Pre-Teen Camp - July 2-8
July 18thGreetings from the very warm and sunny Camp CUMCITO. We apologize for the limited updates that you have received so far this year. We have been having some difficulty with internet connections in the Warsaw area but hopefully that will be solved very soon and you will hear from us on a more regular basis for the rest of the camp season.
This week is pre-teen week and we are blessed with 75 pre-teens and 16 Tot Lotters. Most of the campers seem smaller this year but appear to have brought huge appetites. The heat is an unusual challenge with what we suppose is 100 degree weather but no one has had the heart to check on the actual temperatures! Everyone has been drinking gallons of water.
Praises:- How the cabin teams are meshing.
- Delivery this afternoon of two rental dryers to replace the two non-functioning camp dryers. The staff was running around the great metropolis of Warsaw last night trying to find alternatives. It turned out that the only Laundromat in town closes at 6:30 p.m. if no one is there by then.
- A summer staff person who haa a laptop with wireless capabilities.
- A local pastor who lets us have a key to his church with wireless internet capabilities about 6 miles away.
- A great farm team who are very alert to our needs.
- A couple of new young counselors are a little overwhelmed with the details.
- A number of the staff have sinus issues (this is Missouri you know).
- Pray that Christy in the kitchen would have endurance.
- Pray that the humidity will break. Towels won't even dry outside.
- Pray for some campers that are super wound-up and uncooperative.
- One of the counselors asks for prayer for one of their camper's salvation.
- Pray for a girl having trouble with transition to Camp and stubbornness.
- Pray for two tot lot counselors who think they are getting sick.
- Pray that counselors would have patience.
- The Tot Lot auxiliary staff feels really stretched right now. Pray that reinforcements are on the way.
- Tot Lot asks for prayer for bedtime ...that the children would stay in bed without crying.
- Please pray that we will have internet connections at the farm and camp restored soon.
We are blessed. Some of us are exhausted. We are seeing many answers to prayer.
We prayed Tuesday for a break in the humidity. We had been warned that Wednesday would be the hottest day yet and sure enough, the temperatures were higher. Many at both the camp and the farm said they felt cooler. Towels hung outside to dry actually dried, so we figured the prayer was answered. We then discovered that such relief was not noted among the weather analysts and we are left to assume that we were living in a blessed bubble!
So now we are brave enough to ask you to pray for a break in the heat!!!!! We have not if we ask not????
Wednesday the boys went to the lake for lake swimming and the girls went on Thursday. Although lake water is not treated, it is a bit cooler than the current temperature of the swimming pool! Tot Lot went to the Camp's own lake on Wednesday for their lake experience. Each night one or two cabins have elected to sleep out in tents with a campfire and smores. On Thursday, a lot of the optional activity choices involved water! Thursday night, Tot Lot had a carnival and on Friday they had a carnival at Big Camp with face painting and the works. You know it is hot when the decision was made to leave filling the dunk tank until Friday instead of letting it warm up a tad. The dunk tank is an opportunity for the campers to hit a target with a ball and dunk one of the administrators.
Chapel is on spiritual warfare, learning to put on the Armor of God listed in Ephesians. Pastor Jason, the teacher, surprises the kids every night with very fun object lessons as he comes in army clothes. Wednesday night one cabin was having some interpersonal issues and had to have an extra session with Jason. They were heard coming from the session calling out in repetitious unison "We are defeating the devil" as they went back to experience peace in their cabin! We have experienced some wonderful evidences of God working in the kids lives with kids learning to forgive each other and some learning how to be slower to anger.
Praises:- We were blessed to have staff person Cody arrive to take some vacancies at Tot Lot.
- We have not had to send anyone home.
- Last night after the camp out cabin had been taken to the camp out site, we saw some lightning in the distance. We turned on the computer to check the weather and found that we had INTERNET and could trace the lightning occurrences. The challenge to send these updates now has been to find an opening in the computer schedule.
- We are more alert to God's simple blessings and are taking fewer things for granted.
- God is giving grace in the fatigue.
- There are no major issues with the facility and the staff at the farm have met our daily needs with speed.
- Keep praying for a camper with anger issues. One praise is that they have not yet been sent home. They continue to learn how to respond to situations around them as they learn to slow down their temper.
- Pray for a camper who is being teased by fellow cabin mates and wants to go home.
- Pray for two counselors who have a camper who because of a difficult relationship with their father has a wrong view of God.
- Pray for a camper who is having trouble forgiving another camper.
- Pray for a camper who is not used to being loved and that they would learn to accept it.
- Pray for an assistant counselor who has been having many nosebleeds.
- Pray for the recovery of several young staff members who have had heat related issues.
- Pray for a camper who talks about horror movies.
- Pray for a camper who had an accident on the diving board on Monday and from time to time experiences some pain. Her custodial parent took her for x-rays on Thursday.
- We have a varmint (we choose not to identify it by species) at the cabin where some of the counselors reside. We would really like for it to be caught or otherwise relocated!
- Please pray for the farm staff. They turned their e-mail for the first time in two months to find 230+ new e-mails. It takes 50 seconds just to open each e-mail.
- Pray that a counselor will have patience with a stubborn camper and not lose her Christian witness by making a wrong response.
- Pray for many of the children that have inner turmoil.
- Pray for a camper who is very demanding and for their big sister.
- Pray for a camper that misses their mother.
- Pray for a camper that has bed time issues.
