Camp 3 Wednesday- Sewanee Day!!

Well friends, we are over half way through with our final week of camp. When did that happen? What happened to CGM 2015? At least we are going out with a big, joyful bang with all these sweet youth! 

Our morning chapel program was spent singing, praying and then talking about Jonah and how he spent some really dark time in the belly of a whale. That must have been a really hard thing to go through, but what we learn is that God sent the whale to swallow Jonah and spit him out. Like Jonah's story, God won't leave us when it is dark. He will still be with us! 

The really fun part of this morning? We got to actually go in the belly of the CGM whale (made of cardboard, located in the Upstairs Chapel) and get a feel for what Jonah might have felt. Here are a couple pics of our youth seeing how that felt!

After the whale we went to small groups and talked about how to pray about the dark things. Everyone made a strand of prayer beads and everyone took someone else's strand to remember to pray for each other through the dark things. Finally everyone wrote something they are thankful for and something they need help with. In the big group we read these prayers and they were so beautiful!

Yesterday afternoon was Sewanee day, historically everyone's favorite. I don't believe this year was an exception. We started at the War Memorial Cross in Sewanee. The view down the mountain is so beautiful from there you can't help but fall in love with it. Then we walked along the Tennessee Williams trail back into Sewanee- with a pit stop at the Chapel of the Apostles, the University of the South School of Theology Chapel! This beautiful wood building allowed for wandering and some pretty neat pictures.

We finished our time in Sewanee in the bookstore and with a little bit of rain (which was actually really nice- it cooled down the mountain a good bit!) 

After dinner we went back to Sewanee to have a service at All Saint's Chapel, which is the chapel for the University of the South. A little New Zealand night prayer, a lot of singing, and some neat prayer stations were really cool for our youth this evening! We finished the service a big joyful round of This Little Light of Mine- so much fun!

Everyone was exhausted and got a good night of sleep. Today is all about how God is illuminated in each other- stayed tuned for a pretty special day at CGM!

Camp 2's Tuesday and Wednesday!

Camp 2's Tuesday- try saying that five times fast (I did, trust me it's not pretty), but our Tuesday at camp couldn't have been prettier! It went a little like this-

Breakfast and cabin clean up lead to chapel- where we talked about how God is illuminated in scripture for each one of us. We talked about the story of Jesus being transfigured on the mountain and reflected on how that story- and the stories in the Bible still can affect us today. Each youth was given a paper light bulb to decorate with their favorite verse- it made for a beautiful strand in the chapel!

We sang some songs, played magic tambourine and of mot importantly learned the CGM line dance! Now we are all ready for the dance Friday night!

With full stomachs from lunch and a little rest from siesta we continued on to our afternoon activities- which included going off campus to the Shakerag hike and staying on campus to do things like tie dye and swim!

The evening brought the ever-so-famous counselor hunt! The youth made up some excellent charges of things our staff are certainly guilty of and those who were found got pushed in the pool!

Wednesday was a little bit more serious as far as chapel goes when we talked about finding God in the darkness. It was so great to watch the youth find that even in the darkness we will never be alone, God is always with us! 

In the afternoon we took our trip to Sewanee! We ran around and played at the quad, stopped by the bookstore and hiked the Tennessee Williams trail to the cross. It was so fun!

At night we went to All Saint's Chapel in Sewanee to have a little evening service. I have rarely seen a more beautiful sight than these 80 youth praising God in that beautiful space!

Thursday here we come! How did we get in to the last bit of this week so fast?

Camp 1 Tuesday & Wednesday

Sorry to be slow to post- we've had a busy few days that kept me from the computer. But a day spent outside at camp is a day well spent!
So here goes Tuesday!

For starters we of course had chapel where we talked about how God is illuminated in scripture. Each camper was able to take their favorite verse and put it on a light bulb which made for an incredible strand of lights in the chapel!

Next we played an awesome round of kickball with all of camp. Score was not kept but it was so much fun.

In the afternoon we went climbing and swimming at Foster Falls while some stayed on campus and did things like tie dye, field games, playground.

The evening was rather chalked full between Cabin Olympics 2.0 and counselor hunt. Thanks to the talents of Miss Ashley Reddy our cabin olympics were superb! Now for counselor hunt- only 1 counselor was found! But he took his punishment of being pushed into the pool quite well. 

Wednesday was all kinds of fun! 
In chapel we spent a lot of time reflecting on how God can be illuminated in the dark places as well as the ones that already feel lit. Sam, our chaplain, put together such a beautiful program for yesterday that it just didn't feel right to take pictures during it, but you can all imagine what a beautiful part of the day it was!
In the afternoon we went to Sewanee and played ultimate, ventured to the bookstore and then went on a little stroll on the Tennessee Williams trail to the Memorial Cross! It was such a beautiful afternoon!

We finished the night with a service at All Saints Chapel in Sewanee, and for those of you who haven't been you really should visit. It is one of the most beautiful spaces to worship and there is just something special about a bunch of high schoolers singing and worshiping there that makes it extra special to us!
We finished with some make your own s'mores and finally went to bed- everyone was pretty tired! 
Here's to hoping today is even better! Talk to y'all again soon!