Camp.

So, it took me forever to post the last post for summer camp, so here it is. Let me just start by saying that this summer has been an absolute blast, one of the best I have ever had. Traveling the south, bringing the gospel to thousands of kids, and getting paid for it? Let's be real here, that is truly incredible. Truly blessed.

Lakeland was a blast, from having the opportunity to use the churches existing set, to having camp in an old shopping mall, to the giant gator stuck in the storm drains, it was a perfect way to end the summer. The owner/operator in Lakeland, Scott, was super sweet and together with our team provided an amazing camp experience for these campers.

Lets not forget Stephen Moore, this was his last week of camp, so blessed to have him as my director, had an absolute blast. I couldn't have hand picked a better leader and role model, thanks bud!

You know that you have a great job when you cannot wait to wake up at 5 in the morning to head off to set up camp. It went by so fast, I can't wait for it to happen again.

Thanks Zach for making camp even better than it already was and being there for support and wisdom, it was greatly appreciated. You are a man of God, don't let it falter, keep going strong and He will continue to bless you and your ministry.

Camp was amazing, cannot wait to do it again next year.

Late.

P.S.

O'Haire for 8 1/2 hours has got to be one of the worst things ever.

Saturday in Lakeland. Best Day of the Week.

So, many of you may know that I love to go to Disneyland. Maybe a little too much. This week for camp, we are in Lakeland, FL. This is about 45 minutes outside of Orlando, FL. So naturally, we had a day off of camp, soooo we go to Disney World. Naturally. We didn't go to the main four parks, but instead, since it was half as much, went to one of the water parks at Disney World. It was magical. Dreams came true people, let me tell you. Memories were made, slides were conquered, skin was burned, everything that should happen at Disney's Blizzard Beach happened. Anytime you go to a park that is decorated as if a freak snow storm has hit Florida, you know you are in for a treat.

Going between 50 and 60 mph down a water slide is the most amazing thing ever. But talk about a major wedgie, haha. I rode the tallest and fastest free fall water slides in the world! Pretty truly it is called summit plummet, dropping you down 125 ft. It was incredible. Talk about a rush. Then going to dinner at Bahama Breeze (by the way didn't know there was a specific type of Cuban bread, but it is freaking delicious. Thanks Megan, Melody, Katie and Anna! And then afterwards going to Downtown Disney Marketplace for some desert at Ghirardelli chocolate store. Not to mention just walking around DDM is super cool, being on water. It's a totally different feel than Anaheim, much more spread out, but less like a downtown feel, which I kinda missed, but then I remembered I'm at Disney World and I loved it, haha.

To top the night off, we watched fireworks over WDW while we were driving out of the park, such an amazing cap to an already amazing day.

Shout out to two rides an hour and Cuban Bread.

Late.

P.S. Cali get ready! Only 6 more days!!!!!!!!!!

Wednesday in Gainesville. Best Day of the Week.

And it was. I was really nervous about this week, with all the videos I have to do and stuff, but I prayed about it, prayed for patience and calming of nerves and this week has been flying bye without any hitches of any sort. It has been a blessing for sure. We also ran Lights, Camera, Action, (the skill I help Mac run) and this week has been the best so far out of the 3 times we have run it. The kids are having a blast and this location has been great for filming and we had some fun on the archery field, a very Braveheart moment with the kids. It was incredible!!!!

Sorry I didn't get to take a picture of the stage, was too busy with Wet Wacky Wild Wednesday today, getting some sick vids for the flashback video tomorrow morning.

So the first two days here in Gainesville I broke no sticks, stoked on it. Then of course today I break two :(, haha. Luckily I have enough pairs no to make it till the end of the summer with the way I am going. But the new ones I had shipped are just a little different and a little heavier, but now I'm complaining about half an ounce. Woe is me.

I will be so happy when August 5th rolls around and that will be the last day I will have to set up EZ-UP tents this year. They are so annoying, and made terribly and break like twigs. Seriously, one gust and they fold up like paper.

My bedmate is telling me that my screen is too bright and I put the brightness down all the way, but Apple wants you to light up your world even on the lowest setting, so I gotta go, sorry to cut it short.

Cali get ready! 18 days!!!!!!

Monday and Tuesday in Gainesville. Best Days of the Week.

Two posts in one night? Insanity.

I'll start off by telling you about my Saturday. I saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Wow. What an end to a movie dynasty. I was so glad that they split the last book into two movies, a wise decision from the HP people. I laughed, and I cried (no joke, I cried tears when Snape died and during the pensive part where we see Snape's past) and it was a joy ride for my eye balls. Please tell me you have seen it? Tell me what you think about it.

