A couple of weekends ago, all 3 of us girls got to go away to camp for 3 days. We went with the girls group we're involved in at church and since I teach Delia's class every other week, Ella asked me to be HER cabin counselor for the weekend. When it comes to kids, the younger the better for me! I must admit that I was a little nervous about a whole weekend with middle school girls, but they were a delight! Noisy and not very excited about sleeping, but a delight! :)
It was the first year at camp for Delia and I and, though Ella told us a bit, we didn't really understand what to expect. Pretty much everything about camp exceeded my expectations! The girls were kept busy the entire time with worship, organized group games, and rotating around various station activities.
We spent an hour at each station. (You will see mostly pictures of Ella since it was her and her friends I was in charge of hanging out with this weekend.) One station was a super cute art project.
At another station we were challenged by a speaker about not just "having the right Christian answers", but putting our faith into practice. The girls were given some practical tools for making Bible reading, gratitude giving, and praying a more intentional part of their daily routines. We then made Prayer and Gratitude Journals.
Another station had the girls get their creativity and teamwork skills on with a doll making competition. My 7th grade girls wanted to make an Olympic themed doll and they won!
The theme for the weekend was "On Your Mark, Get Set, GO!". We spent a lot of time decorating our cabins with items relating to the theme and for the Theme Night we were invited to wear running and work-out clothes.
That big Theme Night held our favorite event of the weekend too-- a Talent Show! The girls learned about it when they arrived, so the time they had to prepare was minimal, but we still saw some amazing acts! Some girls sang, or played piano, or danced, or did gymnastics. When girls were clearly nervous to be on stage, the crowd rallied around them, cheering and rewarding them with standing ovations. The encouragement and bravery was such a touching thing to see from middle school girls! Both Ella and Delia pulled a group of friends together and wrote/performed funny skits. You know my girls can't resist a stage!
All of us counselors had the plan to surprise the girls when the talent show was concluding with a surprise "Flash Mob" style dance. Well, the energy in the place was off the charts after all the acts and encouragement and as soon as our counselor song started playing ("Can't Stop the Feeling") and we adults jumped up to dance, the girls automatically did too! They flooded the stage and instead of us performing for them, it became a giant dance party. It was such a great moment.
Here's my one picture of Delia and her 5th grade friends. She had SUCH a great time!
The worship times were really powerful too. These girls spend a lot of time doing this sort of thing in school and church. It's always beautiful to see them get out of their normal routine and meet the Lord in a special place. I got choked up seeing my own girls initiate postures of praise-- hands raised or arms around one another. Their faith is real and it's such a gift to get a little peek at how they live that out when they're with their friends.
This camp is a merge of all the area churches bringing their girls together. We had 135 present. Here is the group we took from just our church. I have my own amazing memories of going to camp with my church group when I was this age and I was super blessed getting to experience the counselor side of it. A week of fatigue followed since there was nothing relaxing or recharging about this weekend, but it was TOTALLY worth it!
(And since my post is lacking much Delia, here are a few shots of her when we got back from camp and started working on making burp clothes for all the babies of our church and pregnancy center for our sewing badge the next week!)
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