We’ve kicked off Session 3 and are in full swing! Our first full day of Session 3 was fulfilling and fun as we started the day 
with Sunday School. Having our session start off in such a loving and spiritual atmosphere is always a really great way to watch campers come together and share what they’ve learned in Christian Science and sets a foundation for a great rest of the session. The trend of multiple new campers continues as we have quite a few new campers this session who are here for the first time, and I know from personal experience that stepping into Crystal Lake Camps and finding there are so many other Christian Scientists just like you is such a crazy and exciting moment. There was a girl in my Sunday School who said her class of eight students was the biggest Sunday School class she’d ever been in, and she was so excited that her entire cabin got to talk every morning about the Bible Lesson during Quiet Hour.
The day followed with some book marking for this week’s Bible Lesson. This led up to the lunch, and from lunch we had a quick Rest Hour before campers were making their way down to the waterfront for Activity Fair. Counselors have been building new ideas and creating fun new activities all summer and they definitely have pulled out all the stops for this session. There are so many fun and exciting new classes and adventures for campers to go on, as well as some of the staple favorites like archery, swimming, horseback riding, and R.A.F.T.
It’s fun to see how quickly campers are able to bond with their cabin mates, and are excited to sign up for classes together. How simple it is to find similarities amongst the your cabin and form bonds of friendship that will last not only through the session, but for potentially the rest of your life. Camp friendships are always so much to watch evolve, because there’s something so special about having friends that you spend all year talking to and then get to spend a couple of fun weeks cherishing the friendship you’ve formed. It makes the year so much more fun as well, because you have this amazing support system from your cabin and fellow campers that you’ve made while at camp, and that friendship doesn’t have to dwindle during the year just because you’re apart. I remember Skype calls where we tried to fit our entire cabin onto one call, and the majority of the conversation consisted of laughter from all of us trying not to talk over on another. Regardless, it’s always exciting to see campers from all over the world come together to have a great time and grow in Christian Science together.
Another great thing the camp all did together last night was the Barn Dance! The CITs were in charge of Barn Dance last 
night, and they came equipped with years of knowledge on games and songs to play. We had the Big Wind Blows, Mouse Trap, Limbo, Musical Chairs and the crowd favorite Cotton Eyed Joe to kick off the night. Due to rain, we were unable to have any hay rides this session, but the great substitute for that was to see the campers spend more time dancing and laughing together, and cheering one another on when the games were being played. Something that is so obvious to the staff, and probably the campers as well, is that this summer there is an overwhelming urge to share brotherly/sisterly love between the younger campers and older campers. We have some pretty big Dunwoody and Kiya cabins this session, and the older campers are loving spending time with them. During songs, you couldn’t look anywhere without seeing older campers pulling the younger ones into circles to dance, or helping the younger campers to learn new dance steps.
A lot of our older campers have been coming here for a while and are pretty much experts on everything CLC. And so to see these older campers that I can’t believe aren’t still in their own Kiya and Dunwoody years spend time and sort of pass the torch onto these younger campers is everything we work to help campers do at camp. These campers are so loving, kind and full of compassion for all others that they want nothing more than to share their love for camp with everyone they possibly can. I remember being a young camper and so looking up to the older campers and my counselors, knowing that one day I wanted to be just like them. And maybe for me it was mostly because I was kind of shy, but for me I felt as though my counselors were so loving, but also my counselors, and the older campers were so cool that I didn’t know if I could approach them. But in the past years that I’ve witnessed on staff, all campers have broken that barrier between age and even language. There are so many classes being taught this session that help campers to better understand each other and the world. We literally have a class called Around the World that a lot of campers seem to be excited about.
It’s so wonderful to see all the campers having such a great time together and making friends with anyone and everyone. It’s going to be such an awesome session filled with adventures and new experiences for everyone! And we can’t wait to share it with you! Make sure to check out this blog daily – if you aren’t already subscribed, you can find the subscription box to the right of the blog posts in blue text where you can sign up and receive our blogs straight to your email every morning! You can find multiple updates during the day on our Facebook page Crystal Lake Camps, and pictures from the day are uploaded throughout the evening to our SmugMug account crystallakecamps.smugmug.com. Pictures and updates are also posted on our Twitter: @crystallakecamp (notice the no -s at the end; that sometimes throws people off) and our Instagram page: @crystal_lake_camps.
It’s going to be another great day today! We can’t wait to share it with you!
Share this Post