And just as a side right now, one of my teammates told me I have nice hand writing and that it is masculine and then the girl talking with us told me I have feminine writing. Which one should I take? I don't know. Haha.

So on Sunday we had to set up the whole entire camp for use that night for a Sunday night service and it was insane. We had literally 3 hours, maybe a little less to do all the set and all the sound and tech stuff. It was legit though, we got it all done and even had time to rehearse for that nights worship service. I will try to take a picture tomorrow of the stage and post it on tomorrow night's post. It is legit, let me tell you, but a pain to pack and to move all the time.

So I help teach a skill called Lights, Camera, Action and it has only run two times, and of course it runs again this week, with the smallest camp, haha. I mean it isn't that bad, and actually since the first week, it has gotten a lot better and today and yesterday was amazing. The kids are having a blast and today we got to shaving cream pie four staffers in the face. Two of which did not even know it was coming and it looked so good on camera, their faces were priceless. Absolutely priceless, haha. It will be interesting though to see how tomorrow will go when we have to get the rest of the video filmed and begin to edit tomorrow and Thursday. Prayers.

So I walk around getting various skills on video for the recap videos and get to do all the skills and help out if I am needed. Today, I became Aragon when I went to archery. I preceded to arch( I think that is what you say?) some arrows into some targets, concluding shooting an arrow with my eyes on the camera not on the target, perfect shot! Boom! Haha.

For dinner, we had kind of a warmed up meal yesterday, but tonight we had bbq, and it was incredible! So good and I ate like a pig, while eating pig, haha. Pulled pork, smoked bbq chicken which is absolutely amazing, a party in my mouth, especially for my taste buds.

I know now why there was so much more Lindt 90% cocoa supreme dark chocolate in the store on Monday.

Late.

P.S. Cali get ready! 18 days!!!!!
        GR get ready! 17 days!!!!!

Chick-fil-a Friday Family Fun Day in Dothan. Best Day of the Week.

Soooo, sorry for the late post. Got busy and tired and a tad bit lazy. You know me, haha. But it was amazing! You gotta love CFFFD (Chick-fil-a Friday Family Fun Day). It honestly is the best day of the week. For Fridays we invite all the parents to come to camp to see a camp day and experience what their kids experience for the week, and in doing so they get to do all the skills that their campers have been doing as well. It is insane. When we were in Gulf Breeze, there was over 1000 people at CFFFD! That was absolutely incredible!

At CFFFD the local Chick-fil-a that we partner with provides chicken sandwiches for lunch for all attenders! It is awesome. The parents and the campers love it, and believe it or not I have not gotten tired of Chick-fil-a yet. I have been grown into a Chick-fil-a addict and love it! Waffle fries, I used to think weren't that good, are my favorite part of Chick-fil-a. And, as I mentioned before I LOVE LOVE LOVE the lemonade, it is soooo dang good. I am kinda not looking forward to not having any Chick-fil-a's even remotely close to me in Grand Rapids. But it's all good, I can eat some in California for two weeks when I get back!

I love playing for the parents and showing them how we have been leading the campers in worship everyday and how we bring them to the throne to praise God. The best is when the parents get into the songs and do the hand motions with the kids. This week we played a special song cause we are in Alabama. It was the tune Sweet Home Alabama, but we changed it to Sweet Home Up In Heaven. Everyone cheered when Anna (our worship leader) started the guitar lick. It was so fun to jam that song, something I can check off of my bucket list, that I played Sweet Home Alabama in Alabama! Are you kidding me?!?

And afterwards getting to eat Chick-fil-a is always a great cap to a great week, filled with some amazing memories and awesome fellowship with the children and parents and of course my friends on the red team. I cannot believe I am so blessed to be doing this as a job. It is unreal.

As true to myself, I forgot stuff in Dothan. Imagine that right? Haha, luckily the youth pastor is going to send it to Westside here in Gainesville, Florida. If I would have said I would be in Florida this summer, I would have said you are crazy, but I'm here. Boom!

Late.

Thursday in Dothan. Best Day of the Week.

Triangulation. Translated to Troyneese meaning "liquid excitement." The most epic day of camp consisting of a giant triangle arena where the campers complete various challenges to gain a popsicle stick and then throw it in a bucket for their village. It gets intense, kids get literally trampled by other kids, campers running in every direction and epic music playing in the background. The staff and some of the campers look like they just walked off the set of the movie Braveheart. Zach looked like William Wallace only without long locks.

