Every morning at camp I got up earlier than the girls to get myself ready and then when it was time for them to get up I started playing Christian music. Slowly they would start waking up, but a few times I would have to go over and rub the girls' backs and say good morning and tell them it was time to "Rise and Shine". Eventually the girls would get ready and then we would clean up the room. Each church was assigned to clean a certain common area every day. Also each room / cabin was inspected during morning chapel to see who would win the title of cleanest room / cabin for that day.
Each church was also assigned to helping out with a certain aspect of Kitchen Duty. We didn't have our first assignment until lunch time on the second day. The food at camp was amazing and the people that planned and cooked everything were such wonderful, godly people. I had many great conversations with them since the staircase from our room led us right down into the area outside the kitchen.
Every day after breakfast the leaders had a meeting in the Leaders Lounge that was right behind Town Square. This was just a big room with chairs and couches for us leaders to go hang out when we needed to have a breather. It was stocked with all sorts of yummy things both food and drink wise. I don't think I ever really went in there to have a breather during the week. I did lay down in my bed once to just chill out for a minute though.
During our Leaders Meeting every morning I tasked the girls with cleaning the common area that was assigned to us....the two bathrooms that were on the first floor of Town Square. The Leaders Lounge was right outside from the door that led into Town Square and the bathrooms were just inside that door. Once the meeting was over I would head into the bathroom to check out their work and every day I was so impressed. Even other leaders would say how amazing the bathroom looked after our girls cleaned it. The guys were assigned to clean up the field which they did right after breakfast.
Once the meeting was over which it usually ran long we would head over for morning chapel. The entrance to the chapel building was right behind the tent area in the first picture of this post. The students were always so excited for chapel they would just gather outside the door waiting for it to open. Morning chapel was much shorter than evening chapel. We would listen to announcements, watch a video of the day before, have praise and worship and then there'd be breakout devotions with your group. Our group met in the Leader Lounge during that time.
These schedules were posted all over camp so you could check and see what was going on. Of course times were adjusted if things ran over which sometimes they did. I really loved the pace of camp. They had a framework, but they also let the Spirit move and if that meant that something got pushed back then so be it. They also had night games planned every night, however, they didn't list those on the schedule because they knew if the Holy Spirit was moving they were not going to be putting a stop to that to go play night games.
The first day of camp Color Wars wasn't until the afternoon and that's why it was so incredibly hot. All the other days Color Wars happened in the morning prior to lunchtime so it wasn't so hot outside which was so nice for the person wearing the inflatable mascot costume. For the second day Andrew was the unicorn!
This particular competition was a relay race and it was VERY confusing. Melissa was the sweetest lady. She was in charge of the games but for some reason this game was very hard for everyone to understand. She explained it multiple times and even after that we were all like..."huh?" So she decided to do a run through and that did help some.
We had to have students stations at different areas of the course. The girls decided to take the last portion of the race so they were strategizing.
Matthew, Stephen and I were just happy to get to chill out on the sidelines.
Caitlynn was at the start of the race for us. She had to hop over to the next station.
Which was where Lucas was waiting. Then Lucas had to hop over to the next station.
Which is where Josiah, Zeke and Jack were waiting. Each of these guys had to take turns running over to a Bible and looking up a certain Scripture verse. After one of them found it they had to race over and tag the other person until all 3 of them found the verses.
Once all the verses had been found then the ladies were able to do their part which was going through an obstacle while keeping a bear off the ground by holding onto these ropes. After they went through the course they were able to run back to the starting line. The girls did drop the bear and run, but that wasn't held against them since that information wasn't clearly stated. We ended up getting first place even though another team thought they won. A first place win gave our team 2000 points! There were lots of different ways to earn points during the week at camp. Coming in 1st, 2nd or 3rd at a game, memorizing Scripture, acquiring bead necklaces and finding mini Jesus'...I'll talk more about that on my Day 3 post coming up.
I completely forgot I took a video of the whole race. Sue is the one that walks by with the fairy wings....I love Sue she was so amazing! If you had any sort of question you could always go to Sue. Truly everyone that put on this camp was top notch and they have such a heart for the youth of this generation.
Once Color Wars was over there was usually a little bit of free time and then we'd had lunch. Our kitchen duty assignment that day was to help with the clean up of lunch we that meant that we got to be first in line to eat. Clean up duty involved emptying the garbage, bringing all the dishes into the kitchen and washing them, washing down the tables, refilling the water and lemonade, sweeping around the food line and under the tables. Our students were so eager to volunteer whenever the kitchen crew said who would like to do this job. They would raise their hands and get to work. The kitchen folks were so so thankful for their hard work.
