Revenge of Camp Stories: Wednesday, July 21.

The day goes quickly, the first so far to really seem like routine.  Our guest speaker in the World Travel class is Whompy; he holds the girls' interest with stories of his cross-country bike trek from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.  He emphasizes that anyone can do this, which I appreciate; I think it may be hard for some of these campers to imagine themselves capable of such an adventure.

I spend most of rest period writing the previous entry.  I feel better having pummeled my unease into words.  I have begun to wonder who I should talk to about it, if anyone, but I haven't come to any conclusions yet.

The schedule has been getting tighter here and there, and rules are slowly being amped up, nudging us in uncomfortable ways.  At meals now, we have to sit with our teams, and crickin' today is split up into separate times for guys and girls (as it is at the camp sessions for younger kids). During these times, everyone now has to go down to the water, even if s/he doesn't want to get in.  The reason given for these changes is "honoring camp tradition."  There is grumbling in my cabin, but the veteran campers correctly guess it to be an object lesson, so they complain less than I expected.

None of this is onerous, but everyone's relieved when that night at devo, Jeff concludes the exercise and explains its purpose.  Parallels are drawn with the elaborate religious traditions of Israel at the time of Christ.  In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus gets called out a lot for being a religious teacher who breaks some of the finer points of the Law: healing the sick on the Sabbath, touching those deemed unclean, etc.  I admit I am not paying super close attention to the lesson this evening, so I don't catch it all, but it seems to me the previous two devo talks have been part of this theme. I fervently hope that from here on out we'll be able to talk about what Christians should be doing, rather than focusing on the rules they shouldn't break.

Earlier, outdoor activity leaders Ed and Jon hit it out of the park with a new game they called "Snipe Hunt."  Willing staff and a few select campers dress up in wacky costumes and hide in the woods, and the campers go out in cabin-based teams to find them and bring them back.  Lured by the promise of a Klondike bar, I volunteer to be a Snipe.  I forego the facepaint, but deck myself in foam flowers with pipecleaner stems and find a shrub to hunker down behind.  When I'm spotted by a team of girls, I flee... straight into the arms of another team, resulting in a tug-of-war in which the role of the rope is played by me.  I am eventually returned to the scorekeeper somewhat chafed, but in one piece.  The event is hugely popular, and the resulting tales of risk, struggle, and triumph are passed around for days afterward.