Last weekend, Delanco Camp Summer Staff 2014 gathered at Lake Agape for staff training weekend. Our time began with icebreaker and “get to know you” games and quickly turned into an intense game of cards and much laughter. Saturday morning we began our day with prayer, which will be continued throughout the entire summer each morning. Starting the day before the Lord was a great reminder of why we are spending our summer at camp and set our eyes upward.
Saturday afternoon was full of staff devotions, the challenge course, and more staff bonding. Each day we gathered together and did devotions and dug deeper into why we are here and how we can work together as a team to perform our work duties with grace and excellence. In one of our last devotion times together, as a staff, we came up with a mission statement for the summer:
“To show the love, grace and excellence of Jesus Christ through our actions to all who enter the grounds.”
The mission statement will be hung in various locations as a constant reminder of the goals we set during our training weekend.
We ventured off to the challenge course to further our training in teamwork and communication by working through the different obstacles and overcoming “handicaps” for failing challenges. We started the course with the all-to-familiar, trust fall. If you’re anything like me, your heart starts pounding at the mere thought of doing a trust fall and you instantly become short of breath. But nevertheless, each person climbed to the platform and fell backward into the arms of their fellow staff members. Next we went to the balance beam, where we had to rearrange ourselves oldest-youngest without stepping or falling off the beam. If one foot touched the ground, that person could not speak for the rest of the challenge. Those were two of the many challenges we faced, but through each activity, we learned to better communicate together and trust one another.
One of my personal favorite moments of the weekend was the prayer walk we went on Saturday afternoon. We dispersed all over camp and spent an hour praying for the summer, things going on in our personal lives, and whatever else the Lord placed on our hearts. This time spent in prayer proved to be quite powerful and was a simple foreshadow to the weeks ahead of weekly camps.
Our time together was incredible and filled with making memories, building friendship, growing closer together as a group, closer to God, and praying over this upcoming camp season. It would be an understatement to say we are all very excited for what the Lord has in store for camp this year and we cannot wait to see you there!
