Day 12

Friday, September 4th, 2009

Today Larry came up to camp, so we get 2 days of theology – yea! (that has a little sarcasm in there). Larry is full of knowledge and has great stories to illustrate the concepts he is trying to teach. But he is trying to teach us complicated theology in a 1 ½ hour lecture that would be covered in whole college courses. He talks about point A, point A, point A, point A, point A, point A, We get it by the 3rd example and start trying to think it through and then have questions for him. But when we ask our questions, I find they are about point D, while Larry is still on point A. He wants to be thorough and give us the details and evidence; we want the big picture. He gives us his objectives for each session, but not an overview of what he is talking about. Perhaps if he gave us the big picture and then went back and unpacked all the details? I don’t know. I feel like I have learned a lot, but have had to wrestle with most of it. Maybe that is good. Perhaps I will remember it better that way.

We also had a couple different sessions about the business aspects of being on team. We had one on vehicle maintenance, who to call if something goes wrong, never ever to use duct tape, you must not back up without a spotter (or at all if possible) etc… we talked about the media specialist job, the person in charge of the resource table in the back after programs, who orders more merchandise if needed, that we need to take pictures and send in blog updates, as well as be prompt with our newsletter info.

After lunch today, we had the traditional staff v. teamers greased watermelon contest. This happens in the chest high water of the swimming beach. There are docks framing the swimming area – each teams of 15-25 must have all of their members touching their respective dock. The watermelon is greased with Crisco and floated in the middle. When the lifeguard says go, all mayhem breaks loose. The object of the game is to get the watermelon to your side and past the buoy line.

The whole camp gets into it, especially the people who participated. There was face painting and special outfits and chanting and inspiring speeches. The first challenge was best 2 out of 3. The staff won the first 2 challenges. The teamers convinced them to do best 3 out of 5. The staff, not smelling any danger, agreed. The teamers then resoundingly kicked their patooties.

I will beg borrow and steal (ok, maybe not steal) to get pictures for you soon!