We woke up ready for our last full day at Young Life camp. Time flies when you're having fun here. We headed across camp for breakfast and got there just a little bit early today.
A group of boys that had stayed up almost all night talking were outside. They had finished a whole pitcher of hot chocolate together this morning. Boys on this trip love heart to hearts and deep talks.
It's been sweet getting to lead alongside JD, Stephen, Ryan, Abby, Ryan and Hannah. These people are passionate about their kids and about their relationship with God. I love this part of YL, that we're all in this together and part of a team. I'm thankful that we'll go home together and work alongside even more leaders that care about these kids.
I love my girls Ella and Nina. It's been so nice to have some Camp T people here with me this week. One thing all three of us love at Tecumseh is how much you get to know kids from other cabins through clinics and activities. That's harder to make happen here but we still got to see each other a lot.
Our cabin went to do the Quantam Leap early this afternoon. You climb up a telephone pole, stand on top and then jump off and try to whack the bell. Most of our girls harnessed up and completed the challenge.
Many of the boys came to watch our girls and everyone was good about cheering people on.
A few girls really didn't want to climb... "I'm Haleigh Devoe and I'm confident in my relationship with God. I don't have to jump off of a pole to prove that I trust him." Hannah and I love her... even if she didn't climb the pole.
It's times like this afternoon that make me so thankful for this huge crew of kids that came together this summer. Some of them have been friends for years and others have become part of this family just through Young Life.
It was really fun to see each girl make it all the way up, even when their legs were shaking and they didn't know if they would make it. Then they'd jump and fly through the air like Peter Pan.
Even though I've known all of the girls in my cabin for a long time it's sweet how much better I know them after this one week. When I started being a YL leader a long time ago someone told me that a week at camp is like a whole years worth of contact work. I think they were right.
Because the power was off yesterday we couldn't get the Gutter for Libby's birthday. So today after we finished the Quantam Leap our cabin headed to the snack bar to get ice-cream. This gutter full of ice-cream is awesome. Libby got all the toppings today-- bananas, cookies, sprinkles, four kinds of candy, cheeries, hot fudge and whipped cream.
We all dug in together again and it was delicious. I don't know why eating things together really fast is so much fun but it always is. After every bit of the food was devoured the girls headed out to do different things all over camp.
Hannah and I got to chat with Katie, our work crew friend, and Mary Margaret, a head leader, for awhile and it was so fun. We have slowly gotten to know these two this week and think they're both awesome. Today we were glad we could just hang out and talk with them for a little while. Maybe we'll end up at another camp together in the future.
Tonight was the "dress up" night for dinner. There's no strict dress code but usually the girls wear dresses, skirts or nicer shorts instead of our usual running around clothes.
We had time before dinner to take pictures on the lawn with everyone. Because none of the kids had their phones the leaders got to talk a lot of pictures. For about fifteen minutes all of the kids were shouting my name to take a picture of a group or just them and a friend. I promised I'd put all of them online...
We finally got big cookie for dessert tonight. It was as delicious as ever. I could eat that every day and never get tired of it.
All of the skit characters came out to sing One More Day from Les Miserables at the end of dinner and it was AWESOME. I loved it.
In an unprecedented surprise, everyone got a free copy of Sam the musician's CD. We were all stoked.
I really like when we tell girls to make fun poses and then they look this fun.
I found my friend Nina and got another pic with my fav co-leader Hannah. I really wish I could see both of these girls all year long.
Tonight at Club we played one of the most hilarious and simple games I've ever seen. Six kids were pulled outside while JoJo hid in the crowd. The kids were let back in and they ran all through the crowd trying to find him. To win you had to be the first person to grab JoJo by the shoulders and yell, "I FOUND YOU JOJO!" We played several rounds and it was so much harder than you would expect to find JoJo in this crowd.
We sang one of Sam's songs again that I really love the lyrics of. It's always good to be reminded of this truth that God is going to be with us no matter what.
After the Club talk all of the Work Crew kids and bosses came out on stage. They shared their name, job and where they were from. Two of the kids also shared their testimony. Then as we sang the final song of the night each person on stage pulled out a piece of cardboard with a word that told has God has worked in their life. It was similar to the cardboard testimonies that leaders shared this morning and really cool.
When we got back to the cabin tonight we were visited by Katie, our favorite Work Crew girl. She brought us a snack and shared her testimony with us. Her story is so applicable to our girls and they soaked it up. Then they got to ask questions and hear more about what HS has been like for her. I'm so glad we got to know her better this week.
We had one more late night cabin time, round of hugs and bed time story. It was sad knowing that tomorrow we would have to leave to go back home.
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