Ok, this is Evan. For the next hour or so I will be typing on a computer that could freeze up on me any second now. So, where do I begin?
I guess I should go chronologically- Starting with camp.
I spent four weeks at Camp Good News in New Waverly (near Huntsville) as a Junior Counselor. I worked with a certain cabin and also got to know all sorts of other kids. The first week I worked I worked with 7, 8, 9, and almost 10 year olds… big age range. The second week I worked with 11 and 12 year olds. The third week I worked with 7 year olds from Star of Hope. The fourth and final week for me I worked with 11, 12, and 13 year olds. Boy, was it hard… but it was fun.
Fortunately the week after the first week of camp I wrote down memories. All the other weeks are all jumbled up in my head… but this one is very comprehensive. So here it is- my first week of the summer…
Well, I will go through each week bit by bit and see if it comes out okay.
Cabin- NOAH’S ARK
I worked with Noah’s Ark, the youngest kids ages 7-9, with Daniel, AKA Pinto due to his Hispanic heritage, for the first week. Here is our cabin picture. http://forestglen.gospelcom.net/assets/images/db_images/db_IMG_4702w4.jpg
Well, that first kid with the Norwegian-American t-shirt… whew… we sure had problems with him… boy, i hated him so much… gosh! errr! garrr! Anyway, moving on…
Travis– was okay, very quiet most of the times, pretty good most of the time. Wesley (back row)- Well, Wesley was interesting. He and his brother Dillon were there together, and sometimes he was a hassle, but overall, he was cool. I’m pretty sure I took him to the nurse more than ten times (six or seven being in one day!). It was hard trying to describe how The Church is Christ’s Bride to him…
Charles– He ended up getting our Cabin Award. He was so awesome! And he was only seven! He would always walk up to me and look up at me, and so I would always figure something was wrong and would ask “What’s wrong?” and he would just look at me and say… “Hewwo”
Dillon– Sigh. Boy, Dillon was a handful. Actually he was more than a handful… he was six handfuls, seeing as me and Daniel sometimes had to rely on Tim and Phil for help with him. He got saved that week! It was awesome! However, he was still very young, and made me think that 7 year olds weren’t ready for camp… but then again we had charles…
Nicholas– Boy, Nicholas was cool. He had a brother that I remember from two years ago. But Nick was cool cause he really liked to talk about God and the Bible and other subjects. I remember that during the week he told me he wrote a song about Judgement Day, and he got really excited about becoming a songwriter and becoming famous and teaching others about God… he was so funny.
Daniel– He was awesome to work with. He was a lifeguard in the past, so it was his first time to be a Sr. Counselor, or a counselor at all, but I think he did awesome. We really just shared the responsibilities and had tons of fun. It was hard sometimes, but we worked all things out.
Antoine– (bottom row, far left)- Boy, Antoine was just funny to see sometimes. He was pretty cool. He snored. That wasn’t cool. Anyway, he was just a fun part of our cabin.
Jared– I knew him last year, since he was the son of the nurse and braeden mcdonald’s (a cit in my cabin last year) little brother. He was pretty cool, and it felt like he was a third counselor sometimes. He had a passion to study the verses.
Chris– He was quiet, but then he would talk alot. He was pretty funny. When we did gatekeeper, he put down an interesting answer. Yeah.
Adam– He was very good, and I didn’t have to discipline him very much at all.
Other campers
The Twins- Ben (with the Bump) and Caleb– I knew them last year, so when I saw them again this year I was happy. They are both so funny, but can be though-provoking, if you know what I mean…
Dillon– Big D- The one thing I remember about him was how when he worshiped, he had his eyes closed and sang with his heart. Sometimes he was off key, but he worshiped in “spirit and in truth”. I wish I could have told him how awesome that was.
