*RING* *RING* *RING*

Yawn, time to get up already?  Hey wait- it’s not wakeup time!  I distinctly remember setting my alarm for 7:25- it’s only 6!  Thanks junior leader- I know we didn’t want a repeat of last year (no alarm went off, late for breakfast…) but this is a tad ridiculous…  Guess what readers?  He didn’t even wake up- right back to sleep after I nudged him and told him his alarm went off.  Let me clarify.  *He* went back to sleep, I just lay there for the next hour…  I don’t think I’m the only one who didn’t get back to sleep after the false alarm, but at least whoever else awakened they kept quiet.  So, 7:25 rolled around and most of us got up.  There was only one who didn’t, and that is always a fun thing.  No, no buckets of water.  Can’t have that much fun. 😉  Only one though, so again, not as much fun as it could have been.

Breakfast was great- eggs, bacon, sausage, I think there were pancakes?  Starting to forget- good thing this is only two parts.  They even had hot sauce out for the eggs- they know me well!  Session 2- starting with a few Angry Birds shorts.  Wait- Angry Birds is a ‘toon now?  Have I been under a rock?  Anyway, find a bunch of them at RovioMobile on Youtube.  Here’s one as a sample- they are in hi-def too, so change the quality and go full-screen with it!

Our next minute to win it game was up.  Last night it was catching-things-in-large-basket-on-head (whatever it was called), this morning it was be-a-tp-dispenser-for-teammate who busily tries to wrap him/herself without breaking the paper.  The boys and girls each had turns today (one boy, one girl from each team). Get ready- go! (press play on video below)

Annnnnnd- we lost.  I believe I said last time we didn’t win any of the minute games, so you already knew this.  Oh, well.  Moving on, we worshiped and our family pastor gave part two of the lesson.  We didn’t focus much on the prayer in chapter two so much as what it meant- Jonah repented.  Still miraculously alive in the fish, he went to his knees (figuratively I’m sure- not much room in a fish I wouldn’t think…) and communed with God.  In the end, as you probably know already, the fish (relieved I’m sure) spat him up onto land and so ends the chapter.  Small group discussion back in the cabin and then- game time!  Plinko (isn’t that trademarked by a famous pricing game show?) in the lot- oh wait.  The snow caused a change.  Instead we played snow soccer.  Not much to say here- one ball, then two, three, large balls, giant earth ball…  I’ll let your mind play this one out.  Unfortunately halfway through someone caused the earth ball to deflate, meaning when we switched games with the other two teams they sadly didn’t get to use it.  We switched to acquire the tire- a steal-the-bacon game where there were inner-tubes (alas, I don’t think 10-and-11-year-olds could handle actual tires- something about the weight of them…) ranging in size from small car to tractor, and point values from 50 to 1000.  The big tractor tire was of course the 1000-pointer (how many kids would it take to lift a tractor tire?  Good thing they were just inner tubes!).  All they had to do was drag it over their line, with kids from the other team latched on to the other side of it dragging it in the opposite direction.  Easy, right? 😉

Lunch time- the expected chicken nuggets and mac & cheese.  This reminds me of a couple years ago when I was sure the mac and cheese was really mac and yellow food coloring, but the last couple years it was definitely pretty good.  I still long for BBQ sauce to dip the nuggets in, but ketchup was fine.  After lunch was cabin rest- wait, no it wasn’t- this wasn’t summer camp nor was it Michigan despite the constant references to cabins (classrooms, really), so we were allowed to treat the kids as if they were in a workhouse if we wanted to.  Okay, not really, but there was no cabin rest.  Just straight to session 3: revival.  Chapter 3 of Jonah started the story again, this time he entered Ninevah and gave them the warning from God.  Much to Jonah’s dismay Ninevah was repentant and God withheld judgment.  Chapter 4 expounds on this more, but that was the 4th session which no one was there for since they had gone home.  That’s right, there was no fourth session.  Revival was a good note to exit on, right?  Following a good up-front game, good worship, excellent teaching, and very productive small group time was the next team game involving giant slingshots and fla-vor-ice popsicles.  Last year the only goal was to get the popsicles on the roof, but this year they put up a giant target.  They could go for the roof as well, but the biggest points were the bullseye and… the pastor.  That’s right, our pastor came out a couple of times and made himself a target worth double the points of the bullseye.  I think the other team grazed him, but no direct hits that I could tell.  Maybe the other two teams fared better.  Or maybe he walked off a happy pastor. 🙂

The other game was inside and improved from last year- an ice-block relay.  The kids got to ride a large ice block to the other side of the gym and back.  It was improved as they made the blocks thicker this year so they didn’t fall apart after extended use.  I think a couple teams last year had to switch to scooters toward the end.  Extra points were given after awhile if they rode superman-style, on their bellies with arms held out in front like flying through the air.  Leaders had a turn as well.  Same with the tire game earlier- I forgot to mention it.

