Zenith

I was trying to come up with words earlier this morning to describe Zenith, and the culture that surrounds it, but it’s really difficult to ‘define’ Zenith.  Boisterous, perhaps?  Frank used the word outlandish in the Kahquah Family News this week, I like that word choice.  Lunches and dinners are often characterized by the words CHUG CHUG CHUG CHUG, which, surprisingly enough, we haven’t really heard that much this year.  I think, though, if I had to come up with one word, it would be:  loud.  But it’s not a bad loud.  It’s the loud that lets you know that everyone here is having an absolute blast and they wouldn’t rather be anywhere else to finish up their summer.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, we’d had quite a bit of rain over a 24 hour period.  Check out the trenches that the steady running downhill of water carved into our driveway.

The rain persisted into yesterday morning, which cancelled a lot of our water activities due to not only rain, but thunder rumbling in the distance.  There was no tubing, no kayaking, nothing…. so…. we busted out board games and bracelet making in the lodge, as well as some computerized Deal or no Deal in the Pine Room.

After the thunder had stopped for a reasonable amount of time, a few die-hards went out and played volleyball in the steady drizzle.

There was a completely empty beach, though, which we don’t see very often.

The Glee Major was uninterrupted by the rain, leaving Liz, Sarah, Jillian and Katie sounding lovely hammering out some harmonies to a song they’re working on.  I can hear them through the floor of the office right now as well, and it’s sounding great!

At art major, I witnessed some very talented teens (and leaders) drawing, painting, sketching…. Sometimes I bemoan the fact that my best attempts at drawing often end in stick people and pine trees, but I suppose I’m artsy enough with words that it makes up for it 😉

Right before lunch, we had….. that awkward moment when you get so excited that it’s lunch time that you ring the bell so hard you pull it right off its stand…. but never fear, Paul Fletcher is here!  He’s got big shoulders, and he hoisted one of the DiNunzio twins up onto them and they put the bell back in place, to be met by many cheers.  The call then came from the porch, “Ring the bell!!” followed by another call… “GENTLY!!!!”

After lunch, the kids were split into two groups, one sent to the Chapel and one into the Underground.  They were there to listen to two separate panels of our staff talk about their careers, how they got there, the paths they had to take, and any advice they’d offer to the teens as they begin to think about where they’ll be headed in the next few years.  The teens were given an opportunity to ask questions later, and some asked some really insightful ones.  It seemed like it was well received at both sessions!

A bit later in the afternoon, the clouds started to break away, and the sun even peeked through and joined us for the better part of the afternoon!  It was very unexpected!  We were able to send some kayakers out onto the water for some fun, while we were lacking both rain and thunder, so we thought we should take advantage of that.

Alongside of that activity, there were others… like bracelet making, which seemed to be a big hit…

and Caramel Chocolate Popcorn Making, which I’d have loved to get in on, but then my hands would have been too sticky to touch my camera…. darn.

After dinner, we had a giant game of Clue as the camp-wide activity.  None of us knew who committed the crime, even Hillary who planned it, because she just divided the cards up into separate envelopes, and labeled them with locations, and one that said “solution.”  All I knew when the four different teams came to me was that it wasn’t Matt with the poison at the campfire.

If you’ve been following this blog for any length of time at all, you’ll know that I just can’t get enough of Kahquah sunsets.  Last night was no different, as I find the very best sunsets come after cloudy/overcast days where the sun has something to shine through and around as it dips behind the island.  This morning we woke up to fog so dense that we couldn’t even see the island.  Thankfully, it has burned off, and we’re able to enjoy a slightly overcast but completely functional day today.

As I was standing on top of the hill overlooking the lake taking pictures of the sunset, I could clearly hear the words “PUNISHMENT!  PUNISHMENT!” being chanted from the Chapel.  Apparently Liz ended up being the murderer in the giant clue game, and her punishment choices were a pie in the face or to walk the plank (the dock) into the lake.  She wanted to go backwards off the dock, but waterfront director Alyssa would have none of it.

Before session, in typical P-Fletch fashion, we had a dance party in the Underground.  Luckily it wasn’t 35 degrees outside like it was earlier in the summer, because dance parties when it’s that hot lead quickly to a really stinky, sweaty, disgusting Underground.

Following the Dance Party, Paul gave a solid presentation of the Trinity, from Creation to Jesus’ death on the cross, to present.  He invited volunteers up so that his illustration had a visual.  He invited three guys (Noah, Steve, and Dan) to be The Spirit, God, and Jesus; Sathiya to be Satan; Nicholas and Katie to be Adam and Eve; Daniel to be The Flesh; and Julia to be a child born into this world who has to wrestle between listening to the lies of the Flesh or the truth of the Holy Spirit.  It was really impacting, even for me, and everyone was listening quite intently.

