Trinity Week 2!

This afternoon we said goodbye to the campers from Trinity Week 1 and said hello to the campers for Trinity Week 2!  Right away the campers got settled into their cabins and got ready for the swim test!

 The campers have already been busy with many games of Gaga today!

Video clip of Gaga

Tonight we played 3 Team Medic!  It's similar to dodgeball but with three teams.  Each team picks one person to be the medic.  If you get hit with a ball or someone catches a ball you threw, you have to sit down.  The only way to get back up is if your team's medic tags you.

Video clip of the start of 3 Team Medic

We played a few intense games of Team Medic! Here are some pictures of the action!

One of the teams choosing their medic

 

If you look closely at this picture you will see some extreme dedication in protecting the medic!

Video Clip of 3 Team Medic

Here's what else we've been up to today:

Swim Test

Bible Study

Dinner

All Camp Game - 3 Team Medic

Canteen

Club

Devotions

We are looking forward to a great week!

Bible Study and Quiet Time

Today after the Luther Dell staff-led chapel, campers met in cabin groups for their daily bible study and quiet time. Today's theme is the parable of the vineyard workers, where a vineyard owner hires people continually throughout the day and pays all workers the same flat wage. Workers that worked the entire day are paid the same as workers that helped out for only a few hours, symbolizing the unfairness of God's grace.

Cabins gathered around camp for reading and discussion:

Campers in discussion in Lower Sunwall

Enjoying the sun and breeze during bible study outside

After bible study, we have time for personal reflection, prayer and reading the Bible independently. Campers took advantage of the views of the lake and the shade:

Later this evening we look forward to playing Mighty Mighty again! Unfortunately, today is our last full day of camp for the session, so tonight's worship will be our last.

Here's what we have planned for the rest of the day:

Breakfast

Chapel

Bible Study/Quiet Time

Lunch

Free Time

Cabin Time

Dinner

Mighty Mighty Scoop Noodle Challenge

Canteen

Club

Devos

Sleep

Mighty Mighty and Club

After dinner last night, all of the campers and staff got together for a game of Mighty Mighty Scoop Noodle Challenge. This game is basically Capture the Flag, but instead of flags we have two frisbees, a volleyball and a fun noodle as objects. Once campers are tagged on the side of the opposing team, a teammate must come tag them and skip back for free backs.

Here are some pictures of the action:

Signaling the beginning of the game

Even campers' dads get excited!

Someone catches an object!

After the game and Canteen, we had Club. It started off with modification of Rock, Paper, Scissors called Ape, Man, Lady. Here's one of the more exciting match-ups:

 Then we proceeded to have some really fun worship. Ben and the worship band led us through a couple of songs...

...which were incredibly engaging for campers and staff alike:

The weather today has been great, and we've been enjoying a lot of outdoor activities like wake-boarding, playing on the beach, and gaga.

Here's what we have planned for the rest of the day:

Breakfast

Chapel

Bible Study/Quiet Time

Lunch

Free Time

Cabin Time

Dinner

Hula Launchers

Canteen

Club

Sleep

Free time activities!

Today marks our first full day of camp for the first session of Trinity's confirmation camp. After a breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes, we met in our outdoor chapel for morning worship and then in our cabins for bible study.

The beautiful weather continued into the afternoon and free time. Cabins went out on the lake one at a time for wake-boarding and tubing, and the rest of the campers stayed on site for activities led by CITs, Luther Dell and Trinity staff. Activities included (but were not limited to) a session on leading worship, Eliminator (a dodgeball type game), Ultimate frisbee, swimming and mafia. Here are some photos of the fun:

Goat-petting

Gaga (a combination of 4-square and dodgeball) is a camper favorite

Carpetball is a popular activity on the patio

Campers choose which snacks to eat at Canteen

A fierce game of ping-pong in lower Lodge

Here's the rest of today's schedule:

Breakfast

Chapel

Bible Study

Quiet Time

Lunch

Free Time

Cabin/Game Time

Dinner

Mighty Mighty Scoop Noodle Challenge

Canteen

Club

Devotionals

Sleep

Trinity Lutheran Church Confirmation Camp!

This week has offered the Luther Dell staff a unique opportunity: to partner with a church and create a program specifically tailored to their group of confirmation students and counselors-in-training!

Trinity arrived at camp soon after our campers from week 7 departed yesterday. We took advantage of the great weather and started off the afternoon with the swim test.

After our camp game (Medic), we went to Club, where Trinity and their worship band led an amazing evening of worship and fellowship. It started with a game of balloon stomp, where campers and counselors alike fastened balloons to their ankles and attempted to pop the balloons of others while saving their own. After some energetic worship, a few CITs (counselors-in-training) shared their faith stories. Pastor TJ followed that up with a message that challenged campers concepts of what a Christian identity is.

Unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures from the evening, but we'll have an update soon with some photos of free time!

Here's what we did the rest of the afternoon/evening:

Check-in

Swim Test

Bible Study

Dinner

Medic

Canteen

Club

Devotionals

Bedtime

End of Week 7

The last day of week 7 brought beautiful weather for all of our closing activities. After brunch and outdoor bible study, we had the closing ceremony for our 2012 Luther Dell Olympics! We were joined not only by a representative of our Olympic commissioner (Roots coordinator Laurel Midthun, who gave a rousing speech on the bravery exhibited by competitors) but also by the competitors themselves. Here are photos of the teams:

The 6th place team: Twix 

The 5th place team: Hanopolis

The 4th place team: Avengers

The 3rd place team: Wheelz

Here is a video of the 2nd place team, Squatchasota, performing their Sasquatch calls:

And the 1st place team (Jedi), after throwing Becca into the lake.

