Ali Ballweg

Ten weeks ago I began my summer at Sugar Creek not really sure what to expect.  I was excited for how God was going to use me, but I was also apprehensive of leaving Winona and of whether I was actually capable of being a counselor.  Two weeks of staff training and eight weeks of campers later and I can confidently say that I not only survived, but thrived as a counselor.  And I honestly think that I’m going to miss camp 100% more than I missed Winona (and that’s saying a lot).    

This summer Sugar Creek’s beauty and community found a deep spot in my heart and they will never be replaced.  And as hard as it is now being away from it, I thank my Father for leading me on to and through the summer.  Because the summer was from Him, I know that I will always have it in my heart and no matter where I go in life, it will be with me.  I had the privilege of working with 64 other Sugar Creek Staff this summer, all whom are amazing Brothers and Sisters in Christ and whom I will be praying for everyday.  Together we served over 2,500 campers this summer.  Forty of whom were my very own campers.  It’s the feeling of a lifetime to know that I touched so many lives, even if I don’t see it now and never do in the future.  God knows how what He worked through me into their hearts is taking root and will show me in time.  

The first two weeks at camp were set aside for Staff Training… And while at times it was dull and the sessions drug on forever, it was a great time.  We spent time bonding in our family groups (Go Blue Barracudas!) and rooms (Koi 4 all the way!), which was incredibly important.  I am so thankful for that time and sorry that I took it for granted.  Because once summer got moving there wasn’t time for much bonding with people who you weren’t working directly with.  

Week One I was on Wagons with ED, Phil and Kyle.  I only had five campers who were going into 5th and 6th grade, but I was scared out of my mind to cook over a fire, use an outhouse, and sleep in a wagon.  But I made it through the week and had a great time!  

Week Two I had a surprise and was put on River Boats.  Kathryn was my co-counselor and Jesse, Ace (Amanda), Kirsten and Matt were on the other two boats.  Our boat had ten girls (eight who were going into 9th grade and two who were going into 10th) and a blast!  It was the hottest summer of the week so we spent all of one afternoon in the river doing River Boat Olympics.  This week is tied with weeks three and seven as my favorite weeks!  

Week Three I was on Wagons again, this time with Laura, Amanda and Kyle.  My campers were AMAZING!  I had seven girls and although they were going into 6th grade, they had deep faith and thoughts.  And they taught me so much!  One thing I learned was to not say that something is a coincidence, but rather a God-incidence  

Week Four I was on wagons for the 3rd time in four weeks!  It was really nice though because I knew how to work with the busy schedule and became so good at making fires that I made a huge one in the rain.  I worked with Jordo, Nikki and Kim and again had seven girls going into 6th grade.  I had to deal with my first cases of homesickness this week, but it wasn’t too bad. 

Week Five I was on Day Camp in Onalaska with Beth, Nikki and Jeff.  We had approximately 30 kids from First Lutheran church at a park near the high school.  I personally had nine boys and girls going into 5th grade in my bible study.  I had some problem boys and my patience was tested with them and all the other kids, but overall it was a great week.  After being on camp for four weeks I definitely needed the extra relaxation and received it at the Antony’s (our host family).

Week Six I was on Sugar Creek’s first ever Horse Ranch.  We had 37 campers total and I personally had seven girls all going into 6th grade (and yep, you guessed it, we lived in the wagon village).  Ace (Amanda), Jesse, Elise, Ya-Ya (Sara) and I were all kind of frustrated with the lack of direction and communication, but overall it was still a good week.  We went on three trail rides and I rode Anders (a Norwegian Fiord) each time. 

Week Seven is tied with Weeks 2 and 3 as my favorite… I was on Settlers and had four girls going into 8th grade (we had a pretty small village with only 21 campers total).  They were fabulous and I was led my best bible study of the summer with them!  Working with Elise, Katie and Bryce also added to the fantabulousness of the week.  We spent half the week on camp and the other half camping at Black Hawk Campground and then canoeing down the Mississippi to Lansing, IA.   

Week Eight I was disappointed to be on Day Camp in Waunakee with Kelly, Heidi and Eric but it ended up to be a pretty good week.  We had 35ish campers and a bunch of high school helpers and camp was held at the church (Peace Lutheran).  I had the second oldest group of campers (so going into 3rd and 4th grade) and had about nine campers in all depending on the day.   

And then before I knew it, it was the last night at camp… We spent a few hours doing a deep cleaning of the whole camp, ate an awesome dinner, and then had Coffee House.  Coffee House is hard to explain… It’s kind of like little acts that you might see at a coffee house, like a talent show, but not quite.  Anyway, it was two or three hours of pure hilariousness (and a few tears).  Then we sat around the fire pretty late (or early depending on how you look at it) while people burned things like a staff shirt and policies and procedures.   Saturday morning we were woken up very early by Backstreet Boys blaring on the intercom and cleaned our rooms and common rooms in our buildings for a few hours.  Then we had our closing staff worship, which ended with the last singing of our staff song.  By hug-time a lot of people were crying and even I shed a few tears, but tried to soak in the happiness of moment instead of the sadness (the crying came latter once I was back in Winona).  I gave Johnna a ride to LaCrosse and we were walked down to my car by Danielle and Jo, who are both staying for Family Camp and wanted to stand in front of the car so we would stay too. 

