Wow has this week ever flown by. It feels like the kids were just running through the arch yesterday, and now we find ourselves with one full day left of Kindle 1 camp. But, the fact that the week has flown by is a testament to the fun we’re all having, and the day we spent here on Thursday was certainly no exception.
You may be sensing a pattern here for what we do every day, and most of Thursday is a lot of the same event-wise. But with every skill slot, the kids are introduced to another element of their skill of choice, which makes each day different and fun. Just like every morning, the kids woke up at 8:15 to get ready for breakfast at 8:45. It’s funny to see the contrast of these campers and the teenage campers that come next week. The teenage campers struggle to make it to the lodge on time for 8:45, and the kids that are here this week have trouble staying in their cabins until 8:15. The difference is, these kids are going to bed two hours earlier than the teens.
After breakfast they head back to their cabins for cabin cleanup. This group of kids have been particularly spectacular at cleaning, which is something that you parents out there might want to bring up the next time they say they can’t clean their room. From there, the cabin group goes outside somewhere for Discovery, which I explained before as team-building activities with a message about Jesus. In this activity the kids tried to form a square with rope while blindfolded. It’s a super difficult activity, but it looks like they bonded together to complete it.
Skill 1 is always right after Discovery, and this ends up being the campers favorite skill slot because it’s not usually scorching hot by that time of the day. Yesterday, the skills used their experience from the last few days to go out and do as much as possible with their skill. The bikers took a trip on over to the snowmobile shack and decided to combine their love for biking with their love for tasty treats. Did someone say s’mores?
The joined up with the Frontier Wilderness Survival skill, who conveniently made the fire for the bikers to enjoy. It’s so beautiful to see two rival skills come together as one and work in spectacular harmony. Yes, that’s right, they’re rivals.
The archers are looking to be in fine form, and are getting better as every day goes on. Archery can be very frustrating at first as you’re figuring out how to hold the bow properly, and shoot with accuracy. But the more you do it, the better you get, and a lot of these kids are getting very accurate with their shooting and have turned into some pretty solid archers.
The canoers are also way past learning the parts of the paddle, and the J stroke and C stroke seem like something they learned years ago. They took a trip out to Beaver Bay yesterday to take a closeup look at a beaver dam, and tomorrow they are going out to Crevice Point to dock the boats and go rock-hopping. That’s surely going to be a highlight of the week for a lot of these campers.
There were also some skills that may not have travelled off site to enjoy themselves, but certainly had a good time from where they were at. The Drama skill almost always meets up in the Chapel to enjoy some refreshing air conditioning, and play drama games with each other. For the first while the kids are often shy because they don’t know everyone in their skill, but once they open up and get to know each other, the games become even more fun.
As for the climbers, they have graduated to some of the very difficult walls that we have. It’s awesome to see the campers desire to get better at everything they are doing here, and they usually have a lot more fun because of it.
After another fun filled Swim, Boat, and Tuck in the afternoon, the campers went back to their cabin for FOB, and also to get ready to Special Program which came afterwards. On Thursday we had our mini carnival, which was basically six stations that cabins rotated through for an hour. Some of these stations were competitive, like the wheelbarrow and three legged races.
Some of it was a battle of wits, such as the epic game of Sandtionary (sand dictionary) that was played.
However my personal favorite had to be Mike’s magic show. His tricks are amazing. I’ve seen each of them over a dozen times and still have no clue how he does it. The kids were also pretty amazed.
After the magic show, we ate some delicious spaghetti, had Big Brother Big Sister time, and finished the day with another great Chapel service that included another visit from Peter.
We have one more day left of Kindle 1, and we’d love to make the most of it. Please pray for continued safety, and spiritual growth of these campers. And pray that they will want to come back next year, and they will be able to see the love of Jesus through their counsellors and each other.
Have a great Friday, and make sure to check back tomorrow for our final blog post of the week!
Just a reminder about our Facebook and Twitter pages. Give them a follow, and you’ll be able to get a look at exclusive pictures and discussions that you won’t be able to see on the blog. And for more pictures of Kindle week, sign into our eCamp account for photo galleries and other camp resources. Sign in information would have been sent with your registration packages.
