SPECIAL FALL SHOUTOUT TO WARRIOR NATION!

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!)

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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!  

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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!  :)

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! 

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