Camp YES

I actually wanted to blog about my friend Coco who is going to be a missionary to Trinidad, but the pictures I wanted to use are not working. Very frustrating. I could blog about BC for the next 3 months...Bridal Veil Falls, VBS, White Rock, fish and chips, Starbucks...mmm. But that could get boring, so I have decided to move on to things that are more current. Like Camp YES.

Camp YES (Youth Excited about Salvation) is located in Rodney Ontario. It is an Independent Baptist Church Camp directed by Pastor Doug McClain, and it runs for 4 weeks every summer. I had the opportunity this year to be a camp counsellor for the 13-15 year old week. What an amazing experience! I've helped out at Camp YES one time before as kitchen help, but I had never been a counsellor. My cabin consisted of six girls from three different churches.



From left to right we have Kaytlin, Rachel, Jessica, Me:), Allison, Amanda, and Helena. The theme of camp this year was War of the Worlds. Pastor McClain preached about spiritual warfare each morning at the flag pole. Every camper was either on the shield team or the sword team. Also, each cabin had to come up with a name and a flag.



Defending Damsels. Damsels stands for Defending Always My Salvatiion Even in Life's Struggles. The girls came up with that all on their own. I did help with the design of the flag a little. Originally our shield was out of tin foil, but it got a bit crumpled, so we had to remake it with duct tape:). Duct tape truly can be used for ANYTHING!

The special speaker for the week was an evangelist from West Virginia, Pastor Harper. He preached some great messages for the teens. Each night around the campfire everyone had an opportunity to share what God was doing in their lives. I was very encouraged by some of the testimonies of teens surrendering the lives to God's will and committing to serve Him.

Of course camp isn't all preaching (only 4 times a day!). There's lots of time for fun too. We played team games, went canoeing, swimming, rock wall climbing, had camp fires, had team challanges, and just hung out. The weather was great that week. It only rained briefly Monday afternoon. The rest of the week was HOT and SUNNY! Perfect for outside activites.

Here are a few more pictures of all the great fun we had.










Praise the Lord for a great week. God has used this camp experience in my life to help me become a better Christian. The preaching was amazing and the singing was awesome! It was indescrible listening to those teens singing hymns with such enthusiasm. What a joy! I am so thankful for the opportunity to go to camp this year. Lord willing, I will be back again next year and for many more years to come:).
Galatians 6:14