Cardiac Care Unit

Well, the end is here. This is the last post of the summer. It’s been a good summer and I thank you for all of your prayers.

Like every Super Kids morning, there was skills. Today I hung out at the Outdoor Cooking skill.

This morning’s game was capture the lifejacket. It’s just like capture the flag, but there are five lifejackets instead of a flag.

During free time the kids did the normal thing.

Tonight in chapel Jim talked about a hard heart. He based his message of the parable of the seed. He talked about different types of soil and how they relate to everyday hearts.

The big ticket item of the night was the carnival. The campers could go around and play games, get their face painted, get popcorn, or dunk their counselor or other staff member. I got dunked tonight, which was the first time in two years that I have.

Like I said earlier, this is the last post of the summer. Some final prayer requests is for fall. Pray for all the kids that made decisions and that they carry through with those decisions. Also pray for all the staff as we also go back to school or work.

Thanks again.

-Matt Loberg

Every morning, there is a time called skills. Skills is a time where the campers can learn different skills. The skills range from archery to fishing to swimming to camping to canoeing, and a ton more. The campers get to pick what skill they learn.

After skills, we had a game time. Down on the field we played a bunch of different games. My favorite was Ships and Sailors. When Kyle said ships, everyone would walk towards one side of the field, and if he said sailors, they would walk to the other side of the field. During the middle of the game, Kyle could also say other things like “Dinner for four” or “Row the boat” or “Man over-board” or my favorite, “Sea turtle” (pictured below).

After lunch, the campers had free time until supper. During free time they could go swimming (pictured below), boating, fishing, play carpetball, foursquare, Nuke’em, or go on the zip line.

After supper, there is a time called Cabin Adventure. The counselors choose something for the cabin to do, like go for a pontoon ride, play foursquare, or the counselors could get a little more creative.

The big ticket item of the night was the Staff Hunt. The staff goes and hides around camp. Then the campers try to find them. If they succeed in finding a staff member, they get to push them into the lake.

Tonight Jim gave the salvation message. He talked about how God hates sin and has to punish sin. He also talked about how God loves us and wants to save us. He then talked about heart surgery and how we need a new heart. He shared about what Jesus did on the cross and shared the ABC’s of becoming a Christian.
A – Admit my sin
B – Believe in Jesus
C – Call on Him as your Savior and Lord

Pray for the campers that may have made decisions. Pray that they will go back home different. Also pray for the other campers. If they haven’t made a decision, pray that through interactions with their counselors or in chapel, that they may make decisions.

-Matthew Loberg

Super Kids Four, the final week of the summer, is here.

The weather was nice today, so we were able to have a normal opening day. Which included meeting their counselor, taking the swim test if they wanted too, and then meeting the staff.

After meeting the staff, there is a picnic supper. The cabins sit together outside and get to know each other.

After supper, we get an intro to camp. We go over the guidelines and have a camp tour.

This week’s speaker is Jim Barringer. Tonight he talked about a dead heart. He talked about the physical heart and then talked about our spiritual heart and how it’s dead.

After chapel, the campers got a chance to swim. It was a little chilly out, but some campers still jumped at the chance to be in the water.

The big ticket item of the night, like always, was the Staff Variety Show. We changed it up a little bit again this week. The camper’s favorite skit was Family Beepers. It’s a skit where there are these monkey-type animals and they do tricks and eat apples. It’s pretty entertaining to watch.

As this is our last week, please pray that we finish well. It will be real easy for us as a staff to slip into laziness and blow this week off. Pray that we don’t do that. Also pray for us as we enter into the fall and into another step of our life. There are some of us that still have no real idea what we are doing this fall (like me). Pray that we will continue to follow God.

-Matthew Loberg

Today was an interesting day.

Keeping with the theme of the week, we did something a little different. Usually the volleyball tournament is in the evening, but today, it was in the morning. The cabins got in ridiculous outfits, and played some volleyball. During down time, they hung out or played games. The volleyball tournament was interesting in the fact that it was down-pouring when it first started and rained often on during the rest of it. But the rain didn’t stop them from having fun.

Because it was raining, free time was a little interesting. There was some thunder at the beginning of free time, so both the waterfront and zip line were closed. But despite that fact, everyone still manage to find a way to have fun, like these people below.

Because the volleyball tournament was in the morning, we had Clinics and Seminars after supper.

The big ticket item of the night was Dodgeball.

In Chapel tonight, Josh gave the salvation message. He talked about how we are dead in our sin, and that we need a new heart, and that Jesus can give us a heart transplant.

It’s Tuesday already. Tomorrow night will be the last blog post for Junior High Three. Continue to pray for the campers, that they themselves would experience a week of change. Also pray for the staff as we are nearing the end of the summer.

-Matt Loberg

Every morning there is a time that we call Clinics and Seminars. This is a time that the campers can go to different class-type things and learn different skills. For example, there is turtle hunting, basketball, leadership, dating, Christian rock, and more.

For morning chapel, the guys and girls are split up. Each cover a different topic that deals more with them. After chapel, they split up into cabin groups and have a discussion on the topic of the day.

