Day 4 King of Kings

Campers are into the swing now.  Bodies getting used to lots of walking and weight loss by sweating. All SHBC teams were on the waterfront for their first activity.  The feature attraction is The Blob – a 70+ ft bladder rising 8 ft. off the water.  A “blobee” sits near one end, waiting for a launch from a “blober” who drops off of a platform 15 ft. above the water.  It’s physics in action, including “what goes up must come down”.  If things go right, it’s an easy slip into the liquid cool, feet first.  If it doesn’t go so well, other appendages or large surface area objects strike first.  The activity produces lots of great video of “that’s going to leave a mark” moments.  The waterfront also offers water slides, zip lines, floating discs and a “shoving/rasslin” dock.

 After lunch, the middle school team dived into a search and rescue activity with team based rope skills and strategery.  From there, they strapped on harnesses and climbed the steep trail to the 3,000 ft. zip line (3KZ) launch tower.  No lightning this year and campers actually we able to hitch their trollies to the cable for the one minute free flight journey to the bottom.  Billed as the 3^rd longest zip line in the country and the longest in Texas, the 3KZ allows 4 riders each flight (except when 1 rope is out of commission as is currently the case).

Upperclassmen headed to arrow tag where they felled their opponents with foam filled arrowheads.  The team game was followed by every man for himself but not before a rather lengthy search for a non-missing arrow (who was counting?).  Their second pm activity was the Sherpa walk which was made more interesting than usual when the seniors were blindfolded and led by the juniors – a teachable moment.  Juniors learned to lead while seniors learned how to take direction after being in the driver’s seat for a year.  The Sherpa path is a bit sketchy in the full sight mode so the blindfold option was an intense challenge.

Underclassmen spent the first pm rec in the millhouse with team racing in the rope elements. After a brief break they headed up the dusty trail to the arrow tag field for an epic battle.

The evening event began with carnival games in the courtyard above the waterfront.  Student teams were offered various challenges to earn coins which could be traded for stuffed animals and eventually used to buy preferred seating in the throne room for the service.  Games  ranged from impressions to the chance to sell you contract mascot for money (which several teams did). Our middle school group was the top earner and had front row seating, until it was explained that the last would be first and they became the back row.  All that time collecting coins and stuffed animals and nothing to show but the back row.  Filling the throne with material goods that had no eternal value.

In the debrief, students shared some things that they are trying to let share the throne with God. Some recounted challenges in their own lives which made it difficult to understand and serve God.  As groups. they committed to letting God rule their throne and placed a large cross on the throne in the worship pavilion in recognition of their commitment.