Little Sally Walker walkin down the street, she didn't know what to do so she stopped in front of me and said, "Hey Girl do that thing, do that thing, now switch, Hey girl do that thing do that thing now switch...." Oh, sorry whenever I start thinking about Sports Camp I start getting that chant in my head and I can't get it out! If you've ever been a part of Sports Camp at FBC, Fairfield I'm sure you know exactly what I'm talking about, and your welcome for getting that song stuck in your head now too!
I mentioned in a previous post how in my youth group the students were responsible for planning a lot of the activities. One of the things that we put together that most strengthened my leadership and organization skills was Sports Camp. We had been on several mission trips to other places but we decided we needed to do some kind of outreach in our hometown and we decided to do a Sports Camp for kids. We did our very first Sports Camp in the summer of 98. Our youth pastor Rob took a job working as a counselor at M-Fuge that summer so it was up to us to put the camp together and we would have it the week after Rob got back from camp. We did have a great interim youth director, Tasha, who helped us, but Melody, Amy and I really did a lot of the details and planning. Melody wrote all the Bible Study material and Amy and I put together the schedule and helped organize who would lead which sports times, morning celebration, what songs we would do and all the other details. I remember I had a huge binder that I kept everything in and we were super proud of what we had put together. I will admit we copied the basic format of the camp from Fuge, a camp we attended every year, but we put our own spin on the details.
I remember the first year Rob came home just a couple of days before the camp started and I gave him the big binder we had put together. The camp was to start on Monday morning and on Sunday afternoon we met with him to go over the details and he started making all these changes to what we had planned. We of course being the emotional teenage girls that we were got really upset because he had been gone all summer and then came in at the last minute and started to change so much of what we did was crushing to us. Thankfully we had our wonderful Interim Youth Director Tasha who went to bat for us and explained our position to Rob and in the end he was very gracious, apologized to us, thanked us for all the hard work and said we would try it the way we had organized it. I'm sure his suggestions were good ones and we did end up tweeking stuff as the week went on, but what was so great was that he and Tasha knew it was important to let us try and come along side of us instead of just taking over and doing it for us.
One of the most important things I learned that first year of Sports Camp was that no matter what happened our number one job was to LOVE THOSE KIDS! We weren't there to hang out with each other, we were there to show the kids the love of Christ. We gave those kids lots of hugs, high fives, piggy back rides, encouragement, we made sure to sit with them at lunch and just did every thing we could to make each one feel like they were really special.
Sports Camp became a really important ministry in my life. Every year it evolved more and got better and better as time went on. The second year we added a theme (fishers of men, each room was a different sea creature), the third year was an Olympic theme and our friend Ruth designed t-shirts for us. We did crazy run on skits and fun games in the morning celebration. We had lots of chants and cheers and it was a really fun and exciting week. The kids loved it, I mean what kid wouldn't want to go to a high energy sports camp run by a bunch of teenagers they could climb all over?
It was always great getting to do a week of ministry with my friends but my favorite year was the first year Camden came up to join us, (2003, I think). Rob had moved to Camden, Alabama to be a full time youth minister several years before and Chad was now our youth minister. Our youth had gone down there the summer before for a mission trip and now their group was going to come help us. It was a blast! There was a really talented student in their group named Chris who wrote a theme song for the week (the theme that year was Super Heros). There was so much energy and excitement from joining the two groups. Plus I got to work with both of my brothers which was so much fun. It was the first time all three of us had ever worked on a ministry project together. At that point I was in college so I was more in a behind the scenes kind of role because Sports Camp has always been mainly led by the teenagers, which I think is one of the things that makes it so great. The kids love it that way and it really helps the teens strengthen their leadership skills and confidence.
I got to be a part of Sport Camp at First Baptist again a few years ago when Darin and I took our teens from Bridge down to help with the camp. Our teens loved it and it was great for them to see what a youth group can do when they pull together with a central goal in mind. I'm so thankful that Sports Camp ministry continues to go on and has reached 100's (maybe even 1000's) of kids in Fairfield and other parts of the world (I'll get to that in another post) over the past 14 years. Its been a really cool part of my life and every year when its happening, if I don't get to be there I still get a little sad, but I'm happy it continues to go on and shows kids with the love of Jesus.
I remember the first year Rob came home just a couple of days before the camp started and I gave him the big binder we had put together. The camp was to start on Monday morning and on Sunday afternoon we met with him to go over the details and he started making all these changes to what we had planned. We of course being the emotional teenage girls that we were got really upset because he had been gone all summer and then came in at the last minute and started to change so much of what we did was crushing to us. Thankfully we had our wonderful Interim Youth Director Tasha who went to bat for us and explained our position to Rob and in the end he was very gracious, apologized to us, thanked us for all the hard work and said we would try it the way we had organized it. I'm sure his suggestions were good ones and we did end up tweeking stuff as the week went on, but what was so great was that he and Tasha knew it was important to let us try and come along side of us instead of just taking over and doing it for us. 
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