iCamp Recap

Last Friday we finished our second annual iCamp. While the name may be trendy, there's no connection to Apple! The "i" simply stands for interact. The idea goes: as we see needs around us both small scale (someone accidentally drops a $5) and large scale (1 billion people without clean water), we become empowered to do something when we interact with those people. It's an entry point into positive change. I'd also pitch that we're particularly empowered when we interact with Jesus - the resourcing, direction, and wisdom he provides is crucial to seeing any lasting change. Here was our schedule @ iCamp this year:

- M-F, 9a-7p

- 9a - Morning chapel

- 10a - Team games/activities

- 12a - Lunch

- 1p - Service projects

- 5p - Dinner

- 6p - Evening chapel

A few memorable moments:

- New to iCamp and our church, "Ted" (I'll call him) was not only the smallest guy, he was possibly the shyest. His default was to hang with adults, and our efforts to redirect him to other kids wasn't gaining much ground. Until Wednesday. Wednesday our team games reflected the gameshow, Minute to Win It, where kids had one minute to complete a challenge. There was one game where no one had succeeded... you can almost hear the movie trailer voiceover, "Many had tried, all had failed." We moved on and neared the end of our day. But Ted decided to give the difficult game a shot. He finished in 26 seconds! As the crowd erupted into uninhibited applause, the activities director hoisted Ted up onto his shoulders, and this was a changing moment for Ted. His confidence rose, and suddenly we found Ted starting impromptu games with others, donating input, and actually commanding other kids (we actually had to reel him back a bit)! So, a hopeful week for him.

- Service projects at several homes, The Safe House, Valley House, the police station, a retirement home, Salvation Army, & Humane Society. Common remarks were, "I didn't know all of this needed to be done!" and "It was fun to see people thankful," and, "Next year let's be sure to bring Round-Up" (that last one may have been from adults.....).

- We collected a daily tithe/offering, 100% of which was donated to 20liters.org. They work to provide clean water solutions primarily to people in Rwanda. From their website, "... water-borne diseases are the leading cause of death globally for children under the age of five, and half the patients in the world’s hospitals are suffering from diseases related to unsafe water." 140 bucks provides 20 people with clean water for 10 years, which was our iCamp target. Second-to-last day, we had around $26. After one final appeal that night, we ended the last day of camp with just over $150!

- Several kids in attendance that were not members of our church (which is where iCamp was held). One even joined us for church the following Sunday - it was fun to see the iCamp kids huddled before service, swapping stories.

- Our fantastic media team put together a recap DVD for parents to take home on the last night. So cool!

- Dunno if I'm allowed to list this, but, I was really helped by our debrief meeting afterwards. Among other very useful suggestions was the idea of flip-flopping our service projects and team game times. The afternoon is 95+ degrees outside, and doing projects in the cooler morning might help. Team games in the afternoon may also help the flow of camp (work first, games last).

So, after tearful good-byes and umpteen stories of things God seems to have done for and through kids, we had such a fun week. I'll join in with the handfuls of kids who chanted excitedly, "I can't wait for next year!"