Blog Archives

What a great weekend!  There is something that is so magical about camp when it is full of people especially when it is full of families.  Camp provides that safe place for kids to run around and make new friends, but at the same time it is a place of rest and reconnection for the parents of these kids.  Both are so amazing to see and to hear parent’s comments about watching their children grow in just one weekend.

In May, El Camino Pines hosted its annual Memorial Day Family Camp.  We had campers from as old as a few months to grandparents and they were all in the same place celebrating both their faith and country.

Now this is camp, so not everything goes according to plan, and it always seems when you make plans God has other ideas.  On Sunday we were planning on having an outdoor carnival complete with a barbeque lunch, carnival games, face painting, bounce houses, and even line dancing.  But as we woke up on Sunday morning we were surprised with a temperature of 28 degrees and a dusting of snow on the ground.

I had one of those moments as I walked out of my house of “REALLY…. It’s almost June.”  But it was also one of those moments that I wasn’t completely and totally shocked because of the saying anything can go wrong will go wrong.

But as always our staff was able to make the most of the situation, we still did our line dancing, we still had the bounce houses, we still did face painting and yes we even did a barbecue lunch.  The one thing that we changed was instead of doing the carnival games out in the cold we did other outside activities, archery, Frisbee golf, and added other camp favorites including making smores.

Another thing that made this the “Best Memorial Day Weekend Ever,” was the wonderful volunteers that we had throughout the weekend.  So thank you a million times to the many great volunteers that were at camp this weekend!!!! As a program staff we didn’t have  to do dishes once, the first time in five years, with that extra time our staff had time to interact with the guests and make that personal connection and focus on relational ministry.

Have you ever thought about spending your Memorial Day Weekend at camp? Join us next year (May 26-28, 2012) for a time of relaxing, getting closer to God and eating amazing camp food  all the while knowing that your children are in a safe place.

- Matt