After Session, the kids filed over to the campfire pit in a not-so-orderly-fashion, where even from my Mom’s dining room, we could hear “SQUASH BANANAS!  SQUASH SQUASH BANANAS!!!!” through closed windows.  What a group.

The day I took no pictures…

 

…. I just handed my camera off to other people to get them to take pictures for me!  I was swamped with other stuff all day, so I’ve gotta express how much I love living in an atmosphere where I can trust people to just leave my camera sitting on a desk and have Jill go take pics of the quadathlon, or to hand my camera to Thomas so he can take it on the pontoon boat to get pictures of fishing.  I love it.

In Underground this morning, Uncle Matt spoke, continuing the theme about overcoming fear.  He talked about superheroes, asking the campers who they thought the best was, and what their justification was.  One boy said The Hulk, because of his gamma rays… I’ve never heard of gamma rays, but I know The Hulk is pretty intense.  Another mentioned Iron Man, and a cabin leader gave props to Batman for his ability to overcome justice, even though he doesn’t technically have a super power, but his mind is very keen.  Then the girls jumped in.  One said Mr. Incredible was the best, because he can juggle his super hero life with his family life, and then another said “Jesus.”  Matt then reminded (for some) and taught for the first time (for others) that our strength doesn’t come from us, but from God, and that we can’t do anything without Him.  Matt talked about overcoming disabilities, and how God uses our weaknesses as His strengths.  He used the story of Ehud to make clear to the kids listening (and me, as I folded tshirts in the tuck shop) that when we’re ready to listen and do as God instructs, we’ll have the strength and the abilities to complete our tasks.  Ehud was from the tribe of Benjamin, also known as the Tribe of the Left Hand… and Matt explained that being left handed was looked upon kind of strangely back then, even as it has been into quite recent history.  But, being left handed, Ehud kept his dagger in a different place than a right handed person would, and so was able to sneak his dagger past guards in plain sight, and kill a King as he’d been instructed.  It’s a pretty great illustration of what God can do with what we think are inadequacies.

Aunt Lynn informed me earlier in the week that Uncle Daniel encourages kids to kiss the fish they catch when he takes them out in the pontoon boat, and that this meant I should probably go out in the boat with them and get some pictures of it.  I couldn’t, but a big thank you to Uncle Oranges (Thomas) for getting some great shots out there!  I find these pictures kinda icky, myself, so if you don’t like fish scroll quickly… but here are some of your kids, kissing fish.

Here are a bunch of boys (and Kristen) at cookie baking!  The boys were still there pressing the dough into the pan.  Unfortunately, as I arrived, the girls had wandered off to wash the dough off of their hands, but I saw an opportunity for a great shot and I took it!  (oh, yes, this picture I actually took.  It’s one of maybe 5 today)

Here are the art major kids continuing to work on their amazing interpretations of their song.

At Kayak major, the kayakers were tipping their kayaks and pulling them up over the tops of other kayaks, then getting themselves back in.  From my perch on the hill watching, it looked quite challenging.

At Junior Lifeguarding, Lifeguard Dave and Uncle Nat had the candidates swimming in a line to the bottom of the lake, coming up, doing a stroke backwards, and starting again.  This way, if there were someone at the bottom who needed to be saved, they would find the person together by covering lots of ground quickly.  This would be really helpful in a lake like ours where you wouldn’t be able to see anything at the bottom.

And last but last not least, here are the pictures that Jill took of the Quadathlon game tonight!  Well, some of them…

It looks like the leaders even got in on the fun!!  This first part looks to be a giant slip and slide.  I don’t know if it was part of the quadathlon or not….

Above, it looks like Graeme has a helmet cam strapped to his head.  Checking THOSE shots out should be good!  What an angle!
I dunno what’s going on here… but it’s terrifying…

Although not as terrifying as this….

The first part of the quadathlon, at least as I remember it, is to canoe out to a lifeguard and back to the beach, where the next participants are tagged to go.

The second part has a swimmer departing the shallow beach area for the dock, where their counterpart then jumps in (though not from the side of the dock, because the water’s too shallow), and swims back to the shallow end.

When they get back to the shallow area, they tag off a runner.  Each runner books it from the beach to the dock, up the stairs, and up the hill to the lodge porch, where they tag off another runner who books it back down to the beach to send off their kayaker.

Obviously, there were excited onlookers among our staff as they got ready to participate as well.

