The Last Few Pics From Camp

Water Wars This Saturday!!!

Weather permitting, this coming Saturday's youth activity will be "Water Wars"!!! Be sure to come dressed appropriately and bring some water balloons already filled (with just water!!!)

Talk About Team Spirit!

"Ransom"

The team game last night was called Ransom. The field was basically set up like a carnival with games spread out all over. In accordance with the Spy Games theme, the Team Leaders were "kidnapped" by masked men. Literally! At the very beginning two 4 wheelers drive up, "grab" the team leaders and drive off with them! It was hilarious. They then sent a "ransom" message to the Camp Program Director telling the campers they wanted $25,000.00 in ransom money. This is where the carnival comes in. The teens had 1 hour to play as many of the games as they could. If they won a game they earned one "buck" and could turn that in for ransom money. The first team (red or blue) to collect enough ransom money won the team challenge. The kids really got into this, running from game to game. It was really hard to track them down in time to snap a picture! We would have like to get more pics last night, but our camera battery died half way through. Ah, the joys of technology!

The Beauty of the North Woods!

Here's a little bit of the beauty of the North Woods!

jPastor Ryan and I took a little hike back to Reflection Lake here at camp today and it was so peaceful and beautiful--if you could get past all the bugs. ;-)



We didn't see a bear despite the talk of all the bear sightings this year, but we did see many deer tracks and lots of little critters and Pastor Ryan managed to bring two ticks back with him on his jeans!

Another Brave Soul

Bethany went down the zip-line twice!

One of Our Bravest

Caitlyn White on the Zip-line!

Defying Gravity!

If you like an adrenaline rush...if you enjoy the feeling of defying gravity... than you would love the zip-line, swingshot, or climbing wall here at Northland Camp! On the camp website these events are described this way:

• Vertical Venture - our towering 35-foot climbing wall that offers 5 runs with varying levels of difficulty
• The Zipper - a 610-foot peaceful glide over the valley as well as a 390-foot thrill ride through the forest
• SwingShot - a breath-taking 40-foot giant swing

Here's Kourtney trying out the climbing wall.

Here's Caitlyn White gearing up for the zip-line! We were very proud of her for getting brave enough to try it!
I heard Bethany liked the zip-line so much last year that she tried this one twice!!

We don't have any pics of anyone on the swingshot yet, but are hoping to get some today!

Thursday..."Family Time" & "Family Fun"

On Thursday afternoon the camp always schedules a time for the campers to meet with their Youth Pastor in order catch up with each other, give some announcements specific to our individual group, give the Youth Pastor a time to share some verses and thoughts with the teens, sing a few songs, pray together, and give the teens a chance to share testimonies of what God has been doing in their lives this week. Our "Family Time" was a real blessing and encouragement!

Good pic...

Goofy pic. They just can't help themselves!

During afternoon free-time the teens participate in the different activities in small groups throughout the camp, often with each other, but with new friends or their counselors as well. This is great, and we encourage them to do so, but we did want to try and do one activity as a group, so we offered to meet anyone from our group who would like to at the Cageball for a little competition!

From the outside looking in it kind of reminds you of a bunch of prairie dogs or guinea pigs playing with a ball--but it's really loads of fun! Even Pastor Ryan and Mrs. Coon joined in!





After cageball some of the kids wanted to play sand volleyball, but since that wasn't open we opted for a little basketball game. It was really nice to spend some fun time together that afternoon!

Funny Time

These next few pics are from the Funny Time skit that the program staff puts on every year. I"m sorry they are a bit blurry, but we didn't want to have the flash on and disrupt the skit! The camp theme this year is Spy Games, so the skit was all about a "Spy in Training" who was not exactly spy material. It was pretty funny with some good old fashioned slap-stick comedy!!

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This scene in the skit was entirely done in slow motion! They did a great job!

The "Youth Rally" message last night preached by Brother Pettit was great! He preached the Gospel in about as clear and straight forward a manner as anyone could. We were thrilled to see many, many teens follow the Spirit's leading and go back for counseling. I haven't heard the tally on what decisions were made yet, but it was obvious that God's mighty work of salvation was occurring all around us in the gym last night! Keep praying, we have several opportunities for good preaching yet this week!

After the Youth Rally the teens got changed and had their late-night game. It was a game of secret missions and "spy intrigue." And because the kids were up so late they let them sleep in late on Thursday to catch up on their sleep. In fact, they are receiveing breakfast in BED this morning even as I type!! All that to say, I think it is obvious what a great time they are having here at camp!!

Wacky Wednesday!

The strange clothing ensembles you are about to see are a result of Wacky Wednesday fun! Everybody gets crazy up here on Wacky Wednesday--we saw everthing from crazy wigs, duct taped toes, and 6 inch high spiked sections of hair to pajamas worn over clothes and entire suits made of red or blue!



The referees do a slow-motion demonstration of every game that is quite amusing. They get pretty loud and crazy with their whistles.


This was basically a game of cat and mouse--called Evasion. The kids on the buckets had to pass the baton back and forth while trying to tag the runner from the other team. The goal for the running team is to have the least amount of runners tagged. The kids really enjoyed it. It is fun to learn new games that we can bring home and play again!