After the games we cleaned out our cabins so the younger kids could use them during church later and not have to work around backpacks and sleeping bags, then we had free time.  Not so free, just the appearance of free.  That is, they were free to play the games within their assigned area.  There were six areas.  Really, five- they tried to separate the games in one of the rooms, but we just let them play whatever they wanted instead- they were the games in the room they play every weekend so they already knew what they liked and what they didn’t.  The gym had the best games- a return of  gaga-ball in a less-permanent court than at camp, and they got to play nine-square this time.  On the other side was the explosive volleyball-like game of nuke-em.  Look up my summer camp recap for explanations of all of these.  The final room consisted of crafts, karaoke, and board games.  Okay, scratch karaoke- apparently they didn’t actually have it though the schedule showed it.  Oh, well.  The boys were only in there 15 minutes before dinner was called anyway, clever scheduling on the church’s part as this is a less interesting thing for boys generally.  The girls got a shortened weekend-games room time, but everyone got the full half-hour of gym time.

The end is drawing near.  Dinner time with spaghetti, a video, then parents arrived for a short recap, worship time, and closing ceremony with the announcement of the winner- the team we played against all the Saturday games.  The original idea (did I mention this already?) was to play against two different teams (Friday night was a four-team game), but the way they did the cabins that would have pitted boy-strong teams against girl-strong teams so we wound up playing the team that was most in line with ours.  To clarify, there were three cabins that made up each team unlike summer camp where we had four.  Two teams had two boy-cabins and one girl-cabin.  Vice-versa for the other two teams.  I would like to add that moi noticed the absence of the big song from summer, which became one of my favorites, and made a special request to do it since, after all, this was an extension of summer camp.  The worship team practiced Like a Lion during the afternoon and had it ready for this closing worship time.  Kudos to the band for that.

With the closing ceremony over, all that was left was to part ways.  We moved to the gym and the parents claimed their baggage kids.  It was a little sad parting ways after 24 hours of a blastin’ good time (yes, there’s a reason I used that word…), but part we must.  And that includes us- until next time!

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You’re still here??  It’s over.  Go home.

Go..!  (Sorry, a certain recent car commercial based on a certain famous movie was on my mind)

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Okay, one last bit.  I tend to avoid naming people and places and whatnot, but my church makes these videos public and I only have about two readers (partly my own fault I know) so I will just go ahead and link to the official video online.  Now you don’t have to imagine much of what I wrote- does the video hold up to your imaginations? 🙂  No, you won’t get to see me on the ice block, so keep on imagining. 😉  Careful eyes will spot me a couple times though…  Sadly, no HD version. 🙁

[vimeo]https://vimeo.com/36104897[/vimeo]

And hey, nice song they used!  Adventurous people may find summer camp videos as well…

Continuing the medical theme from summer camp, enter the 2012 4th and 5th grade winter retreat held right at our church.  The older kids get to go all the way to the camp in Michigan for two days, but as a cost-saving measure for the parents I am sure, this crowd gets one night with no travel necessary outside of being brought to church.  That suits me just fine and allows more to come who otherwise would not.  I know of one family for sure whose junior-higher wasn’t going to be able to go to his retreat though his younger brother was at ours.

I arrived Friday night just a smidgen late and check-in was well underway.  In fact, most of my cabin was already settled in and watching the opening movie which entertained them while waiting for the official start.  I joined my colleagues upstairs and helped settle in the stragglers.  Did I mention that Friday was the day of a major snowstorm?  After driving on snow-packed roads from Algonquin to Elgin and back home, I and a hundred moms, dads, and other leaders slogged down the roads to make this event, the only one not canceled.  But I am sure parents would brave even more to be rid of their young-uns give their brood an opportunity to draw closer to our Lord and Savior.  Though there was one cabin that had several boys missing by the time the main event started, mine was complete (at least it was by dinner time when the last trooper arrived).  I even had a couple of repeat campers from summer, one of which I hadn’t seen since then as he attended the church’s school, but not regular church on the weekends- at least the one I serve at.  Even my junior leader was the same.  Yep, Mad Cow Disease was represented in full.  What?  Oh, yes.  Remember the medical theme I mentioned?  Well, all the cabins were named after diseases and cures.  Most girls would never go for a cabin labeled SARS or mad cow disease, so they naturally got the cures while the boys proudly represented their diseases.