And then they were off…

And on a final note, I bought a new camera today… I will try my very best not to take 5000 pictures tomorrow…. but I make absolutely no promises 🙂

In Mother Russia, if you don’t douse the flames, the flames douse you…

So there’s a small chance that I took 222 pictures today…. small chance.  Of course, you won’t see them all.  That’s crazy talk.  But I assure you, you’ll see many.  I managed to get it down to 100 of the best… sorry there’s so many, there were a LOT of things going on, today!

Today was an excellent, excellent day.  It was cold outside, and I dare say after last week’s stifling heat, we probably shouldn’t complain, but it started off quite chilly.  It was fitting, though, as today’s theme was “Russian.”  I’ve never played Call of Duty, so I have zero idea what Russian anything has to do with it, if anything at all, but I digress.  It was fun.

In Underground this morning, Pastor Paul taught on the story of Esther and how she didn’t let her fear win, and how God used her in her willingness to do what she knew needed to be done.  It was pretty powerful stuff, and Paul really hit it home.  It was an excellent lead in to Rick’s message from tonight about fear as experienced by Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednego (I’m sorry if I butchered those spellings…).

I’m not really sure where I want to put this first picture, because I don’t know who the artist was, and I don’t know when it’s from, but I saw it hanging on the Chapel doors, and it’s gorgeous, so I want to share.

At Sports this morning, it was very full, and so Uncle Matt Reist started an epic game of Dodgeball going with 3 different balls.  Rather unfortunately, however, most of the kids stood at the sidelines while I was taking pictures, because they were hesitant to be taken out.  As I was leaving, they started to get into the game, but their caution was duly noted.

At the beach, because as I mentioned above, it was pretty chilly this morning, there was no one in the water.  It was kind of a bizarre sight, actually.  Normally, when there’s opportunity to swim, kids take it.  But the wind was cool and had some strength to it, so they played volleyball on the beach instead.  By the afternoon it had warmed up and the water got used, but no one seemed to want to this morning, and I can’t say that I blame them 🙂

During second activity period, there were kids in the water…

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Here are some water sports shots, again, taken from the dock.  With so many activities this week, it’s been really hard to take an entire hour to go out in the boat because I so badly want to catch everyone.  Check out the full backwards riding going on from the knee boarder, though!  I wish I knew who it was!

Today’s lunch theme was “Russian.”  There were some incredibly creative ideas out there today!  Several cabins interpreted this as “rushin” to lunch, so some were jogging quickly, some were still brushing their teeth.  It was clever.  Others were challenging Canadian hockey with their smack talk about how Russia would clearly beat Canada, every time.  A girls’ cabin was all named Helga, and they all had unibrows…. it was an interesting interpretation for sure, and not usually what I think of when I think of Russia, but it was creative nevertheless.  My personal favourite, and the one that took first place in the lunch dress up challenge we have every day, was Uncle Bailey’s cabin, who lined up in order from tallest to shortest, wearing their sleeping bags zipped showing only their faces.  They showed up as Russian Nesting Dolls…. you know, those dolls that all hide one inside of another.  It was very clever.

One of our Crew members, Alice, is actually Russian.  So she gave us some greetings from Mother Russia in Russian.  It was pretty sweet, actually.

Aunt Liz sang us a Russian Opera song about death.  Check out Uncle Ryan, looking like he’s really feeling the music.  Afterward, the entire dining hall erupted into chants of “MOTHER RUSSIA!   MOTHER RUSSIA!!”

And one representative from each cabin was sent to dance-off to Rasputin.  I’m not sure why Harrison doesn’t have a shirt on, but his dance took the prize for sure.  Points were added to his team’s total for his ridiculousness.

The Art Major interpretations are coming along very nicely.  There are some incredibly talented kids up here this week!

A bunch of boys signed up for nail painting, and painted their nails in the most ridiculous colours they could find.  I heard one exclaim “is this that crackle stuff my sister uses!?  I don’t understand it!!”  They appeared to be having GREAT fun!

At Crafts, the kids were using Mod Podge to stick pieces of paper onto various shaped boxes.  Once the mod podge dries, it stays transparent, and so you’ve essentially fused your paper choices onto the wooden box.  Also, check out Aunt Shelley rocking the bandana she made on Monday while tie-dyeing, as well as a couple that are still hanging on the Chapel porch, finished and ready to go, but still unclaimed.

At Archery, the usual shenanigans occurred.  Bows were readied, arrows were fired, and then they were collected from targets.  Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves up here, today.  It was cooler, so it wasn’t unbearable to be out in the mid day, AND I think the bugs are finally starting to leave us alone a little bit, so that’s very good news!!

