Day 2 of Camp 1

Today was my first full day of camp.  The team said I could sleep in but with jet lag or whatever, I was wide awake at 5:30am.  Today was a typical day at camp, but I didn't have any time to get acclimated. I am the "lead intern" for this very small camp.  What that means is that I MC just about everything.  The trouble is that I missed all the planning meetings, so I get about 1 hour notice before I need to do something.  

I started with welcoming all students when they gathered for meals.  Breakfast went without a hitch, but it was my first time interacting with the group as a whole.  Many students are very reserved. Many refuse to participate.  Many participate, but reluctantly. I thought I was going to be in for an uphill battle trying to get them excited about all that we do.  

After that we had Morning Bible Lessons. I had to do all the actions for all the songs in front of all the kids.  I though no problem, but when I was in the middle of this, I forgot all the actions! However, through the grace of God I was able to fumble through.  I was asked to pray before the bible lesson started.  Bob and Rich talked about how God knows us. Then I, with Meghan's help, was in charge of getting kids excited for the sea.  After breakfast, I was concerned that this would be difficult.  But it went fine.  

After Bible lesson, I was told one of my responsibilities as lead inter is to lead the planning meeting.  I work with the leader to see what they have planned and then convey this to the group.  And make sure that nothing important gets missed. Ummm, the only problem is I have that I have no clue what the schedule looks like.  I guess I have about an hour to find out :o)

After this we went to the beach.  This time of the year the water is a little cold, but after a while it warms up. I used some of this time to find out what in the world I was to convey at the meeting. We got back in camp just in time for Lunch.  In which, we then had to stall all 98 hungry kids for 15 minutes because Lunch wasn't read.  This was interesting, and thanks to my fellow interns we pulled it off...barely. However, on a good note it is clear that the kids are starting to open up and participate more.

After lunch we have our meeting.  Which went just fine (all though not a smoothy as I like).  In the afternoon we did interest groups. Which is where the children get to do different activities (soccer, volleyball, cards, legos, coloring, hair, manicures, etc).  After this we were planning the Bible lesson.  One of the team members were going to do this.  However, in the middle of playing SKIPBO with some kids.  This team member came to me and asked if instead I would do the Bible lesson.  So in about an hour I did this too.  This was an amazing time were every child got a bible.  They were very excited!

We ended the day with craft (Self "portraits" and My story book) and bed time stories  where each of the kids got to read their story books. 

The most amazing thing from today is watching the kids go from being reserved to opening up.  The number of smiles I  see grew exponentially throughout the day.  God is clearly working in the lives of these kids.  Please pray that he keeps working in amazing ways!

This is a typical day.  I can't promise that the rest of the blogs will be this detailed.  But in general think about the schedule as laid out on this day.