The weather has been fantastic! Today and yesterday have been stunningly beautiful days at camp. We have grown accustomed to our regular afternoon thunderstorms and have great affection for them – but it’s certainly a delight to have days of blue skies and sunshine nearly from end to end (we did have a surprise rain last night around bedtime)! Days like these are great to get out exploring, too. We had many trips leaving yesterday morning while simultaneously our in-camp activities have been humming along smoothly. We are squarely in the middle of our June session and it’s great to see friendships blooming and growth in our activities!
Our activities at camp are all built around a 5 level system and throughout the session with us, and over years of attending, campers can move through the levels in their favorite activities (level-up!). If you have sent your camper to us before, you probably know about our Camper Passport – if it’s your first year with CKC you should check it out when your camper comes home! The Passport is something we introduced to camp last year and it’s a great little book that outlines the main points of our camp culture and core values, as well as provides an outline of the waymarkers in each of our activities. As you progress each level, there is a place for the activity head to sign off on your progress. This helps campers to have a vision of what they can accomplish if they keep working at it!
By the way: I should mention again that we are so delighted to have your campers with us! We are constantly surprised by their thoughtfulness and generosity to one another. We learn so much from them. An easy example of this is found each Sunday at Chosatonga’s friendship council. There is a quiet time at the end of the gathering where the floor is open for anyone to share and it is beautiful to see these young men stand up and vulnerably open up about what they are thankful for or what they have learned from their experiences. They speak with such openness and candor about facing difficulties, perseverance, growing through homesickness, and more. One Chos-man shared about how he learned that hard work can pay off through the difficulties of passing his landings in a canoe. Another spoke of how he prayed against rain and was so confused why God would allow it on their overnight – until he realized how much closer he became to the others on the trip because of navigating that inconvenience. WOW. These are lessons that last forever. I am so thankful to have them shared with me. We love these campers!
