Tuesday was an early start.
Students met their leaders at 8 and headed to a picnic breakfast to
discuss their contract. Each team
developed a set of rules for the group that everyone agreed to abide by for the
week (and beyond?). The contract was written
on a memorable item mascot supplied by the leaders which ranged from a For Rent
Sign to a water bottle and a toy bat.
Students must have the contract item in their possession at all
times. If it is left anywhere, severe penalties
will ensue. Some group gave the contract
its own number so when they count off to see if everyone is present, the
contract is accounted for.
During morning “chaos”, the students were challenged to
think about how they make decisions. They
started 10 for 10 session in which they have to be 10 feet from anyone else and
spend 10 minutes meditating on a question and scripture. It’s eerily quite across the camp during
these sessions. Tuesday’s 10 for 10 text
was Proverbs 3:5-6 and James 1:5-6.
Next students headed to their first activity. Upper classmen trekked up river to the “water
barrel” where they had to use their noggins and manly muscles to fill up a holy
barrel. After multiple epic fails, they
hit on a winning strategy and filled the barrel in record time (albeit with a
lot of additional ballast). Underclassmen
were on the rock climbing wall for the morning activity and posted some
impressive climbs. Middle schoolers were
in the water at “anaconda” fighting snakes (or something like that).
After a chicken burger
lunch (not Chick Fil A), teams headed out into the baking sun (no rain in this
neck of the woods). The high school team
hit the rock climbing wall and got to experience new auto-belay equipment which
freed up the leaders to spend more time with the students but created a lot of
rolling around on the observation deck because they kept expecting the rope to
stop. Several climbers bested their
climb height from last year and the old guy is still keeping up with the yutes
on the rock. For their second afternoon
rec, the high school team headed to Mine Shaft were they had a bible study
about Isreal’s poor choices regarding their desire for a king, in spite of God’s
warning about the pain it would bring.
Students were reminded that decisions have consequence and they need to
look for the warning signs provided by friends, parents and others that care about
them. For the activity, they had to come
up with creative ways to extract team members from a mineshaft conveniently
built above ground and with no walls.
They made decisions about a strategy and halfway through the exercise
were thrown a services of rule changes which required multiple strategy revisions
and creative teamwork.
Grades 9-10 were at “shipwreck” for the first rec after
lunch. Another teamwork strategy
activity, this one required everyone to move in sync and very carefully to
balance the dry docked pontoon boat.
They bailed on the long hike to Windmill and opted for water ball in the
river (good choices).
The middle school team tackled the rock wall but the
downhill version (rappelling). Looks
like a piece of cake until you slide across that rock face and put you faith in
a piece of rope the thickness of your thumb.
Some students chose the non-rope version which involved hiking back down
the hill to watch the brave souls slide down the rock on a rope. They followed this adventure up with an
obstacle course at the Millhouse.
Students worked in teams to navigate the abyss (airbag) via ropes, nets,
monkey bars, and peg boards.
And then it was dinner.
A finer feast of pork soft tacos has not been enjoyed by these campers
and sponsors. Perhaps it had something
to do with 10 miles of walking up and down the rocky terrain and full bore
Texas sun. After we polished off
multiple rounds of loaded tacos, we headed for the pavilion for some praise
songs and the challenge by the camp pastor to locate the evening service where
the band was set up. The first two teams
to arrive were promised cookies and free concert (aren’t they all free?). Teams were given the choice of trial and
error and plain guessing about where to look or they could participate in group
games which contained clues to the location.
The 9-10 grade group found the worship service site in about 20 minutes
and set a modern day (2015) record for this feat. Their keen eyes spotted the band driving up
the hill to the lookout near the large
steel cross. High schoolers were next of
the SHBC teams to arrive after a false start down the trail to the location of
last year’s special service (who thought of that?). The middle school team eventually made it as
well. After an awesome praise time, our camp
pastor asked the students to reflect on important decisions they are facing
while they walked the gravel trail back to camp in silence. Each team met with their leaders to discuss
the decisions they were had coming up and how they would go about making these. Students shared how the short time at camp so
far had helped them focus on making right choices and not repeating the mistakes
of the past.
After the share time, shower heads roared to life to send
that road dust and trail dirt back to the river. Not a lot of complaints about lights out
tonight.
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