children's two: Tuesday

What's a week of kid's camp without counselor dressup?

Today was also our ever-popular Youth Farm carnival, topped off with a light frosting of freezing cold water in the dunk tank. i still think we should call it a dump tank, though . . .

Anyway, life has a strange way of teaching important lessons. Today's was, don't feed seven pounds of sugar-based products to fifty pre-adolescent campers just a few hours before bedtime. Enjoy the pictures while we try to get some sleep tonight.

children's 2: Monday

Statistically speaking, any group of campers' number one favorite thing about summer camp is the food. Today, our campers got to make their own supper!


Even if it's in a slough, I love canoeing. Don't fall in, guys!

children's 2: Sunday

On the first day of camp, the camp gets split up into teams that will compete for a gigantic ice cream sundae at the end of the week. This week's teams are, in no particular order, The Pink Pengins, Banaples, Purple Pickle Eaters, Little Red riding Hood (and the Big Bad Wolf and the Hunters), Angelic Broncorono Pirates of the Youth Farm Caribbean and Los Soldatos de Dios. Should be a hot one, but a good one.

asn3: pic of the week

Robiiiinnnnn!

asn3: Thursday

Supper was so good tonight for our weekly banquet, and everyone was looking pretty spiffy. Would you believe there's no cover charge for a place this classy? Well, except for . . . you know. Registration fees.

This week's talent night was the biggest of the summer so far, and our campers were in fine form. Now, anyone who knows me is aware that I'm not the world's biggest country music fan. Still, I had to appreciate some of the mad dancing skills going down at the hoe down tonight. Thanks for a great night, everyone.

asn3: Wednesday

Today started out a little cool, but it warmed up just in time for our beach party in the afternoon. The campers really liked building castles in the sand, but they especially enjoyed water balloon volleyball. Probably because of the water fight that inevitably ensued.

The carnival was also this afternoon; I was in the dunk tank (which is more of a "dump" tank, really) for about 15 minutes, and I can tell you, there are a lot of good arms in this group. They also really seemed to appreciate our wide variety of talented face-painting artists.


For supper, we roasted wieners over the campfire. Or rather, the counselors roasted wieners and the campers ate hot dogs. Lots and lots of hot dogs. Evening's descending on our little camp now, and I think everyone's feeling ready for bed. We must have done our jobs today.

asn3: Tuesday

This week, we're running our third adult special needs camp as well as our first teen trail ride of the summer. The trail ride camp actually started on Sunday, and the riders have been working hard, getting ready for tomorrow for their overnight trip.

Highlights of today were the hay ride and the swimming pool. I think the biggest hit for the campers, though, was the petting zoo.

asn3: Monday

After a long weekend, a new week has begun. The struggle of the first few days of an adult special needs camp is learning how to communicate with individual campers, just as Paul had to learn to communicate with different groups of people. In 1 Corinthians 9:19-23, Paul writes,

"For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I may win more. To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews; to those who are under the Law, as under the Law though not being myself under the Law, so that I might win those who are under the Law; to those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ, so that I might win those who are without law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some. I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it."

At camp, or in any ministry, we too have to become "all things to all men". We have young children as campers, and special needs adults as campers: the low, the weak and the despised people of our nation. And for the sake of the gospel, we learn to make ourselves as they are -- even making ourselves as their servants, following the example of Christ who made himself a servant to us.

children's 1: pic of the week

(Future?) presidents of YFBC

children's 1: Thursday

Today started out rainy, which made for a slower, more relaxed sort of day; which was good, because everyone's starting to get pretty tired. In the afternoon was the carnival -- campers got their faces painted (Batman masks were really popular with the guys) and played carnival games like the dart throw, bean bag toss, hockey shoot, basketball shoot, candle dousing and soaking their counselors in the dunk tank.

In the evening we had a talent show; some cabins did group performances, while others featured individual talents. Everyone seemed to have a pretty good time -- but all good things must come to an end; tomorrow, it's time to go home.

children's 1: Wednesday

Hey everyone, sorry it's taken me so long for an update: on Wednesday I became a counselor in cabin five, which was really exciting for me. As program director, I miss a lot of things about being a cabin counselor, and it was really fun for me to spend a lot of time with campers again. It also meant, though, that I didn't have a lot of free time for things like blogging, so tonight I'm playing catch-up . . .

Wednesday was Yad Sdrawkcab (Backwards Day)! We started out our day with campfire and supper and ended with breakfast, ate dessert first -- we even wore out clothes backwards. Some of the campers wanted to know, "Is it backwards day everywhere, or just at camp?"

There wasn't much else happening today -- only the BEACH PARTY!!! We used our brand new beach volleyball pit to build sandcastles, play volleyball with a giant beachball, play water balloon volleyball and, of course, we had more fun on the slip n' slide.

Tomorrow . . . talent night!

children's 1: Tuesday

There were loads of frogs around camp today, and the science skill group had lots of fun catching them (along with all kinds of different bugs) and making sketches of them. The weather's been nice and breezy, but everyone was still pretty excited to get to the pool today.













For supper we had a "utensil meal" and "monk meal" at the same time: we all had to eat with weird kitchen utensils instead of forks, and if anyone talked, they lost their utensil and had to eat with their hands. What a mess! Loads of fun, though; here are some pictures for you: