Day TThirteen: 6/12

Today was the last full day of Camp One. Everyone was sad to see it come and we've already had kids begging for next year to be longer again. Camp One, in the past, had been extended to anywhere from 7 to 10 days and this year was shorter than it had ever been. We learned our lesson for that, seeing how much the kids love camp and want to stay longer, and are making accomodations for next year. We've set our dates and will be releasing those ASAP so people can start planning!

We started the day off with the final chapel program, all about the Promised Land. It was a great discussion, looking at how Moses never reaches the Promised Land in the book of Exodus and how that may actually be a good thing to realize. We talked about our "Promised Lands" (college, relationships, money,etc) and listed to a song by Colin Hay called "waiting for my real life to begin" about someone who is sitting around waiting for his promised land, knowing that life will be great once that happens. He realizes that he is missing out on life and is told to be still and listen, and if he does this he will be lead to his own promised land, the one meant for him. We paralleled this story with the story of Moses and the story of our own lives.

For afternoon activities, we had three groups. The first group, about 20 kids, went to Morgan's Steep to rock climb and rapel. The next group swam at the Res, a water hole on St. Andrew's Sewanee's campus. The last group stayed on campus and prepared for the evening by making a liturgy plan, decorating for the banquet, and making tissue paper corsages and boutinneres.

That night we had our final banquet, Eucharist, and dance. The banquet was full of the traditional activities like the counselor tunnel to get in the dining hall, the staff serving the campers, making it "rain" after the dinner, and singing camp songs in the dining hall at the end of the meal. At the Eucharist we celebrated our time together on the Mountain and blessed our 14 seniors as they go off to college. Four of our seniors had been with us all 10 years they could come to camp, which was a really exciting thing to recognize. After the Eucharist, we broke it down in the dining hall, dancing to all sorts of new and old songs. Then we sent the kids off to bed, knowing that they'd probably stay up all night dissecting each moment of camp. Right before the kids went to sleep, the boys ventured over to the porch of the girls cabin and serenaded the girls to sleep.

Pictured above:

1) The 14 seniors graduating from camp this year

2) JB serving the campers at the banquet

3) Winn Van Cleave entering the banquet through the counselor tunnel

4) Andrew Street about to go rappelling

5) A camper rock climbing