Ali Ballweg

Sugar Creek had a very special week with the very first ever Fine Arts week!  There were many different programs going on including Music, Theatre, Art, Norwegian and… Horse.  Horse camp was the biggest program with 5 counselors (4 of us lived in Wagons and 1 in the Discoverer cabins).  The campers had a lot of fun and enjoyed the extra time with the horses, however the disorganization and lack of communication was quite frustrating for all of us on staff.  At least a lot of insight was gained for next year. 

On a happier note, I had some great campers and did some cool things! We had quite a bit of free time this week and took advantage of that by going to the pool and canteen everyday, which was super nice.  We also got to package food for Feed My Starving Children again as well as spend an evening at Outpost (I was in charge of games and I made a new version of Ship to Shore and called it Barn to Pasture).  We had some awesome electives, one of which was lasso with Bryce and Jesse.  They had James dress up as a bull (complete with cups ducked taped to a hemet) and taught the kids how to lasso and hog tie.  It was quite hilarious for those involved and those of us who were just watching from afar. 

We got to go on 3 horse rides this week, one of which was an hour and a half (and my stirrups were too short so my knees killed the whole time).  I got Anders the Norwegian Fiord all 3 times so now he and I are great buddies.  Actually this week got me more comfortable around all the horses in general. 

I have a few funny stories from the week to share and the first one happened Sunday evening.  I was unrolling the window flap on the outside of our wagon when I touched and saw a bat!  I was so startled and scared that I screamed and jumped backwards off the ledge that is about 4 feet off the ground.  Another story is when Bryce bet about 15 of the campers that they couldn’t pull a post out of the ground with the lasso rope that he was having them stretch out.  Turns out he knew a few days earlier a few of the horses had loosened it and it needed to come out anyway so after a few minutes they were able to do it and were super proud of themselves.  We ended up having to have the closing festival/program in the barn (and barnyard) because of rain, but it was still fun and one of the activities was “So you think you can pull a wagon?” and all 5 of us counselors had some of our campers pull us around the barnyard in one of the wagons in the rain, which was great fun.

This week I worked with Elise, Sara H., Jesse and Ace (as well as working closely with Jo, Jessica, Heidi and Bryce) and I have to give them all credit for being amazing counselors even though many times we had no clue what was going on.  On top of that, Elise had several difficult campers and yet still was able to make it through the week in one piece.  Praise God for helping her and all of us through it!  We did it and now we only have 2 weeks left!  I’m off on Settlers this week (8th graders who canoe for 3 days on the Mississippi)! 

 Jo, Kim, Sara, Johnna and I went to the LaCrosse County Fair in West Salem last Saturday and had a blast!  I really enjoy taking animal pictures, I especially like the first pig one                

This week I did a Day Camp for First Lutheran Church in Onalaska with Beth, Jeff and Nikki…. And it was awesome!  We had 32 campers entering grades 1-5 (for Bible Studies I was with 9 campers all entering 5th) at a local park from 9-3 Monday-Thursday.  

We stayed with Tina, Brian and Dominick Antony (Dom is 12).  They are an awesome family and staying with them was an awesome experience.  They had a boxer named Madison and three cats, Orange Julius, Sydney and Otto, all of whom we enjoyed immensely. 

We had dinner with different people every night, which was awesome for connecting with multiple people in the church.  The couple who made us dinner the first night took us boating which was super fun.  I tubbed twice but still managed to get a sore neck.  The people the second and third nights made us keep eating and eating and although it was very yummy… I felt very sick. 

Overall it was a great week, though I did find out that I like older campers better.  This coming week I am on Horse Camp at Wagons with girls going into 6th grade and the week after that I’m on Settlers with girls going into 8th grade.  And then there’s only one week of camp left… AHHHH!!! 

(PS: Pictures from this week and the fair will be posted next weekend)  

Jordan and Alyson were blessed with a beautiful day for their wedding on Lake Winona.  I didn’t take any pictures at the ceremony, but I did get a few outside at the reception.       

I now consider myself a seasoned veteran on Wagons, considering that I just completed my third week in four weeks.  I had another good week, though not as great as last week (but that’d be really hard to beat).  Activity wise this week was almost a mirror of last week so I’ll just share the new things we did and a few big things that stand out.

            An amazing opportunity arrived at Sugar Creek on Sunday in the form of a truck full of supplies for our very own Feed My Starving Children set-up.  If you’ve never heard of Feed My Starving Children then you should check out www.fmsc.org because it is an awesome organization that I’ve wanted to be apart of for some time.  Over the first three weeks of camp our campers donated to something we call the Hunger Jar.  We we’re sure exactly which organization it would go to but it was decided that we would use it to get involved with Kids Against Hunger.  Our village group (27 campers) watched a video about the difference FMSC is making and then split into three stations for packaging.  They only spent about 15 minutes packaging, but packaged enough meals for 620 people.  This will be going on all summer and is something that I am very excited about!

            I experience my first homesick camper this week and while it was challenging, it was also rewarding for both her and myself because we made it through the whole week and had fun in doing so.  Between dealing with that, several campers feeling sick at different points in the week, and one of my campers losing two teeth, I felt very much like a mom this week.

            I have another few fun stories with fires again this week.  I burnt three of my fingers on a Dutch oven lid that I thought had cooled long enough and had the nurse come visit me.  Thankfully the nurse this week was Phil’s mom who is amazing and I healed in no time.  On Wednesday morning I woke up to pouring rain and thought to myself, “Humm, how are we supposed to start a fire to eat breakfast?”  Turns out you can indeed start a cooking fire in rain and I can proudly report that I did so (and without the lighter fluid that Bryce offered).  However I was a nervouse wreck the whole time I was cooking the bacon and eggs because I was sure I was going to have a grease fire.  But I didn’t!  Yey!

