Open Middle School Week - Tuesday

Today is a much shorter post.

Today we are doing four activities (stations), the kids will go to Spur to go swimming and then we have our evening service under the tent tonight. Today's Stations are: Archery (bows, arrows, shot at the target. This is my station) Horseshoes (the game horseshoes where you throw them at metal spikes in the ground for points.), Craft (day one of building a walking stick) and High Ropes (cat walk and zip line). The campers should have lots of fun and I will get the afternoon off so I ALWAYS enjoy Day 2 (a.k.a. Tuesdays)

Open Middle School Week - Monday

Today we start our open middle school camp, the campers will get here around 11:00am and we will do orientation and lunch. Before they get there all the Staff has lots of chores to do to prepare the camp for the week. Today's Stations are: Flags (painting a team flag), Water Slide (a big 50+ foot water slide), Canoeing (teams race canoes around four poles set in the pond) and Fire Drill (each team gets the 1 hour of this station to make and practice their fire drill. A fire drill is a song/yell/rap/skit that is about the camp theme and their team). Today I am doing Flags, that means I'll be out in the sun all day messing with paint and kids with paint. We also have a campfire tonight where I will be starting a fire with a metal match (kinda like flint and steel), at least I am planning on starting it that way... We will see how it goes, it has worked about half the time this summer (it doesn't work very well when it is wet/damp or windy)

Here are a few prayer requests:

• Good Weather (pray for this all week)


• Open hearts in the campers (this week will be a mix of church kids and non-church kids so there will be some hearts that need to be softened before they receive what God has for them at this camp.


• Pray for PJ and Jennifer PJ is the camp director they both need prayer, PJ for clarity of thought and that God will speak through him clearly to these kids, Jennifer for strength, endurance and patience, She is in charge of everything behind the scenes and has had lots of curve balls thrown at her this summer (no counselers, no cook, filling in for the cook on top of her normal jobs, etc.)


• Camp Staff, Please pray for the staff this week, We have been at this all summer and are all tired and at times don't get along perfectly, Pray for unity, peace and cooperation this week and the rest of the summer for the camp Staff. (Summer Staff: Jordan, Jeremy, Me, Meredith, Ashley, Beth. Interns: Jonny and Steel)


• Pray for protection of all the camp equipment and property, the enemy is attacking this camp and has been all summer, lots of things have gone wrong and stuff has broken that was in good condition. The enemy wants this camp shut down and destroyed so please pray for all of our equipment and property. (Examples of what has gone wrong: One of the camp trucks has been not working off and on for the last few weeks, My keyboard had problems [God healed it!!!], the AC in the boy campers cabin froze and flooded, a window got broken [accidentally], the bus has had problems, a kid got hurt three weeks ago [slight concussion and he had to go home], several kids have been exceptionally bad [even kids who are by all accounts usually well behaved], lack of counselors for several of the groups) I list all that not to complain or dwell on the bad but those are things that have happened and God has made a way for us to get through it. Please pray about those types of things and protection from them.


• Pray that God will touch these kids lives through the Staff and Counselors, We want them to leave here changed and on Fiyah!

If you get a chance I would love to talk on tuesday afternoons (1:00pm - 4:00pm). or just send me an email. I hate being out of touch with my Real family and all my Friends.

Open Middle School Week - Monday

Today we start our open middle school camp, the campers will get here around 11:00am and we will do orientation and lunch. Before they get there all the Staff has lots of chores to do to prepare the camp for the week. Today's Stations are: Flags (painting a team flag), Water Slide (a big 50+ foot water slide), Canoeing (teams race canoes around four poles set in the pond) and Fire Drill (each team gets the 1 hour of this station to make and practice their fire drill. A fire drill is a song/yell/rap/skit that is about the camp theme and their team). Today I am doing Flags, that means I'll be out in the sun all day messing with paint and kids with paint. We also have a campfire tonight where I will be starting a fire with a metal match (kinda like flint and steel), at least I am planning on starting it that way... We will see how it goes, it has worked about half the time this summer (it doesn't work very well when it is wet/damp or windy)

Here are a few prayer requests:

• Good Weather (pray for this all week)


• Open hearts in the campers (this week will be a mix of church kids and non-church kids so there will be some hearts that need to be softened before they receive what God has for them at this camp.


• Pray for PJ and Jennifer PJ is the camp director they both need prayer, PJ for clarity of thought and that God will speak through him clearly to these kids, Jennifer for strength, endurance and patience, She is in charge of everything behind the scenes and has had lots of curve balls thrown at her this summer (no counselers, no cook, filling in for the cook on top of her normal jobs, etc.)


• Camp Staff, Please pray for the staff this week, We have been at this all summer and are all tired and at times don't get along perfectly, Pray for unity, peace and cooperation this week and the rest of the summer for the camp Staff. (Summer Staff: Jordan, Jeremy, Me, Meredith, Ashley, Beth. Interns: Jonny and Steel)


• Pray for protection of all the camp equipment and property, the enemy is attacking this camp and has been all summer, lots of things have gone wrong and stuff has broken that was in good condition. The enemy wants this camp shut down and destroyed so please pray for all of our equipment and property. (Examples of what has gone wrong: One of the camp trucks has been not working off and on for the last few weeks, My keyboard had problems [God healed it!!!], the AC in the boy campers cabin froze and flooded, a window got broken [accidentally], the bus has had problems, a kid got hurt three weeks ago [slight concussion and he had to go home], several kids have been exceptionally bad [even kids who are by all accounts usually well behaved], lack of counselors for several of the groups) I list all that not to complain or dwell on the bad but those are things that have happened and God has made a way for us to get through it. Please pray about those types of things and protection from them.


• Pray that God will touch these kids lives through the Staff and Counselors, We want them to leave here changed and on Fiyah!

If you get a chance I would love to talk on tuesday afternoons (1:00pm - 4:00pm). or just send me an email. I hate being out of touch with my Real family and all my Friends.

Canoeing...

Today was the beginning of the Liberty Rock Elementary camp. On the first day of camp each week we do four stations; Fire Drill (the work on their fire drill a.k.a. song, and team name), Flags (they paint a team flag), Water Slide (self explanatory), and Canoeing. Today I did canoeing with Jordan, it was tiring and quite funny. Here is a picture that I took of Jordan:

Tomorrow I will be running Archery, I'll try and get a few pictures. The campers will also be making a walking stick at craft, doing some of our high ropes elements (cat walk, zip line, etc.), and playing horseshoes. Then we will have swimming (which I won't be doing) and then then evening service.

Tomorrow is also my afternoon off so from 1:00pm till 4:00pm I will be resting (either watching a movie or taking a nap) so if you want to talk (chat, phone) that is the best time for me.

Missing everyone,
Joshua