Pine Cove

This past weekend I spent time with middle schoolers and got to act like one myself. It was a blast! It was...my first trip to Pine Cove.

On the way there Heather, I and the girls sang our hearts out to Mandy Moore, Kelly Clarkson and a couple of old school Christian bands (check out the Sadie Hawkins dance song). Our singing was interspersed with conversations about boys. And THIS never stopped throughout the weekend. I forgot how boy crazy middle school girls can be.

When we got to the camp the girls screamed and swooned over the guys as we waited by the skate park. After we settled in we went to the first session. The band led us in a time of worship but this worship experience was unlike anything else I've experienced before. They pretty much encouraged the kids to go crazy. The kids were making trains and dancing all over the room. During the slow songs they put their arms around each other and swayed...an excuse to touch a boy! I'm not sure exactly who was being worshiped. :/

The dancing continued at breakfast the next morning. Before every meal the counselors were to show up early, get up on their chairs and dance while the kids came rushing into the dining hall. And after every meal there was a dance contest. Each team actively participated ON THIER TABLE! The dance competition was then followed by a shower of an assortment of fruit and breakfast foods which were flung across the room by the swing of a baseball bat.

As if we needed more food thrown at us, we then participated in a crud war. The "war" consisted of three rounds: flour, shaving cream and horse oats mixed with water. In the first round I immediately got smacked in the face with a handful of flour. After regaining sight and breath...it was on! The counselors were way more into it than the kids. Middle school girls apparently think it utterly disgusting to be covered in crud. ;)

After free time and the night session everyone dressed in black and camouflage in preparation for another all-camp game called commando. This game is played in complete darkness in the woods. In this game the kids were supposed to discretely make their way through the pitch black forest...army crawl, hide behind trees...whatever it took to avoid facing Rambo force (the counselors)! They had to take a cheerio with them and locate the tower. If they made it they traded their cheerio in for a bean and then went back to "base" to have a point marked down for their team. If they found the secret tower they were rewarded another bean worth 5 points. Of course we didn't refer to them as cheerios and beans, they were light sabers and other cool things. The most fun part was sneaking up on all the kids. During the first round we were supposed to catch everyone. During the 2nd and 3rd rounds we were to be increasingly more gracious and only catch those who weren't even trying to be inconspicuous. I think the idea was to teach perseverance and grace although they didn't tell the kids. It took some kids probably at least 10 treks through the woods before even getting a single bean.

All the activities and interaction with the kids was a ton of fun! I loved spending time with the girls I got to hang out with and I was surprised at how fun the camp was. Two of the most encouraging moments were at group reflection times. Even though it was painful at times to try to get the kids to pay attention and not bring up stories which would lead us nowhere, we still had some great discussions. And in the end some of the girls shared with me how they wanted to implement disciplines in their life to grow in their relationship with God.

I definitely hope to hang out with these silly kids again sometime soon!