CBC 2018

A couple of weeks ago Connor and I went to Checkpoint Bible Camp.

He was a camper and I was part of the kitchen staff.

I had a record number of special food need campers this year.

I was so thankful to have a helper!

I also helped out more than normal in the kitchen.

Most years I have tried to stay out of the way.

There were usually enough people that I wasn't really needed.

This year, however, we had fewer kitchen staff than in past years.

I helped out as much as I could.

Depending on the day, we feed between 180 and 200 people three times a day.

It was a lot of work but we had a lot fun too.

Besides working, I went swimming, kayaking, and did the float trip too.

The week went by really fast!

Why I don't take selfies...

I have little to no selfie skills.

That and I was afraid to drop my phone in the pond.

Blurry success!

The weather was perfect for camp this year.

Not too hot and not stormy either.

I think it rained lightly the first afternoon, but that was it.

We were glad it wasn't super hot, especially considering the air

conditioner wasn't working in the kitchen. It got a little warm in there!

We survived.

See the reeds in the above picture?

I thought it would be a good idea to go through

the little clearing that was in them.

Bad idea.

I didn't get stuck.

I picked up some hitch hikers.

At least two spiders were crawling on the rim above my shins.

I'm OK with spiders but not confined in a kayak on a pond with nothing to smash them with.

I really thought I might flip the boat trying to kill them...

especially when they dropped down inside.

No thanks, lesson learned.

Avoid the reeds next time.

I don't have tons of pictures. I was having phone issues.

We did pop a lot of popcorn!

It took two evenings (and possibly an adventure or two).

This pile was for the middle school camp after their float trip.

It was my first time going on the trip.

It was a nice relaxing two hours of floating down the Tippecanoe River in inner tubes.

Many laughs during that adventure as well.

A few years ago I took on the snack drop.

All campers get a snack in the afternoon.

 The snack tally sheets are filled out every day by each cabin.
Eventually the slips make their way to me.
One day we got this on the back of one of them.
It was very sweet of them to thank us.

Camp was awesome this year in so many ways.
Lots of work and lots of laughs.
But the most important thing was that there was clear Bible teaching happening.
I really wish I would have sat in on more middle school camp teaching.
It was on prayer and it was really good.

Camp

Connor and I spent last week at Checkpoint Bible Camp.

It was our fifth year.

Dwayne stayed home due to his bad foot.

Nolan chose to help on the farm for the week.

He says next year he'd like to try being a CIT (counselor in training).

Since Dwayne wasn't going to be there I opted to stay in a cabin rather than our tent.

Last year I volunteered to do snack drop since I take care of the special food needs.

This year I had a new helper.

Not a single snack drop went as it was supposed to (and it wasn't my fault - honest!).

However we laughed till our sides hurt every single time.

Something that should have been so simple turned into an adventure every day.

This was one of the times we were retrieving empty boxes...

at least that was the goal.

More mishaps and more giggles but all was well in the end.

Did you know that driving a golf cart is gentle and a Gator is not? They don't go slow!

No trees, kids, carts, Gators or snacks were harmed in the delivery of snacks.

I didn't take many pictures this year.

I didn't even go watch any of Connor's activities.

This was his first year in middle school camp.

He did awesome and he loved it.

The week went by very fast.

I was hoping to escape the realities of my world for a little while.

I did for the most part.

Halfway through the week I got my travel itinerary for the trial in Texas.

That sent my emotions in turmoil for a short while.

I didn't stay there long.

A few people knew about the trial and they were praying for me.

Staying in God's word helped too.

And puppies!!!

Everybody needs puppy therapy now and then.

These are basset hounds.

I had never seen any colors besides the normal kind.

This one was my favorite.

The coloring was called lemonade and ice.

They were four weeks old and hadn't been walking long.

They were more like drunken sailors.

(The "normal" colored puppy above was 12 weeks old.)

A basket full of light colored basset hounds.

This gentleman has been bringing puppies to camp for a few years.

The kids and adults alike love the puppies.

That's the camp report for this year.

Whew!

It has been a really long time (according to blogging time) since I last posted.

I didn't realize how long it had been.

Hm. Not sure where to start.

In a nutshell: got ready for camp, went to camp, recovered from camp.

Windows upgrade.

That pretty much sums up why I haven't blogged in a while.

Before camp:

We did a little shooting around on the farm.

Dwayne set up a can and told the boys to see who could hit it first.

Connor smoked Nolan.

It was quite funny.

Shooting some cat tails.

Finally got a picture of this cat.

It's one of the zillion barn cats down on the farm (the other end from where we live).

I'm not a fan of cats but this one has cool markings.

It pretty much sums up how a cat is.

One minute he's your friend, and the next he's your enemy.

Connor showed me this clod of dirt he picked up.

Doesn't it look like a small island?

Some beautiful morning mammatus clouds.

One of Connor's many creations.

He also made a fleet of small ships.

Although he begged me to take pictures of all the ships, there's too many to put in a post.

Camp:

So this year was Nolan's sixth and final year as a camper.

It was Connor's fourth year and final year as a junior camper.

This was also my fourth year helping in the kitchen.

It's my job to tend to the needs of the campers with special diets.

My initial list was 15 this year!

We've never had so many.

I knew I needed help so I recruited a young lady that used to go to church with us.

We divided the list to those who brought meals and

those who needed advice on what to eat/not eat.

