Family Camp

We walked by the light of the moon to mail a few letters tonight, and it was the first time all day I’d registered the lingering soreness in my legs…reminding me of all the walking and running we did at Family Camp. It’s a bigger wonder that my stomach isn’t protesting after the incredible eating all weekend.

The path to our cabin, barely wide enough for a four-wheeler, was a steep hike. Charming walk though, carved out and canopied around by a wilderness of trees. The cabins were built into the hillside, some up high almost on stilts, others, like ours, snugged right next to the path with a nice miniature deck at the door. Our cabin had six bunk beds in it, comfortable mattresses and air conditioning! Pretty nice bathroom facilities could be found just a short walk back down the path.

Beautiful weather (for the most part!), rustic rock-lined lodges, shady evergreens in all the right places, a swimming pool, tournaments and games to keep the whole family happy…it was a great time of fellowship and competition and reconnecting with church family.

Our family’s personal favorites included the knife throwing tournament, and the devotion/song times which we had each morning and evening. The guitar accompanied praise and worship songs, and the treat of having a rodeo chaplain (fancy word for cowboy preacher?) give all our devotionals gave a solid backdrop for all the fun and games.

But the highlight of the whole weekend was watching my husband and our nine year old daughter participate in a high elements challenge. Harnessed up and in the hands of the belayer’s ropes, they climbed a 25-30′ (height estimate by dh) telephone pole, gingerly stepped up on top and inched around to face a trapeze, to which they would leap out in faith. Seven people from our church attempted this, the youngest, my daughter. She loves a challenge. Nine yo scrambled up the pole, turned around and in response to the belayer’s request that she “talk to him, and tell him when she was going to jump” she said, with nervous laughter in her voice,

“I think I’ll count to fifteen.”

The other jumpers had all jumped on the count of three. So my little comedian wanted everyone to think she needed extra time. Before the belayer was ready, she belted out:

“Five, Ten, Fifteen!” and jumped.

She’s still alive. The belayer braced himself just in time, when he realized she was counting by fives, but he told us later that if she’d been an adult he might not have been ready enough to support the increased weight. She was too short to get anywhere near the trapeze, but my dh successfully grabbed it and did a chin-up. He won the dubious title of being the first ever to climb and jump with cowboy boots on.

Then he and nine year old clambered up the rock-climbing panels together, one on each side and hugged each other at the top. Such an awesome sight. I was one proud woman, and so grateful to be there.

Our youth leaders organized this whole event, and pulled it off with panache. We had a survivor-like-family-edition obstacle course which involved zig-zagging through pylons, grabbing a marble and sling-shooting it at a hanging pop can, rolling a big tube a certain distance, and last, grabbing an alphabet letter off a folding chair before tapping the hand of the next team member in the relay. Once everyone went through, we put our letters together to form a phrase that had been used in the previous night’s devotions.

We had sword drills, a lady’s tea party, played a competitive evening’s worth of family kickball–in which even several grandparents participated, went night swimming, roasted marshmallows and made s’mores– and this after tournaments all day long Saturday: checkers, washers, badminton, knife-throwing, volleyball, basketball…

A better time couldn’t have been had. And one or two families made it all possible with their hard work and planning. In the words of Ray Boltz:

Thank you for giving to the Lord. I’m so glad you gave! 🙂

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