Alabama Camp 2012

We had a staff meeting at the Bessemer church Wednesday morning, went to Chick-Fil-A with some of the crowd, then back to the house with Brian & Liz Denard (we really enjoyed visiting with them--and they have the cutest kids EVER) to kill some time before heading to the campground. It still feels bizarre that we drive less than 30 minutes (instead of many hours) to get to Camp!

We got all settled in and then my campers started arriving. This year I had the girls ages 9-11. Joe & Sam had Matt Barnes for their cabin leader this year, and James stayed in the room with them, too. They loved Brother Matt. Mostly because he rarely knew where they were or what they were doing. Ha! Okay, so it probably wasn't THAT bad, but they certainly had more freedom this year than what they expected.

Amy Anders was our evangelist this year and she did a great job. She is just such a blessing. She has such a wonderful spirit and is so sincere. She's in tune with the young people and has such a love and burden for them. We had really good services, good worship, and good prayers. I was especially blessed on the last night of Camp. There were a couple of young people still unsaved and the service was drawing to a conclusion, it felt. But there had been so many people working with these kids and talking to them and praying for them all through the week and they just weren't willing to give up yet! In the end, nobody in the building made it out the door before coming to the altar and giving their hearts to the Lord. There were at least three saved that night and I would say it is due to the determination and the love in God's Church that compelled them. It was beautiful.

James taught the teen class this year. I was able to sit in on the first class and I was just amazed at how well he did! Is it horrible to be shocked by that?! Ha! James has changed soooooo much over the past several years and it just blows my mind that he actually seems to enjoy being with young people (he never was one, you know--skipped from "kid" straight to "old man"!) and how easily he seemed to relate to them in the class. I was so impressed. :-) There was one slight (or not so slight) blunder that was unfotunately memorable, but it really wasn't James' fault. ;-)

The other two days I went to class with my girls. Brother Brandon taught that age group and he had a tough crowd! Ha! This camp helped me to discover that I'm not very good with the pre-teen age. Hahahaha! No, I enjoyed it. But I'm not as good at relating to them. They're not little kids any more so they're past the kiddy stuff, but they're not quite to the age where things CLICK in their heads or where they're really interested in focusing and paying attention to what you're saying. Sometimes it's hard to tell if they've "gotten" anything that you've said to them! Ha! Brother Brandon experienced a whole lot of that during his class. ;-) But he did a really great job teaching the kids about the armor of God.

What else... Katie was in the Sewing Club this year and made a great skirt out of two pairs of jeans. :-) Joe and Sam were both in the Leather Working / Survival Club with Dustin Warren. They LOVED it and each came away with a little leather pouch full of who-knows-what that they keep tied to their belt loops at all times now. All of the real little kids (ages 8 and under?) spent the Club hour playing on a Slip-n-Slide. I was asked to help keep an eye on that, otherwise I would have worked in at least one or two naps sometime during the week! Ha! It was soooooooo hot at Camp and the only thing that made it bearable to sit in the miserable temps while watching the little ones slide was the knowledge that swim time was the next thing on the agenda. :-)

This campground has the best pool ever. With the temperature at 106 or more (can you imagine--along with muggy southern air!!!) the pool was the ONLY relief to be found. In fact, the only time we spent outside at all this year is when we were walking from one air conditioned building to the next, or when we were in the pool! And for me, only the deep end was worthwhile. I spend the hour over there anyway, diving and diving and diving some more, but I did wander over to the shallow side once--and discovered that the water over there was way too warm for my liking! I prefer sitting on the bottom of the deep end, thank you. In fact, after the last service we had a baptismal service at the pool and several people who hadn't planned on it decided to be baptized after all, feeling like they just wanted to obey the Lord. It was soooooo hot and muggy that night. I told James afterward that I had really obeyed the Lord by NOT being baptized--because there is nothing I wanted more than to jump into that pool, but it would have been for all the wrong reasons! Ha!