Once the movie was shut off in the middle (sorry for those who may not have seen it before…) and rules had been gone over, it was time to get into things with a game of course.  That game was Duck Hunt.

No, no, no, not THAT Duck Hunt.  This was a game where the kids hunted for little rubber ducks invading the church.  By little, I mean they were only about two square inches in size each meaning not that easy to find.  But there were several hundred of them.  All through, well not the church this year though that was the original intent.  Thanks to the fresh snow, the venue was changed and the ducks were strewn all over the parking lot instead.  Think a hundred kids mining for ducks in the still-falling snow.  They had to find the ducks and bring them back to their team buckets.  Sounds tedious?  Well, add in dodgeballs thrown by zealous leaders (they had to drop any ducks they were carrying if hit, to be thrown by the leader to be buried once again, waiting on another miner) and it made for a fun time.  There were also big balls the teams had to get to their buckets for big points.

The game eventually had to end and we went in for pizza and then our first session.  As per the norm, we started off with an up-front game (we lost- I don’t think we won any of the up-front games in fact) then moved into a couple worship songs before getting into the teaching.  The theme this year was Jonah, session one was about rebellion.  As many know, Jonah rebelled against God in chapter one, not only refusing to do what Got told him, but actively going the opposite way, as far away from his responsibility as possible.  The session ended with Jonah being thrown overboard for being the cause of the storm God sent.  All sessions ended in small group time, so we went back to our cabins to discuss the application to their own lives.

Lights out and the kids were asleep instantly dreaming of peaceful things like rainbows and unicorns.  Yeah, in your dre- hey, wait a minute…  I remember a winter retreat where a couple kids ran up and down the length of the building we were in all night (or much of it).  Things weren’t that bad but we still had talking, fake flatulence, complaints about the talking and the fake flatulence…  I had to get up more than once and just stand over someone to deter further noise.  I did sleep fairly well once I nodded off, at least until 6AM, but I’ll save that for the next post.  It’s getting late.  Talking of sleeping is making me want to be there…

zzz

Okay, long commercial break over. We are on Saturday now I believe:

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7AM:  Lights turned on outside in the hallway, I wake up for the last time with a little headache but much less exhausted since going to bed.  I was exhausted because for three out of the four days prior I was up before 6AM looking for subbing jobs.  I found them, but the toll it took was severe.  So another sub-8 hour night, but I figured I would survive.  So everyone got up and I let some kids head to the bathroom to change out of their night clothes (they were too modest to change in front of others even if we were all guys- just wait until middle school boys, when you’ll be changing in the locker room in front of even more people).  Myself, I just wore my day clothes to bed- I had showered and put on some fresh clothes just before coming to the retreat so I would be able to do this.  20 minutes later, we were in line for breakfast.  The end of the line.  Oh, well.  Eggs, sausage, french toast sticks, fruit, and OJ.  Well, I think they were sausages- didn’t taste much like breakfast sausage.

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8AM: Eyes are really bugging me.  The clothes weren’t the only things I left on overnight.  The contacts I have are extended wear, so I figured at least once I could wear them overnight.  I had successfully worn them during naps before so I figured I could get away with overnight just once.  My eyes disagreed.  I put drops in when I woke up and several times since, but no go.  Eventually I just gave up and went back to my room to take them out and put on my glasses.  Unfortunately the damage had been done and my eyes would be bugging me for most of the day.  So, time for session 2 now.  Each session started with a video that was just pure entertainment.  I came back at the end of this video to sit with my guys (the high school leader in my room was keeping watch while I changed into my glasses).  Up front game again- this time it involved two from each team, a boy and a girl, one from my own cabin (you can figure out which one…).  The boys had to wear shaving cream on their faces and the girls threw cheese puffs on them.  Hilarious.  At the end of the time the one with the most cheese puffs stuck to them would win.  In the end I think one other team had more than us, but their boy made the mistake of moving before they could be counted, losing half a dozen puffs.  We won.  Come to think about it, I think we won Friday night too.  Worship followed with another four songs like last night.

