Camp Week 2

Oh my word. I thought last week was exhausting, but this week took the cake. We had 25 children, ages 9-16, with hormones and attitudes, and above all, wonderful, fun-loving spirits. They were definitely a handfull at times, but so funny and sweet (usually). Most of them had been to Camp Lakeside before, so they thought they had precedence over the other campers (and the new counselors, sometimes), but I managed to nip that in the bud. It's amazing what one phrase will do a child's attitude: "5 minutes out of pool time." I hate to say that I became known as the mean counselor, but I really got sick of ungrateful attitudes and back talking. Now I know how mom felt when I was that age.


Speaking of bad attitudes, there was something off about this week. I had the worst attitude in the world for the first half of the week and I couldn't figure out why. I was cranky, I snapped at my coworkers and some of the campers, and I felt horrible about it. So I prayed. Sadly it was the last night of the week with the campers that I finally asked God what was going on in my life. I think it was just that I wasn't surrendering myself to Him. I was taking too much control and it was blowing up in my face. But anyway, the campers all gave me a BIG hug before they left and told me they loved me.

Monday we all got to know each other and played a LOT of really fun games. We had a lot of kids whose names were similar, so learning names was difficult. T.J., J.C. (John Cody), Cody, Carrie. We had a Hannah who looked like a Morgan, and a Morgan who looked like a Mona, and Magen, who was just out there. LOL. It was difficult. Then we all painted ceramic crosses and they were fired up and made shiny and pretty. The kids really loved that.





Wednesday we played Messy Games, which was really gross. Ingredients for messy games included: peanut butter, jelly, sardines, vinegar, hot sauce, SPAM, poopy diapers (chocolate pudding and raw egg mashed together in a diaper which was then smashed in someone's face.) It was gross.













these were quite possibly the FOULEST shirts EVER in the whole wide world. soaked for hours in a combination of vinegar, hotsauce, molasses, tartar sauce, and sardine juice. YUCK!!!





clean up for the messy games was just as fun as the games themselves!!! We showered everyone with the water hose!!!


Thursday was the Talent Show, which was so wonderful. And yet so sad, because we had to say goodbye to our campers. :( but they all did a wonderful job. And we truly had a WONDERFUL week!!!








We had 2 campers get saved this week. They absolutely MELTED MY HEART!!!
T.J. got saved Tuesday night, after we talked about prayer. He didn't tell anyone, though. We do weekly surveys that the kids fill out and the first question was What did you like best about camp? T.J.'s answer: "the counselors were cool and I got saved." We talked to him about it, and he understood everything about what it means to be saved. We rejoiced so much with him. He announced it at evening worship on Thursday night in front of all of the camp, and most of the campers' parents. (I wish I had a picture of him to show you)


LeeAnn was in my cabin, and such a sweet sweet girl. At the invitation at the end of evening worship, she broke down in tears saying she needed Jesus. Me and Brie (the counselor in the cabin) prayed with her and her life changed for forever. Emily said that when LeeAnn walked out of the room after her prayer, she could tell that LeeAnn was full of the Holy Spirit. Her face just GLOWED. Not long after T.J.'s announcement to the world, LeeAnn stepped on stage and said "I have Jesus" and the whole room burst out with applause and screaming and jumping for joy. It was wonderful.


At the end of the night, all of the counselors piled into a car and rode 20 minutes to Grenada for some pizza. What a perfect way to end to the week!!!!