            I also experienced something else really awesome… At Wednesday night worship we wash our campers feet as an act of service towards them and this week after I had washed all my campers feet, one of them asked if she could wash mine.  I said no because that wasn’t the point of what we were doing, but I was deeply moved by her thinking of that and asking me. 

            Well the summer with campers is now half done and I must admit that I have had a blast (as you can tell from reading and looking at pictures), I am also completely exhausted and looking forward to being on Day Camp in Onalaska this week.  I’ll actually get to sleep, not constantly have smoke in my eyes, AND get to shower!  YES!!!

During Week 3 I found myself back at Wagons, this time with Laura, Kyle and Amanda.  It was much cooler this week (almost cold at times) and just an awesome week overall.  I was a little nervous going into the week because I had 7 campers (a full wagon), but they were all amazing girls and had deep hearts for Christ.  It was nice being on Wagons again because I was pretty familiar with the schedule already.  

            Monday and Tuesday were super busy but a lot of people stepped up to help out.  We came back from initiatives on Monday night to find that the Staff In Training campers had started our dinner fires for us, which made our Dutch oven chicken and rice even better. On Tuesday I got a little upset because I didn’t have any time for bible study on Tuesday and that’s what we’re here for.  However after talking to Karsten about it, he stepped up and took some of the other campers during canteen so that I could have some time with my girls doing bible study.  Also on Tuesday afternoon we had a counseling staff meeting while the support staff played games with our campers and Jake brought cookies and hot chocolate for us!  Tuesday night we had a pool party and then pool worship and it was FREEZING, but the kids still had fun and then we actually got to take showers.  We also did electives on both Monday and Tuesday night and I led frog catching the first night and card games the second. 

            Wednesday and Thursday offered some free time, which my campers and I spent doing the labyrinth, making bracelets, creek stomping, swimming, hiking, and at canteen.  We also had some fun Thursday afternoon sneaking around and hiding from the Pony Express (Bryce) and doing a tough questions session with Sherry (the Chaplin).  On Wednesday night we did a special village devotional with Brandon in the barn where he reads scriptures about the second coming to music.  It was kind of scary for some of the campers, but after we debriefed it they definitely all liked it.  Wednesday evening was the all-camp activity of Romans and Christians and this week I had a play a Roman soldier who took campers to jail.  I was appalled at how many of the campers denied they were Christians, however after talking to my campers about it and how bad they felt about it I realized the important lesson that it taught many of the campers.  Thursday evening was the Christ Hike, which I was not in this week, so I just walked along. 

A few big things that happened this week were the finding of a huge wolf spider (whom we named Wolfie) by one of the campers in the outhouse, my first grease fire (as I was browning hamburger the flames lapped over and I started freaking out, but thankfully Manda was there and stayed calm and we got it put out), and I can finally start fires in 10 minutes or less!

            Friday was a crazy busy day, like always, and it was really sad to see my wonderful campers go.  I have a full wagon again this week and I hope all continues to go smoothly, but even if it doesn’t, I know Christ will provide.  Please be praying for me!

Surprise!  Week two I was put on River Boaters even though I’m a middle school counselor and it’s a high school program and therefore wasn’t trained in driving the house boats.  But for whatever reason Jake thought I would be a good fit and placed me on an all girls boat with Kathryn… And it was SO much fun!  We had ten girls (two going into 10^th grade and eight going into 9^th) who were all amazing and so much fun.  I was also with some amazing staff- Kathryn, Jesse, Amanda, Kirsten and Matt.

            We spent Sunday night on the floor of the air-conditioned Retreat Center and then right away on Monday we headed to the boat rental place and then out on the river.  We drove down stream a few miles and I got to drive my first boat!  Amanda came over the radio asking who was driving our boat because I was swerving all over the place and Kathryn radioed back saying it was me and reminding her how hard it is the first time (it really is, those things are huge).  Also during our drive as ran into a problem of one boat having no lunchmeat.  So one of the boats pulled up aside the other and threw two bags of turkey over, which was quite hilarious.  Monday night we slept on the roof of the boat with a beautiful blanket of stars above us.

            Tuesday was the hottest day so far this summer so we spent the whole afternoon in the river staying cool and doing River Boat Olympics (of which I have some pictures posted).  Tuesday it looked like it was going to storm but it only sprinkled for a little bit and we were able to sleep on the roof again.  Also Tuesday night we did something called counselors on the beach where all six of us spread out on the beach and were available for any questions campers had.

            Wednesday we went on a canteen run to Lansing (oh yeah we were docked on the Iowa side of the Mississippi for the three days we were on the river).  We played a night game on the dunes that Kathryn made up called ultimate kickball, which was a combo of capture, the flag and kickball.  It didn’t really work out the best, but it was still fun.  On our way back to the boats we had to walk through water for a short stretch and there were like eight snakes swimming around our feet!  It was so scary and I couldn’t pretend it didn’t bother me because it definitely did.

            Thursday morning we cleaned the boats top to bottom and then headed back to camp where we rode horses, visited canteen, had a pool party, did the Christ Hike (which I was in again), and did Spirit Worship for our campers.  We slept in the upper part of the barn Thursday night and had a busy day Friday.  Before I knew it all my campers were gone, which was sad.  But it was a great week and I am very thankful that I got the opportunity to try River Boaters.