Lake Ann 2009

Currently Listening To: The Champion and His Burning Flame

Currently Awkwardly Staring At (unbeknownst to the recipient of said stare): Dave Kaynor fast asleep in the other hotel bed

Current Degree of Weariness: Approaching Moderately Extreme

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As Brownie has emphatically and graciously reminded me this week, I haven't posted an update in over a week. This was because I was at Lake Ann Camp all last week and have spent the last couple days on the BASIC missions trip. Somehow updating my blog didn't make it into my list of top priorities during my 26 hour break between trips. Things like "doing my laundry so I had clean clothes for this week" and "going to church Sunday morning" and "running to the mall to buy a new pair of sandals so I didn't look like a hobo" and "going to Weishaupt's graduation open house lest she hate me forever" ranked slightly higher. Oh, and I also devoted lesser amounts of time to eating and sleeping.

Concerning my week at Lake Ann, I counseled on Fresh Start which is the 9th grade age group. We spent 3 days rafting down the Pine River and sleeping in tents, and while we were back at main camp we spent much of our time in Teepee Village.

The week was a tremendous success as I believe all the students who attended had a lot of fun, met some new friends, created memorable... memories, and made life-changing spiritual decisions. All in all there were 55ish students from Cornerstone who attended camp, with ages ranging from entering 4th grade up through entering 9th grade.

Like I said, I counseled 9th grade guys, including 2 from Cornerstone and 5 were from various other churches in Michigan. Also, Patrick was the speaker for the week so it was a Cornerstone hotspot in the woods of NW Michigan. I'll explain various parts of the week in the captions for the following pictures.

[An oft-attempted yet rarely achieved semi-necessary right of passage

for boys becoming men: a successful three-tiered pyramid.]

[While camping out on the Pine River, we had chapels in a grassy

knoll.All the campers would form a large circle for singing

and the teaching time. Notice my group's orange tent in the

background.]

[These were my guys for the week. Maclane (next to me)

and Parker (third from right) are Cornerstone guys.]

[Here is a picture Patrick took of one of the rafts coming into

the landing area. Notice the smiles on their faces.]

[The full Cornerstone crew out at Fisherman's Point Thursday morning.]

[A classic Lake Ann camp experience is the low ropes challenge course. Here the guys work together as a team to tightrope walk from Point A all the way around to Point B without touching the ground. Later I had them achieve the same task with two guys "blinded" and only allowing one member to speak.]

[The high adventure activity exclusive to Fresh Start is Jacob's Ladder. Campers hold the base of an 18 ft. ladder and then one student climbs to the top and has to leap off the top rung and ring a bell suspended above the ladder. This picture is of me demonstrating* my confidence in the campers holding the base of the ladder.]

[Some of the crew with Sr. High speaker Ken Rudolph.

Ken also speaks for the combined Friday night chapel.]

[Glory Bowl happens Friday night after the final chapel of the week. It is a chance for students to publicly share with each other the decisions they made during the week. It was a blessing to hear many of the Cornerstone students share about what God did in their lives during the week.]

* I do have a license to carry those guns. It's a small fire arms permit.