Thursday, June 21, 2012

"Let's do both!"

The CILT counselors were in charge of chapel Thursday morning. Not only did we bring back the Thank You chapel about the ten lepers but we also sang The Stand, Cannons and Our God. The lyrics of those songs just take me right back to Campaigners nights in the basement of the Miller house. I love getting to sing the words with camp people now.


The CILT schedule read "Choose Your Own Adventure" for the morning. Instead of just having one adventure we decided to have two. First we played Capture The Flag in Main Field.


We're fierce. The white team won after an intense battle for the flag.


Then we had CILT lake time. Usually we swim with our adopted campers but it was cool to just have time to play with each other.


The rope swing was loaded with trivia questions. And see this middle picture? Did you know Courtney can walk on water?


After spending two weeks together this group has gotten so close. They definitely have smaller groups that they're closer too, people they've really invested in, but I also see how they've included everyone in the Session. All forty of them really just love being together.


Not only are they good at being friends; they're great at jumping pictures and backflips...



jumping over slides and making weird faces...


climbing all over the blob and battling on the bridge.


This was our last morning to really just hang out and play together. At the beginning two weeks feels like it's going to last forever but now it's just quickly ticking down. We don't want our time together to be over yet.


There are kids in this group of CILTs that I've known for years and some that are brand-new friends. There are siblings of counselors I've worked with and siblings of my old campers. I have loved getting to know all of them.


"Dress up crazy for a random meal" was still on their bucket list so we put the Party in the Party Room during lunch. Balloons, strange outfits and music made it memorable for sure.


We have the whole back room to ourselves so it's easy to pull off celebrations like this. I think it might need to become a tradition.



I feel like I haven't seen Lake Village much this week but I love when we pass and I get to see Rachel who bounds over yelling, "MISS WRIGHT!" and Devon aka Zur all grown up.


Arielle and I left for a little Target/Goodwill/Chipotle/Internet night off but returned in time to hang out in the Longhouse before devotions. We just can't stay away.

Tonight we wrote letters to our future selves and we'll mail them out at some point next Spring. Our hope is that if we write now about what we've learned, who we want to be, and how we want to grow then we'll get a burst of camp when we really need it later on.

We challenged them to think about shining their light when they go back home, "You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven." Matthew 5 14-16

It's always amazing to me as we write these letters how much the kids have to say, how much they want to write down. I always think we'll write for about four songs but end up writing for the length of more like ten. I wish we could bottle up all of the greatness of camp and take it home with us but perhaps this is a good alternative.

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