A Mighty Mighty Monday

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Happy Monday from Ox Lake!

This morning we had the opportunity to spend time on our lovely low ropes course. Our cabins had a blast doing trust falls, balancing acts, and various other challenge activities. Afterwards, we spent our afternoon at DD Kennedy, a local park, where we had a picnic, played cornhole, spike-ball, kan-jam, and splashed around in the water. As if that wasn’t enough activity, we also played our favorite field game: Mighty Mighty! Then we followed it up with our first canteen of the week, where mango jarritos and jolly rancher chews have proved to be fast favorites among this group. Water bottles have also been a big seller. We love smart purchases! Our night wrapped up with a very smoky campfire and s’mores. I wouldn’t be surprised if everyone’s clothes still smell like campfire at the end of the week from tonight alone!

We are living for the energy this group brings, from games to campfires to all the moments in between, it seems like they’re always bouncing around and finding something to laugh about. We can’t wait to see them do it all over again tomorrow.

We JUST LOVE Sundays

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Happy Sunday from Ox Lake!

We are so excited for this group of campers and all the fun activities we have planned for the week. To welcome our campers, we served a gourmet pasta dinner and introduced them to THE Ox Lake for swim test, which was very refreshing after our hot afternoon check-in. We finished off our night with campfire, where our top singles of the night were Feewah and Gospel Light.

What a great start to camp! We love the energy of this group already and can’t wait for everything else this week has in store.

Super Saturday

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Happy Saturday from Ox Lake! Time flies when you’re having fun, and today was no exception. After brunch and Bible study, we managed to sneak in one final game of Mighty Mighty to warm up for our closing worship. We had a great time singing all of our favorite songs with our families present, especially two rounds of Feewah. We loved all the energy our campers brought for the last day of camp! Although goodbyes are always hard, we’re so happy to send off this week of campers into the rest of their summer, physically exhausted but spiritually refreshed. Hopefully we see mail roll in from campers throughout the summer and we can’t wait to see them again next summer – and maybe even see some of them on staff!

Kickin’ Back

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Happy Friday from Ox Lake! Today was packed full of fun and adventure. We started our morning with bubble soccer and our campers really enjoyed knocking around each other and their counselors. After this sweaty field game, we moved into tie-dye. Everyone had such great designs, we hope to see how they turn out someday! (Sorry in advance for their colorful hands.) In the afternoon, we were able to cool off with a visit to Ox Lake for swimming, paddle boarding, and canoeing. Our campers had a blast jumping off the raft, playing cornhole, and relaxing in the sun. Since whiffle ball was such a hit, we brought back another camp classic – kickball! Our teams had a great time with this game, especially the mega ball and reverse innings. We finished out night with specialty worship, which included a performance form our counselors followed by a variety of prayer stations. Each station was crafted to encourage the campers to reflect on their time at camp and engage with their faith. Then to top it all off, we made s’mores after campfire. We can’t wait to see what our last day holds.

Thursday Went Swimmingly

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Happy Thursday from Ox Lake! This morning we had the opportunity to spend time on our lovely low ropes course. Our cabins had a blast doing trust falls, balancing acts, and loudly singing songs to distract themselves from the wobbly wires. Afterwards, we spent our afternoon at DD Kennedy, a local park, where we played cornhole, spikeball, and splashed around in the water. Our evening was no less busy with two field games, a high-energy campfire, and *drum roll* night game! Luckily, everyone was fueled with our delicious dutch oven night snack and had plenty of energy to chase our “lightning bugs” around all night. We can’t wait for more fun tomorrow at Ox Lake, we’re practically bubbling over with excitement!

A Grand Slam of a Day!

