First Day: Survival Mode

This is, Jason assures me, the best week of camp to work; it's the fifth and sixth graders, and apparently, this is the best age of kids.  My reaction to this was a raised eyebrow. I prefer kids to be miniature adults, able to reason and drive and recognize sarcasm, so I am going  to need  further proof.  Jason likes that these kids are getting more cognitively able to make decisions and appreciate the miracle of salvation, but that they also play.  Like, really play.  The boys are making forts under the pine trees out of pine needles (one of the girls tripped over this fort and RUINED IT, and they spent a goodly amount of time during recreation making trip wires to keep the girls out [they have been instructed to remove any booby traps]) and Wednesday has been labeled "Mandatory Wednesday." Apparently, Mandatory Wednesday has been instituted to require every little boy to take a mandatory shower, whether he wants one or not.  :-)  This is probably not necessary in high school week.

So today I am trying to learn the names and needs of the girls in my group and my cabin, and playing our evening team-building game really helped.  Jason turned the campus into a giant board game, using the sidewalks as the squares for what was a cross between Candyland and Trivial Pursuit.  It was wildly complicated, incorporating a deck of cards and a game master, but it worked and we all had a great time with it.  Clearly, the kids are willing to participate in whatever the grown-ups throw at them--which is probably what the sponsors of this week like about kids this age....

Our guest speaker talked tonight about Queen Esther, and I love reading about her--she was classy and tough and moved mountains through very subtle manouevres.  I  like that even though God's name is not mentioned even once in her book, His hand is all over the actions and events of her life.  He is in control, even when we can't see Him in action.  And in Esther's book, His timing is precise like a Swiss watch.  It's nice to close my night with this fresh in my mind.  :-)