Since we recently returned from our Summer Camp at Forest Home I thought this would be a good chance for me to share some post camp thoughts as well as a few amazing stories.  Well for those of you who didn't go or who haven't already heard all the stories the theme of this years camp was iSummer where we took a look at what it means to be a Christian within the individualistic material driven culture that we live in.  It was an amazing time for both the students and leaders to really look at how we are living our lives and to see how other Christians around the world are living our their faith's.  The most impactful part of the week was the iWorld experience that took place on thursday night.  Durring the experience the students were given a passport and some monopoly money and were told that they needed to visit as many countries as they could and try to find the true church in each of these countries and support it with thier monopoly money.  All over camp the camp staff and councelors were in full costume and had decorated different areas to look like these countries.  Durring this excercise the students got to experience some of the things Christians have to go through everyday around the world, such as bombs going off in Ireland and people being sent to jail just for their beliefs in China.  This was a very impactful experience for everyone involved.

On to the fun ramdom stories.  Firstly I don't mind spiders, but there is a point when the spider reaches a certain girth that I frankly just want to repeatedly jump on it.  Well one night as we were returning from cabin conversations we happened upon a Tarantula sitting on the patio of our cabin and the door to the cabin was wide open.  In our movements to try to shut the door the spider became frightened and ran into our cabin quickly disapearing under one of the bunks.  In our desparation we removed everything from the floor of half the cabin as well as the bottom bunks, but the beast could not be found.  At this point we were late for the cofee shop talent show but I did not care we were not leaving until we found this thing.  It was then that Greg Vargas decided to check the top bunk wich belonged to Michael Scott.  I was thinking there is no way that a Tarantula could climb that high, but sure enough within no more than a minuite it had crawled up to the top bunk and was inside Michael's sleeping bag.  The bunk was then taken outside and after some tribulation the tarantula was put into a Gatorade bottle and was then paraded around camp just as King Kong was paraded around New York.

Second random story.  So on wednesday night the guys were out with our lead Kyle and one of the students asked him to tell them some scary stories that had happened up at camp.  So he told them this long story about when he was a camper and how this one girl was crazy and would sneak out at night and do weird things.  This got the guys a little creeped out, and then one of the counselors Josh told them a story about an old woman who used to live on the property before Forest Home owned it, and how now that she is old and a little senile she sometimes forgets that she no longer lives there and will wander the camp and try to get into the cabins because she thinks that they are her home.  Later I was talking with Josh and found out that the whole story was made up and that this was a prank that had been going of for years at forest home, so we decided to keep the tradition going.  Before we get to the prank let me first introduce the players.  Playing the role of our dean was Kyle as himself.  Playing the role of the freaked out head dean was Jonathan Sour as himself.  Playing the role of the councelor not knowing what is going on and just following directions was Josh.  Playing the role of the scared cabin next door was the cabin next door.  Playing the role of the old woman in full get-up was one of the staff members.  And myself as the councelor and Youth Leader they are supposed to be able to trust.  So here is how it all played out.  Around midnight on the last night I called all of the guys into one cabin so we could have our final cabin conversation and almost as soon as we were sitting down Josh came into the cabin looking confused and said that he just ran into Sour and he said that we needed to turn off the lights and be quiet but that he didn't know what was going on.  So we shut off the lights and I tried to play like it was no big deal so we continued with our meeting but we were whispering the whole thing.  At this point Sour came into our cabin and asked if we had seen Kyle.  We said we had not and he said that as soon as we saw Kyle that we should have him radio him and he left looking a little frazzled.  At this point the students were a little freaked out becuase the head dean had that look on his face like something is really going on.  A few minuites later Kyle came in and when the students informed him that he needed to call Sour he brushed it off like it was no big deal and continued to talk to us.  It was at this point that through Kyle's radio, that was turned all the way up, came Sour's voice saying "Kyle, where are you.  Dude she is back.  Some students said they saw her.  I am over at 339 (the cabin number, we were in 337) and they said they saw her and there she is, dude she is running get out here now!"  That last part was kinda yelled into the radio, and Kyle ran out of the room.  The next few minuites were filled with random groups of staff running past our cabin acting like they were looking for someone.  Then a rustling in the bushes and a tapping on the window, then more running.  Then the cabin next door simultaneously screamed and then it went silent.  It was at this point that Kyle came back into our cabin and called me outside.  We walked like 15 feet away from the cabin and pretended like we were having a serious conversation about what was going on, but he was just asking me if they were still buying it and giving me details on how it was going to go down.  So I reentered the cabin and calmly said "Guys, its no big deal, but I need everyone to get away from the windows and come sit over on this sid of the room."  The whole point of this was just to get them away from the door so no one would punch the "old woman" when she made her appearance.  After another few minuites Sour made another appearance to "check on us" he talked for a minuite and then said he was going to check the other side of the cabin.  He walked over and as soon as he opened the door he got a call on his radio and left the room leaving the door wide open.  The students were yelling to shut the door, so Josh who had made another appeanance went to shut it and as soon as he got close the "old lady" busted into the room.  As soon as she was inside the joke was over because even in the dark you could tell that it was a 6'2'' man in a dress and wig, but no matter what they tell you all of the guys were scared until it was all over.