Camp Diary.....

I remember a lot of fun things about church camp from my childhood:  wondering around from activity to activity during free time, racing to be first in the lunch line, eating a whole pack of skittles and a can of cherry coke all at the same time (every night), and being dead dog tired after a week of meeting new friends! Well, this past month I went to church camp again - for the first time in 10+ years. Besides the fact that I went as a chaperone, surprisingly not that much has changed. Although, I didn't eat a whole pack of skittle and a can of cherry coke together. :)

I did meet some new friends. I got to know a bunch of the kids in my youth group a lot better and I enjoyed talking with the other woman counselor about "life". I also wondered from activity to activity during free time....mainly so I could find all the kids in my group and hang out with them, but it was still fun. I tried a whole bunch of new things - horse back riding, scaling a climbing wall, going on a zip line, and swimming in a lake! I was not brave enough to jump off the blob, basically because I value my spine's poor but ok alignment too much, but I sure felt proud about the new things that I did try.

Of course, being an adult chaperone this time meant that many experiences of camp were quite different. First of all, I was completely and totally grossed out by the room in which I slept. I remember some pretty rustic rooms at Twin Pines Camp, but nothing like this. I had to kill a humungous spider the first night (at 2AM), wipe up puddles of water off of the bathroom floor, smell rotten sulfer ever time we flushed the toilet or used the shower, and convince the girls that if they didn't pick-up at least half of their suitcase contents off of the floor, more spiders would come to visit us. I am led to believe that the rooms at TP were at least a little nicer, but I think the main difference was me. I just don't like to live in the middle of a mess of clothes - never have - and mold, wet tile, and germs gross me out. So call me a mom......I know.
And that wasn't the only time I had to play the "mom" figure for our group. It was mid 90's the whole week, and the kids were outside almost all the time. I was constantly handing out water and reminding people about sunblock. Of course nighttime was super fun too, as you have to be the kill joy once the talking continues past, um, 2AM. Oh well, there was one night that we were all asleep by 1AM.....oh goodness! :)
But you know what was really cool about going as a chaperone? Seeing God really talk to some kids. I got to talk with a couple girls about who Jesus really is and what it means to be a Christian. I also got to hear some great teaching and be challenged myself about what my Christianity is really about. One of my favorite quotes from the preacher was:  "What stirs a bigger emotional or energetic response for you - talking about or pondering the person of Christ or the actions by someone that doesn't fit in with your life practices and traditions?" REEAALLLY tough stuff to think about.....
You know, one thing didn't change at all. I went home dead dog tired - from all the excitement and a gigantic lack of sleep. I guess church camp is still pretty cool after all!