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9AM:  Worship continued, and then Dr. Brian came on the scene and taught from Jonah 3, when the story started over with a better response from Jonah and this time and the Ninevites took the warning God gave them through Jonah seriously.  According to the Bible, they all repented of their wicked ways and came to God, and He spared them.  This has a fairly obvious (I hope) correlation to coming to Christ.  We even ended the time with a prayer giving the kids an opportunity to repent themselves and accept Jesus.  One of my guys raised his hand.  Unfortunately for me I had to let my high school leader- did I mention he was my high school leader at camp just two summers ago?- take the pleasure in talking to him about it during small group time since we decided to split the group for today’s small group times so we would each take five, and the boy who just accepted Christ was one of his five.  Since my cabin was being used for piano lessons, we had to use the room across from us.  We could have had both groups in there, but Eric decided to take his group elsewhere.  We talked about listening to God and accepting Christ for the next half hour.  My church being what it is, by fourth grade it seems that 90% say they have already accepted Jesus at some point, so I decided to lead the discussion in who Jesus is to them to let them see if they truly understand what it means to accept Him.

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10AM:  At this time we were supposed to start cleaning up the cabin.  Of course with piano lessons we had to wait so I let them exchange phone numbers with each other instead before we finally had to sneak in and grab our coats for game time downstairs.  The game time was split in two this time with two teams playing each other in a game outside and in the gym.  We were outside first.  Has anyone ever played a game where a balloon is tied to your ankle and you have to try to pop everyone else’s balloon before someone pops yours?  This game was similar.  A popsicle (still in its plastic!) was taped to the kids’ arms and they had to try to rip them off of the other team.  Once a child’s popsicle was lost, he or she was out.  Last one standing won.  Well, at the end of the time the team with the most standing won, which was the other team.  Oh well, can’t win ’em all.  No, the kids couldn’t eat the popsicles during the game but they could at the end.

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11AM: The teams switched.  The second game was ice block relay.  Only, one of the ice blocks broke so it became scooter relay instead, at least for the boys.  I think next year they need to create extra blocks,  several extras.  Yes, this was the indoor game.  One camper sitting on the block of ice, another camper had to push the other to the other end of the gym where they would switch places and come back.  With one block broken, the boys were on scooters (the square variety that you sit on, not the sort that is long with a handlebar) the entire time while the girls got to play the game with the ice blocks.  At this time I felt like I was coming down with something.  I sat down most of the time against they gym wall.  At the end of this time we had won three games out of four, but since they had won the popsicle game it looked like they won overall.  We went back to our cabins to take off our coats and head down for lunch.  We weren’t last this time. 🙂

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12 noon:  I have to say I was very disappointed in this lunch.  It was chicken nuggets and mac & cheese.  Only, there was nothing to dip the nuggets in and the other dish was more macaroni than cheese.  In fact, I couldn’t taste any cheese at all.  The economy is affecting everyone, and it certainly took a tool on the food here.  One leader commented that he had eaten more junk over the last three meals than he had over the last six months.  Hmm.  Dessert was- not for me.  I am one who doesn’t like yogurt unless it’s the frozen variety and this is what they served.  Well, the lemonade was good.  At the end of this meal I finally had to pull the pastor aside and inform him that I was running a fever and my eyes were still bugging me.  Since I wasn’t feeling nauseous he suggested I just stay and rest during the next session which followed lunch and see if I improved.  After a short lunch, session 3 began.  The game this time had something to do with singing familiar tunes, but I don’t know exactly, nor who won.  I was in the back of the room with my eyes shut trying to rest.  The game leader I mentioned from Friday who stayed in our room because it was the one his boy was in kind of took over for me.

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1PM: Session 3 continued.  Worship, then the message by Dr. Steve on Jonah chapter 4 which I didn’t hear, and then small groups.  We had our small group time in our cabin (piano lessons were over) while Eric took his group back where they were earlier.  Again, I didn’t lead but sat while my stand-in took over.  In the end he had everyone take turns praying, which I was willing to do at least, but he chimed in immediately after the last boy.  No big deal.  We got ready for the final game.

