Summer Traveling: Tri-State Christian Camp @ DeFuniak, FL

I love little kids! We were surrounded by forty-one 6-8 year olds. Josh and I had a lot of fun playing with them and helping them learn the stories of the Bible and about North Burma Christian Mission. We got there on Sunday afternoon. The staff was introduced to the children and we had dinner. Afterwards, we played some games and music. Monday-Thursday were semi-structured days for the kids. They had study time, breakfast, cleaned their cabins and then went to two classes. The classes were where they learned the memory verse for the day, they practiced the skit they would later perform that night and a story from the Bible that went with their memory verse and skit. Then it was lunch time. The week we were there they had the most awesome cooks. I was a little nervous about having camp food for a week, especially since being pregnant I have a few limitations on what I can eat. Boy was I surprised, just about everything was made from scratch and SO yummy! After lunch was an hour of rest time. I took advantage of this to take a nap of my own. After rest time, the kids had activities- games at the ball field for 2 groups while the other group swam, and then the rotate. We typically went swimming with at least one group. During the other time we got ready for our presentations about the mission, talked with some of the adult staff, or helps set up for dinner and night activities. The kids got some free time before dinner. A favorite was carpet ball. It is a fun game. Josh has been playing it at camp and church for over 15 years. I bet him a few times, but I think it was just pure luck. After dinner the children rehearsed their skits and had a little free time. The skits were so cute. The kids were able to choose to reenact the story exactly like in the Bible or put a modern twist on it. If the weather was nice after night time activities we would sing songs by a campfire. On the last night we also roasted marshmallows and made s’mores (One of my campfire favorites!). Josh and I presented to the kids about North Burma Christian Mission twice. Once as a part of vespers, talking about how we are all missionaries and do different work and how praying can be done for God’s work by any one any age. We also talked during chapel specifically about North Burma Christian Mission and VBS that the mission group is doing in August when they go over there. The kids were so excited to help be apart of the mission work and help kids just like them. They also helped decorate a display board. The best part about the whole week was getting to know some of the kids. We tried our best at talking to all the children. One little girl, who both Josh and I were particularly fond of, shared Josh’s love of mayonnaise. She liked to eat it right out of the bottle and put it on almost everything. Josh was given the title, by her and later caught on by many of the other kids, of Mr. Mayonnaise. Josh gave her a returned nickname as mayonnaise girl. She loved it. I hope we are able to go next year as the sponsored missionaries. We had a blast!


Theme for this summer camp


Evening games -Bible Bingo


Waiting for dinner


Carpet Ball


Hide and Seek- Staff hide and the campers had to find them. I think they only found 1-2 staff



Mr Mayonnaise and Mayonnaise girl (she couldn't even wait to like the mayo off her finger for me to take the picture)


Music



Vespers



One of the teams doing their skit



The NBCM VBS board that the kids helped made to know about the mission



Josh talking to the kids about the mission





One of the teams preparing for a game





Water balloon fight


Amanda being dunked in the cooler


Canteen before pool time


Our Last Dinner- themed "Hawaii Tropics"



End of the week awards and good-bye

On another note, Jamiie Jo had brought us a cat that was thin and looked as if she had had kittens recently. She had an old flea color that someone had written her name on with a Sharpie. She seemed relatively healthy other than her being thin. The next day we saw her with 2 kittens that looked to be close to stop nursing. They were also somewhat thin. She took very good care of them. I was a little worried but they seemed to be doing OK. Josh and I kept debating on what we should do if anything. We knew feeding her wouldn't do any good because we were only there for a week. On Wednesday, Josh was walking to our room to wake me from a nap and in his path was the mother with the 2 bigger kittens and 2 very small kittens. He ran and got me. After seeing she had 4 kittens to care for we knew our decision had to be to take her to a shelter where her and the kittens could be cared for and hopefully adopted. I watched the mother and her kittens while josh got a box to put them all in. The mother was very willing to let us take her kittens and she came along with us easily too. On the way to the vet she crawled in Josh’s lap and passed out. I think the poor girl was so tired from keeping those kittens safe and fed she was done. She knew we would take care of her and her kittens and she needed some rest. We felt so bad leaving her at the shelter. If we didn’t already had a handful of cats ourselves we would have happily taken the sweet mommy and tried to adopt her kittens. We knew the shelter was the best and only option. Afterwards, we went out to lunch in town to try to forgot about leaving her and the kittens and think good things before returning to camp. That night I keep waking up thinking there must be another kitten somewhere, who was know lost, lonely, scared and hungry. Thursday evening as the kids were about to go for a special night swim I looked over and saw Josh across the yard carrying something. My heart skipped a beat I think because I knew it was probably a kitten who now had not had its mother for a good day and half. I ran over to him to find him with a limb kitten covered in maggots, flies, ants, and fleas. The kids were going crazy. They wanted us to help the kitten. I was so afraid the kitten was going to die. Josh grapped a towel as I ran to the kitchen to get some milk or cream. We told the kids they had to leave us alone so we could take care of the kitten (we were more worried about the kids seeing the kitten die). Luckily, this little one was a fighter. She sawed drinking the milk after a little coaxing. We took her to our room Josh gave her a quick bath to try to get some of the insects off. I got my purse and phone and we rushed over to the local vet before they closed to see if they could help us. They said there wasn’t much they could do but we should bath her and feed her some kitten milk. We went to 2 different stores looking for kitten milk. During all this we were trying to think about what to do with her. Her mother and siblings would no longer be where we dropped them off since they were taken to one of the many different shelters that works with animal control. We knew we couldn’t take her. He called Jessica, since we knew she had been thinking about getting another cat so her cat would have some company when she moves out in a couple of months. Jessica is now the proud mommy of a little girl kitten, named Bobbie. So, now we have 5 cats at the Williams’ household and a kitty is with home and safe.

Momma cat and one of the bigger kittens

Jessica and Bobbie (her new kitty)