Surf City 2013 - Day 5

It's time to head home and many of our students have insisted that the week has gone by way too fast. In just a few short hours our feet will hit the ground in Pittsburgh and we will be back to the "real world." Nobody wants to leave, but all agree it would be nice to be home.

Yesterday started out with the normal routine of breakfast and seminars. After we heard the current point standings, we were eager to compete in our final competition... the highly anticipated Surf City Regatta! Each team is given some basic building materials and given the challenge to build a boat. Teams decorate their boats and team members and then perform in a parade to flaunt their accomplishments in front of the other teams for the sake of intimidation. Teams then race their boats to bring home the glory. We fought to the end and came in a respectable second place.

After lunch, some of our group went horseback riding and the rest of us spent the day at the waterfront playing in the water, getting last minute tube rides in, and finally mustering up enough courage to let Jordy blob them into oblivion. We almost lost Julianne forever.

That evening was another round of club. We rocked out to the music, cheered on our favorite circus bears as they set out to start their new career as successful rappers, and listened to our speaker Jerry challenge us to do something with our faith.

We ended the night with a huge carnival complete with cotton candy, tons of games and even a dunk tank willed with 50 fish from the lake. Students played different carnival games and earned tickets. They could use their tickets to either win prizes or take a shot at dunking their leader into the fish-filled water. Jenn and Andrew both took one for the team last night and took the plunge. The carnival ended with an incredible firework show. We all went back to the cabins for our final night in camp. Then the boys decided to get even with their leader Andrew. You see, the morning before Andrew thought it would be funny to draw on some faces as students slept in. What he didn't anticipate was them deciding to ban together and revolt against him. The result is the picture below. Classic!

It's been an amazing week. I truly believe we made memories that will last forever... but more importantly I hope our students took to heart the challenge to follow Jesus and do something with their lives that could impact the world around them for good. We are packing up now and getting ready to leave. Looking forward to seeing you tonight!

Surf City 2013 - Day 4

Another day has come and gone at Surf City and it didn't disappoint. We continued our morning routine with breakfast and seminars. After that, they gathered everybody together for a morning of field games to add to our already abundant point totals. We competed in all kinds of games like full-contact  rock-paper-scissors, crab soccer, building a human pyramid, and even constructing and acting out our favorite Kennywood ride. We decided to act-out the Pittsburgh Plunge with Timmy Gibson as the actual plunge car.... we even had a big splash at the end! The judges loved it and awarded us first place.  I refrained from celebrating too excessively because one of the teams consisted of students from Wisconsin who haven't a clue what Kennywood even is. Opps!

After lunch our crew ventured out to test our courage on the wave runners that have now been renamed "boater-cycles." I always love taking students out on the wave runners, especially if they've never been on one before. It can really be a terrifying and exciting experience. In order to get out to the beach the crew had to scale an Everest-like sand dune with a picturesque view that would take your breath away... mainly because you're out of shape... but it's beauty adds to the lack of oxygen too. Everyone loved flying around on the water at high speeds doing hairpin turns. The leaders had to do some serious convincing to get some of the kids out on the water but it was a blast. My favorite moment was hearing Megan, who's normally pretty quiet...screaming at the top of her lungs at the speed of the boater-cycle. 

We spent the remainder of the afternoon at the waterfront swimming and eating our snack bar bounty. After dinner was another installment of club. We all strained to sing with our exhausted vocal chords and laughed at the continuation of Rocky and Sprinkles the circus bears. Last night our speaker Jerry shared with the students the fact that no matter what, the only thing that can save us from the sin in our lives is the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. After the message, we have a camp tradition that we send the students out on their own for twenty minutes of silence. Students are instructed to go out on their own in silence, sit under the stars and maybe for the first time in their lives; make a decision to follow Jesus. It's powerful to see hundreds of students sitting by themselves and wrestling with the reality that regardless of where they've been or what they've done, the Creator of the world still cares and desires a personal relationship with them. I love this place.

That's it for day four. We only have one full day left and then we start our trek back home. I can't wait for your kids to share their stories and experiences with you. Keep praying for us. 

Surf City 2013 - Day 3

Another great day at Surf City 2013... and there's so much to share! Yesterday started off with breakfast and seminars and then we jumped on some buses that took us down the road to the beautiful dunes of Lake Michigan. It's a beautiful scene of water and sand. I love how the view confuses a lot of the first time campers. If I had a nickel for every time I overheard a student refer to Lake Michigan as an "ocean" I think I'd have a solid retirement plan! While at the beach, our teams fought to win some more points for our team. The first competition was a team tug-of-war. If you remember my last post, it shouldn't surprise you to hear that tug-of-war dominance wasn't our destiny. So, we brushed off our sand covered bodies and set our sights to the next task which was sand sculpting...more our speed. We made a huge sand Fruit Loop and Kracken since we are the mighty Blue Kracken Fruit Loops! The judges loved our creativity and attention to detail. We will find out today if we took home first place. 

We spent the rest of the afternoon at the waterfront playing cards, swimming and round after round of Gaga ball. Gaga ball is a game sort of like dodgeball that takes place in a small, round arena. You have to hit the ball with a fist at other players and try to hit them below the knee to get them out. Last man standing wins. Many of our students have taken up residence there and have even earned new nicknames because of their frequency. For example, Vaden Pegg is now referred to as "Froggy" around camp because he jumps around everywhere in what they affectionately call the "pit." It's entertaining to watch. 

