Wednesday night we heard a talk from Kellie about truth and lies, followed by experiential worship stations. The evening was incredibly powerful and all I could think to myself when the night was over was “Wow.” I was in the lodge during this time because one of the stations was a worship station, and I was in the back to pray with campers. I had a few girls come up to me and tell me that they feel like a huge weight has been lifted off their chests and that they feel free. And I only talked to a few campers! I know that so many more had encounters with the Lord and it was beautiful to watch. After the stations, we all came back to the lodge for a time of extended worship. People were not worried about being with their friends, staff and campers were mixed together, people were standing and sitting, but together we were all worshiping our Lord. All I could think was that this is the body of Christ, everyone together giving glory to God our Savior.

Yesterday morning, Matt talked about the Kingdom of God and Kyle talked about “doing” what God says. Kyle had planned a really neat opportunity for the campers at the end of his talk. The staff set up foot washing stations for the campers to come and have their feet washed. During the foot washing there were some worship songs playing, and after most campers had their feet washed the song “Lead Me to the Cross” was playing. Some campers started singing, and gradually everyone had joined in. It was just another one of those moments where the presence of the Spirit was so tangible.

Yesterday afternoon and evening were very fun. We had a lot of waterfront time so the campers enjoyed swimming, tubing, riding the torpedo, and skiing. Dinner was a special event – it was Date Night! Each boy’s cabin was paired with a girl’s cabin to take to dinner. The boys had to do something nice for the girls when they picked them up. Everyone dressed up in fun costumes for a fairy tale themed banquet. The staff served dinner while we listened to some Disney tunes.

After dinner we played a great game of Capture the Flag, followed by canteen. Vespers was full of surprises! It started off with a showing of the music video the staff made to “Secret Ambition” by the one and only Michael W. Smith. Immediately following, the office crew (me, Kyle, Kim, and David) put on a skit! All summer we have watched the staff do some of the same funny things over and over in skits, so the four of us did “I’m glad I work in the office,” our take on “I’m glad I am a staffer.” We pretended to be each of the staffers, and not to toot our own horn, but it was pretty funny Some highlights included Kim tap dancing, Kyle playing the trumpet, and David wearing Kellie’s pony beads shirt.

Megan Slinger presented an incredible talk about putting God on the throne of your life. It was another powerful message and one I’m sure that the campers will remember. We also ahd cabin fire circles last night. Fire circles are a great time for campers to share what they learned during the week and reflect on how they’ve seen teh King.

Our last couple talks came from Steph this morning on faith not being a feeling and from David and Nat during teaching time on being refined. Right now the campers are enjoying one last waterfront time before lunch and heading home! It has been an absolutely incredible week and I’m sad to see it end! It was a great way to end the camp season.

We see the King…

Megan

We’re nearing the end of Wednesday, but there is still a lot in store for tonight! We will have Vespers, hear a great talk from Kellie, and have some experiential worship after that. It is personally my favorite night of the week, and I know the campers will love it. I am expecting the Lord to be at work!

Last night, we heard an important talk from Bekah about the message of salvation and how Jesus came to earth to rescue us. After Vespers, the girls and guys split into separate groups to have fire circles where they can ask the counselors any question they want! One thing we did that was new was that the girl staff and guy staff switched fire circles for about 15 minutes so the girl campers could ask the guy staff questions and vice versa. It proved to be a very valuable time.

This morning we heard Dan talk on forgiveness and David talking about Listening. I heard there was some great tubing out on the waterfront today, so shout-out to our tubers of the day, Mara and Emery! Tie dye was also our craft, a camp favorite. The shirts look awesome! After lunch was rest hour, which went straight into softball!

Well, I better keep getting ready for tonight! Until tomorrow…

Megan

As a weather sensitive person myself, I tend to be drawn to the animated radar from time to time. This morning was no different.

The storm was rolling in, trees were swaying, and the waves were building. The penguins were getting off the beach just in time!