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2PM:  Outside first again, the game this time was shooting popsicle sticks onto the church roof with really big slingshots.  You read that right.  They would have to pass a popsicle stick from camper to camper with their arms only and then the last one would run with the popsicle to the slingshot, set it in place, pull it back, and hope the popsicle made it to the upper roof for the greater point bonus.  Then (s)he would run to the end of the line and start passing a popsicle all over again.  Once all had the opportunity to shoot the popsicles, the game was over.  Our team finished first if I recall correctly for both the boys and the girls (who were in separate lines), but I don’t know who won for sure, only suspect from what place we finally came in for the entire day.  The second game was inside the gym again, where we played human foosball.  If you don’t remember this game from the other times I’ve written about it, it’s a game where the students are in four lines, hands held together, trying to kick really big balls into the other team’s goal.  The number of balls, and even the goals, changed over the course of the game.  The other team toasted us, but that was only because of one leader they had at the end of the offensive line who kicked in a good 60+% of their goals.  We had a leader at the end of our offensive line too, but he was smaller (a high-school freshman vs a leader in his 20s) and didn’t score nearly as much.  About this time I was on the upswing, feeling better overall.

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3PM: Time for the group picture.  Donning our coats once again, we headed back outside for the final time.  The children’s pastor, Steve, stood on the roof with someone else whose name escapes me and took a few pictures with his, I believe, video camera.  Meaning in the retreat video there may be more than just a couple of still pictures of this event.  Afterward, they both grabbed all the popsicles from the slingshot game and tossed them onto the ground.  A few of the more competitive kids grabbed the and… threw them back up!  It was wild out there for a bit.  After the popsicles were gone from the roof, they started throwing snowballs down at us.  This was more acceptable to be thrown back as snow doesn’t make as good a tasty treat as popsicles, so more joined in returning fire.  Eventually this all ended and we headed back in to clean our cabin and bring everything down to the gym.  After all, they would need the classrooms for church at 5:00.  I made sure everything was picked up, and even had to look for the owner of a pair of socks.  I found out when I got home that of course I left my own pair of socks from the night before (one article of clothing I did change).  Hopefully whoever found them wasn’t too disgusted as I had worn them for only a few hours.

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4PM: All packs brought down and the room cleaned up, we started free time.  This time wasn’t really very free, but the kids were free to be in one of four places for the next hour and a half.  In the gym they could play nuke ’em, another game returning from summer camp played on a volleyball court.  They could watch a movie in another room- they showed Up!, a movie I recently watched in Blu-ray.  In a third room they could play board games or, eventually, watch some of Wall-E.  In the last room they could do crafts or play other games.  I floated around this entire time, keeping track as best I could of my cabin.  Most of my kids spent their time in the gym, so I did as well.

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5PM: Free time continued until 5:30, afterwhich we had dinner.  Dinner was better than lunch and consisted primarily of spaghetti.  Not much to say here really.

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6PM: Dinner wrapped up and we moved into the worship/lesson area and watched videos until church ended and the parents started coming in.  Once everyone was there, the final up front game commenced.  A father-son team was called up from the leaders who were there the entire time with their sons and they played the frozen t-shirt game, where wet t-shirts were folded up and frozen.  The dads had to try to get them apart and on their sons.  Our team won again, giving us at least three of the four up front games.  After this, we sang one worship song, Steve talked about the retreat to the parents, and jokingly as an afterthought the winner was announced.  Since we came in third place, I suspect we won none of the big games.  Remember, while I was able to see who won some of the games, I did not know who won Friday night nor who won the popsicle slingshot game.

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7PM: Parents were permitted to take their kids home and the gym rapidly emptied of parents, kids and their packs.  I got to go home and enjoy my fever which, while I was feeling better Saturday afternoon, still persisted through the weekend and made a return Tuesday, keeping me home from work.

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Well, that’s it.  I hope you enjoyed the read.  I just spent the last hour and a half writing this second part, so please excuse me for not going back and proofreading it. 😉

Best winter retreat ever!  I had so much fun that nothing could possibly compare.  I wish I could say that was this weekend but that wouldn’t be honest of me.  For sure, many can say that and completely mean it as it really was a good retreat.  The reason will become clear, and you may even find it foreshadowed before I come out with it.  From the beginning:

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Friday

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6PM: Arrived shortly before this time, late for the 5:45 call time.  I thought I was ready, but of course remembered a few more things before I left.  At least I did remember everything.  In the past I have been left with no pillow, no deodorant, or similar mishaps.  Was given a gift bag at the meeting containing essentials- sugar, water, t-shirt, hand-warmers…  The latter was most likely due to last year’s bitter cold retreat- something that was blessedly not repeated this year, at least for this group (high school suffered just a couple of weekends ago).  Oh, anyone for some gum?  I got a box, but I don’t chew it.  Just send me a self-addressed, stamped envelope and I will ship it off. 😉 )Meeting ended, we took our posts for check-in which began at 6:15.  I was a greeter by the boy’s area.  For awhile I was a little nervous as I only had two arrivals for my “cabin” (room) while others had four or five, but I needn’t have worried- in the end every camper (retreater?) of mine showed up- others weren’t so lucky.  I think about ten boys failed to show up- the fairer section fared about the same.

