June 24 - “Quest to guess”

Last full day of camp. I had another long chat with the band keyboard guy when I went for coffee. He was leaving early to get back home for work. It definitely won’t be the same sound without him.

 

After a breakfast of little tiny waffles (limit 4 - I just took 2) and sausage links, we headed over for Morning Celebration. That’s the one with upbeat singing and crazy, large group games and skits. It’s designed to get the kids pumped up for the events of the day. And the band does a good job with that.

 

Next came another rotation of outdoor games. I hung around with the guys again, and Chris went with the girls. That enables us to get pictures of both groups. Our guys never lost a single match in any game they played all week, and this day was no different. The games are weird and fun, and our guys consistently encouraged the opposition.

 

One of their little rewards for being so unbeatable came when they finished the game early. They managed to score a front row seat to the lunch line. And that’s a pretty coveted location. Lunch this time was bow tie pasta with al fresco sauce and a long strip of what was allegedly a giant pizza roll. I guess the taste was there, but it just seemed like a weird bite.

 

During Bible study several girls were trying to guess what Bible character I was going to be during evening worship. They asked if he would be from the Book of Nehemiah. Nope. They thumbed around in their Bibles and landed on another guess, “Are you gonna be Job?”  Nope. Finally they asked, “Well, can you at least tell us what book he is from?”  Long pause. I didn’t answer out loud, but I silently pointed … to a Bible. Yeah, I know. Not helpful in their quest to guess. But fun for me.

 

I spent the afternoon as I have every day this week - going over the interview for worship. Chris did go with Christi and AnnaGrace to the Arts and Crafts class. Inside. I just haven’t been able to handle the afternoon heat out there. The average has been something like 99 with a wind chill of 101. Chris hasn’t handled it well, either. She’s had a few times when she had to sit down pretty quickly and get some water in her. Some pains. Some palpitations. Mostly just shortness of breath. She bounces back fairly quickly.

 

After supper we headed over to the last evening worship. The focus this time was: Christ my Future. The character was Lazarus, the guy Jesus brought back from the dead. I think it went pretty well. Josh did a call to commitment for the kids to share with one of their counselors.

 

After the service I had a lot of kids approach me to high five or fist bump. They called me by my character name, of course. Some even asked for my autograph on their camp shirt. My real name, of course. But I did have my best kid-comment from a youngster about 9 or 10. He held his hand up for a high five and said, “Hi, hashtag Peter, hashtag Josiah, hashtag Nehemiah, hashtag Lazarus.”  At least he got all the names right.

 

The late night activity was water slides. There were 4 water slides and 2 bounce houses set up. Plus the volleyball courts had some major action going. They finally shut everything down around 9:45. It IS children’s camp, after all. And that IS a late night for them.

 

Matthew 7:8 says, “For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”

 

Father, thank you for the kids who braved it and took their concerns and commitments to their counselors and to you. Bless them. Amen.