Junior High 2: Thursday

We are still having an awesome week with our Junior High campers! We've packed so many fun activities into our week, and we still have so much more fun to have! We aren't done yet :)

This morning we started off at flag pole with some stretches and a fun run to get warmed up for our chilly morning. Then we headed into the Dining Hall to eat breakfast together.

After eating a yummy breakfast we went back to our cabins to clean up and decorate to today's theme of "Bible stories from the Old Testament!" Our campers definitely channeled some inner creativity for their decorations!

When our cabins were clean and decorated, we went out with our cabins for Bible study. Today's Bible study focused on 1 John chapter 4, which talks even more  about loving our brothers and sisters, and how "perfect love drives out fear." We had some great discussion about what that can look like in our own lives, as well as how these things can make us Alive with Christ.

After our Bible studies, choice activities for the day began! Today's choice activities included canoeing/kayaking, archery tag, disc golf, crafts, game room, hiking at Merry Lea, carpet ball, and a "Q&A" time with our chapel speaker, Brad Eckerley and his wife, Tish Eckerley (who is also an active reader of this blog, so here's a shout-out to Tish! :)

Following some great choice activities for the day, we gathered together for another delicious lunch of soup and grilled cheese! When our bellies were full of the awesome food our wonderful cooks prepared, we went back to our cabins for rest time in order to have enough energy for the rest of the day!

When rest time came to an end, it was time for Rotations to start up! Today's rotations included swimming, the famous slip 'n slide, and preparing with our cabins for tonight's cabin skits! We had a lot of fun on the slip 'n slide as usual, and everyone prepared some really creative, funny skits for later in the night!

After rotating, allowing each cabin to enjoy each activity, the camp was open for free time. Everything that's usually open for free time was an option, plus the tournaments continued on through today!




Following free time, we headed to the Dining Hall for a great dinner of baked potatoes, corn, ham, baked pineapple, and banana pudding for dessert! It was a very satisfying meal!

When dinner came to a close, we gathered together for chapel! We worshipped together, and got to hear Brad speak again tonight. Tonight Brad spoke about the gifts that God has for us, and how we can draw closer to God together. After he was done speaking, we set out with our cabin groups to have a short discussion with one another.


After some great cabin discussion and processing, we gathered together to watch some very entertaining skits! The campers definitely had a lot of fun putting them together, and they were also really fun to watch!

When the skits came to a close, we went off to bed to rest up for another fun-filled day of camp. We're having such an awesome week with these campers. It's been so much fun to grow alongside them, and to watch them interact and grow with each other as well. We are still praying that God would continue to move within each of them and that this week would be a stepping stone to living a life with Christ even after they leave here.

We can't wait to see what the rest of the week holds for us!

Junior High 2: Tuesday

Our second group of Junior High campers arrived yesterday! Woo-hoo!

We had an amazing first day yesterday, and another great today as well! Our week is off to an awesome start :)

Yesterday we got split into our teams, came up with team  names (which had to include a color and a food) such as the Titanium White Turnips and Burgundy Bananas, got to know each other and played some really fun games.







Today we started off the day at Flag Pole with some stretches and a fun run to breakfast to get our blood pumping for a full day of fun activities.









We had a delicious breakfast of pancakes and sausage made by our awesome, hard working cooks. Following breakfast we headed back to our cabins to clean our cabins and to decorate to the theme of "American Folklore!" The cabins are judged by the "snooper" later in the day, and the cabin that is the cleanest and decorated in the best way gets to enter into lunch first, carrying the flaming plunger trophy. It's a high honor here at Bear Lake and our campers really get into it :)



When our cabins were clean and decorated, we set out for cabin Bible study. Today's Bible study focused on 1 John Chapter 2. This week the campers each have a booklet with the scripture passages in them and follow a color code key to underline, circle and highlight certain things in the passage. This has the campers interacting with Scripture in a tangible way, and has them read through the passage multiple times, which helps further understanding. After the campers go through dissecting the passage, we come together as a cabin to discuss what we read. So far this summer the campers have really enjoyed doing a Bible study in this way, and we've already had some really great conversations this week!

After our Bible studies, we began choice activities for the day! Today's choice activities included canoeing, archery tag, carpet ball, nine-square, soccer, volleyball, crafts, and Dawn's Dance Aerobics.

After we enjoyed both of our choice activities for the day, we gathered together in the Dining Hall for a wonderful lunch of chicken nuggets, mac & cheese, corn bread, carrots and popsicles for dessert!



