Saturday, February 25, 2006
Snow Camp!
Well I just got back from Snow Camp Saturday (My sister Jessie came as well) and I had an awesome time! I left on Thursday at 7:00 PM and got back Saturday at 12:00 PM. The whole time was awesome--from the team competitions to the daily devotions in God's word--Northland Snow Camp was the best!
Here is what happened...
Wednesday--We (Jessie and I) had heard about Snow camp and really wanted to go but we didn't have enough money to go. Then a wonderful person who works at Northland came up to Jessie and asked her if we were going. Jessie said that she didn't think so. As it all turns out this person took care of all the expense for us to go to camp!
Thursday--We (My whole family) arrive at Northland around 7:00 PM. We sign up for camp and Both Jessie and I are on blue team! GO BLUE!!! Anyways we go to our cabin meet our counselor and a few Cabin-mates. We had freetime from about 30 minutes after that. During that time my mom left and I met up with a few people I knew from previous camp weeks (or week ends)! freetime ends and we all go to the white chapel for an introduction to camp and then for an awesome sermon. After the sermon we had a game in the Gym then we went to our cabins and into bed.
Friday--Friday we had an awesome day! That morning we had breakfast in bed (Orange juice, hashbrowns, a pop-tart, and something like an egg and sausage sandwich) after that we cleaned up our room (And we did get 100!) We had an awesome Devotional then we went to the game--Snow Magedon. After the game we had another awesome Chapel message by Will Galkin then we had lunch then freetime. We had an awesome freetime! (My cabin single-handedly earned at least 15 thousand points for the blue team!) We then went to chapel for a short funny time. After that we had out Italian dinner! There was some good food there--Spaghetti and more and better yet we had entertainment! There was a Pasta eating contest. The contestants each had a plate of spaghetti that they had to eat with no forks--or hands! One of my cabin-mates Named Peter entered into the contest and when it was done he only had one noodle left--he lost by one noodle! After a little more freetime we whet to hear yet another convicting message by Will. Then came the night-game...I'll tell you more about it later but my cabin got all ten locations and back to the Gym in time. In the Gym we had taco bell food...Well everyone who didn't order a Cheesy Bean and Rice Burrito--those came late. Yes, I happened to have ordered two of them and that was all I ordered. We watched some stupid sports videos (You know the little clips of a guy skiing off a roof and things like that.) Then we went back to the Cabin. My burriotos came . Then we all went to bed.
Saturday-- Once again we cleaned our cabin really well--we got 105! We ate breakfast then we had another Devotional time. After that was final scoring. I wont tell you who won yet. Will then came and gave us a final message. Then we went back to our cabins and got all of our stuff out and into the Rec. Hall. We got a cabin Picture taken then my dad came and we had to go. The week was awesome! God is so good!
Preaching-- Through-out the week (Once on Tuesday, twice on Friday, and once on Saturday) we had brother Will Galkin come and share with us what was on his heart. In each message I tried to pick out one phrase that I could apply to my life. Here is what I got--
Cabin-- My cabin was the Blue team! My cabin had eight people in it--Peter, Nick, Ames, Kyle, Bruce, Wes, My counselor--Brad, and me. When I said we were the blue team that really wasn't an exaggeration. My cabin was the loudest, bravest, and cleanest on our team. in the games we had to literally push the Blue team girls out to play. We started cheering randomly and single handedly my cabin earned at least 15 thousand points for our team--that is about half of out total point score!
Games-- The games at snow camp were awesome! Snow-Magedon was probably the funnest. There were two team lines--Blue and Red--in between them a Giant mountain of ice! When I say giant I mean from 10 to 12 feet tall! Anyways for the first few rounds there was an orange cone atop the mound of ice and snow and on the whistle the Senior High guys, Senior High girls, Junior High guys, or Junior High girls had to run up to the to and at least touch the cone. Then the game changed to getting the cone to your team side. Then the biggest challenge of all--We had Two councilors from the same team (Sometimes red sometimes blue) and they had to stay on the top of the mountain for their team to win. So when it was red team counselors blue team wanted to drag them off--and when it was blue team counselors blue team wanted to keep them on--by pushing the other team off!
