Home Away From Home

Well, it seems like a lot has happened since Saturday night. I got up on Sunday morning, got ready and hit the road. I made it to Chanku Waste Ranch around 3:30 pm MDT. When I got there, Amanda helped me get settled into the intern bunk house and then I went to Sharp’s Corner with some of the other interns.

It feels like we have been doing stuff nonstop. The team that is doing camp this week is Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church from Carrollton, GA. They arrived around 7 pm on the same day that I did. We were in an intern meeting and then a staff prayer meeting when they arrived. They are a group of 64 very sweet people. I have met so many kind people in the past 3 days. The interns eat with the groups that come in, so we ate dinner with them, then went to the bunk house. 

The first day of camp was a little overwhelming. It was pretty much what I expected, but even when you are expecting something, it can still be overwhelming. I was assigned to work with the ages 7 & under. What that means, is that I tag along with the group of kids and their leaders and I help out wherever they need me. In this week’s case, we split the 7 & under kids into 4 groups, so I am helping with the yellow group. A typical day for me, at camp, looks like this: 

6 am: Wake up & get ready

7 am: Breakfast with the leader group

7:30 am: Get on the bus (I ride the Manderson bus route)

9 am: Arrive back at camp

9:30 am: Opening rally (this is where all of the age groups are together in the multi purpose building (MPB) and the leader group tries to get them pumped up for the day)

10:05 am: Take the kids to the bathrooms

10:15 am: Arts & Crafts time in the MPB

10:55 am: Lunch time

11:20 am: Take the kids to the bathroom

11:30 am: Small group Bible study at the Pavilion then play on the courts

12 pm: Play in the lower field

12:30 pm: Play grounds

1:15pm: Take the kids to the bathroom

1:25 pm: Bible Lesson & Songs (MPB)

1:50 pm: Snack

2:00 pm: Play in the upper field

2:40 pm: Closing rally 

3:00 pm: Bus leaves

4:30 pm: Back at camp

Afternoon/ Evening: eat dinner with the leader group, chores, rest, etc.

So, yeah! It’s a pretty busy day! Every day! Its so much fun though! I have met so many kids and they are so precious. They can be a little feisty, but all in all, they are just looking for someone to show them some love. 

This afternoon, we ate dinner at 5, then went to Sheep’s Mountain with the leader group. It was fun to explore more than we did back in March. It rained last night, so there was some mud on the ground, but nothing like back in March. Sheep’s Mountain was a blast. We went up to the top and the grass was grown up pretty tall. I learned about these weeds that they call spears. If you throw at someone, they stick them like tiny spears. People were worried about snakes and then they actually saw a rattler, so that was interesting. I learned a lot of cool places to check out while we were there. I got to see this cool hole.

I walked out on the thin peninsula (that David wouldn’t let us walk on in March) and took this panoramic photo. 

When we finished exploring, we went down to the bottom, close to where the access road began and climbed some of the plateaus/ buttes. I was surprised at the number of cacti that were hiding on the ground. If you weren’t watching your step, you could easily get a huge cactus spine in your foot. I climbed up pretty high and it was cool to see the views from up there.

It has been so much fun getting to know the other interns. If you know me, you know that I do not really open up to people until I have known them for a while. I actually felt pretty comfortable with these people almost immediately.

So, there is my update! I hope you enjoyed it! Thanks for following this exciting journey! If you haven’t already, please hit the follow button so you will receive email updates every time that I post.