Junior Camp 2011 has come and gone. A week of great fun, intense heat and seeing many kids come to know Jesus deeper.

As Dean of Men for the second year, I was blessed to have so many kids return after last year and to see their growth. Camp is a place where lifelong friendships are made and eternal decisions are made, and the kids and staff made both. I would be amiss if i didn’t mention the hard work the Summer Staff did, for they went above and beyond to make sure we had a great time.

The classes for the kids were awesome, and the speaker for the week, Sarah Powell Lee was amazing! Not only did she bring the Gospel to the kids, she does a mean jump off the bridge! There is so much to discuss, the night time games, the fellowship, the swimming, free time, etc, but what I will remember most of all is the friendships that were made stronger and seeing Christians of all stripes worshipping Jesus, for that is what Camp is all about….bringing Jesus to the kids.

That’s right, it’s the last day of Junior Camp and the temperature has been even higher than yesterday’s. The kids still had fun despite the heat, with tons of fun activities throughout the day. Linda Dugan had the campers gather outside with their counselors for individual group photos before free time. After dinner, everyone got together for one big group photo by the flag pole. (Check back here tomorrow for those photos and a way for you to order prints.)

The campers competed to see who could pick up the most trash from the ground to get a reward. Though the work was done for the sake of the reward, it was still fun to see how excited the campers were to pick up trash. Every day the counselors have been conducting best bed inspections in the campers’ dorms, and whoever has the tidiest bed gets a prize. At lunch today, the counselors announced the winners of both the final best bed inspection and the trash competition. The winners of each competition got to decorate the staff member of their choice with shaving cream. There were three winners for the trash competition and six winners for the best bed contest, but Linda also let the best bed winners from earlier in the week take part in the shaving cream event. About 20 to 25 people were chosen to be part of the activity. After the shaving-cream decorating time, the campers started wiping shaving cream on other people and spraying shaving cream at each other. Everybody was covered in shaving cream, which was disintegrating in the blazing sun, but it was still a lot of fun.

This past Wednesday night, Sarah (Powell) Lee, the evangelist for the week, dared two campers to eat a sandwich created by their fellow peers. This time, it was Sarah’s turn to take on a dare, and the campers created a doozy of a challenge. They said she had to kiss a frog and then leap off the big bridge into the lake—and she wasn’t allowed to change into a bathing suit. Unfortunately, nobody caught a frog for Sarah to kiss as part of the dare, so one of the staff gave her a stuffed animal turtle to kiss instead. Sarah still had to jump off the big bridge into the lake, which worked out because she was already covered in shaving cream.

Tonight, instead of a night game, the campers are all taking part in a talent show that will be held in the Tabernacle. All the campers who signed up and practiced during free time will display their performing talents for all to see. A little birdie told me that two of the male counselors are going to sing in the talent show; I also heard that they might try to get one of the campers to sing with them. We’ll have to wait and see if their plan works out.

Click HERE to see more photos.