Friday, July 31, 2009

Kids Camp 2009


On the way up to camp we stop by a free swimming pool. Okay so it's not really a pool but it kind of is. They made this huge pool like thing in the middle of a stream. The water in it is from the stream and then it drains off at the other end. It's kind of hard to explain, but if you look at the picture you might get the point.



The first evening the kids customized their own backpacks for their swim gear. Since swimming is something we do every day one of our counselors had this brilliant idea that we needed to give them something better than the plastic bags we used last year to help keep their stuff together. It really did work sooo much better.



Yohn is the one who puts together the theme and the messages. This year's theme was Transformers - Faith is More Than Meets the Eye. He also organizes the schedule, makes phone calls to the different places, etc. He basically is the one responsible for putting the camp together.


With the transformer theme the kids learned how to "transform" different parts of their body for God's use. Can you guess what this message was about?


On two of our four camp days we visit Whiskey Lake Reservoir. They have a great swim area with four or more lifeguards on duty. I didn't get a really good picture of the area but it was beautiful. If you look carefully you can see a floating barge thing in the middle of the water. The kids love to swim out there and jump off.


Ahh...breakfast the most important meal of the day. Thank you Kimberly for all the great food!

I thought this was a picture of worship time but normally they are standing up for that, so this might be announcements or just before worship or something. Anyway, you can see how we had the kids meet for their morning sessions.
Can you tell what David's message focused on?

This is an up close picture of that floaty thing with a lot of kids from our group hanging out on it (don't you love how well my camera can take pictures from a great distance?). In fact it might only have kids from our group on it in this picture. It was so funny when Pastor Gene was walking toward water so he could swim out to it. The kids were chanting "Pastor Gene, Pastor Gene!" That's one of our boys doing a flip by the way.


Yohn instructs the kids on how to do a belly flop the proper way. By the looks of it even he may not have done it properly.


There's a sand bar out in the middle that you can swim out to also. It's a long swim to get to it though, so you either have to be a strong swimmer, or you have to stop off at the barge halfway over and take a rest (that's what I have to do anyway). The kids love it on the sandbar too. I know the other shore seems kind of close in this picture but it really is a good twenty feet or more away.

Chef Yon makes an appearance every year at kids camp and the kids just love him.


He always whips up such "wonderful" things for them to eat. Can you imagine tasting that? You might not think the ingredients are so bad: spongecake, goober (peanut butter and jelly together in a jar), peaches, oreos, maple syrup and chocolate syrup, however, when mixed together the combo is a bit frightening, especially the way Chef Yon does it. At least he didn't use a dead fish like he did last year. Last we heard that meal killed someone!


See how all the eager suckers willing participants that raise their hands when Chef Yon offers a taste?


One of Chef Yon's lucky (or shall we say extremely un-lucky) taste testers.



I wasn't going to use this picture because it really didn't turn out the way I wanted it to but since I accidentally uploaded it there it is. This is Pastor Gene teaching on tranforming you hands to do God's work. A thank you to you too Gene. I don't think kids camp would be successful without you!


One final look at camp. It was a great four days spent with some great kids. But after those four days of them staying up late, sleeping in tents, worshiping, catching multiple lizards and frogs, doing crafts, playing messy games, taking no showers, swimming until they were exhausted, feeding them, listening to them ask when the next meal or snack is, torturing entertaining them with Chef Yon, teaching them how to let God transform them, praying over them, and "stuffing" them in cramped vehicles, we were very glad to give them back to their parents, transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit. The End!

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