Rookie Camp 2007
This past weekend I had the opportunity to serve at Rookie Camp, which is another camp put on by the Chicago Central District Church of the Nazarene (of which EC Camp is a part). Sara gave me a call earlier last week and asked if I would be willing to volunteer since they didn’t have enough counselors. I quickly verified I could get a half day on Friday and agreed to do it.
Rookie Camp is a 24 hour camp. It started on Friday at 2 and was done at 2 on Saturday. It’s for 1st and 2nd graders and allows them to experience what Church camp is all about with a limited time commitment. Once they get to Kids Camp (3rd, 4th, and 5th grade) they get a whole week. They get to do fun things, like water games, night games, crafts, chapel, snack shack, and an obstacle course. It’s pretty cool.
Anyways, I was given 4 boys from Kankakee First Church, since that’s where they were from. I was supposed to have 5, but one of the boys was sick, so he didn’t come. It was a blast. I had a really great time. Six and seven year olds are just plain fun. Sometimes they have problems listening to you, but other than that they’re great. At first it was a little weird because I didn’t know anyone, but the kids quickly grew accustomed to me and I to them. By the end of camp I really didn’t want to leave. I almost wish it had been a week long camp so I could hang out with those kids some more.
Chapel was pretty amazing as well. The had two chapel services, one on Friday night and one on Saturday morning. Pastor Jill (who taught) did an amazing job of preaching the gospel to these kids and teaching them to respect themselves and each other. I really liked the songs too. The had motions and everything.
Probably the coolest part of rookie camp was right before camp ended, when we played counselor hide and seek. The counselors were told to hide and that the kids would get points when they found us. I went and hid behind the chapel for about 15 minutes, when Tatum (one of the kids in my cabin) found me and to my surprise had a water balloon ready to throw at me! :) I let him throw it at me, but it bounced off and popped on the ground. He almost cried. I tried to let him hit me, I really did. After that I made my way back to the middle of the campground (since it would be more fun to let people find me). Pretty soon I had 10 or 15 kids chasing me with water balloons. A few got me, but most missed. They then proceeded to grab a 5 gallon water cooler that was half filled with water and ice and tried to get me wet with that. I don’t think they would have gotten that idea if they hadn’t seen one of the other counselors grab one of the two water coolers. Anyways, they got me wet with that and then proceeded to put the ice down my shirt and shorts. It was hard to fend off when there were 10 or more of them. I got some revenge on some of the kids as I put ice down their shirts and doused them with the hose. They got me way better than I got them. I got really wet, but it was a blast.
As I usually do I took some pictures, a few of which are below. You can see my entire rookie camp 2007 gallery here.
Caleb (one of my kids) and I.
Six and seven year olds praising Jesus. It doesn’t get any better that that. :)
10 Responses to “Rookie Camp 2007”
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Josh on July 13th, 2007
Jeremy,
You are a kid at heart yourself. Your youthful exuberance takes me back to the days of yore.
Now give me your lunch money—or I will physically take it from you.
SuzyQ on July 21st, 2007
Now you understand why I teach the little ones…don’t you? They’re the best!
Josh on July 22nd, 2007
Jeremy, I’m getting depressed at the lack of activity on your blog. It’s the one thing I have to look forward to. Every day I check your blog with high expectations of reading your cunning and cogent prose about what’s going in your life. And almost every day I’m thrown into a vicious spiral of boredom, self-loathing and disappointment.
*sara* on August 2nd, 2007
i second josh’s well worded depression.
Josh on August 7th, 2007
Jeremy Driscoll, FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS SACRED AND HOLY give us an update on what’s up with you with a new blog post or I will personally come up to Chicago and kick your computer repeatedly until it quits working.
Perhaps you don’t understand just how serious this problem is to me. Let me paint you a word picture:
This lack of knowledge about you is causing me to feel isolated as if I were floating on a huge ocean of lonliness in a tiny raft all by myself day in and day out with nothing to do but watch the clouds pass overhead and the sharks circle warily with no respite and nothing to sustain me but the scant hope of more information about your day that is readily accessible on the information superhighway.
*sara* on August 8th, 2007
umm….i would second that…but i could just call. it’s not as much fun as reading about you though…thats more like stalking. which i prefer. are you and joy facebook friends yet?
Josh on August 10th, 2007
Jeremy,
If you continue to not post to this blog I will make a point of it to come here and write far better and more eloquent posts about my own life in the comments of your blog.
Don’t push me, I will absolutely do it.
Josh on August 11th, 2007
In lieu of any posting from Jeremy, I have officially decided to chronicle my own fascinating life:
Today, I made it to work by my usual 7:30AM. Traffic was light on the 101, so it wasn’t a bad way to start a Friday. I had my usual two cups of terrible work coffee and then struggled mightily to learn a new (to me) UI Framework for .NET for quite a number of hours.
There’s only one guy on my team who knows how to use this Framework, as he had the misfortune to have a flat tire on his way to work, so he didn’t get in until 10:30, by which time he had to sit in meetings for an hour and a half before I could get any of his time. Ahhh, the slow speed of programming in a corporate environment :( I was essentially adding zero value and getting nothing done till about 12:30.
On the upside, I went to Boston Market for lunch. Then after work and running a couple of errands Alison and I went to our local Indian restaurant and had an excellent dinner. Afterwards a trip to Costco and Home Depot rounded out the evening. Home Depot will be sending a guy to measure our living room and give us and estimate on the cost of ripping out our current carpet and installing laminate hardwood flooring. Fun times. Should look really nice when it’s done. Stay tuned for the official estimate once we have it.
Pam on August 11th, 2007
PLEASE, JEREMY! MAKE IT STOP!
I didn’t come here to read about Josh! Tell him to create his own blog, and please never tell me the link.
Seriously, you can’t do this to me!
Jeremy on August 11th, 2007
Pam,
I have hopefully rectified the situation. It remains to be seen if Josh will continue to tell us about his life. However, if he does still comment you have the option to not read it. :)
In actuality he does have a blog, but you’d probably find it boring. It’s all about computers, programming, and technology. Joshua chooses to not have a blog about his life. I think he secretly lives vicariously through my blog (which would explain why he’s always berating me for my lack of posting).