The time between lunch and dinner was the largest amount of free time. The youth could choose from so many things to do...this was time that the inflatable waterslides were set up. There was a rock wall they could climb. The snack shack was open. There was also all the sports options...basketball, gaga ball, volleyball, carpet ball, ping pong, pool and foosball. At the back of the property there was a zipline and then a bb gun shooting range that also had archery. These kids had no reason to be bored...that's for sure!
One thing that I wasn't sure about at first was the camps decision to allow cellphones. In one of the leaders meetings prior to camp, the director, Noma, talked about how she didn't want any youth to decide not to come because they couldn't have their phone. There were even some parents that had expressed concerns about allowing their kids to come if they couldn't have their phone. Also Noma's thought was that the youth of this generation are going to go out and get jobs and their bosses aren't going to have them turn in their phones or leave them at home. They are going to have to learn to deal with the real world and self monitor themselves and their phone usage. There were a few parents from our youth group that chose to have their kids leave their phones at home; the parents did have my cellphone number so they could reach out to their kids through me, but overall it wasn't an issue. I also can't say that I saw a bunch of kids on their phones. There was honestly so much going on it seemed to me that they were wanting to be present in the moment enjoying themselves.
Ella and a few other girls went out to shoot bb guns and do archery. I tried the archery, but I was terrible at it and my fingers were sore after just doing it a few times. I was better at shooting the bb gun. Ella was really good at it!
At one point we ended up back in our room and we taught Lina how to play the game Trash. She loved it!
I spent a lot of my free time memorizing Scripture with the girls that wanted to so I didn't go out and get pictures of the kids playing on the field. The camp had a lot to do and there was a lot of space, but at the same time it was all easily accessible so I never felt I had to keep tabs on our kids 24/7.
One of the crazy things that happened during free time on this day was when I got a text from my best friend Kim. She and her husband were in Hawaii while all of their kids were with us at camp. There had been an earthquake in Russia so they issued a tsunami warning in Hawaii. They were planning to head for higher ground because they had no idea how bad it was going to be. Of course this is was just weeks after the devastating flooding in Texas so it seemed only natural to take things seriously. She told me to hug her kids and tell them she loved them.
It was so freaky to know that something was coming, not know how bad it was going to be, and also not be able to do anything about it. Of course I started praying right away. That's when I also realized that we were out on the peninsula which is a lot closer than we normally are to the Pacific Ocean. I actually had no idea how far from the water we actually were and with the tragedy in Texas happening during a summer camp I wasn't going to take any chances. I figured this would be good information to pass along to the someone in charge so I ran and found Sue and gave her this information and she said she'd look into it.
Thankfully we were far enough away from the water, but the leadership at camp did take it seriously and was monitoring the situation. An email was sent out to parents letting them know we were keeping an eye on the situation and we were ready to move further inland if the situation called for it. We did not let the kids know that anything was going on...we wanted them to still be present in the situation and not overly worry. There honestly was nothing they could do at that moment. I did let Kim's kids know in very simple explanation what was happening and what their parents were doing and that they loved them. After that it was just a wait and see situation.
After dinner it was time for night chapel. This was the one that lasted for hours, but honestly felt like it was only an hour long. Pastor Dan spoke each night and he was so great. Even though he's up there in years he has this way with connecting with the youth that was so wonderfully simple really. I really enjoyed his preaching!
At the beginning of night chapel they always started out with a game. Then there were some announcements....one of which was who won the cleanest cabin / room that morning. We didn't win that first day and we were bummed, but we were determined to do better the next day.
The worship was amazing....super loud at times, but amazing. It was a youth camp though so that's to be expected! It was about this time that Ella got a headache and started not feeling well. She asked to go back to the room to rest and see if she could get rid of her headache. On our way back to the room I stopped by the kitchen and got her a bowl since usually when Ella gets a headache that means she throws up. I stayed with her and Pastor Tim kept an eye on all the other youth.
While I was laying in bed keeping and eye on Ella I was texting back and forth with Kim. It was around 10:30 our time when she said the first wave was supposed to hit and nothing had come. It was so good to hear that. They had actually decided to shelter in place because traffic was so bad on the island people weren't getting anywhere. They were on the 13th floor of their hotel so they weren't in any danger at that height. They also had a view of the water so they'd be able to see if the water was being pulled out.
When the girls got back to the room, I was able to talk to them about what had happened. A few of them were a little upset that we hadn't mentioned anything earlier, but I explained that they couldn't have done anything about it and it we didn't want to needlessly worry them. Ella had fallen asleep prior to the rest of the girls coming back from chapel. I was hoping that was all she needed, but unfortunately that wasn't the case!
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