Annie, Natalie and I had the opportunity to attend a week of Student Life camp during the first week of August. We took along our dear friends Regina and Mackenzie. It was a wonderful week for the girls and a wonderful retreat for Regina and I. The camp was held on the beautiful Georgia Baptist Conference Center in Toccoa, Georgia. Here are some pictures.
A picture before we headed out that Monday morning
The girls outside of worship center.
*theme for week*
The band, All Things New, which lead us in a time of celebration every morning and worship every evening.
The drama team which was awesome!
Stairs down to lake.
Regina and I- roomies for the week.
Annie doing handstands in the hotel hallway one evening. :) The girls had a room across from Regina and I. We were blessed to be on the fourth floor which meant the only other people on that floor were Student Life staff and the band.
Recreation took place every afternoon. All the campers were broken down into three teams that competed in rec games each day.
The girls team was Green Machine.
These pictures were taken on water day. That's Annie in the blue shirt.
Annie getting soaked.
Natalie in black and Annie in blue.
View of dining room from stairs to lake area.
Inside dining room
All the meals were buffet style and the food was really good. Breakfast was served from 6:45-8 every day. Lunch was 11:30-12:30 and dinner was 4:30-6 every evening.
Our view during mealtime. Most Student Life camps have anywhere from 800-1000 students at one camp. This camp was a bit different in that regard as there were only 160 students. That was a blessing to us because the dining room wasn't crowded each day and we were able to eat at the window for each meal.
The girls at breakfast one morning.
Regina and Mackenzie at dinner one night.
Every afternoon from 3-5pm was free time. You could do lake activities, chill out in your hotel room, or chose from other daily activities that Student Life offered each day.
Rock climbing on the lake.
Slide into lake.
Canoeing was an option and the girls chose it on our last full day of camp.
Natalie and Mackenzie canoeing.
Regina and Annie paddle boating.
Natalie, Annie, and Mackenzie. Natalie and Annie are wearing their camp shirts with the theme verse on them- 1 Peter 2:9.
The coffee shop and ice cream/gift shop. The coffee shop had great mochas and the ice cream was yummy!
Across from shops.
Every evening at 6pm you met with your rec groups for prayer time. Here Annie is reciting her Bible verse for the day. The camp gives you a devotion book that connects with the sermons from each morning and evening. It has daily lessons for campers to do and also a daily memory verse.
Student Life partners with Compassion International and every summer students across the country are given the opportunity to sponsor a child in poverty through the program.
Every summer Compassion brings over a handful of students who have gone through the program and they share their testimonies and how Compassion brought them out of poverty and the slums of Africa and gave them an opportunity to become educated and help themselves. In every single testimony that I have heard each year, the students always have a heart to reach out to others in the same slums that they came from. They in return for the help they received, help others also come out of poverty. It is a beautiful thing to witness. This particular student had a powerful testimony. His father abandoned the family when he was young. In the slums where he grew up, African women's only possibility for survival is to find themselves another husband and his mom did. The stepfather did not want her children though and he was abusive to them and his mother. They were sometimes beaten to the point that he feared for their lives. Many people die from Aids in the area of Africa that he came from. His mom ended up doing so and when she did the stepfatherr left them, leaving the boys to fend for themselves. This student was around 7 years old at the time. Compassion had set up a program close to the slums and found out about their situation. Compassion reached out and the boys were able to attend the program which gave them one meal a day and taught them about the love that Christ has for them. They were eventually sponsored through the program. His sponsor was from Texas. Sponsorship meant that he and his brothers could go to school through the program (school in Africa costs money) and they were also given medical treatment through the program. He received letters from his sponsor in Texas which gave him a glimpse of hope and what a good father would be like. He came to know Christ through the program and went on to graduate from school through it. He is working on becoming a doctor and has gone back into the slum he grew up in to help others there. I am so thankful for how Compassion is literally changing lives.
Last night of worship.
The girls with the drama team.
The girls with their green machine leaders, Hannah and Matt.
The girls with friend Anna who they met at camp.