Camp Tales, Part I

Last week Susan drove Monday and Tuesday to Badlands Ministries south of Medora, ND to drop off and pick up Hillary daily for two day-long sessions of Bible camp (without an overnight sleepover). I have asked Hillary to report on her time as a Trail Blazer:

This is I crying with my dad the day we dropped off Abigail and Suzanna at camp. I didn't want to leave my sisters!

Once I got there, we started playing The Name Train. Here's how you play The Name Train: First, the people who help out with the games go around and pick one person. So Zander started, and then he picked Brent, and then it kept going on and on, so the person would ask the other person what his/her name was. He would say, "Hi, my name's Jim; what's your name?" And he would say his name, and then it would go on and on and on and on until it was the last person. And the person I picked was Carter.

At camp when I was dropping off my sisters, Daddy took a photo of Zander (my camp teacher) and me.

Then we played Duck Duck Goose. When I was picked as goose, I caught Morgan, and then I started saying, "Quack" over and over and over. Finally I said, "Honk!" Then we went to the cabin where Zander was staying. We were outside and there were a lot of bugs, so then we went inside Zander's cabin, and he read us "The Rag Man," a story about Jesus.

Then we went to Bethlehem [one of the big buildings where we ate and did some games; outside of it are benches at the back where we did the songs for the campfire] to play Musical Chairs, and Zander started playing the piano while all of us went around. Guess who won! I did!! Between Hannah and me, there was just one chair, and I crept up on Hannah when she was circling around the chair, and then she was in front and I was in back, and then Zander stopped, so I jumped on the chair, and then Hannah jumped on the chair when I was on it, so Zander said, "I guess Hillary wins because she was on before you, Hannah." It was very, very, very, very fun.

Then we played Duck Duck Goose again. I did the same thing as the last time. Then we went outside onto the benches and sang the songs that we were going to sing for the campfire. One of them was "The Hippo Song," and another was "You're My Friend." Another one was a Medora-themed "Jesus Loves Me"; we would have to repeat verses after Jamell, and it was kind of rock music-themed. Then we went inside to eat. There was to drink water, lemonade, and milk. Since on Monday it was the Badlands Ministries' birthday, we got cake for dessert. The rest of the meal was cottage cheese, some crackers, some corn, and tater tot hot dish.

After that we went to Zander's cabin again, and we read another story about Jesus, who died for us. After that we went back to Bethlehem and played Duck Duck Goose again! I said the same thing that I said the last two times. Then it was time to go to the canteen to get a snack. They had Gatorade, Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Squirt, and Fanta. For food, they had Hot Tamales, fruit snacks, Twizzlers, Twix, and that's all. After that we went to the bonfire and sang "The Hippo Song," "You're My Friend," and "Jesus Loves Me." After that we said one prayer, and then we roasted marshmallows. Then my mom and Suzanna came to get me.

This is I posing next to the Bible camp sign in Medora. Momma wanted our photos done really, really badly.

The next day my mom brought me back, and we did all the same things as the previous day. However, instead we ate grilled cheese sandwiches, tomato soup, corn, and raisin cookies. I was supposed to go a third day, but our friends the Zanders came to visit us, and I wanted to hang out with them in Medora, so I did that instead. I loved Bible camp and wished I could have stayed overnight as my sisters got to do. I'm going to go again next year!

P.S. See also this, this, and this.