Camp 2 - Day 2: When it Rains it Pours

This day was one of the most challenging in my camp career. The last one like it was 4 years ago. The day started over cast. The sky held the rain long enough to get through morning bible lesson and a little more. It was windy and cold enough we decided to not go to the sea. So we camp up with some quick fillers. What I did not anticipate is how quick those fillers were. Bible lesson ended abut 20 minutes early. I planed to do a scavenger hunt that I thought would take 15-20 minutes. As I started directions, it started to sprinkle. But I let the game continue. The trick was the 20 minute game took less than five. We then did a filler craft, which again I had hoped would take 15 to 20 minutes, as a couple of boys walked out, finished in about 3 minutes. Granted a few kids did take 20 minutes or so to finish. However, even with that it is now only 10:05 and Bible lesson is supposed to last till 10:00, so the two activities I had planed to fill the 2 hour beach time have only taken up 5 minutes. So Now we are trying plan C.

The counselors worked in their ward to prepare for the closing ceremony that would be later that day. I thought about an hour of this would be good, so in the second hour I started to plan yet another activity to do. Only to walk around to the counselors to learn it wasn't needed. Great, I'll stop working on that. But by now the rain is pouring down. The rain let up for lunch, just before planing the rest of the day. We will do opening ceremony, then bible ceremony and craft. Plan D If it is raining we will do these in the tent, but we will do them regardless. We finished the planning meeting, just as it started to rain again.

We celebrated Jenya's (a staff member, who pretty much does anything that isn't in everyone else's job description.) Birthday. Of course the team didn't have time to get a gift in all the craziness of the day, so that will have to happen later. We spent the remainder of rest time working on a script for the opening ceremony. At which point we decided that the ceremonies would definatley need to be held in the tent due to the rain. So Matt and Sergey moved all the benches to the tent. By the time they got the last one down their. It had rained so much that it had flooded under the tent and as you walk you sunk in the mud about 4 inches. So Plan E.

We can't do the opening ceremony in the dinning hall because there is no place for a stage. So we decided to do Bible Ceremony, then help set up for supper (because that would put us behind schedule), then after craft do a movie. We would save the opening Ceremony for tomorrow. The MC's including myself, had a sigh of relief as we had more time to prep and we could work during the movie.

Bible Ceremony went smoothly, followed by set up and supper. At which point it not only stopped raining, but also the sun came out. Well if the sun was out why would we watch a movie? So Plan F everyone was given one hour, to finish prep for the opening ceremony.

This of course includes finding a costume, setting up the order of all the skits, getting the music to the correct place, setting up the sound equipment, some how magically get the costume (which consists of a satin sheet and a curtain) to stay on, and finishing the script (Some of which happened on stage).

The Opening Ceremony went quite well. And although the day was crazy with changing plans, it all worked out.

The funny thing is the one thing I prayed for this camp was that it wouldn't rain, because the plan was "perfect." It wasn't that the plan was wrong, but God was telling me that it isn't my place to say that anything I created is perfect. Only He is perfect! His will, His plan. Today, was a strong reminder of those things.