Monday, June 24 -- Special Person's Overnight Camp

Monday's theme was "Jesus changes our lives." We had a normal schedule in the morning; we started with morning devotions and then ate breakfast. After breakfast, we had different crews -- KP clean up, crafts, and worship preparation. I worked with the group that had worship preparation that morning. We chose a few songs to fit with the theme, as well as some of the campers' favorite songs. A few other staff members and I also came up with the idea of giving them 1 or 2 songs to get up and dance, since a lot of them really love dancing. After worship preparation, it was time for morning worship, skits from the night before, and reviewing the lesson. I played piano for worship that morning, along with another staff member on guitar and one on ukulele. We chose songs that they would all know, along with ones with fun actions that would get them moving. Then, each group was given a few minutes to get their props and costumes together for their skits and then performed one group at a time. Since each group had a different story, they each got a different aspect of the theme for the previous day. Today's skits included the stories, "Zacchaeus," "Saul's Conversion," and "The True Vine." After the skits were presented, the campers were given a review session to quiz them on what the skits taught them. This was done in the form of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire," and there were some smaller prizes they could get if they answered a question right. I really liked this method of reviewing; it put it in a fun format for them, and they interacted with each other through the "phone a friend" option (there were 2 cordless phones they could give to a friend in the audience and talk to them about which answer is correct if they weren't sure). After the review session, we paired up with 2 staff members and 2 or 3 campers for a prayer time. We grouped them based on pictures they had colored the day before so that we could talk about each lesson before praying and put the campers with new people to interact with. It was a cool twist on prayer partners, and we encouraged the campers to pray if they wanted or offer ideas of what to pray for on that particular day.

After lunch that afternoon, the campers had a shortened rest time because of the special event for the day -- bowling! Each of the staff was paired with 1 or 2 campers to bowl together and ride together on the bus. It was fun to see how excited the campers were about bowling; for some of them, it was all they would talk about for the whole week leading up to going. My partner was especially excited by the end because when we had to stop our second game to go back to camp, she was beating me. (:  When we got back, there was a bit of free time before supper and then a worship service and study groups after lessons. I helped the group lead the worship service and played piano, and we even had one of the campers come up and lead the group in line-dancing. We also had a congo line around the room while the other 2 staff members and I played music for them to dance to. It was a really fun activity to add in, and I think they really enjoyed a chance to get up and move around during the service. I helped with the study about "the Pool of Bethseda" today, and we worked on our skit after we talked about the lesson with our group. After that, we had snack and campfire. The campfires were very fun this week; we chose a lot of upbeat songs with actions, and all of the campers sang very enthusiastically. Some of the campers even started their own songs, which was cool to see which were the favorites for the week.

Sunday, June 23 -- Special Person's Overnight Camp

Sunday morning was a new experience for the camp, even for the veteran staff members. Because the week started on Saturday for the campers, the whole camp attended church Sunday morning up the hill from camp. The directors gave an overview of what our week was to look like. Then, each group of campers performed the skit of their lesson the previous night and led the congregation in a favorite camp song. After the service, the campers were given the opportunity to socialize with the church members for a bit before heading back down to camp. Personally, I really enjoyed this service. It gave the church an opportunity to see a glimpse of what the camp is like, and I think the campers really enjoyed it as well for the most part. When we arrived back at camp, we took individual, crew, and whole group pictures with all of the campers so that the pictures could be developed on time to give them to each camper by the end of the week. After this, we ate lunch. At mealtimes, we made sure to have 3 staff and 3 campers at every table. The staff would then ask the camper what food he or she wanted and bring back a plate for the camper and him or herself. Some of the campers were on "special diets", which meant that they had food allergies or needed to watch intake of things like sugar, calories, etc. At the end of each meal, the directors would give final instructions about who was on kitchen clean-up duty (or KP) for that particular meal and then we would dismiss with a camp song.

After lunch, the campers had rest time. My co-intern and I had a group for recreation, so we set up for that during rest time. We ended up playing bocce ball with the campers, as well as options for a toss game, bubbles, and puzzles for any who didn't want to be as active. Some of the campers in the group were Special Olympians, and bocce is one of the events they compete in. They were really good, and it was fun to interact with them and hear them talk a little bit about their Special Olympics experience. While we had recreation, some campers had worship prep for the evening and the rest were in crafts.