What else... Sister Kristal and Dalton were in charge of Fun Time this year and they did a fantastic job. On the last day of camp we had no lifeguard and therefore couldn't use the pool, so it was decided that we would have an extended Fun Time that afternoon. It was a great decision--and nice and cool in there. ~Aaaaaahhhh~ They had set out nomination sheets at the beginning of the week for "Alabama's Got Talent." You could nominate somebody and list their particular talent. If that card was chosen, they had to go up front and demonstrate it for us. It was so great! It was fun and fast moving and so diversified. One of the best things was Samantha and Nasha doing their impersonation of a Spanish Overseer and his interpreter at the General Assembly. Hahahaha! They did sooooo good and it was sooooo funny. Sister Kristal and I had to sing opera and yodel (she did the opera, thank goodness), Jeremy Wallace threw a ball with his toes (gross), little Addy Anders (9 months old?) walked across the stage with her Mom's assistance (so cute), Joe sang a song and (get this--) Sam did the hula. I couldn't believe Sam actually got up front and participated!!! There were lots of other things I'm failing to recall right now. Everybody was a good sport and it was such fun. Maybe it just seemed like it from my perspective (!), but James was the star of the show. He did a dramatic reading of When the Church of God Arises, followed by several impersonations. He did the usual ones--Brother Ammons, Brother Byers, Brother Ard--then added a new one to the ensamble: Janet Talley. :-) He would KILL me if I posted the video on my blog, but I so wish I could. I laugh out loud every time I even think about it! Ha! It's just amazing. Truly amazing. Sister Janet was on the front row, but not for long. Within about 10 seconds she had laughed herself right down to the floor. It was sooooooo great!

Hhmmm... That's all I can really remember about Camp, so I guess I'll post the few pictures that I took. It's not very many, but I didn't take ANY last year so it's a big improvement.

These are my girls: Kayla, Kaleigh, Madison, and Katie. I also had Elizabeth, but she didn't show up until later on. Our Camp theme this year was "Stand" and I had made these shirts with the girls on the first day during our devotion time. We talked about how much we need one another and how important it is to have good, godly friends to help you stand for the Lord, as well as the need to live right and encourage others in their walk with the Lord. Then we painted everybody's feet with fabric paint and they all stamped each other's shirts ("Stand," get it?), then I added each girl's name next to her footprint. It was fun!

And they had to do that crazy face thing. :-)
The only other pictures worth showing are these--but the require a bit of explanation. On Friday night of Camp, after service, I put my girls to bed and left them with Sister Ridlespurge. (She was the leader for the younger girls and we shared the same building.) Fun Time was just beginning down in the chapel and it was the perfect opportunity to slip away and have some fun at the staff house. :-) I knew that the directors and deans would be at the chapel with everybody else, so I got my prank supplies together, filled a basin full of water, and started off for the staff house. I was intercepted on my way there by Sister Karen, the women's dean (of all people!), but she didn't know what I was up to so there was no reason to panic. She said they needed me for Fun Time, so I put my supplies down and went to the chapel. Throughout the day I had been asked at least 3 or 4 times if I would be at Fun Time that night, so when I walked in and saw they were doing Kangaroo Court it didn't take too long to figure out I would be on trial for something. I had been an angel at Camp thus far (after all, my immediate plans had been postponed!) so the only thing I could think of was the prank I had pulled last year--stealing beds, mattresses, and bedding from one of the cabins and hauling them to the middle of the campground and stacking them up. I had the teenage girls last year and they thought it was the best thing ever. Anyway, I was right--that's what I was on trial for. How ironic. To be interrupted from pulling a prank so you could go stand trial for last year's prank. Ha! Josh Anders was the judge, Jeremy Wallace was the prosecuting attorney, and I represented myself--simply because I wasn't sure a single person in the building would actually be on my side and defend my case! Ha! It was fun, but I thought of a thousand things later on that I could have/should have said in my own defense. Isn't that always the way it goes?! I was found guilty, of course, and sentenced to carry a pillow with me all day long the next day. It was the best sentence ever. Ha! That was the last day of Camp and I was sooooo tired. It was nice to have a pillow everywhere I went. :-)