During the afternoon is free time. During free time, the campers play carpetball, foursquare, nuke ‘em, or go swimming. Today, because it was so hot, there was a lot of people out in the water. At one point, there were 140 some people. And if they weren’t outside, they were usually inside playing carpetball or pool.

After supper, there was the X-Treme Relay. The relay was all at the waterfront, and required the campers and counselors to do different things. Like one camper had to dunk one of their counselor, another had to do a belly flop, another had to run across some kayaks, another had to go down a slide, etc. The relay ended with the whole cabin burying their counselor in sand and then getting pushed in the lake.

Tonight in chapel, Josh talked about humans. Where we came from, how we fell, and that we are sinners.

The big ticket item of the night was a game called Alpha-Wolf. Keeping with the theme of the week, this is something different. Both different in the fact that it is a game we haven’t played at camp before (that I can recall) and the fact that it was a night game where it was dark, something we haven’t done this summer.

The basic gist of the game is there are wolves (pictured below) that are hiding around camp. One of the wolves is the Alpha-Wolf, and the rest are Beta-Wolves. The campers are trying to find the Alpha-Wolf. But because it is dark, they have to find the wolf by howling, and the wolf will respond back. Now the Beta-Wolves, respond all the time to howls, where the Alpha-Wolf will only respond if the time is a multiple of 5 (so like 9:00, 9:05, 9:10, etc.).

Tomorrow is the volleyball tournament. This is a time where cabins really start to bond. Pray that cabins will bond and also pray for safety. I also believe that tomorrow night is the salvation message in chapel, so pray that the hearts of the kids are being prepared for that.

-Matt Loberg

As promised earlier.

The last Junior High is here, Junior High Three. And this week we are changing things up. The schedule was completely re-done, staff is doing new things, and new games are being played.

But there is one thing that hasn’t changed from last week. The speaker this week is, once again, Josh Koehn. Though he is changing some things. Every chapel he will be sharing an awkward/embarrassing story, which I am looking forward to. I will be posting a video on what he is talking about this week later.

The big ticket item of the night was the variety show. Keeping with the theme of change, this variety show was different from any other variety show, and I think it may have been the best one of the summer. New skits were added, old ones were added to, and new elements were added.

Please be in prayer over the week. Pray that it is a week of change for these kids as well. Pray that they will make decisions, and not be the same person as when they came.

It’s also the last week for some of us, and the second to last week for the rest of us. Pray that we can finish off the summer well.

-Matthew Loberg

I said yesterday was hot, today was even hotter. The campers (and staff) were encouraged to drink lots of water.

Every morning, Super Kids have skills. Skills is a time where the campers get to learn different skills such as canoeing, archery, outdoor cooking, camping, etc.

This morning’s game was a random assortment of different games and activities. The girl’s played with a big parachute for a while.

Since it was so hot, there was a ton of people at the waterfront. At one point there were 164 people at the waterfront.

Tonight Josh gave the salvation message. He talked about how we messed up, how we are sinners, and how we need a heart transplant. He talked about Ezekiel 11:19-20.

The big ticket item tonight was the carnival. The kids could play games, get their face painted, get crazy hair, or dunk a staff member.

This is my last post for Super Kids Three. Next week is the last Junior High. See you on Sunday.

-Matthew Loberg

Today was hot.

This morning’s game was capture the life jacket. It’s pretty much capture the flag, but there are five life jackets. For the jails, they can do random things to get out, like sing songs, or do push ups, etc.

Because it was hot today, the swimming area was popular. During free time, they also played foursquare, went on the zip line, made crafts, and more.

For the pre-supper game, we had a little challenge. Four campers were picked out and their face was covered in peanut butter. Then four other campers threw Skittles at their face (lightly) and tried to get them to stick. It was entertaining to watch.

The big ticket item of the night was the staff hunt. The staff hide and then the campers try to find them. If they find them, the get to push them into the lake.

Josh talked about where we came from. He talked about Adam and Eve and the perfect life they had. He talked about how we were designed for God, but then sin entered the world. Tomorrow he is talking about Jesus and the salvation He offers us. Be in prayer that kids will respond tomorrow.

-Matthew Loberg

The third installment of Super Kids are here. After a week of senior highers, it’s a big shift in age groups, but I’m excited for this week. These kids have so much energy and love to do things. Like today during the camp tour, each cabin had their own cheer, and each was trying to do their’s the loudest. And these kids are excited for everything! It’s awesome seeing that they are excited about being at camp.

Today was an interesting check in day. All summer, we have had nice weather on the opening day and have been able to do everything normally. Today it was raining, so we had to change some things around, but in the end it all worked out.

Even though it was raining, some kids still went swimming tonight. They seemed to have a ton of fun, even though the weather wasn’t that great.

The big event of the night was the staff variety show. This is a time where the staff gets to show off the acting abilities we have (or don’t), and entertain the campers for a while. We do funny and silly skits, and the campers had a ton of fun and got a kick out of it.

This week the speaker is Josh Koehn. Josh worked on staff for three years I believe, and he spoke last year, so he is not new to camping ministry. I posted a video update on what he is talking about this week.

As always, be in prayer. Pray that these kids hear the gospel and respond to it. Also pray for the staff as it is getting towards the end of the summer.

-Matthew Loberg