When our tummies were full of tasty food, we went back to our cabins for rest time to recharge for the rest of the day. When we were all rested and ready to go, we went to today's Rotations with our teams. Today's rotations included swimming, games in the gym, and crafts/team building activities. When the teams completed the first rotation, we rotated through to the next activity so everyone got to enjoy a few activities. The rotation will continue tomorrow so each team will get to experience each activity.

After rotations, the camp was open for free time! During this time, everyone is able to enjoy anything from GaGa, nine-square, or even tournaments! This week the campers could join up in small teams and sign up for a volleyball tournament, a basketball tournament or could individually compete in a carpet ball tournament.

Following free time, we headed into the Dining Hall for a marvelous meal of tacos and cake for dessert!

After refilling our tummies, we got ready to play our all-camp activity. This evening's all-camp activity was a great game of Goldrush.

When our game came to a close, we headed to the chapel for worship and another great message from our speaker for the week, Brad Eckerley!

After our message from Brad, we went out with our cabin groups to discuss what he had talked to us about, and about how the rest of our day went. Following a short discussion with our cabins, we gathered back together for our night game! Tonight's night game was a great round of Counselor Hunt.

When the Counselor Hunt ended, we went back to our cabins to go to bed.

We have had an awesome first two days with this group of campers! They are eager to learn, and they are so much fun! We can't wait to serve them this week, and grow alongside them. We are continuously praying that God would be moving in their hearts and that they would be receptive and open to hearing Him.

Here's to the rest of the week! :)

Junior 1: Thursday

Happy Thursday! We are having an awesome week with our Junior campers!!

Yesterday we expected the rain to come and change our plans for the day, but amazingly the rain missed us all day, so we got to enjoy our day outside! We did have some storms last night, but we were blessed with safety through the night and awoke to a fresh new morning!

This morning we started our day off the usual way at Flag Pole with stretches and a fun run to get our blood pumping for the day! We then headed into the Dining Hall for a delicious breakfast of waffles, pancakes, and peaches!

After eating, we went back to our cabins to clean up and decorate to today's theme. Today's theme is "Sportz!" When our cabins were all clean, organized, and decorated, we went out for our Bible studies with our cabins.

Today's Bible study was from 1 John chapter 4. We took time to look at details that John talks about in this chapter and discussed how we can experience a relationship with Jesus in light of the passage.

This week the campers all have a booklet with the Bible Study passages in them, and are given crayons and colored pencils to underline, highlight, circle and color code different things their booklets ask them for. This way, they can start to dissect scripture and look deeper into what it has to say. Doing this also has the campers read and re-read the passage multiple times, which helps further understanding. It's interactive and the campers seem to really enjoy doing this type of Bible Study!

After Bible Study, we started our choice activities for the day! Today's choice activities included an interactive hike at Merry Lea, GaGa, Carpet Ball, Nine Square, Crafts, Archery, and Swimming.

When we finished up both of our choice activities we signed up for, it was time for a wonderful lunch! Today's delicious lunch consisted of chicken nuggets, carrots, tater tots, and O'Henry bars for dessert! Our cooks do such an awesome job! It was a very tasty meal.

Following our lunch, it was time to head back to the cabins for some rest time so we could all have enough energy for the rest of the day!

When we were rested and ready to go, we began our rotations for the day. Today's rotations included swimming, getting ready for tomorrow's game of Mêlée, and the slip 'n slide! The campers have been working hard on memorizing their verses for Mêlée, and now their teams are all signed up for the different events that go on during the game. The slip 'n slide is also always a hit. It was very refreshing on a hot day like today! :)



After some really fun rotations, everyone got to enjoy some free time around camp, and then headed in for an awesome dinner of mac & cheese, green beans and corn, corn bread, and jello cake for dessert!

Following dinner, we had our all-camp activity. This evening's all-camp activity was called "Barbarians!" It's essentially a form of 4-way capture the flag, and it was definitely a great game. Our campers played hard!

When "Barbarians" came to a close, we headed to the chapel for some worship and a message from Devin Reed. Tonight's message focused even more on Ephesians chapter 2, and all of the good works God calls us to do for Him.

After a great chapel, we split off to have some discussion with our cabin groups and then went off to bed to rest up for Friday.

It has been such a great week, and we have loved spending time with our awesome campers. We're so excited that they've been loving this week as much as we have (if not, more) and have been learning more about Christ. We still have a lot of fun stuff planned for the rest of the week, and we trust that it will be amazing. We continuously pray that God would move within each camper and that seeds would be planted and would continue to grow as they leave this place on Saturday.

