Week One..

I chose Tuesday of this week to visit Asbury Hills and decided to bring my son with me. About one hour into the trip to camp I received a phone call explaining that as we were talking on the phone, the campers were all dispersing for their hikes and off grounds field trip. Obviously, it wasn't the best timing for a trip to check in on the kids and staff. However, I decided to keep heading that direction to let my son see the grounds and see what he thought.

It was interesting to watch his excitement grow as he heard about all the cool "stuff" he could possibly do while he was at camp. He was full of questions about "when", "how old do I have to be?", and "why?". When we arrived and was able to ask all those questions he chose to basically soak it all in at first. He explored the cabins and just took everything in.

We got to eat lunch with the Program Staff who were left behind. We sat with the Program Director, Caroline, the Recreation Director, Brian, and three band members. They were such a delight. My 8 year old son thought the band guys were "cool", and he later, with a little encouragement from the Camp Director himself, felt like he could sneak up on Caroline and sabotage her with a water gun! Needless to say this staff seems to be fantastic with kids. Isn't it great when people who work with kids actually LIKE kids?

It sounded as if they had a great start to camp. Check in seemed to run smoothly. And, I have a feeling that you should be hearing a lot of fantastic stories about a hike to the falls and group games after supper.

We were able to have a brief brainstorming session on how to make this blog more informational and more useful to you, the parent and family of the campers. One idea we had was to share with you the "stories" the counselors share at the end of the week. Each week the counselors share those special experiences they have with their campers. Perhaps there was a camper who made a life changing decision, or maybe a camper who was nervous to try something finally decided to give it a try the last day of camp. Those are the kinds of things that reinforce our calling into camping ministry. We want to share those with you. This means that you need to check back in with the blog even after your camper leaves for the week. There just might be a story about someone you just might know.

In the meantime, your input is always appreciated. Please let me know what kinds of things you'd like to know about. Is there an activity you're wondering if your kid is getting to do? Is there a question you're just wanting to get answered? Or better yet, you have a suggestion for the camp, staff, or me to make this entire experience better for you. We'd love to hear it.