We do this thing on Thursdays called Raving Fan Parking Lot and today there were a couple of sweet cars. One dad had taken regular car window paint, diluted it and put it in a paint sprayer and literally sprayed his whole car white blue and safari red. It looked so legit. Props to the parent, I don't think I would do that to my new Tahoe. One lady had a tent or tepee on top of her car and a bear rug on the hood, so sick. All the cars are judged by staffers and then the top three are given prizes from the Chick-fil-a operator we work with. Some give like free Chick-fil-a for a year and others give away different prizes, its really cool and gets people pumped about camp and Chick-fil-a. You actually get more points to have Chick-fil-a logos and stuff on your car, and for Chick-fil-a that is just free advertising. Genius.

Again, it never fails that we bring the rain, and today it poured again. Just unleashed on us and lightning just going insane. So, outdoor skills were cancelled for skill times 2 and 3, naturally. It is still weird having to cancel stuff due to lightning, something I have had happen maybe once or twice in California. Haha.

So I am rendering and exporting one of my videos for tomorrow and it is taking forever! This is the thorn in the side of every video editor out there. Rendering. Even with i5 it takes a while to export full HD videos. But it looks so good when done it is totally worth it. For sure.

Late.

26 days and counting. California! Get Ready!

Wednesday in Dothan. Best Day of the Week.

Wacky Wild Wednesday is insane.

Campers come to camp, like their parents have fed them pure sugar for the past 36 hours and this morning is when they get the most major sugar rush. But it is so much fun, the kids bring almost more energy then we do, and matching them it creates the ultimate camp experience. Granted there are those kids who never get into the mood of camp from the very beginning, but those that just let themselves get lost in the camp moment just launch the C3 experience to new heights. And to them they are just having fun, but it is a ton more.

Usually Wednesday's are wet wild wacky but this week since we are in a gym for connectreation, we did not have any water. But the Lord provided his own water and a light show. Coming out of nowhere this afternoon thunder storm came and had some pretty intense strikes and pouring rain at the church. So much different that California where we will know days in advance that it is going to rain, whereas here in the south, thunder cells can develop in 20 minutes. Craziness.

For the first time in a while, I did not break any sticks today! So stoked on it. Hopefully tomorrow is the same and we can hold out till we get to Gainsville, FL. Fingers crossed. On the subject of music, we played Amazing Grace to the tune of Sweet Home Alabama. It was so sweet! It was super fitting because we are in Dothan, AL so it was perfecto. No better place to play that song and to the words than in the great state of Alabama. Boom.

Mom. If you are reading this, I am going to start reading books with one of my best buds here on the trip, that way I just won't start the books and never finish them but actually get to read them cover to cover. It is going to be legit I am super stoked on it. The first book that we are going to read is called.......well you know me and my memory. I forgot what it is called :/. I want to say insanity but I feel like that is way off, haha. But still I will be reading more, thought you'd like to know that. Being an English teacher and everything :).

Can I just say that the Ocean campers (1st/2nd graders) are the cutest campers ever. When they get into the village cheers, and get their game faces on, it is so awesome to see. The pureness of their fun and excitement gets me every time, I cannot help but smile. Especially in this one cheer where the leaders yell, "flowee owee oh!" and the kids whisper back, "ice, ice, ice." That is the best part, so sweet.

All in all it was an awesome day, back to peanut butter AND jelly today, and not just strawberry jelly but blackberry jelly which was legit. And of course always gotta have the chili cheese fritos! Heck yes. The best.

27 days and counting California! Get ready!

Late.

Tuesday in Dothan. Best Day of the Week.

Talk with an accent Tuesday. Best day of the week. The kids were absolutely insane today, had so much energy, and it was cause the staff was absolutely insanely energized as well and it was amazing! They came into camp just super pumped about the day, and the balloon of this energy never popped and it just created an amazing camp experience for these kids. From connectreation (rec time) to the end of the day "power surge" it was an super sweet day at Winshape Camps C3. I can't believe that there is only 3 more weeks left after this week is up, kinda bitter sweet. But to all my Cali friends, I'll be home in 28 days! Heck yes!

To add to the excitement of today I want to start by saying that an Alpine camper (5th/6th graders) came to Christ! So amazing to be a part of something where we get to lead kids to Christ. Be praying for her that she will continue to pursue God and a pure heart of service in Him. That makes it all worth it, the late nights, early mornings (up at between 430-530 depending on hotel locations) almost everyday and the long work days. But to me, one campers salvation is worth doing camp the whole summer. God just rains down His blessings upon us and uses us to reach even more campers. Truly amazing. Cannot get better than this. 

