Squirt & Family Camp Highlights
Hi Everyone,
First of all, I apologize that this update has come out a day later than normal. The Squirt campers required all hands on deck and I was barely in the office yesterday to do anything. And by the time we sent these bundles of unending energy home, everyone here was just exhausted!
It was a great half week with the Squirt campers. The campers had so much fun and the cabin leaders did an amazing job working with these little guys. They take their time to get anywhere and get things done because everything side-tracks them so trying to move 10 or 115 of them to a skill or camp-wide activity required much patience. "Hurry" is not a word they understand unless it was for tuck time or to play with the kittens! As I might have mentioned in last week's update, these campers don't pick skills but get to try most of the skills around camp and go as a consistent group to each activity with their leader. Yesterday, as I'm sure it was everywhere, was super hot and so we had Russ Harris out with a garden hose at the field and every group that wasn't already at a water activity was required to get sprayed down several times each skill period. I'm not sure who had more fun with that - Russ or the kids as they tried to tease and dodge him! Although there were several campers who were sad and had a hard time the first night, we only had one camper go home because of homesickness and unfortunately we had another go home because of physical sickness Thursday evening.
Margaret Simpson, our speaker for the week, did an amazing job with these campers. She had the campers and staff do sword drills and some of the campers beat the staff even! One of my requests of the speakers, besides sharing the Gospel message, was that they get the campers to actually use their Bibles in chapel. Well Margaret did an amazing job at that. Each session she would recap the sessions previous to make sure the campers were paying attention and remembered what she was talking about. And she always ended each session with an invitation to accept Jesus into their hearts. Her daughter Stephanie also helped her with her many props and handing out candy to the campers or staff who helped her or were to first to find the sword drill Bible verse - a definite highlight for some in chapel! Because of God's faithfulness, and the ministry of Margaret and the cabin leaders, we had 27 campers make first time commitments and 3 recommitments! Praise the Lord. Pray for these tender hearts, that the seed that was planted this week would have ample opportunities to continue growing as they go home.
FAMILY CAMP
It seems so long ago now but Family camp went very well on the long weekend. The families seemed to have a lot of fun and many said that they really look forward to this weekend every year. Wes Dobson, our speaker, really connected with the adults as he spoke on lessons from Proverbs. I wasn't in those sessions as I and Hannah Ukrainetz led the children's times - we had 25 kids between the ages of 3-11 and several 12-14 year olds snuck in as well! Considering that we only had about 60 people registered, we had half the camp with us during those times! Doug brought out the Stoney Train after meals, and it was a definite highlight of kids and parents alike - and I think for Doug as well! Several of the kids just had to bat their eyes at Doug and he was running for that train! The train was built by board member, Larry Ruten, and it has been a hit by all ages!
Camp Needs
We are needing soup bowls! The Corelle kind & size are preferred but if you have other regular sized soup bowls that could be donated to the camp, we would be very appreciative. Over the summers, these seem to be the dish that gets dropped the most by campers and so we're running low especially during our bigger camps. Please call the camp for more details or to let us know that you have some.