We played other games but I'll only tell you about one more called Metal Ops. In this game you have to go to the ten locations on your list and get the silver, gold, or bronze metal at that location. Here is how you got them--
Freetime and Snow Sculptures-- My absolute favorite part of Snow camp was the snow sculpting part! The first night My cabin had many ideas floating around. Some were to make an Olympic torch, to make a deer, but we finally decided to make a Bob-sled because our team is the Bob-Sledders. I started as soon as I could and didn't stop until it was done. We piled up almost all the snow into a line in the middle of the provided space. Then we got some trash cans and a big tub and filled them with hot water. Soon we were dipping snow into the water to get it wet then we packed it onto the sculpture. While I was taking care of the sled other people were making a hill behind me so we could put our team flags into the snow. After spending Hours of work on the sled and the hill we finished. It looked (And still looks) really cool and forever (Well if the snow doesn't melt) it will stand on Northland as a landmark of the Bob-Sledder team. Yes, the other team made a little sculpture. Theirs was a cross. All they did was carve it out of the snow then sprinkle Mountain-Dew Code red on it for blood. (That was against the rules--we were not allowed to use food or drink on the sculpture) Needless to say we won the sculpture competition.
Who won?-- Well this is hard to say. Red team won most of the Big games but Blue team won things like the Snow-Sculpting. In the end They announced that Red team won, But they were wrong. Now I wouldn't say that unless I was absolutely sure. You see there was a virtual Snowboarding competition that my friend Peter (Same dude who entered the Pasta eating contest) came in second place. Now in the final scoring the said some red guy (With a lower score) came in second. Now If they had counted it for blue we would have won, but they didn't...So in reality we all won. Well, Red thinks they did and Blue knows that they did...
------------------
All in all I had a great weekend. I learned things from the Bible. I made new friends and I won a sculpture competition. God was so good to let me go to Snow camp!
~Joey
Here is what happened...
Wednesday--We (Jessie and I) had heard about Snow camp and really wanted to go but we didn't have enough money to go. Then a wonderful person who works at Northland came up to Jessie and asked her if we were going. Jessie said that she didn't think so. As it all turns out this person took care of all the expense for us to go to camp!
Thursday--We (My whole family) arrive at Northland around 7:00 PM. We sign up for camp and Both Jessie and I are on blue team! GO BLUE!!! Anyways we go to our cabin meet our counselor and a few Cabin-mates. We had freetime from about 30 minutes after that. During that time my mom left and I met up with a few people I knew from previous camp weeks (or week ends)! freetime ends and we all go to the white chapel for an introduction to camp and then for an awesome sermon. After the sermon we had a game in the Gym then we went to our cabins and into bed.
Friday--Friday we had an awesome day! That morning we had breakfast in bed (Orange juice, hashbrowns, a pop-tart, and something like an egg and sausage sandwich) after that we cleaned up our room (And we did get 100!) We had an awesome Devotional then we went to the game--Snow Magedon. After the game we had another awesome Chapel message by Will Galkin then we had lunch then freetime. We had an awesome freetime! (My cabin single-handedly earned at least 15 thousand points for the blue team!) We then went to chapel for a short funny time. After that we had out Italian dinner! There was some good food there--Spaghetti and more and better yet we had entertainment! There was a Pasta eating contest. The contestants each had a plate of spaghetti that they had to eat with no forks--or hands! One of my cabin-mates Named Peter entered into the contest and when it was done he only had one noodle left--he lost by one noodle! After a little more freetime we whet to hear yet another convicting message by Will. Then came the night-game...I'll tell you more about it later but my cabin got all ten locations and back to the Gym in time. In the Gym we had taco bell food...Well everyone who didn't order a Cheesy Bean and Rice Burrito--those came late. Yes, I happened to have ordered two of them and that was all I ordered. We watched some stupid sports videos (You know the little clips of a guy skiing off a roof and things like that.) Then we went back to the Cabin. My burriotos came . Then we all went to bed.
