Happy Tuesday! Campers woke up and headed to the flagpole at 8:15 for some songs and encouragement before breakfast. Breakfast was delicious per usual and helped get campers ready for the day. This morning, Kevin reminded everyone that if they are good listeners this week while adults are talking, he will drink the slop bucket that is accumulating leftover drinks and cereal from the whole week of meals.
After breakfast, campers cleaned their cabins again before morning sports. Today, Hunter faced Hot Pink in basketball to start the day, Red matched up to Green for volleyball, Light Blue vs. Blue for kickball, Orange vs. Navy in soccer, and Purple and Gold started their day in the craft hall. Since we are on our second full day of camp, campers have learned many cheers for their teams that they use during games or as they move with their team throughout the camp from different sports and activities. The team captains have done an amazing job coaching campers and giving them lots of team merchandise such as bandanas and stickers for their water bottles.
Lunch today from our kitchen staff was cheeseburgers (grilled by our grillmasters), fruit, mac and cheese, and tater tots (all camp favorites). The Golden Dustpan award was given out at lunch for the cleanest cabin, awarded to Cabin 1 for the girls and Cabin 10 for the boys. These two cabins worked very hard during cabin cleanup to present their cabins well and win the awards for today! We are thankful for nice and clean cabins.
After lunch, groups 1 and 2 rotated between indoor games in the Mess Hall and Bible Trivia in the Rec Hall! Indoor games in the Mess Hall quickly turned into lip sync parties for both groups 1 and 2. We jammed to Encanto, The Greatest Showman, and some other Disney favorites. The Compadres joined in the jam sessions and gave the campers such a fun experience in the afternoon!
Boys headed to the Rec Hall for a singing, devotional, and snack with Calvin Young while the girls had their devotional from Katie Hunter in the Mess Hall. Katie gave the girls some salted and some unsalted pretzels, then related this back to our lives as living with salt and without salt. This was a great time for campers to calm down from their exciting afternoons with the compadres and Bible Trivia!
For afternoon sports, Light Blue started at basketball with orange, Gold vs. Navy at volleyball, Purple vs. Red in kickball, Hunter vs. Blue in soccer, and Hot Pink joined the Green team in the craft hall. At this point in the week, the campers are all feeling pretty exhausted from the week they have had so far. Despite being so tired, they still give 110% on and off the field as they play and cheer on their team from the sidelines. It is so encouraging to see them uplift one another even with their exhaustion in full swing. As always, the Team Captains are doing an amazing job leading their teams with lots of grace and determination, along with very frequent reminders to drink lots of water.
After a 30-minute cleanup and free time, campers headed to the Mess Hall for dinner. The kitchen staff prepared chicken tenders, fries, applesauce, and another lovely salad bar for campers to enjoy. With more paper plate awards from the Compadres, our junior campers are continuing to show their skills on the sports field along with good sportsmanship as they play.
Tonight, campers and staff joined one another in the Mess Hall for a singing and Bible study. Songs were led by Jackson Rhoton, and Rex Guyer gave us a lesson about laying down our lives for Christ to live the salt life. He discussed how our lives are to be seasoned with good, and gave campers practical ways that they can improve for God!
After the study ended, Kevin Rhoton gave us his last performance of Little Red Wagon as the Junior Week director. He invited the Compadres up with him for the final verse, and the campers screamed their loudest Little Red Wagon verse yet. The night ended in tears from both friends and family, which was a beautiful display of this camp’s love for the entire Rhoton family and all they have done for MSC over many years.
Most campers headed to their cabins for the night, while all last year campers changed and met each other on the sports field for the “Last Year Camper Event”. This group of campers is ready to move to senior camp, so our junior staff gave them a proper send-off. Campers joined hands as they all were encouraged to reminisce the good memories that they have made at junior camp, whether their first or fourth year here. After a touching moment, staff and Compadres threw colored cornstarch bombs which turned into a massive color fight. After so many fun moments, the last year campers returned to their cabins for showers and restful sleep.