Again I went to check the progress of the storm…hmm…there was my curser sitting where camp sits in the south west corner of Stearns County…I sat and watched as the storm opened up around camp…literally…

God is good…say it with me, “All the time!”

david

We woke up this morning to a thunderstorm, meaning we couldn’t do Penguins… the traditional way. Luckily, our staff is inventive and we still had the event, but with a hose! That’s not the making history part though, Penguins with a hose has happened before…

Breakfast was normal. We had a nice buffet style breakfast of pancakes and sausage. Morning worship was normal. We heard a great talk about community from Ross and Evan. But since it was still storming, we went right into game time. From game time, we had teaching time, and teaching time went into quiet times. It’s at this poing that I’m sitting in the Upper Hen House (where the girl staff sleeps) having my own quiet time, and the lights started flickering. I called Kim on my cell phone (don’t tell the campers I have it!) to see if I should go somewhere else. She said it was up to me. So I finished my quiet time and then headed over to the office. About five minutes after getting there… the lights go out. And don’t turn back on. Power outage! But it didn’t last for just a few minutes… it lasted for a few hours! Poor Helen (our cook) was down in the kitchen trying to make lunch with no electricity! But, being the rock star she is, we still managed to get lunch on the table and had our meal by candlelight After lunch, the campers had rest hour while the staff had a meeting, and lo and behold, the power came back. Right after we had prayed about it actually, which was pretty cool!

That was the history making part, by the way. Never before has there been a power outage at C.O.

The afternoon’s events consisted of canteen, Granny’s Candy, waterfront, dinner, cabin time, Safari, canteen, and Vespers. Right now the campers are in their cabins having a devotion with their counselor and heading to bed

Can’t wait for another great day tomorrow!

Megan

This morning in Morning Worship, we heard a talk from Matt about the Kingdom of God and living it out every day. A highlight from morning activity was the awesome tie dye! The colors were beautiful. You should be expecting your camper to come home with an awesome t-shirt or two

The afternoon was very eventful and … funny! We played a new game that David and Kyle named “Get Rich or Die Tryin.’” I’m not quite sure the logistics of the game, but I do know that there was an auction at the end. David was the auctioneer. Let me say that it’s probably in my Top 5 list of funniest things that I’ve seen at camp! I walked out of the office this afternoon and saw David wearing a tan leather jacket with fringes and a cowboy hat, saying into the microphone, “Two hundred dollars, two hundred, can I get a better bid?” etc. He was very authentic. And it. was. hilarious. The campers were definitely enjoying themselves!

After that came, we had a banquet for dinner! It was fairy tale themed, so we decorated the lodge, played a lot of Disney music, and dressed up as fairy tale characters. The staff served the campers dinner, and there was even dancing after! At one point, “Love Story” by Taylor Swift came on, and every camper was singing and dancing and laughing. You know those moments when you look around and think, “Wow. I can’t believe this is my life,” and everything feels right? It was one of those moments for me

After dinner, the campers played the classic game Capture the Flag. It ended with Nightclub Penguins, aka Penguins at night! It was nice to cool off after the game with a quick dip in the lake.

At Vespers tonight, we heard a great talk from Megan Slinger about letting God sit on the throne of your life. The campers had a neat opportunity to write what is currently sitting on the throne of their lives on a piece of paper and lay it at the field of a throne that was in the front of the room, surrendering it to God and letting him become King of their lives. It was a powerful moment, and I know the Holy Spirit was present, turning hearts toward the Lord!

Right now, each cabin is at their own fire circle. Fire circles are a meaningful time for campers to reflect on the week and what they have learned.

Tomorrow we’re heading home, and although it will be sad to leave, it will be exciting for the campers to take what they’ve learned this week at camp and live it out!

Megan

After Field Olympics we had waterfront, and lots of tubing and torpedo rides went out. The campers are really enjoying their time in the lake and on the boats. As a lifeguard, I must share this because I think it’s funny – since the water is so high, it’s hard for the lifeguard to sit on the dock and watch swimmers. But being the creative staff we are, we put a lawn chair on the dock for the guard to sit in! The water still goes up to the bottom of the chair, but we can see the swimmers!

Right now, there is a camper vs. staffer kickball game going on in the field. I wonder who’s winning!

