HUGE! Camp

Over the weekend of 11-13 May we went up to El Rancho in Waikanae for two nights of little sleep and lots of coffee, encounters with God and encouragement, family fun and a bit of competition. It was the 4th edition of Arise Church's HUGE! Camp (our 18-25 year olds) and Tony was invited to come along again. This time, I asked a simple question that I can't believe I hadn't thought to ask the previous two years - "Can we all come?". And the answer was a resounding "YEAH!!!". So... that's how we got to be there in the first place. 

Thankfully one of my friends offered to look after the kids so Tony and I could fully participate, so with Womba as part of our family - we enjoyed our experience to the fullest!!!

We got to sleep in this newish 2 bedroom family villa. There were three beds upstairs and a double down so it was perfect for this 5-person family. 

The last time I was at El Rancho was in 2005 - it was our church's 2nd "Church Camp" which included the entire church (age range) and we were thrilled that there were about 300 people with us! One of the most significant memories of that camp was in one of the meetings with Ps Russell Evans where he was challenging us to allow praise to come from within our souls rather than through the music and atmosphere in a service - basically challenging us to live a life of worship and praise to God in all circumstances. During that service, he stopped the band and in a moment of private worship people began to stand up and sing and speak out praises from their hearts. As this was beginning to well up in me, I peeked over to my right and saw Ben Carroll and Anna Cook (at the time) already standing in full praise mode. I was not about to be 'outpraised' by the younger - but what it etched in my memory was their pure hearts toward God and their boldness to tell Him. Fast forward to now - Ben and Anna Carroll are the pastors of HUGE! (they have been for past, I'm not even sure, 6-7 years?) and  here they were leading the way for the 450 young adults who were at camp!!! It's so awesome to see how God has used these two and their teams!!! If you were a young adult - this was definitely the place to be!!!  Though surrounded by young adults and all sorts of rowdiness, I still mostly managed to get photos of the kids... oh well... they're familiar.

 The best part for the kids was that the Cameron kids stayed too - so Helena had breakfast with her buddy Lara and Hunter got to mix it up with one of his favorite friends - Will. The other bonus was that most of the Rocket and Dynamite (church kid's programs) leaders were at camp too - so the kids got to run around playing, tackling, hugging, generally getting the full attention of their leaders... it was kiddie paradise!!! As a parent, I was so impressed by these young people who were not on Sunday school duty over the weekend, yet genuinely enjoyed interacting with the kids... these are the kinds of people you want your kids to look up to!

 So after breakfast, the kids played outside for most of the morning while we were in two sessions. Thankfully Hunter had prayed for 'sunny days', so it was absolutely stunning and they got to ride their bikes, jump on trampolines, play mini-golf and generally just run around the camp with their friends... so it was pretty special for them too.

 Hunter and Will worked well together to play mini-golf... I love watching Hunter interact with his friends - most of the time he is such a good sport and really encouraging.

 I did bring the kids into the auditorium where we met for worship and preaching sessions - I thought it would be good for them to see where all the 'kids' were and what we were doing. One of the 'highlights' for the camp are the tribal wars that happen on Saturday afternoon - each person is part of a "tribe" so they wear their tribal colors and compete in activities and eat together, etc. I'd venture to guess that a large majority of church camps operate at a similar level to build community, camaraderie and administrative logistics... HOWEVER, Huge takes it to the next level...

We got assigned to the Black Panthers - mostly because I think the guy doing it knew us and decided we should be on his team... but from a practical standpoint, it was the easiest tribe to dress for... I'm not sure why Hunter is flying the flag for the White Tigers, but when he did get to hold the Black Panther flag he accidentally bonked one of our guys in the head - that should've been the strategy for holding each other flag in the room... hmmm, maybe next year!

ROARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!

Black Panther pre-war huddle... 

Tony and I decided that we would join in the Tribal Wars just for the heck of it... oh my goodness... I can see why the other 'oldies' like us didn't... I was sore for days afterwards (and I workout!)... but it was hilariously fun!

The best times, though, were the meetings - God's Spirit really turned up and we were inspired, challenged, changed... I feel like there are a few options to continue praying about for myself, but it was during one of the times of worship God just began to show me a few things for my future as well. It was a great weekend!

Here we are on Mother's Day with Auntie Womba who really made it such an enjoyable weekend for us!

It was fun to spend the weekend with Grace as well... even though she lives with us, she's often out and about on the weekend... so Helena was loving her presence...

and Hunter was stoked to have Daddy on hand!!

I told Helena to call Grandma to tell her Happy Mother's Day... look at that smile - you'd think she really did! And you should've seen the look on her face after the 'conversation' when she announced that Grandma said she could have a sleepover!!!

Happy Mother's Day, dear mommies...

Ahhhh... it's almost our 10th anniversary... aren't we just so cute!