Saturday-- Once again we cleaned our cabin really well--we got 105! We ate breakfast then we had another Devotional time. After that was final scoring. I wont tell you who won yet. Will then came and gave us a final message. Then we went back to our cabins and got all of our stuff out and into the Rec. Hall. We got a cabin Picture taken then my dad came and we had to go. The week was awesome! God is so good!
Preaching-- Through-out the week (Once on Tuesday, twice on Friday, and once on Saturday) we had brother Will Galkin come and share with us what was on his heart. In each message I tried to pick out one phrase that I could apply to my life. Here is what I got--
- You will be what you are becoming.
- Say no [to temptation] because you love God more.
- Temptation is there to make us depend on God.
- [Speaking about friends] Not who is cool but who loves God.
Cabin-- My cabin was the Blue team! My cabin had eight people in it--Peter, Nick, Ames, Kyle, Bruce, Wes, My counselor--Brad, and me. When I said we were the blue team that really wasn't an exaggeration. My cabin was the loudest, bravest, and cleanest on our team. in the games we had to literally push the Blue team girls out to play. We started cheering randomly and single handedly my cabin earned at least 15 thousand points for our team--that is about half of out total point score!
Games-- The games at snow camp were awesome! Snow-Magedon was probably the funnest. There were two team lines--Blue and Red--in between them a Giant mountain of ice! When I say giant I mean from 10 to 12 feet tall! Anyways for the first few rounds there was an orange cone atop the mound of ice and snow and on the whistle the Senior High guys, Senior High girls, Junior High guys, or Junior High girls had to run up to the to and at least touch the cone. Then the game changed to getting the cone to your team side. Then the biggest challenge of all--We had Two councilors from the same team (Sometimes red sometimes blue) and they had to stay on the top of the mountain for their team to win. So when it was red team counselors blue team wanted to drag them off--and when it was blue team counselors blue team wanted to keep them on--by pushing the other team off!
We played other games but I'll only tell you about one more called Metal Ops. In this game you have to go to the ten locations on your list and get the silver, gold, or bronze metal at that location. Here is how you got them--
- Climbing up the tubing hill
- After scoring a golfball inside a little square in one shot
- After eating and drinking a ton of food
- By finding it in the white chapel
- After flying a paper air-plane into the fire
- After making a hoop at the basketball court
- After going snow bowling and getting a strike
- After counting all these little things in an envelope
Freetime and Snow Sculptures-- My absolute favorite part of Snow camp was the snow sculpting part! The first night My cabin had many ideas floating around. Some were to make an Olympic torch, to make a deer, but we finally decided to make a Bob-sled because our team is the Bob-Sledders. I started as soon as I could and didn't stop until it was done. We piled up almost all the snow into a line in the middle of the provided space. Then we got some trash cans and a big tub and filled them with hot water. Soon we were dipping snow into the water to get it wet then we packed it onto the sculpture. While I was taking care of the sled other people were making a hill behind me so we could put our team flags into the snow. After spending Hours of work on the sled and the hill we finished. It looked (And still looks) really cool and forever (Well if the snow doesn't melt) it will stand on Northland as a landmark of the Bob-Sledder team. Yes, the other team made a little sculpture. Theirs was a cross. All they did was carve it out of the snow then sprinkle Mountain-Dew Code red on it for blood. (That was against the rules--we were not allowed to use food or drink on the sculpture) Needless to say we won the sculpture competition.
Who won?-- Well this is hard to say. Red team won most of the Big games but Blue team won things like the Snow-Sculpting. In the end They announced that Red team won, But they were wrong. Now I wouldn't say that unless I was absolutely sure. You see there was a virtual Snowboarding competition that my friend Peter (Same dude who entered the Pasta eating contest) came in second place. Now in the final scoring the said some red guy (With a lower score) came in second. Now If they had counted it for blue we would have won, but they didn't...So in reality we all won. Well, Red thinks they did and Blue knows that they did...
------------------
All in all I had a great weekend. I learned things from the Bible. I made new friends and I won a sculpture competition. God was so good to let me go to Snow camp!
~Joey
# Just Blew In From Joey Markham At 4:38 PM 
