Kid's Camp Reunion!!!

Calling All Campers!!!
Don't miss the Kid's Camp Reunion:

Sunday, Oct. 19 2008
6:00 PM - 7:30 PM

We've got lots of fun stuff planned!
You won't want to miss it!

***You can contact the Children's Ministry office for more details
(630) 851-7000

PAINT Your World: Art Project

***If you have trouble hearing the video, you may pause the music playlist to your right. ;)

Parents and students! You're invited to join us in this exciting project! Please take some time as a family and brainstorm ideas to decorate the globe picture you received in service. These ideas should portray ways that we can show the world God's glory. It can be through our talents, interests, emotions, resources, or any other concept you can come up with. Feel free to use creative materials as you decorate your paper. This paper is simply a practice for the larger canvas that you will have the opportunity to create and display for all the church to see!

Please submit your completed picture to Pastor Michael, along with a written short essay that explains your concept, no later than Sunday, September 7. When you submit these items, you will receive a much larger canvas! Take your time recreating your brainstormed ideas onto this canvas, and returned to Pastor Michael no later than Friday, Sepetember 26, because this will be the final masterpiece that will be put on display in the atrium at church!

Thank you for your excitement and participation in this fun project! The Kid's Connection team is thrilled to partner up with students and families in this effort to show the world God's glory through our talents and abilities. We hope that our message will inspire the rest of the congregation to go PAINT their world as well!

Friday

Sadly, our week together has come to a close. But not before enjoying one more service together, complete with worship, another message from Pastor Michael, and of course, another team competition! The game was an obstacle course. Each team was timed. The winner earned enough points to put them in first place! The winning team was the GREEN team! Yay!



The message today was one final challenge to the kids: to TRANSFORM their world! By putting into practice all the other lessons they had learned this week, they would be ready to be used by God to affect the world around them. That includes friends, family, neighbors, etc...who don't know Christ. We had a final alter call, where the kids were invited to come forward for prayer with the counselors. What a powerful moment!



Then we took time to pray for the leaders in the room, that they too would press on in their walk with the Lord. We also prayed for 2 of our leaders, Kyle and Francesca, who are heading off to college this week. We will greatly miss them!

Finally, Pastor Michael laid out two large paintings of the continents. He asked the kids who are committing to 'Paint' their world, to come forward, dip their hand in paint, and place a handprint on the continents. That was their confession before the Lord that they desire to be used by Him, as a tool in His hand, to change their world.



Pastor Michael reminded all the kids that they would be receiving a DVD in the mail with the highlight video from the entire week. And with that dvd he will include an invitation for a 'camp reunion' where we will have more fun and games and watch the highlight video together as a group. So, please be checking the mail for your invite! Until then, thank you for checking out our blog updates! We had an incredible week at camp! And we appreciate each counselor, staff member, child, and family that made this week possible. Feel free to fill this blog up with comments! We LOVE your feedback!

Thursday

The kids were allowed to sleep in an extra hour, since we had woken them up for the midnight team competition. We met in the auditorium for a special breakfast. Here are some of the kids @ breakfast.

Pastor Michael asked the kids to sign his camp t-shirt. He was so excited to read the notes and comments that the kids scribbled on his shirt!

Instead of field games this afternoon, the kids enjoyed some extra time, swimming at the lake. Here are some videos of some of our very brave campers!

After Lake Swim, we cleaned up for dinner and then another great service! The kids were extra pumped up @ this evenings' worship time. Here they are...singing their hearts out to the Lord!



Tonight, Pastor Michael's message was entitled NEVER GIVE UP! He challenged the kids to keep living for the Lord and making right choices, even when it's difficult. Despite peer pressure, temptation, or difficult circumstances we go through, we need to determine in our hearts that we will never give up on trusting God and serving Him. He used the surprise midnight team competition as an example....because even when they were tired and crabby from being pulled out of bed in the middle of the night, they still played their hearts out for points for their team. In the same way, we never give up or slow down in life, as we strive for the reward Christ has promised us. And in doing that, we will affect the world around us for Christ! It was a very powerful message, and the kids definately soaked up every word!











Then it was back to team competitions!
The winner of this competition was promised the opportunity to SLIME Pastor Michael! The BLUE team and the YELLOW team tied for first place, and took turns dumping pails of slime over Michael's head!

Wednesday

It was another sunny day, and the campers were ready for more team competitions and ready to learn more about the Lord! At this morning's rally, we started our day with worship. Then we put our hands to another crazy, wacky game! Chosen teammates had to shoot hoops to make a basket, and then run over to the other team's side and use an air pump to blow up the other team's balloon and be the first to make it pop! The YELLOW team took away the win, bringing their team to 3rd place!

After small group time and a yummy lunch, we had another field competition. This one was a favorite for many campers. The entire team lifted an 8ft by 6ft target, while their counselor flung water balloons from an oversized sling shot. The team had to work together to move the target across the field and catch the incoming water balloons. The RED team won this game by a great margin, securing their team's overall lead.

Tonight's service was absolutely amazing! Pastor Michael talked about the way we imitate others that we admire. Sometimes it's a good thing. Sometimes it's not. The band members put on a little skit to further this concept. They went on stage and 'imitated' Pastor Michael by picking up his paint brushes and painting all over the tarps, the garbage can, even on kids' cheeks! The kids got a kick out of this! Then Michael challenged the kids to be imitators of Christ above all others. In doing this, we will affect the world around us by showing others God's glory! We had another response call, where the kids made a commitment in their hearts to place Christ above all others, and be imitators of Him. Praise the Lord for whispering in these kids' hearts and giving them a hunger to live for Him!

Tonight was a strict early bedtime, because we leaders and counselors had a surprise for the kids! At 11:30pm, we went around to all the rooms with the megaphone and woke the kids up for a surprise midnight team competition! The kids were so sleepy, and a bit disoriented, but it only took mere moments for them to get pumped up! This game was called, "Paint by Number...Kid's Connection style!" Each team had to run to the middle of the auditorium, where there was a pool of colored gumballs, and find their team color. Then they had to run back to their corner of the room, chew the gumballs up and stick them onto a canvas. The RED team finished filling their canvas first, giving them another great win! Other teams, especially YELLOW and ORANGE, also received extra points, since their teams unfairly had considerably less kids. There was a point to this surprise midnight game, which Pastor Michael told the kids he would explain the next day. Here is a picture of some of the canvases. YUCK!!!

Tuesday

What can we say! We were up, bright and early, ready to take on another fun day! At our morning rally, we enjoyed some more worship and a pretty neat team competition that earned the GREEN team a big win! This game involved hopping on one foot and squeezing a sponge (soaked with colored water) into a vase that was held overhead by a teammate wearing a poncho........it's difficult to explain. Just check out these pics!

After lunch, all the teams gathered onto the field for another

team competition! The YELLOW team won the game, earning the opportunity to slosh buckets of colored water over Mr. Ryan's head!

Freetime was super fun. The kids were able to swim in the indoor/outdoor pools, test their skills out at the skate park, play mini golf and sand volleyball, and hang out at the arcade, etc...

Our evening service was absolutely amazing! The band brought us into a great time of worship, which led us into a second great message from Pastor Michael. Using another cool object lesson, he challenged the kids to accept the unique call that God has for each person. Again, many kids responded to this challenged and spent time in prayer, making that commitment in their hearts.

Then we pulled up our pillows with our friends, busted out the popcorn, and watched a movie on the big screens!

Here are some random pics of our happy campers: