7th 8th Grade 2012

7th 8th grade camp

                For those of you that have been following our daily blog I am sure you are wondering why we have not written anything regarding 7th and 8th grade camp. Simple explanation was that we forgot. Life in the day of summer camp can become crazy, for those of you that had campers here last week we will try to give you a brief summary of what took place.

                As all of our camps this year our theme is "The Journey, keeping our eyes on Jesus" and our verse is John 8:12. The campers had the opportunity to go to chapel twice a day and hear a message given by our speaker Neal Heitmann. Neal spoke about our walk with Christ being a journey that we are all on everyday for the rest of our life. He touched on many different areas including who is Jesus, saved by grace, Joshua's call, resting in the lord, and Enduring the race.

                We were blessed to have Pastor Jeremiah Lange and his family join us for the week. Jeremiah has traditionally been our Pastor for high school week the last several years. Due to scheduling conflict he was not able to come out during high school week but did not want to miss out on a week at the woods spending time with campers and staff. Jeremiah comes out here to have fun with campers but also is a great resource for our counselors as they are leading their campers throughout the week.

                The campers enjoyed all the usual activities Westminster Woods has to offer in addition to being of age to participate in Paintball tournaments. This is an activity that many of the campers take advantage of. Although many campers fear the activity at first sight they soon realize it is enjoyable as the adrenaline kicks in. We love to hear the "war stories" and see the "battle wounds" as the campers retell their experiences.

                During the middle of the week the campers had an opportunity to split up between genders and go hang out with their counselors for the night. During this time two things happen, first they play a game to get everyone involved and comfortable with each other. Then they go back to their cabins and have  gender specific conversations to open up for questions they may have, or issues specific to their age.

                On the last night of camp Pastor Jeremiah served communion around a camp fire in the outdoor sanctuary. He shared his own personal story of being a camper in the mountains of Arizona when he was in the seventh grade and accepting Christ for the first time not knowing where his journey would take him. It is always an amazing experience to watch these young people start to make their faith their own. Sitting in the outdoor sanctuary with the fire, looking above at the stars and hearing the children sing never gets old.