Date: 7-11 July 2008
Welcome to junior camp 2008. We had a bit of a different setup this year, with camp lasting from Monday to Friday, and a few of the campers were day-campers rather than staying the night. That meant we had a lot to pack into five days but the week went well and we were blessed with good weather for all our trips, so we finished up just about as tired as ever.
This week our camp was based around the F.R.O.G.S Club, with themes of Forgiving, Respect, Obedience, Giving Thanks and Serving for each of the days. These were tied into the Bible lessons and the memory verses and the kids made F.R.O.G.S Club bookmarks, t-shirts and glass paintings in the handcraft sessions. Our evening meetings brought stiff competition between the two teams for singing, sword drill and quiz, and we learned from Pilgrim's Progress each night.
We had a sporty bunch in this year, with everyone keen to take part in the games. Rounders and capture the flag were played outdoors, with lots of other games in the games hall.
Our first day trip was down the coast to Greenock's Funworld. This is a huge play area with climbing areas, slides, football and all sorts of other stuff to play on. The kids loved it and ran about full pelt with only occasional stops for juice.
One of the main attractions of Funworld, though, was that older ones are allowed on the equipment. Some of the buddies and leaders seemed to be having more fun even than the kids were.
We had a tour of Glasgow's Tall Ship, the Glenlee, on Tuesday. This is a great place to visit as you get to see what life was like for sailors of old, and to scrub the decks, turn the capstan and pump the water for yourself.
As part of the trip we were gathered in the poop cabin (yes, it's called the poop cabin, let's not go through this again) and Anthony, one of the staff at the Tall Ship, told us some stories. We got to make up our own story and act out some of the other ones.
Afterwards we had lunch and then had a chance to make some sea-life mobiles. Much glue and glitter was used and many entanglings were caused but everyone came home with their mobile in the end.
No change to tradition here, sports day was on Wednesday. Well, we called it Fun Day but it was the same thing. It started with different activities the kids could choose to take part in. There was beat the goalie, outdoor darts, trampolining, basketball, space hopper racing and connect 4 among others. After this we had the competition events, with plenty of points at stake.
The sack race was first, and everyone got a shot, including the leaders. Then there were a number of other races: running with the hula hoop, throwing the welly, relay race and throwing the sponge. Finally there was of course the water fight.
On the one rainy day of the week our trip was to Erskine swimming pool. We had the pool hired for the time we were there and they laid on the big floating island so we had a good time while we were there.
On our last day we drove up to the Glennifer Braes to the scout lodge there, Lapwing Lodge. We had a few hours there and there was plenty to keep us occupied. We gave the assault course a good go, and enjoyed a round of frisbee golf. Some took a walk down to the lake and enjoyed themselves looking for frogs in the water.
Friday night was the final chance to earn points. The memory verse competition had swayed the totals in favour of the orange team and they had most of the sword drill finalists as well. In the end the oranges won by a decent margin. After the meeting it was leaving time so grab your cases, collect your handcraft and off you go.
Phew! See you next year.
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This page by David Meiklejohn.