Primary Week

Before we knew it Primary Camp was around the corner and the summer was coming to a close fast! This was by far our easiest and fastest week as the campers come Monday night and leave Thursday morning for this particular age group. I again had the opportunity to co-counsel a cabin with Nicole (one of our young ladies on staff for the summer) and we had five camper girls this time!  

 We were in the same cabin Angela and I counselled in the previous week! Here's the whole team in front of Captain Jones minus one of our campers whose family was staying at camp so she bunked with her family and was gone when we took this picture that afternoon.

The competition level came down quite a bit with this age group, but their enthusiasm and energy kept us on our toes!:) One of the best games played that week was Cat-In-The-Hat in which the story is read and everyone is given a character to be. When the character's name is read aloud in the story the campers had to run and find a new bucket to sit on and the last one standing loses. When the phrase "cat-in-the-hat" is read everyone must find a new bucket to sit on and it cannot be either of their neighbors buckets. It is a great game to practice listening skills and a lot of fun though there's often a few bruises discovered later, as buckets aren't the most cushy chairs...;)

We also played Dodge Ball and the campers really enjoyed the rounds where they got to play against their counselors! This is always a fun thing to watch, as the campers almost always pick off the counselors one by one. Amazing how well they can work together for such a cause.;)

Here we counselors are, Nicole, Jonathan, Jake, Daniel and I, attempting to beat the campers and although it came close a few times they always beat us! Most of us our dodging and hoping to get some ammunition here...;)

Water games were changed up a little bit and we played Newcomb with water balloons...

Peter and Missy had some fun with us counselors here...relay races filling up buckets with wet sponges! If you ever find yourself here, know that one thing is for certain-the water is always very cold no matter what it looks like outside!

Reactions...

Playing Drip-Drip-Drop, in place of Duck-Duck-Goose.....

The carnival was held the last afternoon the campers would be there and was very much enjoyed by everyone! Here our team is rooting for our girls Tanya and Kylie....

Trying out the maze!

Daniel worked hard as a stretcher his last week and really enjoyed another week with fellow guy and girl stretchers helping around camp, attending sessions and gaining experience in camp ministry. Though I have posted little of this part of camp is was so very essential to everything running so smoothly, whether it was moving huge boulders to replacing toilet paper they were a huge help and blessing. If a person is interested in getting involved in ministry outside of their home, they have to learn that it starts with simple things like cleaning toilets or washing dishes. What the stretchers worked hard to accomplish during those past three weeks, we counselors and staff benefited from. Thank the Lord for young people who are willing to come and work behind the scenes and make it possible for camp to run! Even more incredible is realizing that even when they worked hard and no one thanked them or knew about it, it was pleasing to God and that is what ministry is all about.

Daniel Shamblin and I in the sponge throw.....AGAIN.

Emma and Angela keeping the mine jump exciting for the campers...

 Our last night we got to have s'mores at the fire ring on the girls side, which was a lot of fun. We enjoyed the yummy treats and sang lots of songs before hastily retreating to the cabin away from all the mosquitos to do our devotions!

What an incredible privilege we had this summer to be involved in this ministry seeing God's hand at work in the hearts and lives of those who came! It was super encouraging to see growth in the past campers as well as the new ones in ways I would have never imagined! God is faithful to work in hearts even after camp and even in the darkest of situations. Sometimes it can be hard to send a camper home after a special week with them and realize that they have to go back to a totally different setting for the rest of that year than they so enjoyed at camp. Seeing them again changed seeing how they have grown spiritually is such a comfort! God promises to keep those He has saved to the end and this is true no matter what the situation may be. With this in mind you do not know when God is working and how He will use one week or even just simple acts of love. Mr. Craven often reminded us during the summer and this is so true no matter what you find yourself doing for the Lord:" Ministry"  is nothing more than loving people, and loving them enough to give them the truth of God's  Word."

 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.  He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.  In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.   In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.  Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
                                                                                                             
                                                                                                             1 John 4:7-11

Jr. Week

Our third week was Jr. Week and I had the joy and opportunity to counsel a cabin of ten girls with Angela! We really enjoyed working together and were so grateful for such a neat experience! Our cabin was on the NAVY team-Captain Jones! The schedules shifted majorly and the program was very different and geared more toward the younger ages we would be working with the last two weeks of camp.  Daniel worked as a stretcher again, mowing grass, cleaning bathrooms and helping out all over. He also turned 18 that Monday and we sang to him more than once during the week!

Doing crafts....

The girls worked hard to pick this bouquet for Angela-she was a wonderful counselor and we all loved her!

A crazy hair challenge...;)

One of our games was a picture scavenger hunt....

Making a pyramid for the scavenger hunt game....