Here's to the rest of the week!

Junior 1: Tuesday

Our first group of Junior campers have arrived!! Our cabins are all full, making this week's number somewhere around twice as many as last week!

We had a great first day yesterday, full of activities to get the week started. Unfortunately, the rain got in the way of a few things but we managed to be flexible and still have a lot of fun!

Today we started our day off at flag pole with some stretches and a fun run to get warmed up and energized. Then we headed off to the Dining Hall to enjoy a yummy breakfast together!

Following breakfast we all went back to our cabins for cabin clean-up! We re-organized our things, made our beds, swept the floors, and decorated to today's theme: Dinosaurs! The cabin that is the cleanest and decorated the in the best way will receive the flaming torch/plunger before lunch, and will get to enter into lunch first! It's quite an honor :)

After our cabins were clean and decorated, we went off with our cabin groups for Bible study! Today we read 1 John chapter 2. We took the time to dissect this chapter and discuss what it means and looks like to be "Alive" in Christ, and to live life with Christ.


After our Bible studies, we went off to begin our choice activities! Today's choice activities included Archery, GaGa, Nine Square, Carpet Ball, Soccer, Crafts, and swimming!

When our choice activities came to a close, it was time to head into the Dining Hall for lunch! Cabin 4A got to go in first, carrying their trophy plunger, because they had the cleanest and best decorated cabin! Congrats, boys! :) We got to sit around the tables together enjoying one another's company, and a delicious meal of pigs in a blanket, popcorn, applesauce, and pudding for dessert!

 When lunch came to a close, we all went back to our cabins for a little bit of rest time to recharge for the rest of our day.

Following cabin time, we gathered around outside to play an all-camp activity. Today's activity was an active version of Tic-Tac-Toe! It was a very fast, intense game that the campers loved and really got excited for! There was a lot of cheering and good competition.

After some rounds of Tic-Tac-Toe, we headed out for our rotations of the day. We went through our rotations with our teams we were put into yesterday afternoon! Half of one rotation included playing games in the gym, while the other half was craft time. The other rotation was swimming! After the first full rotation and a break at Snack Shack, the teams rotated so everyone could enjoy each activity!





When rotations were wrapped up, the camp was open for free time! We could enjoy GaGa, Carpetball, Nine Square, Corn Hole, the swings, Tetherball and more during this time!

After enjoying free time we headed back to the Dining Hall for a wonderful dinner of spaghetti, bread, salad, and ice cream for dessert!

When we were finished eating our yummy meal, we gathered together for our all-camp activity! This evening's game was Goldrush.

After playing Goldrush, it was time to head to the chapel for worship! We sang some great songs and got to hear Devin Reed speak to us about Ephesians 2, and what it looks like when Jesus enters into our sinful lives!


When Devin finished talking with us, we all headed out to have a short discussion with our cabin groups before going back to our cabins for a good night's rest.

It has been an awesome first two days! Our campers are very energized and excited for everything we are doing, and it's so fun to watch and be a part of! We can't wait to grow alongside them this week as we learn more about becoming Alive with Christ. We are continuously praying for our campers, and we can't wait to have even more fun the rest of this week!

Junior High 1: Wednesday

Our week of camp has been fabulous with our wonderful Junior High campers!

This morning we woke up to some peaceful rain, refreshing a new day. Though it was peaceful, we were glad it didn't last too long so we could go outside and enjoy the outdoors.

For starters, we kicked the day off with flagpole. We warmed up with stretches, some Bear Lake Camp Jacks, and a short fun run to breakfast.

After breakfast we headed back to our cabins for cabin clean-up! During this time we try to get our cabins as tidy as we can, as well as decorate to a specified theme. The cleanest and most creative cabin gets the honor of the flaming plunger, as well as entering into lunch first.

Today's cabin clean-up theme was "Café Bistro."


When our cabins were clean and decorated, we went set out for our Bible studies. Today's Bible study centered around 1 John chapter 3. We went through the passage together, and pulled out different things that John talks about. This week during our Bible studies, we are focusing on picking out things that John says we "know," some specific ways of living with Christ that are described in the chapter, how we see these signs of life in ourselves and more. We have been having discussions with our cabinmates and have the chance to ask a lot of questions.

After Bible study, we began our choice activities for the day. Today's choice activities included crafts, dodgeball, nine square, disc golf, Dawn's Dance Aerobics, time in the game room, basketball and more!

Following our choice activities, we gathered in the Dining Hall for another yummy lunch of sub sandwiches, watermelon, pasta salad and cupcakes for desert! It sure hit the spot after playing around in the heat of the sun.

