Bible Camp @ First Baptist

After Summer Sizzle ended, we had a week of Bible Camp at First Baptist church.  The week definitely held some challenges, but with these came some definite victories that were reached by the power of prayer and God working within us.

The kids did tons of fun activities....like giving each other makeovers with shaving cream.  That got to be a little messy!

The kids were split up into five different teams and each chose a team name, made a team flag, and thought of a team chant.  Together they did team building activities like playing the knot game and making human pyramids and monsters!

The kids also had the chance to play basketball, capture the flag, soccer, and water games.  They did crafts every day and had some tasty snacks.  All during this time we, as counselors, had the opportunity to love on these kids and share with them what it is like to live life with the joy of Jesus Christ in our hearts.

Of course, we didn't just play games.  We had some great worship time, Bible lessons and discussions, and memorized Bible verses each day.  Talking with the kids, hearing about their faith, and teaching them about mine was the best part of my week! They asked some great questions, and we were all strengthened by each other.

Another great victory that happened this week was through the older boys.  At the beginning of the week, some of the boys had trouble because they were fighting with one another.  We kept encouraging them to find  ways to handle their problems other than fighting, and on Friday I asked one of the boys if he was getting along with the boy he had been fighting with no Monday and Tuesday.  His response: "Yeah, he's cool! We had fun together this week!"  How great it is to see God working in their lives!

Summer Sizzle

 

After many months of hard work and planning for the Summer Sizzle coordinators, the week was finally here! 80-90 girls came to registration at South School on Monday, July 11th for a week of fun and learning about God.

Each day the girls learned part of Psalm 16, and each part of the chapter went along with a theme/character quality for the day: Courage, Friendship, Loyalty to God, Determination, and Peacefulness.  The verses all had actions to go along with them to help the girls remember more easily.  By the end of the week, they had a whole chapter of the Bible memorized!

The girls were split up into teams that each had a different color.  I was the counselor for the Pink Team! GO PINK!!! I had nine fifth grade girls in my group, and we had a BLAST together.

Each day started with worship and then we broke up into our teams for Something Real time.  Here we talked about the verse of the day, the character quality, and had a Bible lesson.  Although it was tough to get focused at times, both the girls and I learned a lot during that time.

On Wednesday, BVU's DIMES came to perform a praise dance to "Press in Your Presence." It was extremely powerful and good to see a different way of praising God.

After Something Real, we had a little free time and lunch.  I was told it is possible that I have set some sort of record for the number of pictures that have been taken of me eating...possibly because I'm with kids a lot? I'm not sure.  Anyhow, our Summer Sizzle food  team did a great job of making delicious meals for us each day.

The girls had four sessions in the afternoon: Fitness Activity, Workshops, Special Skills, and Superchicks.

The fitness activity was usually Zumba, but we did a little yoga too.  This was some of the girls' favorite part of the day!

The girls had four workshops: cooking, babysitting, art, and America's next Role Model.  They made smoothies in cooking and necklaces in art.  In America's next Role Model, they talked about how to choose a good role model to follow, and in babysitting they discussed things babysitters should know and what to do in an emergency when you're babysitting.

In the Superchicks session, different women came in to talk to the girls about topics such as body image, self-esteem, and purity.  They also watched a video on Bethany Hamilton on the determination day.

 

In special skills, the girls learned about goal setting, internet safety, and etiquette.  They also had the chance to learn the praise dance DIMES performed for them.

On Wednesday we went on field trips to Cool Cats Pottery, sailing, Faust, and the wetlands.  

 

My team went with the red team to Faust.  The girls all got manicures, learned about braiding, curling, and face shapes, and got a tour of the building. 

Our other special day was Friday. First, the campers surprised us with a counselor appreciation ceremony. They each wrote a note to their counselor that was attached to a sash we were given.

Friday was also the day each of the campers got a letter of encouragement from their prayer partner.  Each camper had a woman in the community praying for her all week.  This same woman wrote them a letter for them to read during Summer Sizzle, and the girls will be getting a birthday card from their prayer partner as well.

After our normal activities, we cleaned up the churches and did a service project.  Each team designed and painted a ceiling tile that will go in The Bridge's new office building.  After this, all the girls went swimming at the beach and then headed to a bonfire, hosted by a local pastor's family, where we sang songs, roasted hotdogs, made s'mores and talked around the fire.  The girls also got to milk goats and jump on a trampoline.

 

The girls were each given a heart that they could choose to attach to a big cross to symbolize their decision to ask Jesus into their hearts.  I was awestruck at the number of girls who dedicated their lives to Christ; our prayer that at least one girl's life would be touched by this week was answered many times.  I am so proud of the growth the girls made during the week, and I'm looking forward to seeing them all again at the Summer Sizzle lock-in next month!

"My choice is you, God, first and only. And now I find that I'm your choice!" -Psalm 16:5

4th of July Parade

After a long week of making waves and fish, painting, and sticking labels on water bottles, we finally finished the Bridge float for the parade! 

 

Once we lined up and the kids arrived, everything became much more lively! 

 While we were waiting for the parade to start, we were given a pleasant surprise...Our float won the Admiral's Award! Although we had some setbacks along the way, it felt so good knowing that our hard work was all worth it and we made a quality float!

As we walked through the parade, we handed out water bottles that had a Bible verse, the programs of the Bridge, and our website (thebridgeofstormlake.com) listed on them.  It was hot enough outside that many people wanted them, and we ran out pretty quickly! We also had the songs the kids know from ZAOkids and VBS playing as we went (most of them said they were too shy to sing loudly or do any actions.) After we made it all the way through the parade, everyone went back to Renato and Nellie's to watch the rest of the floats go by.  

 

As we were working this week, Allison and I decided our one hope is this: that people will see our float and know that God is being glorified. I still pray that this was so!