June 29 – “At camp”

Here is a hodge podge of notes about the children’s camp.  No particular order here, just how I randomly recorded them in my phone.

The drummer for the worship band stood up.  Can’t remember ever seeing that.  Then Chris pointed out to me that he was also the keyboard player.  Can’t remember seeing the drummer double as the keyboardist, either.

The Camp Preacher did two simultaneous monologues.  Mordecai and … Esther.  Yep, he was a guy.  Esther was a girl.  Kind of odd.

Cailyn finally got into the swing of things and seemed to be having fun.  They have two swimming pools.  And a lake with blobs, trapeze swing, giant slide.  Water.  Pretty much home for a Galveston girl.  Didn’t get to do the zip line, though. 

The food was almost like old Glorieta.  Serve yourself (except for the meat).  and you could go back for as many seconds as you wanted. 

We found a roommate in the bathroom.  Daddy long legs spider (Spell check on my phone changed that to “daddy love no legs”).  He kept the cabin safe for us.  We even named him Bob.  At least until Chris accidentally stepped on him.  But his cousin Bob was waiting for us at the front door later in the day, so we were still safe.  Well, until that one interloper spider last night.  Not sure what kind, but Cailyn is convinced it was a tarantula (They do live in the wild around here, but I’m pretty sure this wasn’t one of them).  I managed to free the critter out the front door so the girls could get down off their chairs.  And speaking of critters, we also saw Leroy Lizard out for a suntan on one of our walks.  Oh, and Darryl Duck is now a permanent part of our travel menagerie.  I’m not sure why, but he is apparently part of the camp’s mythology.  Some say his name used to be Joshua Duck, and that he was named after a famous youth pastor who drove his golf cart into the lake.  You know how legends are, though.  I think we’ll stick with Darryl.

We were invited to hang out with the kids from Columbus Avenue Baptist Church (Josh’s church in Waco) for the opening celebration and Bible Study.  Lots of high energy and new songs.  Cailyn made the comment that they were “adult songs,” not the kids’ songs she was used to singing in VBS.  Afterwards we headed back to the cabin to change.  Except I fell asleep.  We did make it back in plenty of time for Cailyn to swim, though. 

Speaking of the cabin, we lived in absolute luxury.  Master bedroom.  Loft for Cailyn.  Keurig coffee maker.  Full kitchen.  Living room.  Even had a TV. 

Wait.  TV.  That reminds me.  For some insane reason back in Waco we joined Christi in watching her all-time favorite reality show (You can’t hide you addiction, Christi.  I asked Caleb about it, and he grinned knowingly and spilled the beans).  And what reality TV nonsense could possibly hold the attention of a bright, beautiful homeschool-teaching Mom?  Some British cooking competition on Netflix.  Weird.  Well, it gets worse.  The cabin I mentioned?  It has a TV.  Guess what signal it gets?  Netflix.  And guess what show Cailyn found in two shakes of a stick?  That British cooking show.  What am I going to do with these girls?  And more importantly, who is going to win season two?  I think that grandma-looking lady has a good chance.  But that one young guy is pretty creative.  I’m not sure about the guy who always uses Oriental spices though.  What?  Oh, not that I have watched any of it, you understand …

Now I volunteered to return to said cabin while she swam so I could download the pictures Chris had taken on our camera.  Already a full memory card.  And something happened to me as well.  The old man decided to shed his knee brace.  Somehow rejuvenated (at least for a brief time), I put on my swim suit and joined Cailyn in the water.  Great giant waterslide in the pool.  It was nice after a day or two of 100 plus temperatures.

So last night after worship (pretty powerful with 700 kids and adults singing from their hearts as only kids can) we headed over to the softball field for a frozen lemon cup (not Minute Maid, but still refreshing) and a fireworks show.  We sat on one side of the lake and the show exploded out of the other side (actually really close to us).  The display was pretty spectacular – certainly outshone anything Moody Gardens has to offer, and probably rivaled the City of Galveston Fourth of July Beach Spectacular (Except for the beach.  There is that plus for the Island).  Nice job, Riverbend.

As I sat there on my beach towel next to Chris and 698 other children, I pondered.  Yes, these fireworks were spectacular.  But every single one of them burned bright and beautiful and then burned … out.  Meanwhile God was providing a light show of his own.  The nearly full moon peaked out to watch the show with us.  It rose slowly over the trees surrounding us, massive against the treetops at first, then slowly attaining its usual size as it ascended higher in the sky.  And guess what?  Never once did it lose its bright or its beautiful.  I think you win this one, Lord.

Psalms 72:18-19 says, “Praise be to the Lord God, the God of Israel, who alone does marvelous deeds.  Praise be to his glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with his glory.  Amen and Amen.”

Father, thank you for that amazing light show last night.  I look forward to seeing it again soon.  Amen.