This week during registration we had a chalk board set up in the center of the pavilion. I wrote the questions: why camp?,  How are you feeling about being at camp? and What is your favorite camp activity? and then encouraged campers to write their answers while I filmed. On monday, I continued to ask the question why camp? specifically how they heard about BBC. Again there seems to be a generational theme and my favorite answer, “because I had nothing better to do?” I’m mean, what could be better than camp?!

I had no idea what to expect when I started asking this question. Had they really taken fireside and shelter chats to heart, enough to remember something meaningful? Well, I underestimated 8-10 year olds. This makes me think of one of my favorite verses. “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.” -I Timothy 4:12. These kids are an inspiration. Their unabashed faith and boundless love never ceases to amaze me. As for them, what better place to grow in Him than here in his magnificent creation with the example of their counselors. I felt it was important to included some counselors speaking during shelters chats, and then show how the campers responded to demonstrate this mutual growth. I love the passion I hear in the words of the counselors and the honesty in the revelations of the campers.

After several days of gathering footage I realized a lot of it showed campers and staff building relationships. So I decided to put it all together in this montage clip. Although there is no logical progression between images I think collectively they show the beauty in how everyone connects in love and service to one another in a single week. And sometimes children laughing says enough.

I certainly was not expecting some of the answers I got when I started asking this question. I think this week I might investigate the first comment in this clip in more depth. Does food cooked over the fire indeed taste better?  Is it better than fast food? Perhaps it doesn’t compare to mom’s cooking, but there’s certainly something to be said for it. For the second part of this clip, I must say I was very impressed with the creativity of the kids this week. Everything from saying a bible verse to a rap beat to dancing and 4 square in the pavi made the rainy days seem bright.

In the beginning of this second day I went around asking campers what their favorite camp activities are. Instead of getting a slew of different answers, the new GaGa pit and the water trampoline were mentioned again and again. So the next day I investigated these a little more. At that time, I had yet to do either of these activities as it is my first summer here, so I was glad to get some campers to explain them to me.  I loved hearing the excitement as the campers explained the rules…rules!…of GaGa and the pure joy while describing the thrills of the water trampoline.