Junior High Camp

After two days not spent recovering from week one of camp I headed back to the campground for week two. This week was for the middle school ages, and I was so glad that I didn't have to leave any for school this week. We had a lot of help that week so I got to be camp photographer, kitchen aid, game leader...aka high strung Hannah. Camp started on Monday like usual and went smoothly all week long.

Monday night began with some group games including the ever popular "ships and sailors", a great service led by my church's praise band and the amazing Sara Aiken, and of course gutter goo.

Tuesday we spent the day eating watermelon, spray painting t-shirts, and hiking up Margarette Falls. Surprisingly I believe the kids really enjoyed the hike. It is so beautiful up there and we ended the hike with devotions at the falls.

Wednesday we had a great time swimming at a couples house from my church and were super thankful for their kindness and hospitality to allow 50 campers to come hang out at their pool. 

Thursday was a day filled with shaving cream, water slide, and skit night yet again. We also rented inflatables and had a blast with those. 

Week two was another sucesssful, fun, God filled week. I  am so beyond thankul for another summer spent at Camp Greene. 

Junior Church Camp

This was my 14th year at church camp and a dream came true of mine. I've attended Camp Greene since I was 10 and got saved in my top bunk late in the night when I was 11 years old. Camp Greene has played such an important part in my walk with Christ and this year I had the privliedge of being able to help direct the 2nd-5th grade kiddo camp. Unfortunetly I had to leave everyday but Thursday because of inservice, but I enjoyed helping plan and direct Junior Camp. Camp started on Monday evening with some group games after the kids came and registered. We had two traditions take place on Monday with eclair cake and gutter goo, two of my favorite things about camp.

Tuesday Erin and I both had to leave for inservice which was pretty sad, but we got out pretty early and was able to head back to camp in time for some fun activities. We had a pretty fun activity with aluminum foil for the afternoon and watched Frozen that evening. 

Wednesday we rented infltables and the kids had a blast on them. We also had Comedy Night with Ken which is always a blast for the kiddos. 

Thursday is one of my favorite days. We usually do shaving cream fights along with the water slide and skit night on Thursday. That week we also had the kids decorate a puzzle piece. That night Ken talked about how we all night only have a place at Camp Greene, but also a plan for our lives and a place in His kingdom. At the end of the service we all put our puzzle pieces together to form one big puzzle to represent "the church". 

Camp Greene week 1 was another successful week thanks to our Heavenly Father who watches over and works through our camp. His watch over our camp was even more evident this year and I am so thankful that He allowed me to be a bigger part of serving Him at a place that I have grown to love with my whole heart.

Junior High Camp 2013

After a wonderful week at Junior Camp, I had to return for a wonderful second week of camp at middle school camp. I love this week because these girls are my girls. Many of them I've had several times in my 5 years of being a couselor and three of them have been in my room sice 2009. Bless their hearts!!!

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

This week was so great. I was so excited to spend a week with these young ladies. This week was Monday afternoon through Friday and thankfully I only had to leave once for work.

 Monday evening started out with some ice breaker games, a great service, and a counselor hunt. Everyone knows I'm competitve, and that does't change while I'm at camp. So I put a black shirt on and borrowed some sweat pants from one of the guy counselors and headed down by the woods next to the camp fire. This is the exact spot I hid at during last years counselor hunt,

and I hid so long last year the game was over and nobody thought to tell me that everyone was showering and getting ready for bed. I was determined to not get found again this year, although not be forgotten. So I put my arms in my shirt and hid in the tall grass. Now, I know what your thinking..ticks and poison ivy. Well, so was I as I was being attacked by mosquitos. I lasted for while, so long that a kid offered me ten bucks, chocolate, and goldfish to come out. I finally basically got tired of being eaten alive by mosquitos and basically stood in the tall grass to be seen by the campers. Luckily, I was one of the last counselors to be found.

Tuesday I had to work until 3, so that was pretty lame. Tuesday night was another great service. The songs chosen for worship were perfect. The kids loved them, and it was so neat to hear the "yes" sound as different songs came on. After service, we had gutter goo.

Doesn't everyone love gutter goo!!!! Then, we played kiddie pool/glow in the dark kickball. If I were brave and not afrad to be laughed at I would admit that someone, who happened to be the only one, fell in the pool while trying to very athletically make them game winning out.

Wednesday I was able to stay the whole day.

