It’s been an exciting couple days here at CLC for Session 1a and 1b! Not only did the campers of Session 1a arrive back from Overnights yesterday, but also Family Camp 1b started today! Hooray!
Goodness where to begin.
Well, for starters, the Overnight was “amazing!” (And that’s a direct quote; you heard it here first). The campers enjoyed a fun couple of days where they were able to go on small waterfall hikes, enjoying team building exercises on a lake, and camped out under the stars! They were lucky to have some great weather (even though it rained at camp) and came back buzzing with new memories and adventures to share with us.
Our Metaphysical Activity Period (MAP) yesterday morning to kick off the day was led by Linden, a Family Camp counsellor who took us all back out into nature and had us look at things not in their material form, but in the spiritual form of God’s creation. Linden put together a scavenger hunt for the campers and staff to go explore in four places – the waterfront, the youth camp flag, the stables, and the teepees.
The campers were told to collect things that, to them, represented qualities of God that they also know they express. Essentially, Linden gave us MAPs for MAP to express God (map pun intended; I’ll hold for applause). Campers came back with many different objects – flowers, hay, a stick that represented a garden snake some of the campers had seen suntanning near Wild Rice Lake, a fallen feather from one of the chickens, and even some saved water from Crystal Lake.
Since this was the first MAP since getting back from Overnights, it was a great reminder that through everything – sun and rain – nature will always reflect God, and so can we!
Classes included frisbee with the largest frisbee known to man, and then Murals with Margie, a new Arts & Crafts segment with our Arts & Crafts Director Margie. The murals that are down by the tennis courts have faded and enjoyed their time since they were created maybe four or five years ago. During staff training, the murals were painted over to prep for new ones!
Margie has been prepping for the Fourth of July banquet that will take place at the end of this session, so while campers worked with her this afternoon, the campers and staff were able to decorate starts with whatever designs they want that will later decorate the Alford Hall for the banquet.
As the afternoon rolled around, so did the rain, and we were hit with quite the impressive thunder and lightning storm. So impressive, in fact, that it turned the sky a beautiful shade of pink and orange for the rest of the evening. You know that post-storm haze? Beautiful.
The storm brought quite a bit of mud on the game field, but that didn’t damper the new Family Camp campers as they turned it into a fun activity of playing in the water and the mud. It was so fun, and they were quite creative in making sure they built structures in the mud that were very specific to who was being trapped within the mud.
While the Family Camp families were getting a tour of the camp, the Youth Camp campers retreated to the Lodge where they played the infamous Skit in a Bag. If you haven’t heard of Skit in the Bag, it’s a pretty common activity here at CLC at least once a session.
The name of the game is pretty simple. Each group is handed a bag. From this bag, the group finds random objects and odd tidbits and such. From these things, the group must create a skit utilizing every single object.
Usually the skits are random, weird, crazy, and fun. And tonight was no exception. I can’t say exactly for sure what happened because I don’t think any of us are exactly sure what the theme of the skits were? But there were definitely some knights, jesters, cowboys, an old woman who turned into a wolf, an adventurer who wanted to grant wishes, and Franco (yes, our Franco who works in the stables and was not actually played by Franco).
Imagination and creativity is wild.
It was a wonderful and relaxing night post-Overnights and post-storm. We’re excited to see what today will bring as we prep for church and Sunday school! All the photos from the past couple days have been uploaded to SmugMug and the All-Camp-Photo should be up shortly!
Happy Sunday everyone!
– Zoë
Social Media Director/Camp Photographer
zoe@crystallakecamps.org
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