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Happy Wednesday from Ox Lake! Today we were able to spend our entire day outside, not a rain cloud in sight. We began our morning with laser tag – and everyone had a blast! One cabin even went head to head with our counselors and delivered a crushing defeat. During free time, our campers continued to dominate in games of Spoons while others created wood-burning masterpieces and worked on their carpet ball skills. However, the highlight of the day had to be the all-camp whiffle ball game. Although our plastic bats may need a break after the energetic game, our campers didn’t as they rounded the bases inning after inning. During the game, a few of our campers even managed to befriend a grasshopper and a moth, affectionately nicknamed Tiny Tim and Therese. To round out our night, we enjoyed choco-tacos after campfire, a delicious treat that consists of chocolate chips, banana, marshmallows, and sun butter wrapped in a tortilla and cooked over the fire. We can’t wait for our fun water activities tomorrow! Until then – goodnight!

Rain Rain Go Away, We Still Had Fun Anyway!

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Happy Tuesday from Ox Lake! Despite the on and off rain all day, our campers were dripping with enthusiasm for another day of camp. During a light drizzle, we snuck in a field game favorite – Mighty Mighty Scoop Noodle Challenge! Afterwards, we embarked on a site-wide scavenger hunt, which the Yellow Inchworms won by, well, about an inch. They celebrated their win with a pineapple jarrito (a new canteen favorite). As the rain came down harder, we moved our activities indoors, and enjoyed arts and crafts, games, and trash-ket ball. Today we discovered we have a crew of crafty campers, since they spent most of their board game time playing deception games like Secret Hitler and Mafia. In the evening, we took advantage of the break in the weather to play more field games, this time Medic and Exploding Enchiladas. We finished our evening with a movie night in Earth Chapel, complete with a popcorn snack and lots of toppings!

Camp, But it Starts on Monday

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Happy Monday from Ox Lake!

For our counselors, today was a wacky start to our week since we started on a Monday instead of our normal Sunday. But with an extra day of rest after July 4th, we were ready to match the energy of our campers! Our big activity of the day was the swim test, which was very refreshing after the heat of the afternoon. After we got back, we celebrated all our purple bands (a high achievement!) with our first camp canteen of the week. Every single camper went through the canteen line and enjoyed the sweets, while others planned ahead for a hot week by buying Ox Lake water bottles. We finished off our night with a high-energy campfire, where our top singles of the night were Feewah and Gospel Light. What a great start to camp! We can’t wait to see what God has planned for the rest of our week.

Cha Cha Sliding into Friday

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Happy Friday from Ox Lake! Time flies when you’re having fun, and today was no exception. After brunch and Bible study, we managed to sneak in one final game of Mighty Mighty to get our blood pumping. Then as parents trickled in for worship, the entire camp had a dance party, complete with the Cupid Shuffle and Cha Cha Slide. But that was all a warmup for our closing worship, where most of the camp jumped up to the front to lead actions and perform for their parents! What a blast! Their energy today was unmatched during some of this week’s favorite songs like Feewah and Radical God. Although goodbyes are always hard, we’re so happy to send off this week of campers into the rest of their summer physically exhausted, but emotionally and spiritually refreshed. We’re crossing our fingers that we get mail this summer from this group (hopefully with pictures of their awesome tie dye) and can’t wait to see them again next summer – and maybe even see some of them on staff!

 

Bubbling Over with Joy

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Happy Thursday from Ox Lake! Wow, how time flies! We started our morning with an amazing chapel, followed by bubble soccer. The kids really seemed to enjoy knocking each other around, but enjoyed going after their counselors even more. And when it got too hot inside the bubbles, our local art shop kindly provided face paint just for fun. Luckily, we got the chance to cool off in the afternoon with a visit to Ox Lake for swimming, canoeing, and paddle boarding. It was the perfect complement to such a sweaty morning! The kids enjoyed jumping off the raft, playing spikeball on land, and singing Feewah from the canoes. We finished our night with specialty worship, which included a performance from our counselors followed by a variety of prayer stations. Each station was crafted to encourage the campers to reflect on their time at camp and engage with their faith. Then to top it all off, we served choco-tacos after campfire. What a treat! We are so thankful for these campers – their energy, their kindness, their passion for Jesus – and are sad we have to say goodbye already tomorrow. Here’s to one last day of camp!