It’s the start of a new week here at Red Rock Bible Camp, which means that yesterday morning we invited a group of close to 100 junior high campers to spend a week with us for our first Ignite week of the summer.
Like every week, the counsellors wait patiently after our staff meeting for the first campers to arrive. For some of our staff, this is just another day serving at camp as they meet parents and welcome campers, but for others it is their first time counselling, and the anticipation feels like hours.
In yesterday’s case, their was a bus delay, so the anticipation might have felt more like days, however, the campers are all here safe and sound, and our first-year counsellors are definitely already in the swing of things. When campers arrive for camp, it’s tradition that they run through our staff-made arch, an arch that brings glee to all those who run through it.
After the campers arrived and enjoyed a BBQ lunch, it was time for some cabin pictures. Cabins are given two instructions:
- Make sure you can see everyone’s faces
- Make sure everyone is smiling
Hickory Haven followed these instructions to a T.
Poplar Point on the other hand, are too focused on legislating “Gator Hunting” as a weekly skill here at camp to follow the very important rule number 2. Please note that there are in fact, no “gators” here at Red Rock Bible Camp. Boys will be boys I suppose. And for the families of the campers in Poplar Point, I assure you the kids are having a good time.
One of the aspects of Ignite camp that wasn’t a part of last week’s Mini Kindle camp is the fact that the campers get to choose their skills. Now, they can’t simply tell the counsellors what they want to do and automatically get to do it, as we have a system insuring that everyone gets a fair shot. It’s a great system, but it can be stressful for the campers who have to wait patiently to see whether or not Mountain Biking skill two will be full by the time their cabin gets called up. In the end, everyone looked to be happy with what they came out with.
And why wouldn’t they be happy, as we have so many awesome skills to choose from here. Like fishing for example. We got a lot of new fishing equipment in the last couple of months, and we even had a fishing expert come in to instruct the staff on how to catch the biggest and best fish in the lake. Hopefully by the end of the week we’ll have a picture with a fish at the end of the line. But yesterday was just the introduction. In due time.
Some of the campers signed up ahead of time for wakeboarding, which ends up being one of the more extreme skills during the week. Stefan and Erik seem to have the kids pumped up, and if all goes well I’m sure it will be one of their favorite parts about camp.
We’re really blessed to have such an amazing lake to do water activities on, especially on a hot day like yesterday. I’m sure the wakeboarders were happy with their day, and it’s clear that the canoers were as well. Especially Brady, one of our…passionate instructors.
Do you like swimming? Well, in Water Ex, Sarah will show you what a pro dive really looks like. No splash, like a fish.
If you have Sarah as an instructor, you’ll be set as an Olympic diver in no time. And speaking of the Olympics, that is the theme of our camp wide game for the Ignite campers this summer.
If you’re thinking the banner is looking a little bare, I’d say your on to something, because the Red Rock Olympics have actually been taken over by a disgruntled former Olympian named Damien Sinclair who stole the famous Olympic Rings to try to spoil the Games. It is up to the campers to find the Rings that have been hidden throughout the “Olympic Village” while also receiving Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals by being kind to each other, having good sportsmanship, memorizing Bible verses, cleaning their cabins, and just doing cool things around camp. The cabin with the most points wins a pizza party for their cabin. Things are about to get real exciting over here.
Because we have to cram so much into the first day (swim test, health checks, orientation, skill selection), the first day of camp ends up being a pretty long and jam packed day. The campers were participating in their skills until around 830, and then transitioned to Big Brother, Big Sister time, where campers are divided into groups of two or three to spend time with some of our staff members. From there, campers went to Chapel, where our speakers Cam and Myra shared about the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. Cam and Myra have been speaking at camp for over ten years, and they do a great job every time. I’m quite confident the campers are going to love listening to them.
After a long day, the campers and the staff headed back to their cabin after some milk and cookies to do some evening devotions, and then finally hit the hay for some well deserved sleep time. This morning the campers look re-energized and ready to go, so make sure you check back on the blog tomorrow to see what exactly that looked like!