Kellie is talking tonight at Vespers about truth and lies and our worth in Christ. We appreciate your prayer support, and we are expecting God to be working in campers’ hearts tonight!

Until tomorrow,
Megan

Let’s see, what’s happened today already…

Penguins
Breakfast (french toast today!)
Morning Worship – we heard a great talk from Dan about forgiveness and God’s mercy
Game Time – TUBE GRAB!!!! a C.O. classic. Can’t wait to hear the results at lunch.
Class time with David – great teaching about listening to the Lord
Morning Activity
Waterfront – happening right now!!!!

Lasagna for lunch today. Mmm

More updates later!
Megan

In the last few weeks we have had our mid-summer training, young adult weekend, and a family camp. Mid-summer training was a great time for the staff to come back together, reflect on the first half of the summer, and prepare for the second half! It was fun to have many of our friends come up for young adult weekend. There were many past staffers here, too! It’s more of a relaxing weekend for the staff as we get to spend most of our time with the “campers.” Something new that we debuted that weekend was the heART gallery. Kyle and David made a new clearing near the lodge, put in a fire pit, and put up four boards for people to paint, draw, or write on. We did some worship stations that weekend when we used them and we have some really neat art! This past weekend was our last family camp of the summer. It was beautiful that weekend and we had a lot of great time on the lake and playing games in the sun.

This week we have junior highers up at camp! So far it’s been an absolute blast. The weather has been great so that hasn’t hindered any of our activities… however the lake has been interesting, to say the least! It is still very high, and I think we have 3 1/2 steps down to the “beach” completely covered in water. The buddy board was also partly submerged, so we moved that to the side of the boat house. What’s great is that the lake is deep enough for the older campers to have fun in, and we’ve still been able to take our boats out! The lake was a “no wake zone” over the weekend, so we made a slip ‘n slide to add a little extra fun to the water front. The junior highers have been enjoying that this week

Let me just say that one of the highlights for me so far is hearing the Game Time team names! Each team had to come up with a name that included a word to describe eggs and an Old Testament Bible character. The names are hilarious! Two that I can remember off the top of my head are “Easter Pharaohs” and “Runny Rahabs.” Such creativity! Today for Game Time the campers played a Nuke ‘em tournament.

We’ve heard a series of great talks so far this week as well! The theme that David, Kyle, and I are using during the Teaching Time is “Seek. Listen. Do.” I am excited to see how the rest of the week builds on what we’ve heard so far. I’m hoping and praying that the campers are learning a lot and seeing God at work in their hearts!

Well, it’s time for Vespers, my favorite part of the day.
I promise I won’t be so bad about blogging anymore…

Megan

We’ve almost been here for one full day and it has been jam-packed with activity! Last night as families arrived, we had the waterfront open for those who wanted to cool off in Rice Lake. We also had some age group time and orientation, followed by Vespers and Game Night! We had some very tasty treats (shout out to Heidi Walstrom for her incredible puppy chow – there’s nothing like it!). I personally partook in a game of Happy Feet, which included singing and dancing, and a little “appetizer” of Pop 5, to be continued tomorrow evening.

This morning started off with, you guessed it, Penguins! There was a great turn-out and the lake is really warm right now. I haven’t exactly made it down to penguins yet this summer…I’m thinking next weekend will be my time We heard a great talk from Ross Bradley during Morning Worship, and the families had some time together after to reflect and talk about how they saw the King. All the moms enjoyed some time together after that in the prayer chapel while the kids did a variety of crafts in the lodge. We had buttons, keychains, mazes and crosswords, and even coloring on the tables, what?! Ok… they were covered in paper. And after THAT we had some waterfront time! All this before lunch! Which was popcorn chicken, by the way.

After lunch, it was time for a much needed rest. We also had a little canteen time. Mmm, candy and freezie pops The kids just finished having some age group time while the moms had free time. Some of them enjoyed a leisurely pontoon ride. The funniest thing I saw during age group time was a piñata made out of garbage bags filled with water! Right now waterfront is back open, and I’m thinking I should finish up this blog post so I can go jump in the lake!!! It’s hot out today, and the lake is quite refreshing

Until next time!
Megan