May Camp 2013 Recap

This past weekend was our annual NAB Youth Retreat at Green Bay Bible Camp. Along with Ebeneezer (Vancouver), Sunshine Ridge (Surrey), Chilliwack, and Lakeview (Westbank), we head up to camp for the May Long Weekend each year. As always, camp was a blast!

This was the first year that I was part of the planning. It was cool to work on May Camp stuff over the last few months with the other pastors! It was weird to have more responsibilities up at Green Bay though because it meant I spent less time with our teens than usual. That was the only downside to the weekend.

Pastor Brad was our speaker and the theme was "Shades of Grey: When the Bible isn't Black and White." It was cool to take a look at some of the grey areas in the Bible (or areas we think are grey that are actually quite clear). He covered 4 main topics over the weekend: justifying bad behaviour (ends justify the means), how we interact with movies and other media, money and stewardship, and sex and relationships. We had some great small group discussions after chapel! One highlight for me was joining with the Ebenzeezer girls for small group because they didn't have a leader. It was neat to get to know other churches on a more personal basis this year.

A few of us got to camp earlier on Friday so we could set up, organize computer and tech stuff (apparently I have the most up to date laptop!), and do the room assignments. Bethany was the first church to arrive at 8pm. Everyone was at camp by 10pm. We had a quick chapel session that introduced the rules and the weekend before some free time on Friday.

Jess and Daniel, our new youth intern!

Meg, Jess, Mel, Colleen, Chelsea and Jenna enjoying a pit stop on the drive

On Saturday, we started with breakfast (the camp food was especially good this year), then chapel. After chapel and small groups was lunch, followed by an afternoon of activities and free time. This year we tried something new and gave kids three optional activities they could choose from: a hike, laser tag, or paintball. The remaining students stayed at camp for swimming, games and free time. It went REALLY well! Our kids were pooped by the time they came back to camp. I used the time to swim in the incredibly cold lake. After free time was dinner, followed by another chapel session. In the evening we tried something else new: a night game! We carted all the kids up Crystal Mountain to play a game in the forest. Nearly everyone played, but seeing bears in the parking lot and a moose at the side of the road sent a couple of cars back down the hill with kids. Essentially it was glowstick tag and went over really well. After the game was night free time and most people played games in the dining hall or spent time with their cabins.

Kathleen and Asia spending their free time on the water... before Kathleen flipped her own boat!

Frigid water isn't stopping CJ... but it might be stopping Jake

Sarah, Francesca and Joy enjoying some free time fun

On Sunday, we had brunch which meant we were all able to sleep in a bit longer. After brunch was chapel and small groups, followed by field games. Before dinner, all the Bethany girls dressed up for our annual fancy dinner and photo shoot - thank goodness we had nice weather otherwise there would have been 26 girls posing in the rain! After dinner was chapel. After that was the Hootenany (talent show) which was an espcially good one! We had about 15 acts, including some churches who did skits (the Bethany leaders did one) and we ended with a skit done by the youth pastors. It was awesome to poke fun at ourselves (the title of the skit was "what does a youth pastor do all day" but at the end we were able to share what we actually do, which was cool. We really do love our kids and our "jobs!" After the hootenany was fireside before some night free time.

Singing their hearts out! Eric, Kellen, Kayla, Temi, Matt

Girls' dress up night :)

Gearing up for worship and chapel time... Riley, Brady, Mitchell, Frank and Esteban

On Monday we had breakfast and pack up, followed by chapel and lunch. The chapel session was different because instead of speaking, Brad hosted a Q&A with the youth pastors. Teens were able to submit questions over the weekend that we answered. There were some great questions and it's too bad we didn't have time for all of them! After lunch we took one big group shot before we all piled into the cars, vans and busses and headed home.

I think what made it a great camp was that there were so many funny or memorable moments. Nothing huge or crazy happened that "made" the weekend, but it felt like we were laughing and enjoying ourselves the whole time. Between the cold water, flipped kayaks, bears, and a birthday cake, it was just a ton of fun. And we didn't even need to send anyone to the hospital! Another great thing about camp this year was that we had more time together as leaders to be getting to know one another and we prayed for the kids every day. That was very cool and a lot of fun!

Jason had a camp birthday!

Hard to believe it's been a full year since "Call Me Maybe" changed our lives...