SATURDAY
Breakfast Entrée: Breakfast Baskets (cinnamon rolls, cold cereal, juice, fruit, hard boiled eggs, etc...)
Lunch Entrée: Vegetarian scallops, mashed potatoes, gravy, and corn.
Dinner Entrée: Build your own sandwich bar.
This is the final full day of camp for Junior #2, and it's really been a great week.
This morning after breakfast we all got to do the Sabbath AM activity, which is a bible quest that campers try to complete by traveling to different stations around camp. Its notable because it's pretty difficult to visit all the stations in the time allotted, so the campers have to really practice their decision-making skills and work together.
Today, I saw a few cabins having disagreements, but some of the groups were really pulling in the same direction. Since the counselor have done the bible quest twice already, they really take a back seat and let the campers make most of the decisions. Some of the counselor are really good at this, even though I know they really want to give the campers all the right answers.
Since we have a class system in the game, it's really interesting to see how the campers react to the different characters. One the biblical actors in the quest is a king, who treats the fishermen poorly, treats the scribes better, but treats the roman soldiers best out of all the camper groups. Some of the camper groups who are fishermen react very negatively to the king, because he treats them bad. They usually leave that station without getting anything from the character. Other groups of fishermen show the king respect, and then the king gives them what they need. In many ways a lot of the campers get to make choices and then live with the consequences in an environment where ultimately their potential losses are short-term.
After the game the groups talk about their choices and they really get to listen to each other talk about the decisions they made. Some groups are more successful than others, and a one or two groups talk even get to talk about their failures.
This activity is probably my favorite one of the summer, and I'm glad we get to do it on the best day of camp.
After the quest is the mail call, lunch, and then some rest time before church. If it sounds like I'm really breezing through the day, it's because the camp administrators have been hard at work getting ready for the next session. We have 160 campers arriving tomorrow, trips going out every day, and staff leaving and arriving to supplement the activity roster next week. I have to admit, I missed most of the afternoon but everything went really well according the team of leaders we have who plan all of the camp activities.
In the afternoon the campers rotate through four stations that are tied to the next theme year, which we're calling our 'Belong' session. At one stations they write affirmations to the other kids in their cabin, at another they cut out hands from foam and post them on the cafeteria wall, for the third station the campers do a 'fish fan' and direct wayward paper fish into the school they belong to, and finally at the fourth station the campers write a letter to their future self.
Once the rotations are finished we have dinner, vespers, and they we have a program of silly skits, games, and presentations. Once that's all over we send the campers to pack and get ready to leave on Sunday.
It was a good session, some of the campers are a little sunburned, a little chapped, a little dry, but This group really had a lot of fun. We hope to see all of you again next summer!
Blessings,
-Jeremy
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