John– I had to ask him his name 4 or 5 or 6 times before I got it. Once when I asked it, he told it to me and said, “You should know it by now. I’ve told you 5 times now.” I made sure I knew his name after that
Critter– He won the Bible Award, and was really friendly with everyone. He was also great at dodgeball, and whenever I got him out and he asked why I told him because he was the MVP of the team…
Daniel– Was really quiet, but played the piano like Bach… He also looked like the kid from Sixth Sense…
Vaughn– Um, I… never mind… yeah…
Austin– Really small and quiet. Hardly EVER talked. It was fun to talk to him sometimes.
Cody– yellow ribbon, big smile… ha ha
Hayden– Pretty awesome
Counselors- in one word
Jacob- Friendly. John- Quiet. Darryl- Cool. Robert- In-Control. Dr. Phil- Entertaining. Tim- McAwesome. Pixie- Sweet (like a pixie stick… ha ha ha). Lauren (Nanny Fran)- Funny. Sarah- Fun-loving. Deseree- Fun. Tammy- Smile. Matt- Jocular. Jadin- Scary. Kory- Loving.
Activities we had
Fishing– fished with hamburger meat that fell off the hook. AKA- we caught nothing.
Counselor Hunt– I didn’t get caught! I hid by the lake and crouched behind my backpack and people came and went, and NEVER SAW ME! Even when Mark came by with my campers, Antoine sat down and was sitting right in front of me and didn’t see me!!! It was so cool not to get caught.
BBs– We think Wesley might have shot his hand with a BB…
Archery– The kids couldn’t reach that far back…
Blob– The Kids FLEW!!!
Ropes– The kids did the zipline and loved it, except it was scary when Adam lost all feeling in his hands…
Dodgeball– it wasn’t an actual official activity. Just at free time we played it a lot. It was one of the best things ever! I loved it… especially since as a counselor, I was a lot better than the kids… Also sometimes we’d play counselors versus campers- i.e.- murder!
Crazy games– I only got to play about one of them… (kids complaining about ants, prickles, water, shoes, sun, etc. which meant me sitting with them and watching them)… it was good.
Pool time– Throwing kids in the water = always fun
Talent Show
Well, this was one of the most comprehensive talent shows evah! EVAH! Basically, there were three things we incorporated together.
1. The Sin Box
2. Real Life Situations
3. Dancin’
Listen. The song “You are God Alone is playing in the background.” The first part had one of the kids- Wesley- walking with Jesus, when he steps in the Sin Box (a little cardboard box that is stuck on his foot). Then he goes through three situations. The first is a bunch of kids disobeying their dad (me!), and Wesley joins in on it. The second was a classroom where a bunch of kids throw paper wads at the teacher, and he joins in again. The third is a cabin trying to have devotions, but the kids have a pillow fight and he joins in again. Then, my memory gets a little hazy. Basically, Jesus takes the box. Then Wesley goes through the situations again, but does the right thing. Then Jesus is crucified while standing in the box and Wesley bows down before Him. Scene.
The second part has three different situations in which kids hear those two voices on their shoulders, one telling them to do the wrong thing and one telling them to do the right thing. The first part had some kids playing a basketball game and one kids fouls Antoine. He then runs up and is about to hit the kid when someone yells “FREEZE!”. Phil was the “bad” voice, and I was the “good” one. (Wow! Me? Good? Nah!) Phil tried to convince Antoine to hit him and I try to stop him. Antoine hits him anyway, and then gets in trouble. We rewind and redo it, and when he doesn’t hit the kid, he is commended. The second scene has a classroom with some kids taking a test and one kids is tempted to cheat. Same thing. Finally, we staged a dodge ball fight in which a kid gets out and tries to hide it. Same thing. It was good.
Finally, we turned some music on and the kids danced. Boo Yah!
————————————-OVERALL—————————————-
It was fun. I found it hard to have little kids and an unexperienced Sr. Counselor (not that he was bad- just it was his first time working as a counselor). It was fun getting to know other kids. I loved it there. On a scale from 1 to 10, with 1 being the worst seven days of my life and 10 being perfect, I’d rate this week as a 7.75.
Buh bye.
Counselor Uno