What was something fun you did today?

One of our wonderful staff members, Kaylin, who was counselor for two weeks this summer, asked some campers a few questions.  Every night after the evening campfire and devotion, Kaylin asked her campers questions relating to camp.  For the next few posts, we'll highlight some of their responses.

Q: What was something fun you did today?

• meeting new people
• catching little frogs
• meeting all of my friends
• swimming in the lake
• learning new games
• playing Nukem with my friends
• Pizza!
• Playing taffy pull and pulling apart the counselors
• already asleep

A few of these responses included friends or meeting new people.  New friends and old friends are a wonderful blessing from God at camp.  I still have many close friends that I met at camp years ago!

What about YOU?  What was something fun you did at camp?

Keep Tabs on your Kid...

Kids' Camp begins this week! Every year seems to go by so slow waiting for the next year of camp to roll around. But then, June hits. And it's a mad scramble for the entire Camp Lor-Ray board, superintendent Ken Nolte, and myself.


Summer should be the time when I am able to post more here on the blog, but it never seems to work that way. 


But this year, soon after the weeks end, my goal is to post unique blog posts on each week, maybe even have some posts by campers. (I would love to post during camp, but unfortunately we don't have Internet on campus) 


What would you like to hear about the weeks at camp? 
What would you like us to write about

Camp Killarney

Recently I've been working with the director of Camp Killarney, in Onsted, MI to create a web site for them and help them get started with using social media.  Camp Killarney, or Killarney Lutheran Camp, is more or less our sister camp over in Eastern, Michigan.

Killarney's Mt. Sinai

You can check out their new website here: www.killarneycamp.org

I've learned a few things while working with them.
Killarney does a lot of the same things Lor-Ray does.  They have:

• A Teen Retreat
• Camps for children in Preschool on up
• They operate a family camp
• They hold an annual Fall Festival (similar to our Its Chili in the Woods Chili Cook-off)

Most importantly, they hold to the same Biblical beliefs Camp Lor-Ray does.

But, they also do some unique things we've not tried before:

• Work bees in Spring and Fall to open and close the camp
• Memorial Day Chicken BBQ
• Pig roast
• They have a Booster program with incentives (I suppose this is similar to our Membership program)
• Their Lutheran Church Association is made of specific churches who pay a membership fee to the camp

Canoeing at Camp Killarney

Working with the director has kind of opened up a door for our two camps to cooperate.  First, they've got a link to Camp Lor-Ray on their website; we've promoted Killarney on our Facebook page; and soon we should have a link to their camp on our site as well.  So, we've begun sharing things socially online, but hopefully we'll be doing some real things soon too.  As an idea, since we do similar activities already, might it be possible to team up and do something totally different or new at one camp each year?  We'll see.  I'll keep posting ideas and updates as we get farther along into the camping season.

I'll be heading out to Camp Killarney sometime this summer to check out their facilities and programs.  I encourage you to as well...but make sure not to forget about Camp Lor-Ray. ;-)

-Jeff

Promotional Materials

Help us promote Camp Lor-Ray!  Download posters & inserts here:  

Finding God at Camp

In one of the last blog posts, "I have Seen Theophany," I mentioned that sometimes we try to find God where he has not promised to be.  Christian camps seem to be instigators of this problem too.  How often have you heard someone say something to the effect of "going into nature to find God," or, "at camp, you just feel God's presence"?  Sure, God is omnipresent (See Psalm 139), but is God more present at Camp or in the wilderness than He is say in your own home?  Of course not.

We do get (or I should say it is possible to get) an emotional lift at Camp because the works of God are great and glorious (Psalm 111), but that is not to say our faith is being strengthened because we are at camp or that we are getting closer to God because we are spending time in his creation.  Camp, and everything at camp, is a wonderful first-article gift; that is, something that God has made and given to us for our earthly benefit.
For our spiritual and eternal benefit, God works through means.  He works through His Word, through His Baptism and through His Body & Blood.  These are the tools God uses to increase our faith.

Finding God in nature, or equating an emotional lift with a stronger faith is potentially spiritually damaging - there is no promise that that feeling will last.  At the end of camp how sad are we to leave!? What happens then?  Do we need camp to actually be strengthened in our faith?  It may feel like it, but this is where the true comfort lies: God strengthens our faith in His Word and sacraments, whether we feel it or not.  God's doing it, stop worrying and believe.

So, the next time you are checking out other Christian Camps to attend or send your children to (Camp Lor-Ray only runs a few weeks in the summer after all :-), look at what that camp is saying.
Do they claim to get closer to God and let you feel His presence, or do they acknowledge that only through the Word and sacraments does God build and confirm faith?  That's the difference between relying on a camp and on men to strengthen faith and relying on God to strengthen faith.

Camp Lor-Ray relies on God. We just have a ton of fun doing it in the woods.  I know you will too.