Kid's Camp update

Wow...it was a busy week with about 38 kids (including junior counselors) and 10 counselors at the resort from Sunday to today from a church in the twin cities.  We had kids and counselors packed into all 7 cabins and were bursting at the seams...but what a great experience!

The activities for the week included:

• Fishing...lots and lots of fishing on boats and off the dock.  A local company donates a fishing rod for each kid and many of them have never fished before.  Only the grace of God manages to keep the flying hooks away from everyone!
• Tubing.  They got to take turns tubing behind a boat.
• Horse back riding and painting.  There is a local horse farm that specializes in horses that work well with kids.  The kids take turns riding the horses and then they get to paint the horses!
• Swimming. We went to a nearby lake with a beach and had a blast swimming, skipping rocks, and making sand castles.
• Archery.  The local DNR provides bows, arrows, and targets and the kids get to try their hand at archery.  Again, only God's grace and careful supervision keep this activity safe!  There is a lot of yelling "All bows on the ground" so that no one gets hurts while they pick up their arrows from the targets.
• Nature walk.  The kids go to the Lost Forty and get to experience the majesty of virgin timber.
• Crafts.  Making and decorating pigs (from rocks), journals, bracelets.

What a great way to allow these kids to experience God's majasty in nature!  About half of the group had been up camping last year so they were helpful with the kids that were new this year.  The theme for this year was "Jesus to the rescue" and they had daily word themes and lessons.  We did marshmallows and/or smores around a campfire each night along with daily lessons and devotions. 

The resort provided breakfast on Monday morning (eggs, sausage, and pancakes), a spaghetti dinner on Tuesday night, and a fish fry on Wednesday night (and they just caught enough fish to feed everyone!!).  Needless to say, Bill was in his glory cooking for a large group and the food was good!!

The group left this morning so we get to do all of the clean up and get ready for another group to come in on Sunday.  This group is about half the size of the first group but it is still a lot of cleaning and organizing!

K is on her second to last chemo treatment today and is excited that the end of this treatment is in sight!  She has appointments today to get things organized for the 5 weeks of radiation which will start around September 1st (have to wait until 2 weeks after chemo finishes).   The camps are tough as there is so much to do and so many people but she is holding up well.

Off to clean up and get ready to do the next camp!!