When we were all done eating, we went back to our cabins for some rest time to recharge for the rest of the day.

After some relaxing rest time, we started our rotations for the day. To start, one team played shaving cream wiffle ball, another team played Ultimate Sponge, and then the two teams switched. Meanwhile the other two teams cooled off swimming at the lake. After going through our first rotation and taking a break with a snack from the Snack Shack, we rotated spots so each team could enjoy each activity.

The rotations provided a lot of fun and laughter today! They were the perfect activities to cool off, stay outside, and have fun! What else could you really ask for? :)

Following rotations, the camp was open for free time. Campers can play GaGa, nine square, swing, play carpetball, finish their crafts from earlier, and more.

After some fun free time, we all headed to the Dining Hall for yet another delicious dinner of ham, cheesy potatoes, bread, corn, peaches and banana pudding for dessert!

After our wonderful dinner prepared by our awesome kitchen team, we got ready for our all camp activity. Today's all-camp activity was Goldrush!

When we finished playing our all-camp activity, we took a break for Snack Shack and then headed to the chapel for some worship and another great message from Josh Rockey. Tonight's chapel was about salvation.

When we wrapped up chapel, we went outside with our cabin groups to reflect on the day we shared together, and to discuss salvation further.


After a our cabin discussions, we headed back to the cabins to go to sleep!


It has been a great week so far, and we sure aren't done yet! We have a lot more fun planned for the rest of the week, and we're so excited to share it all with our awesome campers! We're continuing to pray that the Lord would be working in the hearts of our campers, and that they would seek to know God even more, becoming Alive with Him in the process!

Junior High 1: Monday

Our first group of Junior High campers have arrived!! Woo-hoo!

They were all dropped off this morning, and promptly got settled into their cabins. We got everyone set up and ready to go, said goodbye to our parents and headed down to the gym to kick the week off!

When we all gathered together in the gym we started out by introducing our counselors and other staff members. The counselors also acted out short skits to explain the rules to everyone in an enjoyable and very entertaining/humorous way.

After introductions, everyone got split and mixed up into their teams for the week! Each team had to come up with a creative name to go by for the rest of the week, and the team name had to include an adverb and a mythical creature! We had a lot of interesting results, a few being "Simply Deerbra" and "Adorably Hydra." We seem to have some rather creative campers with us this week!

Our teams then got to know one another by playing some name games and fun challenges to get everyone warmed up and comfortable with each other.

Following some fun in the gym, everyone had their cabin pictures taken and went up the hill for a picnic lunch! We had sloppy joe's, mac & cheese, watermelon, grapes, cookies and chips all set up by our awesome cooks!

We sat around the camp eating with our cabins and enjoyed our yummy food and the amazing weather in camp community.

After lunch we all headed back to our cabins for cabin time and went over some basic cabin guidelines for the week, and relaxed on our beds to let our lunch settle.

Then the girls went to canoe and take their swim tests to ensure safety during swim time, while the boys went to do their Bible studies with their cabins. After that, the boys and girls switched!

We will be studying 1 John this week with our cabins, and will be interacting with the text by highlighting, underlining and coloring our booklets. Today our counselors talked through 1 John Chapter 1, and explained our theme for the summer, which is being "Alive" with Christ. Our counselors especially highlighted verse 1, which states "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched--this we proclaim concerning the Word of life," by explaining to their campers some times in their life they have personally encountered God, and what that could look like.

After the counselors spent some time verbally proclaiming and testifying to the truth of 1 John chapter 1, the campers had some time to reflect on times they may have encountered God in similar ways.

Following swim tests canoeing and Bible study, it was time to enjoy free time around camp. This includes freedom to play GaGa, tether ball, corn hole, carpet ball, basketball, nine square, and more!

This week the campers will also be working on memorizing Bible verses for our famous game of Mêleé at the end of the week. To help with this memorization, there are coloring pages in their Bible study booklets to work on that have some of the verses on them.



After some free time around the camp, it was time to head inside the Dining Hall for some delicious dinner!









Following dinner, we gathered together for our All Camp Game of Four-Way Capture the Flag!

After a great few rounds of capture the flag, we all headed to the chapel for worship and a lesson taught by Josh Rockey!

Following a great lesson and worship, we will get to gather around the campfire for a snack and then we'll head off to bed!

We have had a great start to our week, and we are so excited to see God move in amazing ways! We are praying our campers will walk away from this week with a deeper understanding of who God is, and how they can live their lives with Him. Here's to the start of a new week!!