Youth week at Camp Lakeside

Holy Toledo this was a tough tough week at camp. We had more youth here this week, than the camp has seen in the last 2 years combined! All together we had 38 kids!!! Most of the kids that were there this week have been coming to camp for 4 or 5 years, and apparently the camp has made some dramatic changes--changes that those kids don't like. So it was tough dealing with kids who were used to getting away with things that we were told not to let them get away with, and on top of that, they were just plain rowdy.

I'm mostly talking about the boys, by the way. They were crazy, and they liked to have fun. I like to have fun, but jumping off of the roof of the pavilion does not sound like fun to me. Once again, I was known as the mean counselor to a lot of these boys simply because I wouldn't let them do what they wanted to do (like talk during worship, hit other people, throw rocks, stick shaving cream in people's ears, and throw people into the pool). Some of the boys even said that they hated camp because the counselors never let them have any fun. Oh well. It's not all about having fun, it's about praising God. Yes we do have fun while we worship, but it shouldn't be all about having fun. God deserves all the glory!

We had a group of about 12 kids from a local church come this week and they were ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!! They showed us all the respect that we asked for and more. They set such a good example for the crazier kids--in fact, there were a few times that they calmed the others down. They loved to worship, they loved to sing, they loved performing the skits, and they just absolutely melted my heart with their kindness. I think had they not been there, the crazy boys would have driven me into madness!

The girls were a different story. They were so sweet and so caring. I have ZERO complaints about our girls. Holy moly they were wonderful! We started with 6 girls in my cabin, but one of them got hurt and decided to go home early, and her cousin who was also in our cabin left with her. So we ended up with four for the week. But then, in the evenings, two of our girls had softball games and practices that they couldn't miss, so for a few hours each days we only had 2 girls to take care of. But all of them were so sweet and kind and FUNNY!!! The last night we just went stupid and started getting "ghetto" and then we were indians. And then we were ghetto indians. "Oh no you dinnet, guh. HOW"

We did the messy games again and it was extremely messy this time. we added raw eggs to almost every event just to make it gross. And the funny thing is that it was so hot outside that by the time we were done with the games, most of the eggs had started to cook. :) it was cool. This week we also had shaving cream wars and water balloon wars. And the counselors all creamed the kids in a water balloon ambush on the last night. We were a little cruel and bought a huge water gun and filled it with ICE water! ooh it was so fun!

Overall, it was really an AMAZING camp experience. It was tough and it definitely tried my patience, but it was great. I'm so glad that youth week is just before my week long break! Now I have a full week to recuperate before we go back for another week of 2nd grade through 6th grade. Then the week after that is day camp and the evenings will be just me, the counselors, and the swimming pool! I can't wait!