Sunday, July 13, 2014

Term 5, 2014, Part 2, The Excursion Story *grin*

I have been pondering what else to share from Term 5. I have found over the years at camp, that the thing that matters the most to me out there are the people. HOWEVER, there are some stories that are worth sharing, and it's probably more for me than you. However, I do hope you enjoy reading this post. *grin*

When I initially saw the activities schedule for the week, I saw that we had EXCURSION listed for Day #2. Excursion means spending the day and night out in the wilderness. We are still on Barnabas property, but it is camping at it's roughest. *grin* I'll be open about this, I have a love/hate thing about Excursion. On one hand, it is a rather chill day, typically not a ton of walking once we're out at the site. The girls typically swim in the river, but I stay out due to the route down to the water. It typically works out great because there is typically a camper who doesn't want to swim too, so it works out fine. We sit and watch everyone swim. So, you might be wondering, why do I hate it too? Well, we had a couple campers who stressed over it, stating that they could not sleep outside. We also had several CIA's that knew what it was about and knew that we were in for a rough day with our campers. It wasn't that they were bad, it was just going to be a tough sell to them. One in particular really stressed over it, and repeated the phrase, "I can't sleep outside" a lot. We simply said, "um, okay." We figured it wasn't worth arguing with her. *grin* So, at Wrap up the night before our Excursion, they did the mic check song. While the team sang the mic check song, a group of us were singing our own version of "Let it Rain". Our logic was that if it rained, we could do an indoor version of Excursion, have fun, and not stress out our girls. We literally prayed for rain. *grin* Guess what we woke up to the next day? Yep, RAIN!!! While the other cabin moms in the room I slept in weren't sure what to make of the rain, I was cheering and told them what we prayed for the night before. *grin* I love it when He answers prayers like that! *grin*

I did feel bad for the group that had Excursion the day before, as the tent fell in on them and they came back in to the cabins at 3:00am-ish due to massive rain. That would not have been fun.

However, for us, the rain was a blessing from God. Our cabin wound up doing a modified Excursion experience. Meaning, they went out for smore's during wrap-up, and ate breakfast out at the Council Ring. They slept in the cabin. *grin*

As a Side-Note, I stayed in for wrap-up, since CJ had gotten me a chair and all. *grin* One of my staffers told me it was fine I stayed, and said I could go out after wrap-up. I almost went out after the best wrap-up of the week, and really felt like just showering, reading, and crashing instead. As it turned out, that was PERFECT, because I would have gone to the wrong place. I thought the Council Ring was at the Excursion site. As it turns out, it wasn't. *grin* I would have gone out in the dark to the wrong place. *giggle*

In the end, I would say our Excursion experience was perfect. *grin* In the future, if they ask my opinion on Excursion, I will tell them that I think sleeping outside should be optional, as that raised several camper's stress levels. I even had another cabin mom tell me that one of her campers was in a state of panic all week leading up to their Excursion. I think Excursion is a GREAT idea, I just think since they modify every other activity, Excursion should be able to be modified to meet the campers where they're at. *grin*

Stay tuned for future posts. I still have canoes, wrap-up, a few falls, and Pottery House stories to share. *giggle*

Have I mentioned lately that I LOVE CAMP? *GRIN*

LIFE.
IS.
AWESOME!!!



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