Anyway, since my plans had been inadvertently sabotaged the night before I decided that breakfast would be my next best chance. I set a look-out at the cafeteria to make sure none of the residents of the staff house disappeared and might catch me in the act (Brother Brandon was more than happy to assist), then grabbed Katie and headed to the staff house--where I had stashed the goods under the desk the night before. In less than 10 minutes we filled nearly 400 Dixie cups with water and placed them in front of each of the four doors, then filled in the middle as much as we could.

I was having a grand time and I truly thought that Katie would be ecstatic to be included in such merry making. Nope. She complained the whole time. "Mom! I can't believe we're doing this! We're going to get in trouble. --It's the STAFF house!!!" I kept trying to get her in the spirit of things, but to no avail. "Katie, can't you feel that they-could-walk-through-the-door-any-minute rush?! Hurry, hurry, hurry! This is FUN!!!!"

When we were about half way through Brother Jeremy went driving by on the golf cart. We thought he was coming so we knocked a few cups over on our way to go hide underneath the desk (ha!), but he just drove on by. ~whew~ Close one. :-) We fixed what we had spilled and had lined cups up almost all the way out to the exit door when Katie said, "Hey, where are my sunglasses?" Do you see the red sunglasses on the counter in the upper right hand corner of the shot??? ~sigh~ Bad planning. Since I wasn't rushing to hide under a desk (!) I managed to tip-toe in between cups without toppling any of them to retrieve the shades. On my way back I noticed that my cell phone was on the gray chair! Ha! I would be pretty ashamed of myself for leaving evidence like that at the scene of the crime, so it was a good thing I went for the shades otherwise I wouldn't have ever thought of the phone again.

We rushed back to our cabin to stash the empty cup boxes and put the basin away, then dared to go back to the Staff House just long enough to step in the door and take a picture together. First ever Mother/Daughter Prank. "Train up a child in the way she should go..."
As it turns out, Katie needs lots and lots of training in the prank department. Not only was she no fun during the prank, she was a nervous wreck afterwards. After breakfast we all loaded up on the bleachers to take our Camp picture. Sister Karen down beside Katie. Kate leaned over to me and whispered frantically, "Mom, she's sitting right next to me!!!!" I told her to RELAX, she knows nothing, she has nothing to hide, just play it cool. [Note: the Dixie cups we used had pink and gray polka dots.] Sister Karen leaned over the Katie and said, "I like polka dots... And pink is my absolute favorite color." To which Katie replied, "It wasn't my fault--I had nothing to do with it--it was my Mom's idea and she made me do it!!!!!!" Hahahahahahahaha! Crazy kid. That is NOT how to play the game. Still, it was quite funny. :-) And whether Kate ever enjoys pulling pranks, ever gets good at it, or ever learns how to play it cool, we have fun memories of this time.

And when we went to our cabin later on, this is what we found. This is my bed. :-)
My girls didn't seem too upset over having the room trashed. We cleaned up the toilet paper quickly enough, then they sat and played with the cups for a good little while. :-)

Ah, yes. My favorite part about the prank... Brother Jeremy was the first one to discover the Dixie cups. Not knowing they were there, he swung the door wide open and knocked several over, then said he felt like Godzilla walking through Tokyo trying to get to his room so he could make it to the restroom. Hahahaha! I love the mental image I get of that. :-) I asked him if he knocked any more over. "Oh, yeah!"

Oh, wait--I almost forgot! Saturday afternoon court was called back into session and I was exonerated due to the good deed that I had done (by pranking the STAFF) and no longer had to carry my pillow. It was bittersweet. I was still tired. Ha!