absolute blast! We were up at Tonto Rim Christian Camp in Payson for 5 nights and 4 days. I had 16 girls in my cabin initially with Miss. Miriam and the girls were all 8-11 years old. The camp organizers integrated the upcoming 2008 Olympics into the camp theme and we were Team Ethiopia! There were a lot of events planned during our stay there. We played games like human battleship, human Foosball, capture the flag, tons of water balloon events, played in the mud pit, the ever dreaded ZIP line, archery and tight rope events with so many others. All of these were worth points which would then determine the country who conquered the PVC 2008 Olympics.
Other ways we were able to obtain points were our Bible verse, the skits, keeping the cabins clean, being good 'servant leaders' around the camp and showing God's love and many other ways too many to mention!
I had 4 girls accept Christ into their hearts while at camp. It was a very moving and amazing experience to be a part of as one of my greatest memories was at kids camp when I was a kid. I really hoped to allow my girls to have the same experience as I did... Many girls conquered their fears up to and including bees, heights, moths, spiders, snakes jumping off cliffs and falling. It was so amazing!
We set a few camp records as well! The first night there, we had shower time. With the 16 girls getting in and out of 2 showers, this event took us over 2 hours to complete and we were in bed after midnight! I wanted to die the next morning as I was up and moving by 5am. So... Miriam and I figured that we needed to take this daunting task and shorten it up a LOT! We challenged the girls to see 'just how fast we could be'! All the girls were in their bathing suits and we washed in one shower and rinsed in the other... We accomplished shower time in 7 minutes and 30 seconds!!!! They were so excited and so was Miss Miriam and I! *grins*
With all of the events we had completed, coming up to the last day we were all very close in points. I believe Ethiopia was even in 3rd or 4th place by then. It was very hard to keep my girls motivated to 'stay in the game' and remain a part of why we were there at camp. All of us counselors were at our daily 'huddle' and Mrs. Adrienne was talking about the statistics of the 'once in a lifetime eating a spider in your sleep'. She laughed and said the chances were good for this to happen due to being in the mountains and the spider infested cabins. She said that if anyone ate a spider in their sleep and captured it on camera, she would give 500,000 points! Now, mind you, every event was worth a few thousand to maybe 50,000 points. 500,000 was an UNGODLY amount of points. So, with my brain wheels spinning I asked her if she was serious. I quickly went to my girls and proposed the challenge to them. I told them I would put the spider in my mouth if they would take the picture. Now, these girls were the ones who SCREAMED their LUNGS OUT if they even heard someone say 'spider', let alone help me find one for this goal I decided to make. They were so excited and couldn't wait to help me find the spider!
So, on our last event day we went around to conquer them and continue getting our points, but still keeping our eyes open for the perfect opportunity for this crazy spider idea. The girls were looking around every corner for spiders and kept finding these tiny spiders that fit on the end of a pencil. I kept telling them, 'bigger girls, bigger!' Seriously, I don't want big ones but I was thinking, "if I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do it RIGHT the first time!" We came across a small shack on our travels and I began to look in there and GOOD LORD did I find a MILLION, HUGE daddy long legs! My skin began to crawl and I felt quite a bit sweaty with my heart rate beginning to race. I knew I HAD to do this as I had been encouraging the girls that 'you can do it!' all week long when their fears were getting the best of them. So, with my hands shaking and my skin crawling, I reached out and on the 16 try, I pulled a big ol' honkin' spider out. The girls were just SCREAMING! ...I was crying inside... *ugh*
Anyway, long story short, I put about the spider in my mouth but the camera missed the shot. It took me about 10 attempts, which also meant I had to keep going in the shack for more big ol' honkin' spiders, to finally get the end result for our points. I finished mine... then the girls became 10 feet tall and spider proof and 3 MORE of my GIRLS DID IT TOO!!!! Needless to say, we had more than enough proof that TEAM ETHIOPIA ROCKS!
Our camp events came to a close and we had to do our skits that we worked hard on... for about a few hours, realistically! I had a grand idea for our skits but the girls said they wanted to do a skit about beavers instead. BEAVERS?! I asked... So, there was this song called 'the beaver song' that we sang around the campfire. The girls would sing it all day long, they LOVED it! They wanted to use the biblical story of Elijah and Ahab and their duel of God's at Mount Carmel in the characters of beavers. In this story, there was a group of beavers who believed in God. The one true God. In their travels, they came upon other beavers who were worshiping to their 'gods', the 'bucked-tooth god', the 'wood god' and unbelieving beavers who they shared the story of God. The beavers who worshiped the wrong god, they in turn chose to follow the true God. I have to tell you, I laughed at their skit as they wrote their lines on their own, they chose their characters and their emotions on their own... it was THEIR skit. It was so cute... I recorded it but my camera died too quickly.
The girls won the BRONZE medal for their performance!
Anywho... Our last day. The girls were very excited they got to go home that day. We all met down at the campfire area for our closing ceremonies. I had a few of the girls at my side when they were giving the medals away. As the announcers closed in on the last 2 remaining teams, they quickly screeched when they realized that TEAM ETHIOPIA won the GOLD MEDAL!!!!! Yah-Hoo!!!!
I am so grateful for being able to serve in this part of God's great work. I wasn't even able to go initially, as they had more than enough help there but with events and changes, I was able to be there. I am so blessed and believe that just as much as they were changed and inspired at camp... so was I.
One last thought... It has been almost a month since camp. I am still getting the chills when I reflect on the spider incident. I can still feel it crawling on my face and down my neck when it is brought up. Whenever anything touches my body and it even feels creepy like that day, I get chills from the top of my head to the tips of my toes... Good times!