Last night we rocked out again at club and laughed hard watching the circus bears Rocky and Sprinkles  show off their magic skills. Our speaker Jerry then talked to the students about how each and every one of us have waste in our lives called sin and if left untreated...it can cause some serious problems. Students went back to the cabins to talk about how they see sin in the world and how it affects all of us. 

We ended the night with an epic dodgeball tournament. One of my favorite moments happened when our boys were getting creamed by a much larger and intimidating dodgeball team. The guys were getting picked off one by one. The only man left standing was Owen Price... and you could see the fear growing in his eyes. Owen would even tell you that dodgeball wasn't his strong suit. In true underdog fashion, Owen miraculously started taking each one of the other players out. It came down to a one-on-one show down with seconds ticking off the clock. Unfortunately with only two seconds remaining, Owen was eliminated. However, our guys still celebrated like we had won because it was such an accomplishment to last as long as they had. What a great way to end the evening. 

That's all for now. It's hard to believe our crew will already be traveling home in a couple of days! Continue to be praying for us as we laugh, share stories and talk more about what it means to have a life changing relationship with Jesus. 

Surf City 2013 - Day 2

Is it really already Tuesday? We've been having so much fun this week at camp and it seems to be flying by! Yesterday was jam-packed with fun,...we started the day off like we always to with morning Bible study and breakfast. After breakfast each morning we head to morning seminars. The theme this year is relationships. The students gather at an outdoor amphitheater and hear one of the talented Surf City staff share about their life stories and their relationship with God.

After seminars the camp tested their skills in the Great Cabin Challenge! As a cabin, we all participated in every kind of skills challenge under the sun! Challenges included a half court shot, acting out your favorite disney movie scene, sweating to the oldies with Richard Simmons, and even guiding a camper through the most difficult of obstacles....blindfolded. Caden scored some points for our team by practically flying up the rock wall in record time. The only challenge our boys really struggled with was trying to "carry your leader" the length of a football field. Now I know Jordan Fuller isn't the smallest of fellas, but I think the 8th grade boys embarrassed themselves enough to start a workout routine as soon as we get back from camp.

The weather has been a little on the chilly side so far here at camp, but that didn't stop our kids from the thrill of Surf City tubing yesterday. My favorite part was being able to sit in the back of the speed boat and hear Corey hit octaves I did think were possible as he skipped across the water. It was hilarious. A lot of our crew also spent majority of the afternoon at the Battle Barge. It's a padded floating dock that students push each other off of in a "king-of-the-hill" style game. It's extremely entertaining to watch.

That evening we had another installment of club where students rocked out with the camp band. We've been learning a few new songs but the kids really love rocking out to some of the classics! Jerry also shared more last night about the greatest love story ever told. Students have really connected with him and can't wait to hear what he's going to share next.

We ended the night with what we call Entertainment Night. The student participate in stage games with their teams to score points. Jake was our team representative in the animal game where he had to do his best animal impressions. Needless to say, I think he found his true calling in life. The highlight of Entertainment Night was when might blue team took home first place by acting out Toy Story for the whole camp. It was awesome.

That's all for now, please continue to be praying for us as students have one of the most amazing and memorable weeks of their lives.

Surf City 2013 - Day 1

As I sit here blurry-eyed... it's difficult for me to remember what exactly happened in the last twenty four hours. That's when you know we are already having a blast at Surf City 2013! Our travel day was fairly uneventful, other than watching some disney classics and trading McDonald's Monopoly pieces like they were the rarest gems. We arrived at camp and set our feet into the soft sands of Michigan.

Once we got settled into our cabins, we woofed down some camp food and headed to take our swim tests. The water was slightly warmer than the Arctic, but we all survived. Next we were spilt up into teams for the week. We will be on the same team for all of our competitions. They made us conjure up a team name and we were instructed to use a mixture of a mythical creature and a cereal. Our crew came up with the "Blue Kracken Fruit Loops" The points started rolling in... Kylie and Rylee drew us up an awesome flag and we won the first competition. The challenge was measuring how loud our team could get with a decibel reader. Needless to say I wasn't surprised our group was the loudest. I didn't need any kind of scientific contraption to tell me your kids are loud! :)

After our competitions, we headed to one of my favorite camp activities...CLUB! Every night all of camp gathers together to sing some songs, watch a hilarious skit and hear a great speaker challenge them to build a life-changing relationship with Jesus. Our speaker Jerry started out the night making fun of some of the leaders by finding their dopplegangers (famous look-a-likes). Jerry challenged each of us to think about who we look like... not just physically, but who we look like in our actions, in our attitudes, in our emotions. Jerry told us that he was going to tell an amazing story this week about our Creator and how he sees each and every one of us. I can't wait to hear and see our students wrestle with the truth that our lives are meant to be so much more... and my prayer is that they passionately embrace that in a life-altering way. I hope you do the same.

We ended the night with a huge surprise...even to the Surf City Alumni... they rushed us to some buses and gave out glow necklaces and we played a huge game of Dune Wars (capture the flag) under the most amazing starry skies you could ever dream of. It was awesome!

That's all for now... it was a great first day. Check back every morning for new updates and pictures.

Surf City 2013

Check back here daily for updates about our amazing week at camp!