Date: November 1, 2013
From: Nampa, Idaho
Email: warriorcamp1@yahoo.com
SPECIAL UPDATE...
Hello WARRIOR NATION!
Hope you're doing great and having a fantastic Fall!
Wow! Welcome to this special update. I'm not sure where to begin. But somehow, I'm gonna try to keep my own words brief.
Recently, I heard about something super cool, and when I finally got to see it, it left me overwhelmed with joy and thanks to God. It's from a 5th grade boy who just recently wrote a paper for school about his experience at WARRIOR CAMP. He wrote it for English class and, after working on it from September 2 to September 9, he recently turned it in on September, 13, 2013, nearly 6 years to the day from our very first WARRIOR CAMP. His assignment? Write a paper about the most challenging thing you have ever done.
He gave me the green light to share it with you (thanks bro!) and I hope you enjoy it! And so, without further delay, here is his unedited paper, presenting WARRIOR CAMP in his own words. Check it out! (He's a good writer...I might have to recruit him to take-over this blog!)
He gave me the green light to share it with you (thanks bro!) and I hope you enjoy it! And so, without further delay, here is his unedited paper, presenting WARRIOR CAMP in his own words. Check it out! (He's a good writer...I might have to recruit him to take-over this blog!)
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Challenges I Had At Warrior Camp
I had to face many challenges at Warrior Camp. Warrior Camp is a day for boys go to my church, and learn about God through a lot of fun activities and sermons.
The
first thing we did was divide into two teams, a red team and a blue team. After that each team got their own flag. We took the flags and marched around yelling
our team name as loud as we could. Next
we started to warm up for a game of Extreme Tag. It was hard and challenging because most of
the guys were faster than me. But the game
was very fun, and I only got out once.
Then we went inside to eat lunch.
During lunch there was a competition.
There were four people standing in a line. I was one of the four guys. We each got goggles and a giant deflated
balloon. When our leader said go we had
to be the first to blow our balloon up until it popped. I am proud to say I won!
After
lunch, we had a worship time and a
sermon. We sang a lot of praise songs,
and I loved every song we sang. Then we
heard a sermon that talked about being a man of God, and following His
will. It was and still is a challenge
for me to do that.
When
we were done with that we went outside to a small hill beside our church. One person from each team stood on top of the
hill in a box that was painted on the ground.
The rest of us laid on x’s that
had been painted all over the grass.
When the leader said, “ Go”, the
person on the hill had to go drag his teammates up the hill to the box. As soon as a person was dragged to the box, he could help the leader drag the next
person. The team that got all their guys
to the box first won. We played that three times, but the third time was much
harder because some of the leaders were shooting Nerf darts at us while we
tried to drag our teammates to the box.
If we got hit by a dart, we had to lay down right where we were and wait
to be dragged back to the box. The game
went on till one team was either all laying on the ground, or all safe. My team won twice.
We played a couple
more games, made a cool spear out of sticks we got from around Lake Lowell, and
then went in for a second sermon. During
that sermon we learned that God can forgive us for the bad things we have done.
Snack
time was next. During snack time we
played a game where we had four people
from each team to volunteer to sit at a table, pick a bag, and eat whatever was
inside. I was one of the
volunteers. Two of us had to eat
whatever was in the bag without throwing up, or refusing to eat it. The other two people on our team had to
encourage us to eat it, or eat it themselves. Whichever team ate the most without throwing
up would win. Some of the items eaten
were pickled pig’s feet, a whole bag of marshmallows, ten War Heads all at
once, and half of a Monster drink. After
my team won, there was a bonus round.
This time one person from each team had to stand on a chair, and had to
eat two other mystery items without spitting it out. Whoever ate the most when three minutes were
up, won. I volunteered for our
team. The two items were a raw onion,
and a raw jalapeno. I ate almost half of
the onion, and about three-fourths of the jalapeno, winning ten bonus points
for my team because of bravery! Half an
hour later my competitor threw up all over the wall inside the building. After that incident our leader made us all go
back outside for a giant slime
fight! It was really fun!
We
got on our swimsuits next for some water
games. We had a water gun fight, played in the pool, competed to see who could
hold their breath the longest, and then got shot into the pool by a giant human
sling shot! Then we dried off and went
inside for our final sermon.
During
the final sermon we had a wall made of cinder block where we could write down
some of the sins we needed to stop
doing. At the end of the sermon, a guy took a sledge hammer and smashed down
the wall. That is kind of like how God
forgives us of our sins. When we say we are sorry, God forgives us and our sins
can be gone so that there is nothing separating us from God. That was the biggest challenge of the day.
After that, we went outside for the final game of the
day. This was best game of the day. We divided into our teams, and stood side by
side on the field. There were all kinds
of foam weapons in front of our teams.
When the leader said, ”Go”, we had to run out, grab a weapon, and attack
the other team. If you were hit anywhere
on your body you had to pretend to die for five seconds. Then you could sit up
and attack people who came near you, but you couldn’t leave that spot. Whichever team had the last man standing
won. When we were done with that game we
went back inside and tallied up the points of each team. Our team won!! We all got candy, but the winners got twice
as much. It was awesome!
It was the most challenging, yet fun day in my
life! The only day just as good or maybe
even a little better was the next year at Warrior camp, but that is another
story!
------- The End -------
Wow. God thing! To Him be the glory!
We love ya bro! Thanks for sharing your paper with us, and I can't wait to hang out with you @ WARRIOR CAMP 2014 next year. So proud of you, and keep letting God do His thing in you. He's pretty awesome! :)
We love ya bro! Thanks for sharing your paper with us, and I can't wait to hang out with you @ WARRIOR CAMP 2014 next year. So proud of you, and keep letting God do His thing in you. He's pretty awesome! :)
And, I want to give a big shoutout to all the WARRIOR CAMP Leaders for your heart for God, your heart for kids and students, and for all your sweat. Couldn't do it without you! (And we'd just miss you anyway if we tried!).
And big thanks to you in WARRIOR NATION for your encouragement, prayer, support, and for helping make it all possible for the boy who wrote this paper, and for other boys like him. Thank you so much! God is raising up a new generation of young men after His own heart, and that's something to celebrate!
And big thanks to you in WARRIOR NATION for your encouragement, prayer, support, and for helping make it all possible for the boy who wrote this paper, and for other boys like him. Thank you so much! God is raising up a new generation of young men after His own heart, and that's something to celebrate!
That's all for now. More later :)
Have a great weekend, and a fantastic Thanksgiving full of celebrating His goodness, and may God continue to smile over you!
All for His glory,
Derek
I Chronicles 16:34 + I Chronicles 29:10-13
I Chronicles 16:34 + I Chronicles 29:10-13
