Luckily I had a few days to rest before camp which was good since camp always drained a lot of energy because I need to keep up with the teenagers and I wouldn't be getting much sleep that week anyways...
Camp started on a Tuesday... and there were concerns of not being able to go because of the issue with the statewide power outages and people panicking and getting gas. However, when you know that God will provide... you just relax and go with the flow... We soon got on a big bus and headed to Cleveland, Tennessee... on the way there we stopped by a nice family restaurant (sorta like Bob Evans). Right when we came in, I heard a few people sitting there going "oh boy" since there were a lot of youths and probably thought we would be loud and disruptive and rude. However, the kids did well to prove them wrong and we got compliments on how well behaved they were...
We arrived (late) and ate dinner and proceeded towards worship... first days were usually chaotic since we didn't know where we would sit.... but we finally found seats.... in the nosebleed section...
I was mainly in charge of the Middle School boys and it was a huge change for me this year. The previous years I was only a chaperone, however with Brandon and Joyce being in different dorms since the high schoolers and middle schoolers were split, I was the main chaperone along with Anthony Woody. It was interesting how well I got along with Anthony since we were very different... He was usually spontaneous, a bit wild and odd at times while I was a little more serious but calm and relaxed as well... but we got along very well since we both respected each other and our differences in personality.
The main schedule went like this everyday for camp: Breakfast, Morning Worship, family group time, lunch, rec, free time, dinner, evening worship, church group time, back to the dorms, lights out
Day 2 I and two of the other chaperones finally met our family group... what family groups were, are groups that consisted of other churches and we were lucky this year to not get any of our youths... I thoroughly enjoyed my group... while they were easily distracted (like all middle schoolers are) they paid attention to the lessons and were attentive and asked questions. We bonded even more during rec time when I did a lot of different activities with them.
Day 3 consists of basically the same... we did a water day for rec and all my group did was stand around hoping to not get wet... safe to say... that i made sure that didnt happen...
An interesting thing that happened for the evening worship was a huge wind storm went through the city.... knocked down a few trees and a couple of electric lines as well.... oh, and the power went out during worship as well... but everything ended well...
During our church group time the kids prayed and one of them went under deep conviction and accepted Christ that night (WOO!)
Meanwhile back at the dorms, the boys were running up and down the hallways goofing off when suddenly someone from downstairs came up and started yelling at them to go to their rooms... while I wasn't pleased with how he did it... I figured I would be the better man (and Christian) and apologize and tell them to head to their rooms and to be quiet (and thus I would dub this man... Mr. Grumpy)
Day 4 was my last full day with the group... which meant that they got my "last day" message.... which I made up last year and eventually lead someone to accept Christ in the evening... which I did hope would be the case again... What I later found out was that someone rededicated her life to Christ which was awesome! On the way back from free time, I took a little break and stayed in my dorm... I then started to walk towards the bathroom at the end of the hall to discover that one of the students had left his door wide open with his key still in the lock... listening and checking in the bathroom, I figured out that they went ahead to dinner... Anthony also walked by since he'd just got out of the shower and noticed it too... we soon devised a plan to steal all their important stuff and put it in our rooms to teach them a little lesson...
When the kids came back, the two kids started panicking since their stuff was gone... I was doing a survey during the time and they ran into my room and told me the situation...(one stated: "I had a bunch of stuff including my cleats which was $75... everything they took is pretty much $150 and they better give it back!" in which i simply replied "not my problem... should've locked your door") I advised them to ask everyone on the floor including the people in the next hall... when they went over there, we finally put all their stuff back and went back to our rooms... next thing I heard was yelling and laughing and they realized that we got them and that they needed to lock their doors since not everyone there was a Christian.... afterwards, the kids teamed up with the other kids in the hall and started riding mattresses down the stairs... Mr Grumpy came out extremely upset and yelled at the kids and asked the chaperones for the name of the churches since we were "destroying school property".. The kids seemed shaken up but I ensured them that everything was fine and to just go to bed... I'm positive that any complaint Mr Grumpy had against our church was going to be ignored anyways...
(If you treat your fellow brothers in Christ like this, I hate to see how you treat the lost)
Day 5 we did a morning worship and left to go back home... A bit sad to see it end since this was the last event that I was going to do with CLBC for the summer.... but in the end, everything was for the glory of God and hopefully he was pleased with the work that was put in everywhere that I went...
PS. Brandon can do a good comedy routine with Sally and Shawn... his sock puppets...
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