Camp 3: Thursday!

Today was wonderful as it was all about building our community! 
This morning we had a great time in chapel as we sang, did a morning devotion and then got to see a hilarious skit from the counselors. The skit taught us about a concept where each person has an invisible bucket on their head that measures how they are feeling. We learned that when you are sad or lonely your bucket gets emptied, but when someone compliments or you help someone else, your bucket gets filled! We decorated our own buckets- to be used later. Parents you should be excited about this one! Finally after family groups, Andie talked to us about how she found her calling in life to be filling others buckets and how you can do something simple, but each simple thing makes a difference. 

At lunch we had chicken sandwiches which filled us up to go right to sleep during siesta. When we all woke up it was time to go to Fiery Gizzard to help remove privet-an invasive species that is killing the native plants and pull vines. Don't worry parents, we were careful about poison ivy and didn't let campers in areas with the terrible stuff! After we helped, Park the park ranger taught us a game where some people were native plants, some were invasive plants and some were humans! We learned that without the humans to eradicate the invasive plants they would take over so the work we did was so important!

Then tonight, was the ever so wonderful Coffee House! First were the skits- where each cabin makes a skit about whatever their little hearts desire, and then individual (or groups of) campers share their personal talents. We love seeing our campers talents, from hula hooping and singing, to violin and acting, our campers are simply the coolest group of kids we know!

Finally tonight we closed with a evening devotion and went to bed. Can y'all believe our last day of camp is tomorrow? We are getting some rest in anticipation of the excitement to come!

Camp 1: Friday and Leaving Saturday!

Camp 1 wrapped up this morning- so we'll fill you in on what happened yesterday with them!

We started off with a hike to Greeter Falls as our chapel program. We wrapped up with a little morning prayer, a few brief talks from Lara, Abbie and Brandon and finally had a little quiet time to pray. We loved being there all together finding a "thin place" as Lara says- a place where we are closest to God. 

When we got back it was time for everyone's favorite- grilled cheese and chili day! We had a great sunny siesta and time to relax before small groups. In small groups we had a good time filling our buckets from yesterday by planting sunflower seeds in them (later to be placed around DuBose). We went to afternoon activities of preparing for our evening and then to the slip-n-slide! 

Our final evening festivities started with our banquet- below you can see our staff dressed up and ready to roll! 

 Next we had our Eucharist- which we all concluded was among the best we've ever had. Thanks to Father Rob McSwain from Sewanee for coming to help us out! We had so much fun singing, renewing our baptismal covenants and celebrating all we have learned through Christ this week!

Next we had our dance! So much energy was used that we were all so exhausted afterwards! Our DJ CoCoD (aka Cody Hawks, one of your lovely Assistant Directors) had an awesome playlist for us last night! Thanks Cody!

We finally ended with a bonfire. It was so much fun as our campers shared their own ghost stories, laughed together and shared memories of the week one last time before we left. It was one of the best bonfires we've ever had at CGM!

This morning was so sad as we let our high school campers go. We hope every one of you has learned something about how to find joy, healing, love and God in living water and always remember you can have a home on the mountain! We miss you already and can't wait to see you again next year! Below is a video of the saddest camp tradition- running after the bus as it leaves. See you next year friends! Camp 2- we're ready for you tomorrow!

Camp 1: Wednesday!

Wednesday we finally got out of the rain- and loved every minute of it! We talked about water in other countries in chapel- and then related how there is a difference in dirty/clean physical water as well as a difference in dirty/clean spiritual water. There are lots of ways to clean our spiritual water and we made commercials for all the things that enhance our spiritual water! It was so fun!

We also have a tradition of cabin clean up in the mornings- the campers clean after breakfast every morning and their cabins are then judged by a panel of experts (Vena, Cody and Jani) and the cleanest cabin wins the beloved Golden Dustpan! The cabin 1 boys are cleaning- those are the faces of determination.

Wednesday afternoon was spent on our Sewanee adventure- first to Sewanee's campus for games, a book store trip and general fun and then we took campers to the Res- a huge reservoir on St. Andrew's campus. Both were so fun- and we were grateful for ultimate Frisbee and swimming without worrying about the weather!

Last night was our All Saint's service in Sewanee- we really did spend a lot of time there yesterday! Everyone got dressed up (a little) and we went to have New Zealand night prayer with some contemplative prayer time. We loved praying for each other and having some special time as a community- but we also loved being silly after the service and taking selfies!

We finally ended last night with a bonfire, smores and the Dubose ghost stories from Sydney to Skip. We loved embracing these camp traditions!

Tradition: Camp Photos

Camp Gailor-Maxon has had a tradition of taking a giant camp picture for a long time. Camp started in the 1920's and the earliest picture we have of camp is from 1936. Dubose (our home for Camp Gailor-Maxon) collected all these photos and made a montage of them on the wall of one hallway. It is so neat to look back on our history (did you know that Camp Gailor-Maxon used to be at a state park but one year the water was contaminated and we couldn't come back? We moved to Dubose in the 1940s). There are some differences between then and now (particularly the clothing - kids dressed very nice for the photos back in the 30s-50s) but overall, camp is camp. Different kids, same mission. 


Here are some of the photos on the wall:


From the old days - 

 From the late 90's and early 2000s - 

Check out this 1998 picture - your very own camp director (that would be me...) is on the first row, 9th from the left. Back in the day.

And here is last year, with space waiting for this year's photos:

We assembled today for our weekly photo. Here we are in the process of getting ready - 

Each camper gets an 8X10 copy of the camp picture to treasure forever!

Camp Two: All Saint's.

Wednesday night of camp is our All Saint's Evening Prayer service. We go back over to Sewanee to the chapel and have a candlelit service with music, meditation, prayer, and praise. This year we incorporated our chapel program into the service by renewing our Baptismal Covenant. The chapel is a beautiful space and the service is powerful for the campers. The sound of praise and singing echoing in the chapel is memorable.