I had my first experience leading a Bible lesson group Sunday evening. My group had the story of Saul's conversion, so I had looked over the lesson beforehand to get a few ideas for what I could do with it. However, I hadn't planned for the fact that a lot of my group was nonverbal. This was a completely new experience for me, and I'm very thankful for my co-leader, who jumped in several times when I needed help. It was really interesting for me to have this group, since I'll be a Speech-Language Pathologist by the time I'm out of college, but it also gave me a ton of respect for those who work with nonverbal people on a daily basis. It takes a lot of effort and a lot of close attention to the little cues they give --  a skill I am only starting to develop.

Tonight I was able to attend the staff meeting, which was really nice. We went over the list of the campers and discussed anything we had observed -- any good things we noticed or any challenges to work on as a staff. We also assigned jobs and talked about special events the next day. It was so great to have time as a collective staff to reflect on the day and talk about what we could do differently the next day. We had a really great staff, and it was awesome to spend some time with all of them together.  

Day 2 was also a good day; however after today, I was feeling quite a bit more tired and slightly overwhelmed by the challenges I knew I would face for the next few days.

Friday, June 21 and Saturday, June 22 -- Special Person's Overnight Camp

Special Person's Overnight Camp was probably the camp I was most nervous for. I had never worked at this camp or even visited, so I had not much of an idea of what to expect. I had heard many stories about how it was the most exhausting or how I wouldn't get much sleep, among other things. For those of you not familiar with this Camp Blessing camp, the campers are all special needs adults who spend a week overnight in the cabins. The goal is to teach them more about Jesus and the Christian faith, but the larger service is to give their caregivers a week off since they care for them every other week of the year. Like all other camps, the staff is completely volunteer-based. 

On Friday, all the staff arrived. We all ate supper and then met for a staff meeting about rules, suggestions, and how the week was to be run. The camp included staff from Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, California, Colorado, and New York, which is one of my favorite parts about camp -- it brings in people from all across the country. The theme for the week was "Following Jesus", and each day had a different theme phrase: "When we follow Jesus, he changes our hearts, changes our lives, helps us, and saves us." During this time, we also went over the list of campers and any important things to know about them, as well as procedures for bathing and grooming, as well as important health information. The directors gave all of us a packet including camper information, daily schedules, staff information, and explanations for different things during the week. After this, all of the study leaders and I all met to decide who would teach each lesson and who would pair together each day to help with the study groups.  

On Saturday, we had a bit of a set-back. The power went out during the night due to a car crash further down on the highway, so the camper arrival time was delayed several hours. Although this was disappointing, it also gave us a good amount of time to regroup, meet with the other staff to plan the day, look through the list of campers again, and finish anything that could be done ahead of time. 

The campers began to arrive around 1 pm, and the staff helped them get settled into their cabins and get their beds all set up. In my cabin, we had 3 staff and 5 campers. Overall, the camp included 19 campers total. Once everyone had arrived and was settled in, we had a short worship service and introduced the three work crews -- Grace, Peace, and Joy. These were to be their study groups, as well as craft and clean-up crews during the week. They met to talk about what makes each of them special, and they collectively made 2 goals for the rest of the week. They learned what the lesson was to be for the week and were given some free time before dinner. I took this time to wander through the campers and try to learn names. In the evening, I helped with the story about Jesus healing the 10 lepers. We taught the lesson and created a skit to perform the next day. We finished the day with snack and a campfire. I stayed in the cabin during the staff meeting, and it was a bit of a challenge to get the campers to go to sleep since they were all excited to be at camp and not super tired at this point in the week. 

My impressions after day one were pretty positive -- I enjoyed working with and talking to all of the campers. We had a great staff to work with, the day was very well organized, and we didn't have any major problems or set-backs so far. Overall, I was excited to see what the next day would bring. 

Saturday, June 8 -- Work Weekend

Day 2 of Work Weekend started out with a hearty breakfast -- the cooks have been excellent and spoil us with delicious food at every meal! I spent the morning organizing the music materials and writing up song sheets to replace the battered ones. Out at camp, we like to hold up posterboards with the lyrics to the worship songs on them, and now we have 52 song sheets all ready to go for the camp season. It was raining for most of the morning, so a lot of indoor tasks were accomplished while we waited for the rain to pass.

