Camps, Camps, and More Camps!

Moving on to two more new camp offerings...

INspire Camp - This camp is offered for GIRLS ONLY in grades 7-12 and will be a time to talk about all those things important to girls. Today’s young women face many challenges as they transition from childhood to adulthood. Depictions of women in the media and throughout our culture challenge both parents and their daughters to find positive models of womanhood. Young women will learn more about themselves, growing into women of God, and building relationships that enrich their lives.

Eco-Camp - is for 3-5 graders who love being outside and learning about nature. We will study plants, animals, insects, and the geology of Manidokan. This camp will be very hands on, so be prepared to get dirty! Campers will learn about God's creation and how to be good environmental stewards.

As always, volunteers are needed. Please contact the camp if you are interested in helping with either of these camps.

New in 2008

This post is the first of several that will describe the new camp offerings at Manidokan in 2008.

Late Night Adventure - This camp is for night owls. Campers will stay up late and sleep during the day. We will play fun night games like glowstick ultimate Frisbee, flashlight tag, hide and seek games, and more. Plus we will still go swimming, night hiking, have Bible study, worship, and other standard camp activities. I am also planning on bringing in someone who can bring the stars into focus with some astronomy lessons. Late night adventure camp is for campers in grades 7-12.

Wet & Wild - You WILL get wet at this awesome new camp. For campers in grades 3-5, this camp will surely get your fingers pruney! Everything we do will involve water. We will go swimming and boating, plus we will play water games and even have Bible studies involving water! If you love swimming and playing in the water, this camp is for you!

Special note: I am still looking for volunteers to work with these, and all the other specialty camps at Manidokan in 2008. If you would like to volunteer for a week, please contact the camp. Even if you cannot commit to an entire week please consider sharing your talents by helping lead a specialized activity such as astronomy, environmental studies, metal detecting, horseback riding, or other specialized skills during the week. We need your gifts and talents to make this summer successful.

Some People

Rock was a great success for camping! We had over 300 people attend the workshops about camping. We played games, sang songs, talked about summer camp, retreats, working on summer staff, and heard from Andy Thronton about CCYM's challenge to youth groups. CCYM is challenging youth groups from around the conference to to raise money to help build the new dinning hall at West River. The will be prizes for the groups that raise the most money.

We also had hundreds of people stop by the camping table in the Rock Shop to request a camping brochure and register for a chance to win an Ipod Touch. The drawing has been done and we are just waiting to validate the entry before sending the Ipod to the winner.

The keynote speaker at Rock, Grace Matthews, spoke about "some people" who brought the blind man to Jesus so he could be healed. She talked about the importance of having "some people" who will take you to the place where you can receive help. Sometime we cannot see that we need help, or what will help us, and that is when we need others to guide us.

You can be "some people" for someone. Be "some people" and bring a friend to camp. Be "some people" and raise money at your church to send someone to camp who can't afford it. Be "some people" and volunteer as a director and bring your friends to be counselors. Camp may be just what someone needs, but they will never know until they have "some people" to bring them.

Camp at ROCK

The retreat and camping ministry will be well represented at ROCK this coming weekend in Ocean City, MD. There will be a table set up in the ROCK shop with information about the upcoming summer at Manidokan, West River, and Harmison! There will also be brochures and other materials you can pick up getting a group together for a retreat at one of our 3 sites. Remember our camps are open all year! I will also be there to answer questions about retreats and summer camping.

WIN AN 8GB IPOD TOUCH!

Oh, and one more thing...sign up to receive the summer camping brochure and you will be registered to win an 8GB Ipod Touch!

Plus I will be leading a workshop about camping during both of the workshop sessions at ROCK. We will sing some camp songs, play games, make a craft, and learn about summer 2008 at each of the camps.

See you there!

Blog - Take 2

This blog got off to a roaring start at the end of the summer, but as you can see it has laid dormant for several months. Well no more! Since we have started a new year I need a new year's resolution. Since I am already trying to loose weight I needed to find something else, and this blog is it. With the help of reminders in my blackberry hopefully I can stick with it.

Information for next summer is at the graphic designer being prepared for the summer brochure which should be mailed in about a month. Over the next couple blog posts I will detail each of the new camps being offered at Manidokan in 2008 as well as some of the other changes at camp.

Right now I am looking for volunteers, nurses, and staff for the summer. If you want to get involved at Manidokan contact me ASAP! Next summer will only succeed if we have the right staff and volunteers to provide a safe and quality camp experience. Can you believe it's January 4th and I am talking about the summer already?! It will be here before you know it, get on board today!