Camp Eagle Day 3

Day 3 – God Provides A Way

Genesis 6 was the key scripture text for the day.  The students studied how the story of Noah foreshadows the provision of salvation through God’s Son.  In the 10 for 10 time, they explored how Noah’s situation and God’s work can apply to their lives and the personal relationship He desires with us.

The high school team spent the morning climbing the wall – literally.  They were introduced to technical climbing with four choices of difficulty which started at Hard and went up from there.  No one would tackle the level 4 rope and a few tried their hand at level 3 including the elder statesmen who showed the youngsters he’s still got game.  All those who hitched up were left with jello arms and a quivering calf.  Turns out it's harder than it looks.

After lunch, we hiked to the rec fields to make rafts for the Noah race.  Each team had to construct a raft with 2x6s, cardboard, plastic drop cloths and, in true MacGyver fashion – duct tape.  Each team selected a Noah to compete in a raft race.  The high schoolers came in first with a ringer at the helm.  The middle schoolers had a few delays getting to the water but the preacher’s kid maneuvered the craft deftly through the water and a respectable finish.  Once the boats were out of the water, the Rainbow Games began.  Each team had to complete seven challenges, all of which involved hurling paint of every color.  Flexibility was a plus for these challenges which required a lot of teamwork and patience.  The last challenge was a water slide into a mud pond which provided the final bit of color to complete the ensemble.

After a quick clean up the middle school team tried their hand at Target Zip.  They attempted to hit targets with rubber arrows while strapped to a harness and zip line.  All targets were safe and sustained no damage.

The waterfront has an awesome collection of slides, swings, and zip lines.  Middle schoolers had morning rec here while the high school team dived in for one of their afternoon recs.    The feature attraction is the Blob – a 50 ft. long air bag which classically illustrates constant volume relationships of pneumatic systems. After launching from the elevated platform, the Blobber leaps to a strategic position on the bladder to launch the Blobee off the end.  The pics on the Shutterfly album tell the story on this one.  One “lucky” SHBC youth was on the receiving end of a record setting launch.

The high school team finished rec with a devotional in the boonies somewhere past Mill House (they were never located by the author).  Middle schoolers tried their hand at Shipwreck where the laws of physics (and more specially statics -for the engineers in the audience) were on display.  They had several challenge games to balance a houseboat with varying degrees of teamwork and verbal restrictions.

The evening service tied together God’s provision with personal application.  Students were challenged to select areas of their lives where they needed to respond to His promises.  The service was followed up with a time of sharing and commitment.  Several of the students made a commitment to take specific actions in their walk with God and symbolized this with a salt covenant.  The student’s salt (promise) was mixed with God’s salt to form an inseparable mixture.  The students really made a lot of breakthroughs and discussed some very important challenges and commitments to the youth group.  They expressed a strong desire to be open and accountable to each other to encourage and support their walk with Christ.  God truly moved in their lives in this group time.