After lunch (which included the cook's to-die-for sweet potato pie - yyyuuummm) some headed outside and a few others headed into the kitchen to finish wiping down everything that hadn't been touched for 6 months. The pathway, which was all set and hardened, was edged with dirt so that grass can grow back around where it was dug out. Some of the dirt also went to leveling out where water typically collects so that it stays away from the building. I helped with raking up pine needles around all the cabins so that the siding doesn't get moldy and so that the campers aren't infested with woodticks and mosquitos. While raking, I found a new camp mascot -- a baby toad burrowed next to one of the girls' cabins. To any directors reading this: I'd like to request to be in the cabin with the toad by it so I can watch over my new little pet -- maybe I can feed it any bugs squished in the cabin (: Any name recommendations for the toad would also be gladly taken into consideration, hehe.

Overall, there was a ton of great things accomplished this weekend. Here's a list of the main things we did this weekend (I might be missing a few, so sorry if I forgot anyone's projects):
     - A beautiful concrete path from the main building to the gazebo
     - A fence put up along the retaining wall and building corner
     - Signs to direct cars to camp
     - Mulch ordered for the playground
     - New batteries put in the smoke detectors
     - Fan put in the mop closet
     - Dryer vent cleaned out
     - Pine needles and dirt rake away from sidings of the cabins
     - Cleaned the writing off the green girls' cabin
     - Worship songs cataloged
     - Game closet and craft room organized
     - Kitchen pantry wiped down and organized, expired food thrown out
     - Kitchen deep cleaned
     - Nurse's office restocked and organized

I feel so blessed to have been a part of this weekend. Even after going to camp for so many years, I never realized how much work is done beforehand and behind the scenes to make camp run smoothly. The people who were out here with me worked so incredibly hard and got so much accomplished. They did it all with such a joyful attitude and offered up their time, skills, and knowledge to make this camp a better and safer place for all the campers. I definitely would like to come back to help out in the years to come; it made me feel so great to be giving back to camp this weekend through time and effort. Thank you so much for the hard work that all of you gave this weekend; it will be greatly appreciated throughout the summer!

I'd like to end with Romans 12:1 -- "And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plea with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice -- the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship Him." (NLT) To summarize the message the director gave us Sunday at church, each of us has our own particular "sacrifice" we can give to worship God. This means our time, the talents and skills we have acquired and developed, and our willingness to serve, just to name a few things. The actions we take and the story our lives tell are a witness to others of how we devote ourselves to God and the calling He has given us. After working this weekend, I feel more convicted to try and use the skill sets and gifts God has given me to serve others and act in a way obedient to His will for my life. This is something I'll be including in my prayers -- for clarity in the direction my life should take; for an understanding of how God wants to use me and my talents; and for the joyful, hardworking attitude of a servant I saw displayed in everyone I worked with this weekend.

Thursday, June 6 and Friday, June 7 -- Work Weekend

My next camp after California was Work Weekend from June 6 - 8. I had never been to one of these camps before, so I wasn't sure what kinds of jobs to expect or how they'd use me with my lack of knowledge about tools and such.

Thursday night was the first night of the camp. We all had dinner, and all the jobs we wanted to accomplish were layed out on a big dry erase board for us so that we knew what we needed to be done. There was also quite a few areas of the main camp building that needed organizing in addition to all of the projects. That night, my grandma and I worked on organizing the song sheets. They're so nice to have all the music written, but they're in such a jumbled mess right now. We sorted through them to see what was salvageable and what needed to be recopied. We also discussed other ideas for formatting camp music so that it's most useable for both campers and directors. The two of us also decided on what needed to all be done in the building and what would be practical to accomplish over the time we were out there. 

On Friday, we started working right away after breakfast. Some of the main tasks focused on were the smoke detectors and ventilation in the broom closet, constructing a pathway to the gazebo, putting up a fence around the retaining walls, and other organzational jobs. I worked on organizing the game closet in the main building (quick note to any campers reading this: it looks so nice and orderly right now, so pretty please try and keep it that way! Hehe). In the afternoon, I was given a lesson on how to use a ratchet and crescent wrench (look at my use of terminology -- I learned something new today!) and helped to pass tools along and tighten the bolts holding the fence in place. I also helped the others shovel in place the product that was to make up the concrete pathway from the building to the gazebo. Mainly, I was just glad to fill in odds and ends where I was needed and learned a few things along the way as I worked. Everyone out here works so hard and has such a good knowledge base to work from. They have so many great ideas about how to make camp better, and I really am enjoying being with this group. I ended my first full day of work feeling very productive!