After that we had our closing worship and said some long goodbyes. We hope to see you guys again next year!

Here's a schedule of the day:

Check-out

Brunch

Bible Study

Olympics: Closing Ceremonies

Chapel

Goodbyes

Hula Launchers!

Tuesday night into Wednesday morning brought in some pretty serious storms for us up here at camp. Fortunately, we made it through safely!

Early in the afternoon all of the Roots campers headed into Longville for the Turtle Races! Everyone did about an hour of service by working at game booths set up outside of the races. After they're done, they get to watch the turtles, dance and do some shopping with their counselors! Lots of fun was had.

After we all got back, for Olympics we played some pretty fun minute-to-win-it games. The campers' (and counselors') clear favorite was the cotton ball relay. After applying aloe to their noses, participants have to attach a cotton ball to the aloe, race to a different table and shake the cotton ball off into a bowl, all without using their hands. 

Later in the evening, we played a game called Hula Launchers. The goal of the game is to retrieve small balls to launch into nets on the opposite side of the field. However, a variant on Medic (which we played on Monday) is occurring at the same time, making it hard to retrieve these balls. 

Here are some pictures of the action:

Campers using the launchers

The game of Medic gets fierce!

Four points have been scored: not quite enough for victory.

Luckily, we caught a camper scoring some points on video... very exciting!

Here's what we did the rest of the day:

First Word

Breakfast

Cabin Cleanup

Chapel

Bible Study/One on One's/Cabin Time

Lunch

(Roots to Longville)

Team Building

Simmer/Nap Time

Free Time

Extreme Duck Duck Grey Duck/Ships Across the Ocean

Olympics: Minute to Win It games

Dinner

Rendezvous/Time with God

Hula Launchers

Canteen

Worship

Church Time

Devos

Technical Difficulties

Unfortunately, our camera is on the fritz so we don't have any photo updates from Tuesday for you.

Tuesday was another great day for us up here! Instead of playing a camp game on Tuesday night, we had our "Servant Fair", where staff members set up stations where they serve campers. Staff members painted nails, braided hair, drew portraits, gave marker tattoos and took blood pressure of campers.

Later on in the night, we played our night game Skittles. Campers attempt to sneak Skittles to staff members without being caught in the beam of a flashlight (wielded by other staff members). If they do get caught, campers remain very still until the staff member walks away. By the end of the night, many laughs were had!

Here's what we did the rest of the day:

First Word

Breakfast

Cabin Cleanup

Chapel

Bible/Study/One on One's/Cabin Time

Team Building

Lunch

Simmer/Nap Time

Free Time

Eliminator/Rat a Tat Tat

Olympics: Zuba

Dinner

Rendezvous/Time with God

Servant Fair

Canteen

Worship

Church Time

Skittles

Devos

Olympics and Mighty Mighty!

 Our week is off to a great start! Early in the afternoon we took advantage of the beautiful weather and played a large group game called Chicken/Cowboy/Conquerer, where the campers partner up and must act out either chicken, cowboy or conquerer when the music stops.

Here's a video of the chaos:

After that, the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Luther Dell Olympics took place! We divided up into nations, came up with country names, mottos and cheers. 

 The nation of Squatchasota coming up with a team cheer.

Once teams were divided and named, we played a game of Speed Pictionary. Each team nominates a member to draw a word from the list, and the first person to guess correctly gets the next word... until we ran out of words on the list.

Drawing ensues.

More drawing.

Later on in the evening, we played Mighty Mighty Scoop Noodle Challenge (which is basically glorified capture the flag, where the flags are noodles, frisbees and volleyballs).

Here are some photos of the game:

Staff members defend against campers!

A noodle run

A frisbee is caught!

And a video:

Here's what we did the rest of the day!

First Word

Breakfast

Cabin Cleanup

Chapel

Bible Study/One on One's/Cabin Time

Team Building

Lunch

Simmer/Nap Time

Swim Tests

Free Time/Canteen

Chicken Cowboy Conquerer

Olympics Opening Ceremony/Speed Pictionary

Dinner

Rendezvous/Time with God

Mighty Mighty Scoop Noodle Challenge

Canteen

Taize Worship

Church Time

Boys/Girls Devotional

Week 7!

Week 7 has begun and it's already off to a great start with campers coming from Bethesda Lutheran Church in Inver Grove Heights, Transfiguration Lutheran Church in Bloomington, Family of God in Brooklyn Park, and Calvary in Golden Valley. After dinner and staff intros, we played Medic!

One of the teams choose their medic

and are ready to play!

The action begins!

Both teams in action!

After Medic there was still enough energy for some intense games of Gaga!

Mighty Mighty Thursday and a Rainy Friday!

Last night we played some great games of Mighty Mighty!

Video clip of the start of Mighty Mighty

Video clip of Mighty Mighty

Video clip of Mighty Mighty

Video clip of Mighty Mighty

We had the Closing Ceremony of the Luther Dell Olympics today.  It started raining at the beginning of the Closing Ceremony so we had to quickly move everything inside.  Here are the teams pictured with the flags they created at the beginning of the week!

The Narwhals

Amurika

The Gee Bee's

The GOATS

The second place team: The Fighting Leprechai!

The winning team: The Ninjatopians!

The Nijatopians got to vote for one staff member to be thrown into the lake.

Video clip of the reading of the votes

Since it had been storming earlier we had to choose and alternative to going down to the lake, so....

Becca got soaked!

Some pictures from Closing Worship:

Video clip of closing worship

It's been great to see the ways that these campers have grown throughout the week!  We are sad to see you go!  We hope you guys have a great rest of the summer!