Day 3

Well today I actually slept in and I didn’t get up until 7am!!! Woo-hoo! Breakfast was really good in that we had pancakes and sausage. This morning’s talk was confusing for me. We were told we were going to hear about our corporate identity and yet all I got from the talk was that we weren’t doing enough to help the starving children in third world countries. I think that when they do the talk on our global identity it would fit better, but what do I know?!?! ☺ I think the students liked it and that’s all that really matters. One thing I really like is that after the morning talk the students break off into their teams and have quiet time. I think it’s really hard for people in general today to spend 15 minutes of quiet time with the Lord and I like that they do it EVERYDAY here.
Before I go into what we did next I don’t think that I’ve explained what the teams are. Calvin Crest has “Lead Councelors” on staff and they are in charge of about 4 cabins each. So each of the students have a cabin councelor (and we bring our own) and then a staff member that gets to know the students as well. The groups that the LC’s are in charge of are what are known as the teams. I’m really glad that our girls are in the same team. I’ve been going between our girls’ and boys’ teams, which has been really fun and great!
So today the teams did something they call initiatives. It’s a time to grow as a team and see what you yourself is capable of doing. I was able to go to both the girl’s and the boy’s initiatives. When the girls were doing their initiatives, the boys were in the pool and then when the boys were doing the initiatives, the girls went on a hike to polar bear pond. The girls were first and we met in a circle in which we went around and said our name, age, and the weirdest place we’ve ever peed (man I love Jr. High). After coming up with goals during initiatives (like respecting each other and working as a team, listening and open communication), we headed up to our first initiative, which was the broken bridge. The girls were instructed to get from one platform across to two others using just two pieces of wood and the kicker was that they couldn’t speak throughout the whole thing. Have you ever asked about 40 Jr. High girls to work together while not talking? YEAH, it was AWESOME. Here are some pictures of them working together in silence (it took about 30 minutes).
Then they went to another task where they had to walk across a wire while holding onto someone else doing the same thing. They had to use each other to balance themselves. I found it very interesting to see how some girls really wanted to keep going and had great patience with each other and how they would change up their teams to have more finish the task then fail at it. And then there were some girls who didn’t work well together at all and would blame the other girl for their failure. I’m proud to say that NONE of our girls were in that latter group.
The boys started their initiatives the same way and I gotta tell you that their answers were WAY better than the girls, but I think that’s because it’s easier for them to pee in weird places. The boys then had to stand up on a wall and then without talking they had to arrange themselves in order of their birthdays, January to December. They also had to stay on the wall (which was about 7 inches deep) and if they fell then they had to start over. It’s very interesting to watch the boys try and use non-verbal communication. They did a pretty good job too! Then they went over to a swinging rope and they had to swing on the rope (like Tarzan) onto a platform. The trick was that they gave a couple of the boys handicaps. Will had to do it without using his legs. I was VERY impressed and proud of all of the guys. They were so encouraging of each other and they really helped each other. They cheered if someone had a hard time and then they got it. They helped all the handicapped people first and really got a good system down.

Tonight Calvin Crest had a TV/Movie Star theme for dinner where we were to come dressed up as our favorite TV or Movie character or star. I wanted to speak quickly and talk in obscure references and go a Lorelei Gilmore, but well.. I didn’t. Actually not a lot of people from our church dressed up because we didn’t know about these theme nights. After dinner the students broke off into their cabins and they were given different film genres to make up skits for. The girls were given Foreign Film and Musical and the boys were given slow-motion.The cabins then went to three different stations to work on their skits; the green to rehearse the skit, the basketball court to make a backdrop for their skit and the craft condo for hair and make-up. I got to do the boys hair and I must say it was darn good!
The skits took a long time and then we went to CAMPFIRE and Ryan did such an AWESOME talk on loving the Lord your God with ALL your HEART! At the end of his talk he handed out little heart erasers to remind us to love God always.
After the talk and before the cabin time we played a KNIGHT GAME. It was basically a giant game of wink ‘em. There were knights and they were the only ones who could kill the hosts of the bubonic plague, of which there were 10, and there were 4 knights. I survived the first two rounds and then in the third round I died a spectacular death Nathan Roberts-style. I even got applause. I was killed again in the fourth round.
Today was very long and I am very tired so I’m going to bed.

Quote of the day:
“That was a lot of words, a lot of words. It was a lot of words.” –Kelsey Stevens