Firm Mattress (The name of my cabin this week...)

Sunday afternoon the kids for the mini camp showed up. I was teamed up with Kendra to have a cabin along with two JS, Kim and Lauren. I was really excited because this was my first cabin of typical children this summer. We had 7 girls in our cabin. When they got here on Sunday we had supper and then we played a game called Eagle's Eggs. It is similar to capture the flag, but a little different twist to it. There are two teams with a center line. On the back boundary line there is a hula-hoop which we call the eagle's nest and in the hula-hoop there are three swimming footballs that we call the eagle's eggs. The teams can cross the line, but if they get tagged they have to sit on the ground where they got tagged and wait to be saved. In order to be saved a person from their team must make it to them safely and tag them then the two must skip back across to their side of the field. The goal is to get the eggs from the opposing teams' nest into your nest. Then we had a campfire with a great message by Steven. Our theme is alive and he did his message on us being like a tree. Trees need wind in order to grow bigger and stronger and we need God to grow stronger in our faith. Then we went to our cabin and had candle power. We talked about the campfire and our days. It was pretty fun listening to the girls' thoughts.

Monday our girls woke up earlier than we had planned so we went on a nature walk before breakfast which ended up being really fun. We stopped by the lake and just watched it blow in the wind before we headed up the hill to breakfast. Then we had Chapel and Kade gave a message that was relating the Avengers working as a team to Christians working as a body of Christ. Then the kids got to go to a "you pick it" (YPI). Some of the staff are assigned to do one of their YPI ideas and the kids get to do what they choose at this time. After that the kids played some games with the JS. Then it was lunch time and after lunch time for a little nap. After the nap we got to go to Trading Post for a snack and then we went to waterfront. I had a good time at waterfront swimming with some of my girls. Then supper and a night game of Counselor Hunt. This is a game in the woods where the counselors hide in  the forest and the kids try to find them and get their signature. It wasn't really dark so it wasn't that bad for the kids to walk through the forest. I found a tree that I climbed up and it was actually pretty fun. I happen to be reading The Hunger Games right now and as I sat there I thought about the main character, Katniss, who sits in a tree during the games and uses a belt to keep her from falling while she slept. While I was there and waiting for kids to find me I was reading my book and thought that it would be a great reading nook. I will be going back there more often to climb the tree and just read while I am sitting there enjoying the forest. Then we had another campfire where LeAnn did the message. She did a very good job with designed a skit to go with the message she was teaching. Then we had the long trek back to our cabins and it was really neat because the fireflys were out and the moon was lighting our path. We did candle power again and then sang a few camp songs before going to bed.

This is where we did our bible studies.

Today our girls weren't wanting to get out of bed so we didn't get to go on a walk or play any games before breakfast. We brought them up to sing some songs with the JS before breakfast. Then we had chapel where Marty did the message. It was about us being like a cup. We can have things fill us up but then it can just be poured out. And if we get broken we are just pieces and not one piece is better than the other because not one piece could do the job that the cup did. Then we had a bible study with the girls before we headed to lunch. The families that picked up the kids came for lunch and then they were off for home.

Tonight we have training for the last week of His Kids and tomorrow the campers will arrive to enjoy their time here at camp.

~ Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to Him as an instrument of righteousness. - Romans 6:13