At Low Ropes, kids had to make a funny noise to get Aunt Natalie and Aunt Heather to give them back their rope so that they could Tarzan Swing off the platform, back to the designated area on the ground.

At the Rock Wall, Suzanne begged me to take her picture so her Mom could see her climbing the wall.  It always strikes me funny when the campers recognize me as the blogger.  At any rate, Hi Maria!  Mack and Bradley also did an excellent job climbing the wall.  Mack and Suzanne both climbed with backpacks of rocks on their backs, and Bradley didn’t have the time to try that today, but is determined to do it tomorrow!

I didn’t go out in the boat to go tubing today, either.  I have found that I like to be able to stand on the docks and catch many things, all at once.  Here are the members of one tubing group, waiting to be picked up by the boat for their tube rides.

Here are some tubers…

… and here is the other group of kids waiting at the ski dock.

Check out Matt and Graeme as guardians of the ski dock.  They were there to help make sure life jackets fit properly and that kids were ready to go when it was their turn.  This made it much more efficient, and it allows our lifeguards to be able to pay full attention to the water.

I hopped into the boat for the last two tube rides, because I figured that the pictures of Uncle Matt and Uncle Graeme tubing would not be regretted.  I wasn’t wrong.  The pictures of Uncle Graeme and Aunt Cait were pretty great, too.  Maybe they can use these as their engagement photos?  Don’t worry, your kids don’t ride this rough.  I suspect Graeme and Matt were leaning very much on purpose.

I also managed to catch Jarred and Nat fishing off of the dock.  Jarred even caught a fish!!  Later, Nat tried to go hand fishing by swimming around close to the dock and catching fish with his hands.  I don’t think he was successful, though.

The game tonight was called Douse the Flames.  In two teams, 6 cabins per team, they were given twenty minutes to build a fire, then half of each team went on offence with water balloons to try to “douse the flames” at the other team’s fire, while the other half remained on defence to try to deflect water balloons from hitting their fire, thereby putting it out.  I took SO MANY pictures of this, and I’d LOVE to share them all with you.  It’s my hope that once Family Camp starts next week, the blogging responsibilities will ease up a bit, and I will have a chance to add all of the pictures from Kids’ Camp (the thousands of pictures….) into a Picasa Album online so that you could see all of the shots, not just the best ones.  But for tonight, you’ll have to settle for my interpretation of my best shots.  I’m rambling, though, so back on track… this whole activity was being prepared for all day.  Many times throughout the day, I saw various crew kids and staff kids helping fill water balloons for this epic battle… and epic it was.

From the Rooftops I Proclaim, that I am Yours

During Underground this morning, we sang a couple of pretty powerful songs, and then Pastor Paul got up and delivered a pretty powerful message.  A song that’s been really hitting home for me lately is called Rooftops, and the chorus goes like this….

So I stand before You God
I lift my voice because you set me free

So I shout out Your name, from the rooftops I proclaim
That I am Yours, I am Yours

Here I am, I stand, with arms wide open, to the One, the Son, the Everlasting God.

Isn’t that powerful?  Isn’t that incredible?  That that’s the God we serve?  I was pretty humbled by that thought this morning.

Shortly after that, Pastor Paul got up to preach about our Call of Duty.  He talked about duty in a military sense, and how you don’t get to argue with your Commander.  When you’re told to do something, you don’t say “but I don’t wanna” and put it off, because you know what’s good for you.  He illustrated it really nicely with a skit using Uncle Matt Cober (Cobra, as we’re now trying to get to stick on him as a nickname).  Paul yelled at Matt like a drill sergeant, firing commands in his ears, and when Matt sassed him back, Paul picked him up and held him over his own head and asked what he was going to do then.  Matt ended up dropping and giving Paul ten by the end of the illustration, because Matt’s response to being held over Paul’s head was “I’m over you now.”

The best part about the whole illustration though was that Paul let Matt sit down and then went on to explain that with God as our Commander, He’s loving and we don’t get our ears screamed in.  But we still need to listen to that still, small voice.

I was impacted, and I saw a lot of very attentive faces in the crowd, so I hope the kids were, too.

Speaking of the crowds, I did manage to have a camera on me to take a panoramic shot of all 100+ people in Underground worshipping together.  It was a pretty awesome sight, and an even more incredible sound.  Those kids just belt these songs.