A picture with the Nurse

All of us holding Angela-our girls from right to left: Memphis, Kalina, Sarah, Jade, Sequoia (behind me), Abi, Zoe, Sydney, Lydia, Serenna...

We had the carnival again this year! On the last day of the week the carnival runs for a few hours and everyone gets to come, stop work and enjoy it, staff and campers! Here Daniel Shamblin and I were in the sponge throw! The campers loved this game!!

Daniel had his table again this year which the campers really enjoyed!

Getting an apple....

More opportunity to throw sponges at some faces while Angela snacks on her apple...

Peter and Missy trying out the sumo wrestling!;) It's because of their hard work and planning that the fun carnival is possible!

Skylar, one of our guy campers trying out the mine jump...

 Daniel Shamblin doing the midget skit....

 Angela's pet sitting business was a very loved skit in which the owner tells her not to pet or touch the dog. When she accidentally does, the dog chases her as she screams her head off and at the end the dog catches up and says, "Tag! You're it!"

 Mr. Craven and Daniel Shamblin doing the mechanical cowboy skit-they both did a great job!!

 Giving Daniel his birthday cake during the busy schedule of camp. (The guy beside him is a fellow stretcher from last summer named Johnny and their stretcher counselor Jonathan. )

Nicole and Jonathan testing the bake-off results....this cabin put a bit too much baking powder but it beat the other cabins' which had three huge spoonfuls of salt in it mistaken for sugar!

Angela and I hiding during a game of hide-n-seek in the bear box which is the "trash bin" here, waiting for our campers to find us!

   One of the biggest things the Lord used Angela to encourage me in was taking time each day to be alone with the Him, talk to Him and read His Word. This can be so easy to skip over, it seems, when you're busy "ministering and serving the Lord" and yet how vital it really is. How can we be serving someone if we have no time for them? How can we really know what He wants, expects and desires for our lives if we are too busy for Him? You will never be able to know the great treasures He has in store for you if you never look to Him to know Him better!

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who trusts in Him! Oh, fear the Lord, you His saints! There is no want to those who fear Him. The young lions lack and suffer hunger;
But those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.
                                                                                              Psalm 34:8-10

For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
                    Hebrews 4:12

Jr. High Week

Jr. High week was up next! The Lord blessed us with a lot of extra help that week and so the Cravens asked me to be the videographer/photographer for the week!! This was a very fun opportunity and I really enjoyed being able to be so involved in all the activities for the campers that week. Daniel began his first week as a stretcher and shared a cabin with 4 other stretcher guys and a counselor. He was on a different schedule so we saw little of each other, other than mealtimes and occasionally when the stretcher guys were required to help with games and activities. It was another very good but busy week with the same activities and schedule as Sr. High Week!

 Morning session with Mr. Craven speaking on wisdom.....

 Emma's cabin ready for a great day!

Lining up for flag raising and breakfast!

 Campers raising the American flag....

 Angela's cabin enjoying one of our many delicious meals....

 Daniel and Dakota Craven having fun at the stretchers' table....

 A game of human stratego out in the woods.;) This was a new game and the campers really enjoyed it!

 Listening to Jonathan, the game guy, explain the rules for WaterBoy....

 "Don't worry the water's warm and you don't get very wet."-Mr. Craven ;)

 Slingshot Baseball, a game that required some stretching time for the stretchers!;) The guys holding the slingshot are all stretchers except for the guy on the left in the blue hoodie-Jake who was their counselor.

 BigBall Volleyball.

"Nurse" and Zoey playing music during some free time...

 Our kitchen staff and stretcher girls....

 Devotional time...

 Nathanael took his cabin out to the big tires for devotions here...

 The campers studied the life of Joseph over the week and how God was working all things in His life together for good.

 Some of the NAVY guys competing in archery against a ARMY girls' cabin. Competition is a big part of the program here. Some benefits to having it in the program are that it helps build character, promotes cabin unity, and gives the campers something to work towards. All week the campers are involved in games and challenges, and Bible memorization goals, in which they have opportunity to win points for their team.

 Emma, Mr. Thompson (the Cravens Grandpa) and I playing Brethren We Have Met To Worship as a special....

Another challenge....a bake-off in which the campers could only choose and mix ingredients by sight and smell-no tasting or communicating was allowed.

 

We were really grateful for another eventful week! Only the Lord knows what things were happening in the campers hearts and how He was working. It is our job to leave that up to Him and faithfully love and serve people by telling them the truth. Do we trust His sovereignty to save those He loves more than you or I ever could? How grateful we should be as we recognize God doesn't need us, but He chooses to work in and though our lives because He loves us...and because He wants to, for His own glory!!

 

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

                                                                                                                            Ephesians 2:8-10