Velocity - Monday

We got off to a good start to camp this morning. We only left one kid behind. He was late. He caught up to us when one of the vehicles stopped to get gas. Since I'm leaving on Thursday, I drove separately with three guys in my car. I hadn't even looked at a map and I blindly followed my GPS. Probably not the best idea. It took us on the weirdest, roundabout way over to Sandusky and then back roads from there to Gambier, Ohio. On our way, we got to see some pretty strange small-town church signs - including this. We found all sorts of fault with Ohio, including the fact their Arby's don't recognize the coveted 5 for $5.95 deal. Our church has our own floor this year, which is nice. The downside, is that it's on the 7th floor. I'm trying to not take the elevator at all. That may become a much dumber idea as the week wears on. Our air-conditioned dorms are nice, but they're a loooong ways away from the temporary cafeteria we're using, while the old one is being rebuilt. It's at least a mile walk across campus to get there and it's probably not designed to deal with this big of a group.

We get a lot of time to meet in our youth group, so we hung out today, got to know each other and shared what we're looking forward to this week. Lots of kids looking forward to getting to know each other and connecting with God.

The first day is always an interesting one with kids transitioning into "camp-mode", burning off excess energy and getting out from under Mom and Dad. Michael and I took three seventh graders to Wal-Mart today to get stuff. It's awesome to watch junior-highers flush with cash going shopping on their own. They bought candy, mountain dew, legos, a remote control car and a rip-cord motorcycle. Awesome.

I get the chance to do some of the up front announcement-type stuff at the beginnings of session, which I have a blast with and have to make a real effort to keep them short-ish. 400+ people in the auditorium makes it feel very full with lots of energy. The worship band this year rocks. Our speakers are both great. I'm hanging with the junior high kids and get to listen to Scott Rubin, who is great. I introduced him and explained how he got his nickname "El Matador" and other fun facts. Last year, our speaker memorized all 200 junior high kids names in the room. I shared that Scott wouldn't have to go through the pain, because he had been studying their yearbooks for the past two weeks and knew each and every one of their names. The caveat was that he wouldn't use their names and embarrass his protege Jason Raitz, so he will only share the names one-on-one.

We all hit the gym tonight and came up with a great game played in racquetball court, involving chucking a racquetball around the court, catching it and trying not to get hit. Fun stuff.

You can see the rest of Monday's pictures here.