Throughout the rest of the day, I probably took enough pictures to last me all week, except that I didn’t make it to all the activities.  I still need to get across the road for the mountain biking, the archery, the low ropes, and the rock wall, and I haven’t seen any nails being painted yet, but some of the pictures you’ll see in tomorrow’s blog will more than likely be from today because I’m off tomorrow, and am off site for the day.  There are MANY activities going on through a typical day at Summit, as I’m sure you can well imagine with nearly 100 children on site.  It’s been my experience through the last five years of teaching that bored kids normally get into mischief, but not to worry, they don’t have time to be bored here!

First of all, we’ve added Paddle Boarding as a legit activity this week instead of just something kids can get into as a cabin during Free Swim.  This is probably best, as some of the games Generals Ryan and Laura have planned during Free Swim would be enough to make me not want to be on a paddle board during Free Swim at all, as much as I love paddle boarding.

During the Drama Major, Aunt Natalie and Uncle Bailey had the group of boys divided into two groups, and each group was given a machine that they had to act out as a group.  One was a blender, the other was a hair dryer… can you guess which is which?

Watersports looked like fun today.  I didn’t make it out on the boat with them, but I did manage to creep from the docks and the stairs leading down to the waterfront.

One Camper (I couldn’t tell who it was) is such a great skier that the first thing I noticed was one solitary ski, dropped and floating in the water.  Then, I saw him come back into the dock on one foot, and he finished off his ride with skill.

Check out Aunt Teagan giving kneeboarding instructions.  And if you noticed, you’d be correct, that is Pastor Paul’s daughter Natasha, who is with us as a Summit Camper this week.  I remember that kid from when she could barely talk.  It makes me feel a tad old :p

From my post by the finger docks and on the waterfront stairs, I got to watch canoeing techniques being instructed, and then within time, the canoes all set out into the water.  It’s always really neat for me to walk around on the first day and see all the learning that’s going on.  The teacher in me must be coming out, when I get excited to see kids learning, even on their summer vacations.

During pontoon fishing, Curtis caught his FIRST EVER FISH!!!  Way to go, Curtis!!!  Apparently, this was a 2 lb. (approximately) Bass.

Today’s lunch theme was Boot Camp.  It was pretty funny to see the creative ways that ALL of the cabins dressed up.  We have some pretty creative groups of kids and leaders out there this week.  The cabin with their shirts over their faces, they’re Ninjas, by the way.  There seemed to be some confusion over that.

The rock climbing majors spent today on this side of the road, learning how to do up their harnesses and tie their knots properly.  Here they are, learning to do up their harnesses the correct way so that they stay safe.  Some of them have done climbing before, but it was good for them to have a refresher as well.

We have opportunities for our artsy kids this week as well as our water lovers and our sporty ones.  In the first activity period, campers were learning about the Rule of Thirds with Aunt Brittany in her Photography major, and working in a workbook she created for them.

We have an Art group second activity. In second activity period with Aunt Jill, campers listened to a song chosen by Jillian, and then they get to pick out a personal meaning for themselves and decide what they’re going to use to express themselves artistically using the song as a base.  They can use any materials available to them, and they’ll be building on their choices throughout the week.  It was really nice to see so many boys in this activity, and one of our trusty maintenance guys, Joe, was at the end of the table helping to explain some graffiti techniques.

At crafts, Aunt Shelley featured tie-dyed bandanas/headbands.  I can’t wait to see what these turned out like once they dried!!

At kayaking major, it was once again nice to see kids learning to paddle properly, and being shown the proper way to pull a kayak into the water.  They set out for the island, and from my various vantage points, I managed to catch them all along their journey on their first day.

At Wilderness, Uncle Jared and Aunt Candace were teaching their kids how to build a fire.

At cookie baking, once the cookies were baked and the kids were ready to eat them, Aunt Kristen and Nate, another of Pastor Paul’s kids, were asking Bible Trivia questions to determine the order they’d get their cookies in.  Rather unfairly, though, Nate kept yelling out the answers.  There was plenty to go around though, so no worries there!  The cookies were delicious.

Because we have SO MANY kids here this week, we have opened tubing up into two boats, one launching from the finger dock and the other from the ski dock.  I have a lot of respect for our boat drivers, because I could hear the effort that went into making sure they were aware of their surroundings.  The boat that I was in, driven by Tracy, was continuously aware of the other ski boat, as well as exactly how many kayaks were in the water, and where they were at all times.  It’s a lot of responsibility, but they bear it well.

And my final item for tonight — During the Free Swim game, campers had to tug of war, in the water, fighting one cabin against another.  When they were done the game, Aunt Laura signalled that they could go in, and they FLOODED the water in the beach area, as well as taking off for the dock to swim in deep water.