponges, tarps, baby pools, and lots and lots of water.

Mud Day

This was the most fun and most logistically awful day. Trying to get 60+ girls through 8 showers in 30 minutes was a challenge. Zack told the kids to wear clothes that they could just take to the dumpster.

Quite a few were hesitant, at best, about mud day, but after it started they were all in. The looks on their faces - and mud in the eyes and ears - speaks volumes about how much fun they each had playing in the mud.

Squad Wars

This day was Shallowater against like 5 other churches and we dominated. Over 96 tasks were arranged at various stations, each with a point value attached. Points earned plastic ball in baby pools. Upon the completion of your task, you were allowed to move "points" from their pool into your pool. Whole team challenges offered opportunity to earn lots of points all at once.

Our students were in it to win it. When it was announced they we won at the end the students even sung the fight song - twice! 

After the devo this day, Zach encouraged the students to do everything with that level of commitment and zeal - study, worship, play.. .all of it.  

RELATIONSHIPS

Time away. Time with your thoughts. Time with Jesus allows for room for relationships to form, others to strengthen, and others to heal. It was amazing, but not surprising, to watch the Lord work in the lives of the students and heal some deep hurts. He brought people together to inspire one another and light fires to take what they've learned with them into the school year.

Travel

Adventure is typically a given when you move 100+ people 5 hours on way and this trip was no different. At least one bus over heated each way, Jeremy told football stories from back in the day, and we watched movies - and mostly slept - to pass the time.

Leadership

Each morning these group leaders would meet with others from LOTS of other churches to learn about the theme and the lesson for the day. After the meeting each day, as a group, we stopped to visit and to pray. It was a wildly diverse group - and just who God intended for this trip.