I also got the privledge to lead conferences this week at camp. This week I chose to focus on the verses surrounding the theme verse for the week.

" Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your genteleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thaksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transceds all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers and sisters, whaterver is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such these things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me-put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you." 

I used different illustrations for each point. I spoke on displacing the worry from the center of your life by having them do the human knot. I spoke on garbage in and garbage out, by using a counselor as my help. I talked about how we as Christians should be examples in our words and actions, but if we are fililng our brains with garbage it will only make it harder for holy things to come out of our mouths. I hope the campers enjoyed it and learned something from it, because I really enjoyed speaking to this age group. After conference we played ships and sailors and mingle, my girls love playing these games and so do I. After lunch we had shaving cream fight, water games, and the cheeto head game!!

This is probably my favorite part of camp.  My girls won the cheeto head game, which is basically put as much shaving cream on your counselors head and then throw cheetos to see how many will stick! We kicked butt and got 47! Wednesday was also Comedy Night with Ken which is always hilarious!!! I didn't know this at the time, but one of my girls who has been in my room for the past 5 years gave her life to the Lord during service!!! I'm so proud of her for making this decision in her young life!!!!

Thursday was the last full day of camp, and it was one of the best! Conference was great, and I think the campers really enjoyed it.

After lunch we had some free time, and me and the girls played catch phrase in the room. It was hilarious and so fun just to bond with each other. We also got to work on our skit for skit night. We had an early service during the afternoon, and it is such a blessing to worship around a bunch of middle school students praising God without fear! Thursday we went to a pool in town for pizza and swimming which the kids really enjoyed,

even though they weren't impressed with my flip off the diving board. When we returned we got ready for skit night, which happens to be my favorite part of church camp. My girls skit was probably the best( of course I'm not partial or anything! The last night of camp was wrapped up with camp fire, another one of my favorite parts of camp!

Friday was wrapped up with some biscuits in the snack shack, cleaning of course, pictures, and worship! Such a great week! 

Junior Camp Greene 2013

13 years and still going strong! This was my thirteenth and consecutive year attending Camp Greene! I attended Junior Camp and Junior High Camp, but more on the second week of camp in the next post!!!

Camp started on a Tuesday afternoon and I was so excited to be able to go out to Camp Greene and help as a counselor. This is only the second year (since I've been attending) that they have had three weeks of camp. Last year I just helped with the Junior High camp, so I was anxious to help with the younger camp. The directors placed me with six of the youngest campers and since I have been with the same group of girls in the older camp since I was eighteen they thought it would be a good idea to start out a new group of campers! I four of the girls go to church with me and the other two have previously gone to my church, so I was excited to spend a week with these sweet second graders. The theme of the week was "Whatever" and based on

Philippians 4:8  Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

The week was filled with lots of fun activities. We had campfire, water games, bouncy houses, ships and sailors, gutter goo , and lots more. We had skit night and I did my usual Ooga Booga, which is always so fun!

I had the priviledge to lead a conference while I was at junior camp tis year. (This was right after my interview for a teaching position, and more on that later as well).  I decided to focus on the theme verse for the week during my conference. I really think that it is important that we teach children to do more than "memorize" verses. I wanted them to have a true understanding of the verse that was being focused on during the entire week. I know that there are lots of big words that this verse says we should think on. I googled some ideas for my conference and came across a neat idea of using snack foods to represent the words. With the help of the blog and Aimee, I created a trail mix if you will to help the students memorize the verse. Throughout my conference I focused on each word.  I talked about the meaning of each word and used different verses throughout the bible that tell us that we should be thinking this way. For example, for noble I talked about Ruth and how she was a person of character. For adimirable, I talked about how admirable Jesus was. I think the students understood what I was trying to teach them.
Here are the snacks I used to represent each word.
True: sunflower seeds (seeds are true without anything added to it)
Noble: captain crunch
Lovely: hershey kisses
right: chex cereal (when you get an answer right you get a check mark)
pure: marshmallows
admirable: m & ms (they are my favorite and i told the campers that I admire people who have them)

I used this guy to illustrate that what you put in your mind will come out of your mouth during my conference!

Me and my sweet girls on the first day of camp!!!!

We Love Gutter Goo!!!!!! Yes, that is a real gutter

Teaching my conference!

Ready for skit night with my sweet and crazy girls 

Sweet and tired girls on the last day of camp!