And we volunteered for snack drops

which meant we got to use a golf cart!

Connor at the rifle range.

This was Dwayne's third year helping.

He does dishes and cleans latrines.

As you can see he has a lot of fun even though it's a lot of work.

Camp was an awesome time as usual.

Nolan participated in the skits this year and loved it.

We told Nolan that all of us were going to camp next year.

This year he was to be on the look out for how he could serve next year.

He's decided to be a CIT (counselor in training).

We explained that it was going to be hard work.

He said that's what he wants to do.

Checkpoint Bible Camp 2015

The entire family went to Checkpoint Bible Camp last week.

The weather was perfect.

It didn't rain a single drop.

It was a great week with many memories.

We were visited several times by some A10 Thunderbolt planes (aka Warthogs).

They were fairly low and very loud.

This is a picture of the non-motorized vehicle parking outside of the dining hall.

At one point there was a tricycle too.

I didn't have my camera with me at the time.

We took several leisure walks and enjoyed God's beauty.

It was our dear friend's first time at camp.

We visited with her often and got to know her better.

Trudy and I happened to stop by when Nolan's group was in the archery building.

Since we were there, they invited us to shoot too.

Like we were going to say 'no'!

It was my first time in a long time shooting a bow.

Some of the awesome kitchen staff I worked with.

Such a great group of people that volunteer their time for the week.

The gentleman in the hat was our hero.

He washed all the pots & pans.

He's also the camp photographer.

These are some amazing folks.

They washed all the trays, cups, silverware, etc. for each meal.

When they were finished with that, they tackled the restrooms!

Yes, that's Dwayne trying to hide from my camera.

I got a picture anyway!

One of the many fun games on the activity field.

That's Connor rounding home...

it was a strange game of kickball.

Canoeing!

Every camper needs to experience a canoe.

Dwayne and I have known each other for 25 years and had never done this.

I'm an experienced paddler who has even had kayak lessons.

 Dwayne doesn't like water.

I never asked if he wanted to try canoeing.

I was totally and completely surprised when Dwayne

asked the staff in charge of the canoes if we could go canoeing.

We did and it was so much fun.

Dwayne almost dumped me into the water while I was trying to get out!

This is a catapult that Connor made at camp.

They got to shoot marshmallows at their counselors.

If I counted right, we had 17 people representing our church at

camp as either campers, counselors or other staff.

This is one of our teens.

So proud of our group of young people that were counselors or CIT's (counselors in training).

They did a super job.

Every year that I've gone to camp there's been a junior camp Olympics.

This is made up of 8 events set up in the activity field.

Each station has a task to be completed in 2 minutes.

Mass chaos happens in those 2 minutes.

The kids love every minute of it!

Usually the kitchen staff is coerced asked to do a station.

Truthfully, it's a lot of fun and I would never turn them down.

Dwayne and I did this station last year too.

They have 2 minutes to build a cup tower as tall as they can.

They have to keep it on the board.

It sounds easy but the cups are flimsy and fall easily.

When the time is up, we measure how tall it is.

We had a range from 7 inches to 50 inches.

Believe it or not, this is the group that reached 50 inches.

~

We had so much fun at camp this year, just like last year.

The only down side was that Dwayne caught a cold by Thursday.
We confined him to our tent.
The boys ended up sick by the end of camp too.

Can't wait for camp next year.
Although we may stock up on vitamin C!

Checkpoint Bible Camp

We spent last week at Checkpoint Bible Camp.

You can read last year's camp post to get more information on the bible camp.

All four of us were able to go this year, which was Dwayne's first year.

The blue shirts were for staff, orange for middle school campers and the green for junior campers.

Nolan anxiously waiting for the time when campers could sign in.

The junior campers slept in cabins and the middle school campers slept in tents.

Dwayne and I decided to bring our own tent.

We got there early so we could set it up.

We both helped out in the kitchen.

I took care of the kids with food allergies.

Dwayne helped out in the dish washing department.

This crew also cleaned latrines.

These three people worked very hard keeping things clean!

It looks like they were goofing around.

These green cups didn't dry very well so they tried stacking them differently.

Starting to get more creative in the stacking.

Our home away from home.

It only rained once this year and it was for a very short time!

The temperatures were great for sleeping.

We were so thankful for the great weather!

Luna moth hanging out on the dining hall.

Sometimes Dwayne and I went for walks in our spare time.

The camp is large and there were plenty of places to go.

This little guy didn't seem to be bothered by all the people.

I heard three different kinds of owls while we were at camp.

Connor on the slip and slide.

He had a blast with all of the activities.

 Connor's derby car.

I took a nap almost every day.

My body kindly reminded my that it's only been six weeks since my surgery.

~

There are lots of activities and fun things for the kids to do.

There is also learning and training to be done.

The middle school kids learn how they can serve and minister in different ways.

The junior camp and middle school camp both have chapel every day.

There are excellent bible teachers as well.

You know the teacher has their attention when 3rd - 6th graders

have sat silently through the entire lesson.

The kids hear the gospel multiple times throughout the week.

On Thursday the junior chapel is led by the middle school kids.

They do everything from music to skits and one did a short lesson.

~

Checkpoint Bible Camp is quite the unique experience.

It's about fun and laughter.

It's about sharing the gospel.

It's about fellowship with fellow believers working together to minister to one another.

It's about growing in your walk.

It's about teaching the next generation.

It's about lost souls in a sinful world who need Christ.