So basically my day is made up of several parts. Wake up in the morning around 5ish and get ready to go to camp. We get on the vans, head over to the church, school or community center that we are using, and I help get the water all set up for rec and outdoor skills. Then band practice and then the campers arrive. I basically don't have a set schedule except for Wake Up (our morning auditorium meeting) Worship (mid-day auditorium meeting and teaching and worship) and then Power Surge (our end of the day meeting, which we announce the days team time winners and village winners). Other than that I just roam around the camp getting footage of various things to make for recap videos everyday. I also do little odd things for anyone who needs stuff done.

So today, I just roamed around camp, getting footage for tomorrow's recap video to be shown in Wake Up in the morning. I also broke another pair of drum sticks, so I had to go back to the hotel to pick up some more that were in my trunk. If you are reading this Matt Carter, I am taking after you buddy in the stick department haha. Love ya man! But really, I am breaking a ton of sticks, and in really dumb ways like right at the tip, and I can seriously only think of one sweet break. Maybe I should buy a little more expensive of sticks next time.

Soooo, I now know that I will never ever hand mix, using a mixer, peanut butter and jelly and then take the mixed stuff and spread it on sandwiches. It looks like something I don't really want to talk about but it was not that appetizing. Peanut butter and jelly, not peanut butter jelly haha. But really I can eat it, just a personal preference. Nothing against the chef, because she made us this incredible chicken finger meal and her sugar cookies are to die for! 

By the way, why is it that when players leave the Padres they become super stars????

Late. 

Thus far.....

For those of you who do not know I am currently working for WinShape Camps C3 doing day camps all around the Southern U.S. So far it has been absolutely amazing, so many good memories even in the 5 weeks we've been doing camp. It is truly amazing that I get to travel the south (somewhere I had never been till this summer) eating the most amazing food, hanging out everyday with some truly amazing, Godly people and getting to bring the gospel to kids, some of which have never even heard of Jesus. God is raining down his blessings for sure.

Today was an amazing day, culminating in one of the funnest times I've had this summer in the rain, and let me tell you it has rained a lot. It seems as though every city we go to has been going through a drought of some kind and right when we get to the location, it pours and storms like no other. Our first week, it Baton Rouge, LA, we had a thunder storm each afternoon, one of which literally formed over our heads in 15 minutes. It was insane! But today, it wasn't pouring, just kind raining heavy. Me and a couple of staff went to get our big Ryder truck from the fields and when we got to the field, we noticed it was literally flooded. So we took off our shoes and just ran in the water and mud to pick up the remaining equipment that had been left out. While crossing the field, we get to a little indent in the field that has been turned into a river, about at mid calf, still rising. It was incredible. Tomorrow it will be interesting to see whether or not the field is going to be completely flooded or not, it looked like terrible drainage.

It has been an incredible summer so far, and I can't wait for the next four weeks. It is going to be weird to be done with camp in August, having to pay for food, gas and rent again, haha, as they pay for all of it, which is soooo sweet. It is incredible that I get paid to travel around, eating great food, ministering to kids, it is unreal.

I've met a lot of great people this summer and I'm so stoked on a couple of the really great friendships I see developing. One in particular has one of the greatest testimonies I have ever heard, God truly moved His hand in this guys life and changed his hardened heart. It was amazing to hear it. God is going to, and is already using his testimony to bring others to the truth, which is awesome. He has no idea what God has in store for him, I can just see that God is going to use him in amazing ways, in something he never saw coming, which is going to absolutely incredible.

Who knew I would become such a bug Chick-fil-a fan, I mean bigger than Kirk Jones. Yup, that's right. Last week, our Chick-fil-a operator who partnered with us to put on camp in Oxford, MS brought the team chicken biscuits every morning for breakfast, and they were incredible! One of my favorite parts of the day. And on the topic of food, when we were in Ocean Springs, MS I ate at a BBQ place called the Shed. It was on Man vs. Food and I now know why. I had baby back ribs and they literally fell off the bone just by picking them up! The best ribs I have ever had in my entire life. And the pork was so tender and so flavorful, it was unreal. The best meal in Ocean Springs by far. It had to make up for the worst water I have had in the U.S. It was so bad, who knew that we take even water for granted in the United States. Also, I had grits for the first time the first day of travel at Cracker Barrel and they were amazing! And one more thing about Chick-fil-a, I had never had a lemonade till I got to Atlanta and it is amazing! The best I have had so far, I love it.

Late.