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I will be directing a week of camp at Northwestern Ohio Christian Youth Camp next week. It is my first year to serve as director.
Let me ask something of my loyal readers. Do you have a favorite memory from camp? Some event or activity that you will always remember? Something we should avoid at all costs? What made camp special for you when you were a kid? Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated!
Oh, and I still need a lifeguard. If you are certified, come and join us for the week!
OK, I will start the pity party….I never got to go to camp. But my kids loved their counselors and the physical activities. And of couse the night time devotionals were always a hi-light.
Avoid making them wear long pants!
I didn’t go to camp either… or youth rallies. I consider the Zoe Conference to be my grown up youth rally!
Jeff, there are lots of ways to make camp special, but one really good way to ruin it: if your counselors believe this is about them and not the campers, it will fail miserably. If that can be avoided, just about anything will be fantastic! Remind your counselors that the kids will remember everything they do, and the comments they make, FOREVER. I know I still remember my best (and worst) counselors from my own childhood, lo, these many decades later.
Have fun, man! We just got back from two weeks at Camp Tahkodah where our kids were campers and a counselor, and where we helped out. It’s a great thing to do.
I met my wife at camp when we were in about the 5th or 6th grade. I told her counselor that she (my wife) would be pretty if she got her buck teeth fixed………she did, and she is!
Both of my boys were baptized at camp.
Have a great week!
DU
Don,
I’m going to use what you said in our first staff meeting. Thanks for that.
I love WCYC and purpose to go for two weeks each year. I always come back tired but renewed.
Shalom,
Bobby Valentine
http://stoned-campbelldisciple.blogspot.com/
Okay, confession time: I was raised in such tiny mission churches that the only other kids were — usually — my two older sisters. Yech. So, when I got to go to camp the highlight was getting to play with boys and look at the girls. And some of the girls looked back. Woo hoo!
I attended a good size church, but I had very few people my age to socialize with, so going to TWO weeks of camp at NWOCYC was always a highlight of my summer. Fire circle, chapel, sand volleyball, and table tennis were all staples on my highlight reel of memories from camp. One very special moment was when my future wife asked me to baptize her!
You and your couselors, nurse(s), lifeguards, kitchen staff, grounds caretaker(s), etc. will immediately become a spiritual mentor to each of the youth you work with during your week at camp. May God bless you in your work with youth.
Hey Jeff,
I haven’t heard from you in a long time and just came across your blog. We just got back from Camp Tahkodah this past Friday. This was my third year going. I took 18 kids and we had a blast. The hardest thing for me is coming home to a small church that is not doing anything. I need the two weeks at camp to get me through the year. All three of our boys were baptized at camp last year and they love it. Perry has plans to attend Harding in two years. I have to say that camp has changed my life in a great way. We love to stay and work the two weeks with the kids. I heard from Andy that you might be going down.
I have to say that Ross and Nita Cochran are awesome…