Thursday Around Camp

Thursday Night

Hey howdy hey all you amazing blog readers! This is Heather here, with the updates on how AWESOME our week at Hume Lake has been. Today is a b-e-a-UTIFUL day, and I can’t believe we’re already getting set to come home in two days. I can already look back on this week and think of the awesome memories that have been formed: staying up late, sleeping on the “squeekingly awesome bunk beds” (as Morgan calls them), laughing forever with the girls in my cabin, and savoring the joy-filled moments of seeing our students learn more about God.
Last night, all three of our girls’ cabins went out at night to have some quality girl time. Not that we don’t love the guys, with their lack of deodorant use and above average maturity, but there’s nothing like just hangin’ together with the girls! We sat around a campfire under the stars (while enjoying some smores, I might add), and learned about how big our God really is. We learned how God created the entire universe and yet each of us are still His number one priority. Awesome :o)
Today our church had our annual mud fight, which was SO sweet! There is nothing better than sticking a hand full of fresh Hume mud into a friend’s hair :o). It’s actually a great natural shampoo; I should use mud more often. We also played the Dye Wars for Recreation today, which I LOVE! The students get a small Dixie cup to fill up with a certain color dye (don’t worry, everyone’s skin is back to normal color) and the counselors get a 24-ounce cup (so glorious) and we spill blue and red dye all over each other. By the end of it, we all looked like we belonged in a Gatorade commercial, blue and red streaks all over us!
But the best part of today was Chapel tonight. John Alvarado, our speaker for this week, spoke to the campers about discipleship and his words hit home for a lot of our students. John challenged us to think about what we need to change in our lives in order to follow Christ, and not just believe in Him. What I love most about doing ministry with middle schoolers is how although they may be silly and awkward and just learning how to be themselves, they are still able to make the choices to follow God, which is the coolest and most humbling thing to see.
Well, I think that’s it for now. The bell’s about to ring for bed tonight, and I am totally looking forward to my four hours of sleep! Good night from Hume!
-Heather

Wednesday Around Camp

Wednesday Night

Hey all you listeners out there in radioland… This is Erock signing on for the Erock’s Hume Lake update hour. As for Wednesday we had some crazy times. I’ve been having an interesting challenge with the guys in my cabin this year, which is getting them to STAY asleep. Weird problem I know… I just have bunch of guys that like to wake up at 6 am. I don’t get it. So after yelling at them to go back to sleep we went to breakfast. The mission’s speaker for chapel I felt was especially good this year. His name is PK and works for Hume Lake international. He challenged kids to realize that they can reach out to their friends in their own neighborhood. Recreation time was super loud and super crazy and rocked everyone’s face off. Super Ultimate Spirit day with a bajillion relays (4 relays) and hundreds of middle schools dressed up like robots and screaming like spazes (I know you all wish you were here). The Super awesome ROBOSLAM did really well, boosting them up in the standings. After that came lunch. I’ve been having goofing off at the meals and having some good conversations. Free time I competed in the camp foosball tournament with Nick, one of the guys from my cabin and we totally won it, boosting the ultimate team ROBOSLAM, up in the standings. After all the excitement I was able to partake with Pastor Dave in one of the most amazing gifts that God has ever given mankind. After our nap, we went and got some smoooooothies and then went off to dinner. Apparently they like to see people in pain here at camp because they had ANOTHER belly flop competition off the diving board this time. Despite the pain of it I usually have fun doing this one. Sammy, one of the guys in my cabin did it for our team and he pulled off a pretty good score. I went for the counselors and did was I felt was a solid flop. Kathy captured it on video. Maybe we can share it. Chapel seemed to connect with a lot of kids tonight that was NEET to see. We’ve had some good conversations with kids in the cabin because of it. What I love is that we are able to talk about what the speakers are saying and hopefully help the kids to understand a little more and critically think about it, rather than just take it at face value. So after chapel we had the super secret scary night game. The counselors had to go hide out in the woods while the kids came to find us and we gave them a coin, which they had to take back to their team bucket. Pastor Dave, Bayne, and I (good grammar ☺) had a great spot and we just hid out in the woods and talked as loud as we wanted because we knew we would never be found. Anyway, the game proved to have a good turn out for the amazing team, ROBOSLAM, which really boosted them up in the standings. The camps reward for the night game was a night swim, which was pleasant for the counselors as it made the kids less stinky. That night was a good time for our cabin. A lot of guys stayed up late with me memorizing Bible verses. We got a lot done which should really boost the incredible team, ROBOSLAM, up in the standings. It was a lot of fun. The kids slowly drifted off to sleep at a late hour, but it was okay because today was sleep in day. Anyway, I don’t want to ruin the next chapter the exciting saga of the Hume lake blog. Tune in next time when we reveal the exciting conclusion of the Saint Matthew Hume lake adventure extravaganza. Will ROBOSLAM show how amazing they are and bring home the win? Will any kids vomit during the mystery munch? Will the kids set a new record for the amount of wagon time received? And will Kathy and Heather finally get their kids to take a shower? Find out next time on SMLCMSHLSB (Saint Matthew Lutheran Church Middle School Hume Lake Super Blog). Thanks for listening!
-Erock

Tuesday Around Camp

Tuesday Night

This morning team Grannybots had KP duty for breakfast so we were up early setting tables and serving up pancakes and sausages. After a wonderful time of worship and praise, we heard a talk by one of the band members named Tyler. Next for recreation we played two more games, my team played in the pool sinking other teams canoes and then another games collecting the most colored balls before the time was up. After lunch a bunch of people went to play paintball—huge smiles all around upon their return despite a few paintball welts.
After dinner was the pond competition. Heather, Eric, Austin, and Nick did a fabulous job on the belly flop competition off of Noah’s nightmare. We also had a great showing of skill and courage from Brad, Justin and P.D. on the Blob.
Tonight we had several students make a decision to follow Jesus as their Savior. It was a great moment that will be the start of a life of joy and growth in faith.
Hi to all the families who haven’t heard from their family members. Camp is fun, drinking plenty of water; food tonight was the best ever. We had chicken tacos and very good apple strudel.
(Hello sweetie, you know who you are)
-Pam

Monday Around Camp