Thursday Night

Another wake up bell at 7 this morning.. NO WAIT! 8!!! We got to sleep in a whole hour and boy was it great! Started the day off with another delicious breakfast followed by separate chapel meetings for the boys and the girls in which the staff took turns sharing about some of the challenges for adolescent Christians. The speakers emphasized the importance of having close-knit and Christ-centered groups of friends of our own genders, holding each other accountable for our actions, and how guys and girls can treat each other in loving kindness and respect for each other.
After chapel was an awesome recreation time—the dye war! Everybody was given a cup and each larger team of the Spritzerizers and the Pie Wielders went at it against each other, soaking each other in either blue or red dye. It was a blast! By the end everyone was some shade of purple, with blue shadows left on our faces from dye dripping down, or red cuticles and creases in our hands from dipping into huge buckets of food-coloring-dyed water to refill for colorful drenching of our opponents. Afterward everybody enjoyed a giant slip-and-slide competition and filled up on a picnic lunch of hot dogs and chili.
The afternoon was once again filled with activity, with a handful of kids participating in the Foosball (Zach & Caleb took 2nd & Sammy & Taylor took 4th) and ping-pong tournaments and another large group heading out around the lake to the cove to hike (well, more like slip and slide) up the trickling stream that flows into the lake. We had a few casualties (more bruises to show off—woohoo!) but nothing serious, and everyone had a blast! A trip to the high school camp to visit the Hume Lake clothing store for souvenirs and the snack shop for ice cream and milkshakes was a great ending to the afternoon!
Dinner again as usual, and then a special concert played for us by Grayson, the band that is here to lead us in worship this week! They played worship songs that we all knew and could sing along too and then shared a couple of their own! It was a blast singing loudly, dancing wildly, and overall greatly enjoying the music.
Chapel came next, in which our speaker Shawn challenged us to call on the Lord in prayer, creating a closer relationship between us and our Heavenly Father as well as giving us the opportunity to give God our burdens as well as our praises. In our closing prayer many of us recommitted our lives to Christ, making promises to consistently pray in order to pursue our relationships with our Lord and Savior!.
Free time included a skate competition which many of the kids attended as well as an opportunity to meet the members of the worship band (Grayson, Chris, and Josh). It was another very full day, and it is so exciting to see not only how much fun the kids are having, but also how they are discovering themselves, their faith, and delving deeper into their relationships with God! It is truly amazing!
Last full day at camp tomorrow—I know we’ll all be ready to head home by Saturday morning but be sad to leave Meadow Ranch and Hume Lake at the same time!
~Lindsay Pattison