Monday, May 27 and Tuesday, May 28 -- California Camp

Monday morning was breakfast and cleaning up the camp. From there, my family and I drove with one of the families from the area to visit more of their family and go to the beach. They were so incredibly hospitable , and we were so thankful to be welcomed into their home and for their thoughtfulness in making sure all of us had an enjoyable day. We went to the beach, which was so beautiful! I had never been to the ocean before. The water was freezing, but it was still so much fun to swim around with the other teens that were with us. From there, we went to a pool -- it was really windy out, so we didn't stay in the ocean for more than 20 minutes. Again, I am so thankful for the people who made our day so awesome -- we all had so much fun swimming and fellowshipping with everyone who was with!

On Tuesday, we packed up our stuff and finished whatever odds and ends we had left to do around camp. In the afternoon, we went bowling with a lot of the teens -- I'm pretty terrible, but it was tons of fun. From there, we had dinner at one of their homes and said goodbye to everyone before we left. We were driven to the airport for our flight, which left at midnight. Goodbye to California, and back to the Midwest for us. 

I'd just like to add a huge thank-you for everyone who provided for us and helped us over the five days we were there. I learned so much about what it means to be a servant from all of them; they were so filled with joy to help both us and each other, and I definitely aspire to be more like that as my summer progresses.

PS -- to anyone from CA reading this: yes, my sunburn did finally turn into a tan! (:

Sunday, May 26 -- California Camp

We started out this morning with worship -- the song "10,000 Reasons" by Matt Redman is a favorite out here. I love the words to this song, and it's pretty simple so hopefully we can introduce it to one or two of the Wisconsin camps. I think this group of people sings louder than any other camp I've been at, which is absolutely wonderful for me and my fellow worship leader. During work crews, I worked with 4 of the kids/teens to come up with a skit about the day's theme -- "Keeping in touch with God." We ended up putting together our own version of Family Feud for a fun way to present our ideas for how and how not to communicate with God.
      Survey says:  prayer, reading your Bible, fellowship, worship, going to Church
      A few answers that weren't accepted: Facebook, Skype, SnapChat or Instagram, texting, and putting    
              God on your phone's speed dial

During today's study, I sat in with the teen group. We discussed prayer, and the study leader gave them an acronym to remember what to pray for, as well as verses to go along with it. Here's the acronym, along with a very brief description of what we talked about.
     P= praise; we should praise and thank God for all the blessings during our day
     R= repent; acknowledge your sins and ask for God's forgiveness
     A= ask; ask sincerely for what you think you need, and ask for others in your life as well.
     Y= yield; submit to God's will for your life, and ask Him to use you to yield good fruit in your life
I really like this acronym; I think it's a great reminder because all too often I focus too much on the "asking" while it should only be a portion of my daily prayers. There is so much to thank God for each day, and by following this model or similar ones in the past, I have noticed that with the "praise" first I spend so much time on the positives that happen each day and become much more conscious of all that is good in my life.

In the second half of the study time, we worked on Cardboard Testimonies. For those of you who haven't seen these done, here's the basic concept. Each person gets a small piece of cardboard, which is chosen as a material because it represents humility. On the front side, a short message about a struggle we've faced is written. On the back, we write how God has helped us through it. There is no talking; we simply present the written words to speak for themselves. I've done this activity before, and it always amazes me how you can never judge a person by how they appear on the surface. Everyone has some amount of hurt inside -- some more than others -- and faith is what gets each of us through our trials. Without faith, our struggles would seem so hopeless, but when we trust in God, it is clear that he never gives us more than we can handle at a given time. We presented these at night along to the song, "How He Loves" by David Crowder Band.

One of the things I have enjoyed the most about being out here is the fellowship with such great people. Each of them has such unique experiences, and there is such room for growth and new perspectives in interacting with all of them. All of us just enjoy our time together when with each other, regardless of what we're doing. I was glad to be able to get to know many of the teens better, as well as some girl bonding time in the tent later that night (: