Saturday Update

I apologize for the delay in posting. The last 36 hours have been quite busy. :)

The campers arrived on Saturday afternoon, and we registered them and showed them to their rooms. Once everyone had arrived, we met as an entire camp for the first time. From the whole camp meeting, we dismissed to go to the rooms where each morning and afternoon workshop would be held, so that the students knew who else was in their workshop as well as the location of each workshop.

We then had free sports time. Some students and leaders played Frisbee, some played soccer, and some played volleyball on a court that was made of a composite material. Unfortunately, the sand volleyball court was still saturated with rain from Friday. Everyone had fun, and then we gathered for dinner.

Our first meal with the students was great, and our team did a good job splitting up and sitting with the newly-arrived students. It was a great opportunity to reach out to any students who appeared to be by themselves and encourage them to come and eat with us. We could then help them to connect to other students that were in a similar situation.

After dinner, we started to learn the camp dance, sang camp songs (including a rendition of "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" that was quite well-received), and heard the first message based on our theme, "Upside Down". It was related to the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16).

The students then split into smaller discussion groups, each with a set leader, and discussed to ideas that were presented. During this time, we met as a team to do a daily debrief, where we talked about the highs (of which there were many) and lows (of which there were few) of the day.

After discussion groups, the students had 2 optional activities. Some played night Frisbee, with light sticks inside of specially designed Frisbees, and some played Dance Dance Revolution. It was a good time to talk and laugh with any students who were not already tired.

It was a great first day with the students, and we were already looking forward to Sunday, the first full day of camp.