We're Here!!

Okay, its 9:30 pm and I am EXHAUSTED. That is most likely because I went to bed at 2 a.m. and had to get up at 4:15 a.m. to get ready to meet all the teens at the church at 5:30 a.m. It has already been totally worth it though!!

As you can see, the day started bright and early. We had a little trouble loading all of us and our stuff on the bus, but we were still able to depart the church by about 6:15 a.m. None of us have ever been to this camp, so we were definitely excited, although we really had no idea what to expect.

The trip was a pretty long one, about 7 hours. We did make 2 stops for bathroom and food, but they didn't take long, so we spent most of those 7 hours on the road. I am SO proud of these teens!! They didn't complain at all and the ride, although long, was very enjoyable. We even spent a good portion of it worshiping together!! (I think we leaders enjoyed it because none of us had to drive!).

We arrived at the camp around 1:00 p.m. and were all immediately in awe of the beauty all around us. We unloaded the bus in front of a huge and absolutely beautiful lake.

By this time, we were VERY excited!!It took about another hour to get all of us registered, screened for lice and on the boat that would take us to the Island where the teens will spend their week. Of course, this was all happening during the hottest part of the day, so some complaining did happen, but I think it mostly came from the leaders, haha. We are certainly going to sweat a lot this week!

We have a total of 18 teens with us this week, 8 girls and 10 guys. All of the girls are in the same cabin, and the guys are split into 2 cabins. We all really believe that the teens that are here were hand picked by God to be here and we are SO excited to see what He has in store for them!!

Once we were all checked in, we all boarded our transportation to the Island.

(The leaders get to ride in this several times a day as we go back and forth from our housing to the teens!)

After everyone arrived on the Island, all of the teens met their cabin counselors and signed up for fun activities for the week. Aside from their normal daily activities, which include: daily beach time (which includes a 200 foot water slide into the lake and a blob where they can bounce one another into the lake), daily team challenges like volleyball, dodgeball, etc., a climbing tower, water skiing, tubing and MORE; the teens also had the chance to sign up for optional fun activities that would cost a little bit extra. These options included; paintball (which I'm pretty sure all the guys signed up for), a high ropes course, arts and crafts (which I'm pretty sure none of the guys signed up for, haha), an all you can eat ice cream party and a party barge cruise around the lake that includes all you can eat food and ice cream. It was really fun watching them all get so excited about all the activities for the week!!

(I don't know if you can tell, but what you are looking at is the blob where the teens will launch one another into the water, and the water trampoline).

Once all the teens met their counselors and were signed up (and paid for) all of their activities, all of us leaders decided to head back across the lake to get settled into where we are staying for the week. We have 4 leaders this week; 3 guys and me, haha. J, D, A and I boarded the boat, went back across the lake to pick up our stuff and checked into the Word of Life Inn. This place is SO nice!! We are staying in the cheapest rooms, so we aren't sleeping in style, but it doesn't matter at all. Aside from incredible views every where we turn, we also have a ton of opportunities ourselves for the week.

Since we are here as leaders for our teens, we are welcome to participate in any and all activities that they do. In addition, there are several activities (like day trips to Vermont, jet ski rentals, white water rafting, and more!) that we can participate in without the teens. Also, on the property where we are staying there is an indoor pool with jacuzzi, access to the lake, a miniature gold course, tennis courts, a volleyball court...and so much more that we haven't even found yet. We are all so excited!!

And, apparently...we are going to eat quite well. Here is what dinner looked like for us tonight:


J and I kept commenting that it felt like we were on a cruise, it was all so nice!!

Unfortunately, they do have a "dress code" for some of their dinners which means that the guys have to wear a sport coat and I have to wear a skirt. I think we will be eating with our teens on those nights. :)

After dinner, we leaders decided to head back to the Island to check on our teens. We arrived just in time to hear a lot of yelling and excited chanting as they teens we learning all about what was in store for them this week. The entire island (which consists of several hundred teens) is split into 2 teams, the Red team and the Blue team. All of our teens are on the Blue team. The two teams will be competing throughout the week in many different competitions in order to win the overall prize at the end of the week. Our teens love competition, so this should be good!!

Unfortunately, I couldn't stay long after we arrived on the Island. Cupcake was starting to feel pretty sick and needed to come back with me and get some rest in my room. She was actually in the hospital most of Thursday night and into Friday with an infection in the cartilage around her rib cage. She is fine and will heal completely soon, but the healing process has just begun, so she needs to take it easy activity wise for a while. I told her counselor this, but they still ended up walking her (and the rest of the girls) all around the Island for several hours. It was too much for Cupcake and she needed to rest. So, I picked her up and brought her back to my room with me so she could rest for the night and hopefully return to her cabin tomorrow.

It actually worked out great for me because all of the stress, chaos and exhaustion of the day (we were in the extreme heat for a very long time) plus my lack of sleep was starting to catch up to me. I was in charge of all the paperwork and all the communication before we left (which was basically 2 weeks of crazyness with tons of phone calls, emails, photocopies, etc), and I am the designated "trip leader" so all questions were directed at me. I was the one who had to make sure all the teens had everything they needed, turned all their forms in, I had to take care of any issues that arose, etc. It was a lot of work!! (But has already proved to be totally worth it!) I was actually starting to feel really light headed, so Cupcake provided me a good excuse to come and rest (although I really wanted to hang out with the teens! I had to remind myself that we will be here for a week!).

So, Cupcake and I are resting in the room, getting ready for tomorrow...which will be when the week really kicks off. D and A are swimming on the pool and relaxing and J is over on the Island hanging out with the teens. Oh, and did I mention that it is pitch black outside and totally silent??? This is so amazing!!

Anyway, there you have our first day! I can't wait to hear a report from J about how everyone is doing on the Island, and I'm even more excited for what God has in store for tomorrow!!

**Oh, and did I mention that all of this is FREE??? Word of Life offered us FULL scholarships for the teens to come, AND provided us transportation to and from the camp. That's worth over $7000, not including the free accommodations for the leaders!!!! This is SUCH an AMAZING blessing!!!