Hi Mom and Dad ~ we’re having a great time at camp this week, and it would be even better if the camp pastor would stop photo-bombing us. He’s kind of weird.

But even when he’s not photo-bombing, we sort photo-bomb ourselves with as many silly shots as possible.  In fact, we may have forgotten how to simply smile and pose normally for the camera.

 Our chaperones are totally awesome even if they do take away our electronics, tell us to stop pranking each other, and make us go to bed at curfew every night.  They love to play games with us, eat meals with us, and get us talking about the things God is teaching us.

 We are having tons of fun on the Rec field every morning after Bible study, playing old games and new ones, too. And even though it’s called “recreation” we take these games very seriously and do whatever it takes to win. Hopefully our intensity as well as our humility and kindness toward other teams will win us the day’s Spirit Stick ~ which happens to be a huge airplane propeller that goes well with our theme for the week “Flight Plan.” Both competition AND Christ-likeness are valued here at camp.

Don’t mess with the fierceness of Noah on the Rec field!

The cafeteria food is okay. Some of us are especially thankful for the soda dispenser that allows us to drink an endless supply of colored, carbonated sugar-water, not to mention the perpetual array of desserts ~ though not as many in years past! The grown-ups seem to think this is a good thing.

 In the evenings we go to a worship service with great music and teaching from the book of Ephesians.  We’re learning about the “flight plan” that involves traveling from “outside of Christ” and the “domain of darkness” to “inside of Christ” and the “kingdom of light.”  Turns out it’s a free ticket to get there and it’s called grace. That is so cool!

The camp pastor is doing a pretty good job, I guess.  I think he’s the dad of some of the kids in our group which is a little weird (along with that whole photo-bombing thing), but you’ll probably be glad to know I’m learning some new things about God, the Bible, the apostle Paul, and even myself.

We end every evening with a “Church Group Debrief.” It’s so cool, because the Snack Fairy gets to our room before us and leaves food out, which is great, because we are tweens and teens and we are constantly hungry.  Plus, we eat dinner at around 5:30pm, and four hours without food is almost unbearable.  After we eat and joke around a bit, we talk with our chaperones about what we learned during Bible study and that evening’s sermon. Last night we split the boys and the girls into two groups, which the chaperones seemed to think worked out much better.  Something about some of the boys showing off in front of the girls and goofing around too much for serious discussion?

Camp is halfway over now and we can’t wait for the things that happen during the next few days. Theme night is tonight, pizza night happens tomorrow, and Mega Relay and Midnight Madness are on Friday. Oh!  And some of us are going to the beach tomorrow during free time, which will be really awesome, since it’s been raining off and on for the last few days. Seems like there will be only sunshine from here on out!

As far as I know, everyone is happy and healthy here ~ even those of us who were skeptical about this whole camp thing.

See you on Saturday!