Youth Camp

We had a great time at camp last week.  Thanks for all of your prayers!  This is the first camp that Sean and I have ever planned and led.  I would say for our first time, it went pretty well.  A very generous couple from our church offered for us to camp on their property. It was so much fun!  Our theme for the camp was Be Set Apart.  We focused on the passage 1 Timothy 4:12 that says "Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity."  We talked to the kids about how God calls them to be examples to those around them even though they are young.  We had devotions at night and in the morning and each time we focused on a different aspect of the verse.  After, we got into small groups with the kids and talked through each area.  Please pray for those students that made commitments.  

For the games we split the kids into 2 team.  Meet our teams below :)

Team Rome...I like the muscle picture!

Team Ephesus.  They left their flag out in the rain on the first night.  One of our students faithfully stood over the fire for at least an hour to dry it out the next day.  This is a pre-rain photo :)

 We had a bit of an Olympic theme. The teams had to work together to complete different tasks or games.  At the end of camp, the team with the highest score won.  We had a great time with this!  Some of the things we did were ultimate frisbee, jumbo soccer, water bomb volleyball, capture the flag at night.  We also played a game where we chained 2 team members up and had 3 padlocks on them.  The kids had to run into the woods, down to a creek and find a key to unlock their team mate.  There were only 3 correct keys and 12 incorrect keys.  Here are a couple pictures of the games:

Water bomb volleyball.  The kids had to work in pairs with a towel and fling a water balloon to the other side.  They loved this game!  It took them a while to get the hang out it!

We had a game where the kids had to find wooden puzzle pieces in the woods to find out their team name.  

It was really nice to spend time with the kids out side of the "Friday Youth Group" atmosphere.  We felt like we had a better chance to catch up with the kids.  We had 2 other leaders join us and it was so great to have them around to help.  Overall, the camp went really well.  It rained pretty hard both nights which kept some of us up.  Thankfully, everyone was able to stay dry in their tents and we had great weather during the day.

The whole gang at the end of camp...we haven't showered in a few days.  Don't we all look great?