While entering camp this year, I thought it was going to be terrible. Matt wasn't there with his crazy anecdotes, Deborah wasn't there as our camp mom, Amanda and Kristen weren't counselors, and all the people who seemed to make camp had left. I expected to have a miserable time. My expectations were way off!
Sunday: I am sick to my stomach from anxiety. I didn't want to go at all for the reasons I had just mentioned above. I was dragging the whole day when I got lifted up by a wall post on Facebook. One of my best friends, Michael Mosley, had come up with enough money last minute and was able to go! And after that the day just got better. My mood changed and the sick feeling I felt earlier had turned into pure excitement, yet something told me it wouldn't be the same as years past.
Monday: We get there about an hour before registration starts, and I only recognized Jon Brady there. Good start so far (that was sarcasm for those who aren't as smart upstairs, like Amanda Kenney)! We check-in, and luckily get the room I wanted, Taber 1. We have been in this room ever since I went three years ago, and it feels like home away from home. So, people start showing up, I'm now sick again cause no one I know has come except Brady, Mosley, and Cody. After thinking this, a rush of people I knew came in and made me feel better! After the LONG three hours of registration, we started the camp kick-off. We were assigned to a team separate from the E1 girls and Mosley, so it wasn't that great. We chose the name Holy Hooligans, which I thought was lame at first, but now it's freaking hilarious! Our afternoon activity was Tuba-Mania, which they had cancelled in years past, but decided to bring it back. Now that I look back on how fun it was, I understand why it was cancelled. This was, by far, the most violent game I have ever played in my life. So the day goes by, and it comes to the service. No jumping, no cheering, and I didn't really feel the spirit. Plus, the dinner we had hit me the wrong way, so I was sick to my stomach most of the night. Luckily, my favorite camp pastime was the sport for the evening, dodge ball. We had played the game with me as the last member for our team in the first round. I'm not a professional, so I only stayed alone for about 2 minutes against about ten guys. We still had fun though, but it was a terrible start to a camp I thought I was going to hate.
Tuesday: We woke up before the roosters did, and left early to a water park. A 2-hour drive to a tiny water park in Georgia doesn't seem that bad unless you suffer from my problem, motion sickness. Luckily, I sat in front of our speaker Derik for the week, and we discussed religion on the way there and back. However, the water park was lame. I'm just going to be honest for any of the camp leaders who are reading this, it definitely wasn't worth the ride down. So we get back and everyone showers and gets ready for dinner. No sickness tonight came from it though, which was lucky. The service, however, was the first of the remaining that were amazing! There wasn't a dry eye in the place as he spoke about how we have been scarred by an event previous in our lives. It was definitely the turning point of camp.
Wednesday: By this point, camp is starting to get a little better, but it didn't feel the same. The majority of the day we spent hanging out with fellow campers and just chilling. Wet-n-Wild Wednesday was this day, and I didn't feel like showering for twenty minutes, so I didn't participate. We had two hours of free time before supper though, and I caught up with a friend I had met last year at Senior High and Family Camp, Aimee Springer. She is a very interesting character, but yet very cool. She painted my fingernail while we watched the basketball game for the counselor challenge, and I tried all day to scrape it off. By the time service rolls around, a lot of people showed up who I knew for the service. My brother, Madison, Amanda, Lance, Joseph, David, and the biggest surprise, who ended up staying two nights in our room, Kevin DeRossett. His craziness carried on throughout the night, and it was a great pleasure to have him there. Service was the best I have ever heard in my life, and I had a life-changing revelation. GOD had confirmed a previous calling, and now he has chosen me for one of the most respectable jobs in the christian world, youth minister. Something he told me that was made me happier than I have ever been in my life. It was good seeing all the faces, and the best night of camp I have ever had!
Thursday: Gong Show Night! I had this skit I wanted to do for the show for about a month, and I finally showed it to the entire E1 crew. They loved it, so we learned our lines and spent the day practicing. We had gone to the State Park for about an hour or so, but it got rained out, which stunk (DARN YOU SOUTHERN WEATHER!!). Finally, the thing I had been waiting for all day rolled around, the Gong Show. And much to my dismay, not only did the same people who showed up the previous night come, but more I knew, including Deborah Rhodes, and a few kids from school who are in Hank Brooks's youth group (he had come to watch). Now, if you didn't know our skit, you are probably wondering why I wouldn't want them there. The end of our skit, I rip my shirt off, and I'm no Brad Pitt, so I was a little nervous about that. Luckily though, the first half of our skit went off without a hitch. We got gonged though half-way through on a crap gong! People were laughing and having fun, but they gonged us. There were others that night who definitely weren't' as funny, and went through all of it with as little as a smirk from the audience. I thought it was bull, but there isn't a thing I can do about it now, so oh well. As the skits passed, one of the Latino groups that were there, from a Spanish Wesleyan church, started dancing to "Hips Don't Lie" by Shakira. If you are reading this, and you have attended a camp in previous years, you know that that song belongs to Kevin DeRossett. He stood up on the chair and screamed at the judges to gong them because that was his song (jokingly scream though). Of course, because of the terrible judging, they weren't gonged for another twenty seconds after that, even though the skit didn't make a soul laugh and was as offensive as mess. After all the skits, Lance gave me an idea I had already had about half an hour before. I told the judges to have Kevin get on stage and sing Shakira. And he did it, of course, in the funniest event of the night. The winner of the show was, of course, Bethany, who are complete geniuses when it comes to the gong show. Despite the fluke that was the judging, the gong show was actually pretty cool.
Friday: The last day. We spent the majority of it cleaning up and saying goodbyes. By the time service rolled around, we got a huge lightning storm, so it was postponed momentarily. The service that night was a large baptism, where several people I knew were baptized, including Donahoo and Adam Robbins (CONGRATS GUYS!). After that, the winner of the Claude Heath Mulliken bucket was announced as Mosley's team, but the night wasn't over. We were treated to three awesome, mosh till you drop, scream till you die, songs that were as fun as ever. Then, the signature Primal Yell. But my favorite part followed, as we all got treated to a 7-minute drum solo that was, by far, the craziest thing I have ever heard.
Overall, it was the best camp I have ever had! I would explain more events, but this is already three or four times longer than my longest blog! Facebook me if you want to know more!
