It’s crazy how much you can actually fit into the time fame of a week. Friendships can be formed, hearts can be transformed. As you know, last week we were at Family Camp which was held in Wicklow- about an hour away from where we were staying in Dublin, so let me tell you a little bit about our week!
Daily Routine
8 am wake up
8:30 prayer/leaders meeting
9:15 breakfast/clean up
10:45 session
12 activity time
1 dinner and dessert (aka lunch)
2:30 outing
6:30 tea and dessert (aka dinner)
7:30 free time (aka entertain the kids)
8:30 session
10 supper (aka snack- toast, cookies and tea or soup, toast and tea)
11-12ish entertain kids til bedtime
Throughout the week I was involved in helping out with the younger kids.
The kids named our group
Peace and Love Kids Club.
Our first session activity was to make posters to decorate the walls.
This artwork was done by one of our boys named Bradley,
who is a super cute kid. He is very talented as you can see from
his picture and he also showed us how talented he is by
dancing in the talent show. That boy has skills!
Here is a logo that Anmari designed for our group! Isn’t it awesome!
I helped by writing Peace and Love around the drawing.. hehe..
The leaders were split up into groups of 3 to plan a session and craft for 1 day of the week, the theme being parables of Jesus.Daniel, Rebekah (team Lovesick) and I did the parable of the lost sheep. For the morning session Bekah and I dressed up as sheep and Daniel dressed up as a shepherd. We made 4 little sheep on peices of paper and hid them in the playground so that when we were done our talk, the kids could go and find them, reinforcing the meaning behind the parable. For our evening session we talked a little bit more about the parable bringing in the aspect that we don’t have to be afraid because Jesus will take care of us. We made little sheep crafts with them and they loved it!
My favorite day /night of the whole week was the last one. Not that the rest of the week wasn’t enjoyable, we made many great memories together. During activity time we all hung out in the marquee (meal tent) because it was pouring. When I got in there, the teenagers were all getting facials from one of the other leaders. There were buckets of murky water on the table, all kinds of creams and scrubs and bag of sugar. The girls’ faces were covered in sugary goo and as soon as one of them saw me she called me over to give her a massage. I felt like we were at the spa,although I’ve never been I imagine this is what it would be like. A few of the teens started giving facials to some of the leaders and then tried to recrute Nathan and a couple other guys but had no luck. One of the girls insisted on giving me one, which I didn’t mind at all. It was so nice to be pampered. I chose the lotion and sugar scrub. Boy was my face ever soft after!
After a delicious “tea” we had a talent show, probably the best one I’ve been to! It was so much fun!
There was a group of 3 older guys, one who was the cook, that did a celtic dance, they rocked it. A few girls did solos, Daniel, Nathan and the guys from our other team, Garrett and Matt did a dance to the Backstreet boys! My favorite act of the night was Andrea cutting out shapes with Caithlin while Anmari and Stephanie danced around them. What sweethearts 🙂
We ended off the marvelous day by eating soup and cookies, drinking hot chocolate, singing songs and fellowshipping around the campfire under the twinkling stars 🙂
Bringing families closer together, changing lives, sharing the hope and love that Jesus offers, family camp is a blessing to so many people’s lives. Some of the teens and kids have been going for almost their whole lives and for many, family camp is the highlight of their year. It was such a blessing to be apart of this wonderful week, to play a small part in helping them have the best week of their year.
