Camp: What was great, what was difficult, what was disgusting!

Well, John and I got home late sunday night from going to camp with student ministries at Journey church. I just sat down with my cup of coffee to fill you in on all the details. After you read this you may say...really you had fun! Let me just first say, "yes, it was fun...well sort of"...just read below!

What was great:
1. The workout I got (camp was super hilly)
2. The worship, was really fabulous, the band was soooo goood!
3. The senior pastor and teaching pastor spoke 2 of the nights and were amazingly clear! I thought it was great that they took the time to write a great message, drive 3 hours to get to camp, turn around and go preach this weekend.
4. They should the camp video in the main service at church
5. The busses were super nice and none of them broke down! We also watched Aladdin on the way up.
6. The small groups curriculum, messages at night, and students quiet time all tied in together, what a concept.
7. The cabins were air conditioned!!
8. The students were great!

What was difficult:
1. Being away from my new husband at night
2. SOOOOOO many bugs! I only got one bite some how, but I smelled like bug spray all week.
3. It was like 90 degrees and humid
4. I had 6th graders, which was great, but my patience was for sure tested
5. The fact that we had 6th grade (elementary), 7th/8th (junior high), and 9th-12th (high school students) WAAAYYY to big of gap.
6. Lights out was like 1am...way too late for 10 year olds and wake up was 645am for counselors
7. Small group and quiet time curriculum was great for juniors and seniors, way too long and difficult for everyone else
8. The competition, for whatever reason the teams wer high school against JH and Elementary. Surprisingly the young team won most of the games and won in the end, but the trash talk the HS students said to the young kids was uncalled for and really hard to control.
9. The time things were supposed to start/end was way off so the students were hanging out a lot.
10. There was no maltshop/inside place for students to hang out and play cards during freetime. They had a snack booth, where students could buy chips and soda and stuff. John and I found ourselves saying we missed Thousand pines a lot!
11. Free time activities were, swim in a 50 degree pool, play mini golf, play tennis, hang out in cabin (only if leader was there), or play a organized game on the upper field.
12. It was really hard to be at camp and not know many counselors, not be on staff, and not know many kids. I kept thinking I was seeing students from Saddleback. I saw Kyle Smith, the triplet to the Aungst twins, and Julia Petit, not really, but they sure looked alike!

What was disgusting:
1. 1st competition day:
a. game 1: syrup relay, students drink syrup, run to the other end and spit in cup, run back tag the next person. The
at the end of the game the leader (me) could have the option to drink the large cup for 2500 extra points. Yeah right,
I'm not doing that!

b. game 2: chocolate relay, students are carried by there leaders to a midpoint chocolate pool have to be dunked in and
carried the rest of the way. This one wasn't that disgusting, but I was exhausted by the end!

c. game 3: This one gets the prize! Bobbing for donuts, seems ok, in a pool of mustard, catchup, and mayo. SICK!!!

d. game 4: we actually didn't get the play it (thank goodness) all I know is it involved a kiddy pool of HAIR, yes HAIR!!
2. Camp food: Ok I use to think Thousand Pines was bad, HA, that is gourmet compared to this. I will give you some of the menu

Dinner: Rubber pork chops with potatoes and melted ice cream bar for desert
Lunch: Tuna cassarole (it was so gross)
Breakfast: 1 cold hard boiled egg, 1 tiny not fully cooked blueberry muffin, and a cup of apple sauce (REALLY!!!)

3. ok this actually made me almost throw up: we all know there is so much lost and found things at camp, well in order for students to pay attention to their belongings, they have whats called the "Cauldron of Consequences" students who stuff is found must pick out a card from a bucket to see their consequences, here's what they could have grabbed:

spell camp with their behind (funny)
eat and onion
or eat someone elses booger (spell?>) are you kiddding me, it was so gross!!!


Well, I hope that keeps you up to date with us, we did have fun, it was just different for us both!