So now here I am, back in Winona and missing Sugar Creek so much that I’ve randomly started crying a few times.  I know it’ll get better, but right now I’m just letting the love and change of this summer spread over me. Sugar Creek Bible Camp 2009 was the most blessed and best summer of my life because God was in every aspect of it, and I praise Him for that

I was a little disappointed that my last week of camp was spent off camp on another Day Camp, but I survived and even had a little fun.  We were at Peace Lutheran Church in Waunakee, WI (only like a half-hour from Sauk where I grew up) and we stayed there they whole week… Meaning we slept in one of the room and all our meals were brought there.  Which was a little strange considering a huge part of Day Camp is connecting to the whole church community…  But it did offer a lot of good free time and I even got to meet up with Tessa and Sarah for a walk and chat one night. I lost my voice and patience again this week, but that’s all part of the job.  had a lot of difficulty with gaining the children’s attention and respect, but things got better as they week progressed.   We also had the added challenge of coming up with nature activities to do, which Heidi and I tackled.  We made had they glue leaves onto paper, go on a leaf scavenger hunt, and chase bubbles.  I was actually pretty impressed with us!   There isn’t really anything more to say about the week, I’ll write more about the weekend (AKA- My farewell to SCBC) later!          

A group of eight of us staff decided to hike up a trail that hasn’t been used all summer to a beautiful outlook called Inspiration Point.  We then decided to wander further up and over until we made it to Jesus Point.  THEN we decided we hadn’t had enough adventure yet so we hiked/slid down the huge prairie hill down from JP… The whole adventure was very fun! 

Week 7 took me out to the Mighty Mississippi again, though this time with 8^th graders and canoes.  It was a blast was right up there as my favorite along with weeks 2 and 3.  I only had four campers (all incredible girls) and worked with Katie, Elise and Bryce (after Ross had to leave us due to ear infections in both his ears).  We spent Sunday-Tuesday afternoon on camp and then were at Blackhawk Campground from Tuesday until Thursday afternoon when we canoed down river to be picked up in Lansing.  It was a week full of laughter for many reasons…

Watching the campers practice swamping canoes was probably the highlight, so I’ll start there.  We had a few groups of campers who just couldn’t seem to tip their canoes.  One of them was a group of Nick’s (three of the seven boys were named Nick) who literally jumped out of their canoe.  Then we had a girl (Kami) who was turned facing the person paddling in the back of the canoe.  We were yelling out to her to turn around and they were screaming back, “We’re trying!” as they were attempting to turn their canoe around, not Kami herself.  When she finally got the message and turned around she started screaming, “Dead fish!”  We called back that it wouldn’t hurt her since it was dead to which she stood up and screamed, “IT’S ALIVE!”  I am proud to announce however that she rescued the fish by picking it up and dropping it back into the water, though none of us counselors saw it because we were all laughing hysterically on shore.  We also had several campers loose shoes in the foot of muck at the bottom and one of my campers was stuck for ten minutes as my other camper swam the canoe to shore all by herself.

Although we only had 21 campers total, they were horrible at listening and behaving.  The boys were especially bad about lights out at night so finally one night when we heard them goofing off near the outhouse we sent Bryce over to make them to do pushups.  Katie, Elise and I watched from a distance as they all got quiet and acted like they had done nothing wrong and then we laughed as they immediately all dropped to the ground. 

We did a lot of really ridiculous things throughout the course of the week including doing High School Musical style jumps into the pool at 7 am one morning, playing Ship to Shore in the water, duct taping the outside zippers of the tents shut so that we could tell if a camper went to a different tent during the night, eating lots of dry Happy Shapes because no one packed spoons, and singing The Song That Never Ends at talent show.

My four campers and I wore sequenced headbands all week and called ourselves the Fantabulous Five Sparkly Hippies.  They were amazing campers and I was able to have excellent bible studies and devotionals that related directly to them.  It felt great to know that I was providing them with verses and thoughts on problems they are directly dealing with verses just throwing out random bible study passages.  They also loved having my tuck them in at night and actually called me over to their tent one night when I forgot.

Ross had something extra special set up for the campers after worship on Thursday, and although it took longer than we thought, it was amazing!  The labyrinth was set up inside with four different stations to stop at along the path and their counselor sitting in the middle waiting to pray with them.  Each cabin went separately while the others sat outside of the RC listening to various stories.  The atmosphere inside the room was amazing… It was dark except for candles (which smelled good as well) and there was some really soothing music playing…  It was even an amazing experience for me even though I didn’t even walk through it and was just sitting in the middle.  This and Spirit Worship are both things I definitely plan on remembering and using in the future.

There were a lot of lasts week 7… My last week with my own campers, my last Christ Hike (I was the man with the withered hand and a disciple for the 5^th time this summer), my last Christmas cards, my last week on camp, and my last cabin cleaning…  Some of it (like the latter) won’t be missed… But most of it will be…

Oh and I forgot something else really important about week 7… I didn’t shower all week!  YEY!!!

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)! 

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)  

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!