Mystery Camp...Youth Camp

I went on a youth trip with our Church to help out and chaperon. They called it mystery camp this year and none of the students knew where we were going or what we would be doing. All they knew is they needed to show up at the church on Friday and would not be back till Sunday. We loaded up three vans and truck full of pre-teens and teens and headed off to hill country to Camp Buckner. It was beautiful and only a little over an hour from the church but that did not stop me from convincing a few of them that we would be in the van till at least midnight ha ha ha. Anyway we arrived and all loaded into cabins for the weekend and we reveled our mystery theme "Gifted". The weather was cold but not wet so we were outside for tons of activities. A band by the name of LookToTheSky came and lead worship...did I mention they rocked. I felt old right away because after about 5 min. my ears were ringing from the music being so LOUD...I wore ear plugs the rest the time but no one noticed. We took up every moment of the youths time with organized games, quite time, group discussions, worship and prayer. At night we stayed outside till around midnight playing running games like Capture the flag. The teams were very competitive and everyone that I talked to had a blast. The first morning there I woke up sore from running till midnight and would not have been able to function without my Ibuprofen. The next day was filled with more games and worship. The church had been collecting shoes in good used condition or new to donate to Honduras and while at camp the youth spent some of there time writing scriptures on the soles of the shoes before sending them off. The church also brought a huge beach ball that took more than one person to carry over to the volley ball net. Watching this ball going from one side to the other was amazing. It took so much team work just to keep the ball from touching the ground. At one point some of the band members came out and jumped in the game for some fun too. The youth had a blast as did the adults and the food was good too. At the camp they had a large cafeteria that had and dished more food than one person should be eating. The cafeteria had a large fire place and the last night we were there everyone made smores. It would have been fun to have an outside fire but the hill country has been on a burn ban for over 6 months now...so no fires. The campers had a blast and all kinds of pranks were pulled on various people...not everyone enjoyed the pranks...but I did. Sunday morning we headed back to the church for Sunday service and the band came with us to lead fellowship for the whole congregation. The youth at our church are truly amazing kids and I loved getting to know them. But I must say that I was happy to be home and hug my babies, John took great care of them and Toni even had a pony tail in for church that morning...such a good daddy. I am thankful that I was able to go and help out. I am blessed to have a husband willing to stay at home for a few days just him and kiddo's.