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7PM:  Check-in starts to die down.  Did I mention all of my campers showed up?  Actually, I did lose one.  There are two mentally disabled 4th-graders at my church and their dads (who stayed with them) wanted to be in the same cabin.  While changing cabin assignments was generally not allowed, we made an exception for them.  In fact, neither of them wound up in their original cabin as ours were pretty full, but in one that had lost two boys who didn’t make it.  Anyway, throughout this time, after letting them drop off their things, we sent them down to watch Jonah until the arrivals trickled down.  Jonah would be the theme of the retreat.  At about 7:25, the last of us headed to the movie area where the intro was made and we were sent off to start the first big game of the weekend.

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8PM:  My assignment- auditor.  I stood by an opposing team’s drop-off bin, where the kids would drop off all their treasures.  Oh?  I never mentioned the teams?  Well, there are four teams, following the theme from summer camp which was a medical theme this year.  I was a Mr. Yuk over the summer but this time was a Red Cross.  The cabins were actually given names.  Do you remember when Sly mouthed “You’re the disease- I’m the cure” (paraphrased) in a movie 20ish years ago?  Well, the boys were the diseases with cabin names like H1N1, TB, and Mad Cow Disease and the girls were the cures (Neosporin, Aspirin, etc.).  My cabin was SARS.  So back to the game, auditors made sure the kids were following the rules.  This may be church, but you know some kids- suddenly forgetful of the rules when it could gain an advantage if you know what I mean.  Here’s what the game was- in pairs, the kids would link up (hold hands or arms) and search for little plastic ducks and reflectors strewn all over the church.  When they found one, they had to get to their team bin.  Throughout this, there were over a dozen leaders going after the kids with dodge-balls in hand trying to “infect” them.  That may sound like a lot of leaders, but we’re talking about 150 kids!  If infected, they had to drop whatever they might have been holding and hightail it to the medic to be “cured.”  There were a few hundred of these things strewn about so the game lasted for awhile.

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9PM: Pizza!  Well, maybe I should have left that exclamation point off- we’re talking Papa John’s here.  If you’re not familiar with them, think mass pizza chains in the style of Pizza Hut or Domino’s and you will know what I’m talking about.  We chugged down pizza and pop and got ready for the first session, which started shortly after 9:45 with an upfront game followed by worship.  What is an upfront game?  Well, one camper (sometimes two) from each team was called up to play a silly or disgusting game- pure fun, though not always for the contestants…  Tonight was licking names off of a tray.  The catch?  Part of what was used in the writing was sardines- eww.  That’s apparently what the contestants thought too as none of them accomplished much in the allotted time.  Then worship began with singing.

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10PM:  The session continued.  Four worship songs later, Dr. John came out to teach (medical theme remember).  You know how busy doctors get, so Drs. Brian and Steve would round out the retreat the next day.  Starting in Jonah, we traversed chapters one and two alongside Jonah, teaching the kids about consequences of trying to ignore God and how God always pursues His children.  After the lesson we broke off into our cabins.  We were running late, so we kept the large group of ten kids and two leaders together and discussed the lesson, including a reading from Psalm 139:

7 Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
9 If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light about me be night,”
12 even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.

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11PM:  Set up beds, get ready, and lights out.  Another leader, the game leader of the week joined us- his son was in our cabin.  He and I, the “old guys,” naturally brought air mattresses to go with our sleeping bags…  A little chaotic as expected, but by 20 minutes after lights-out time we finally got the boys laying in bed if not asleep yet.  Someone came in with a ladder to unscrew the emergency light bulbs- you know, one of those lights that stays on 24/7 even if the room switches are turned off.  This still left a flashing blue light from the router mounted in the ceiling unfortunately.  I hope it didn’t keep anyone awake.  I got this bright idea that I would just leave my contacts in all night since they are extended wear after all.  Up to this point I had done naps safely, so I figured why not?  I had drops to put in my eyes in the morning.

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Midnight: Finally asleep, or at least sometime before the next hour.

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Saturday

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Midnight-7AM: Z-z-z-z-wake up-z-z-z-z-wake up-z-z-z-z-you get the picture-z-z-z-z

.

(to be continued)