Ali Ballweg

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.

This week I was on the Wagoneer’s program, which meant that I was in the farthest village on camp and lived in a covered wagon for the week.  I had 5 girls going into 5th and 6th grade (Alanna, Lauren, Bronte, Alana and Kaitlyn) and they were awesome!  They were all friendly, went to bed easily, never got homesick, and were great helpers… I’m definitely praising God for blessing me with such awesome campers the first week.  I also worked with some awesome people this week with having ED, Phil and Kyle in the other wagons and Bryce, Manda and Jenna coming out to help us with every meal.    

Oh yeah, we cooked almost all our meals over the fire, either in a frying pan or dutch oven, in our individual wagons.  This meant that I not only improved my cooking skills, but also my fire building skills.  Sadly most of the time it took 20-30 minutes fore me to get a good fire going because it kept dying out.  However, one morning it only took 2 matches and a few minutes and I was so proud of it!  We also got lucky a lot of the time because scheduling was tight and we were late for meals so our fires would already be started for us when we got back from horses or nature (a big thank you to all you who helped with that).  We participated in a huge variety of activities this week including: Nature (my girls had a blast catching frogs), Arts and Crafts (they made bird houses), pool parties, bible study, an all camp game that was similar to Romans and Christians but way more complicated, the Challenge Course, the Christ Hike (I was a disciple!), electives (I led parachute games), campfires, horse riding (twice- the second time in the rain), and hiking… Just to name a few   

We had some good weather this week, but we also had a lot of rain and even some storms.  For the most part the rain held off until nighttime, but on Tuesday it rained in the evening, canceling electives and sending us to the barn to do some skits instead and Thursday it rained a lot from mid-morning until mid-afternoon, soaking my girls and I as we rode horses for an hour.  Then on Thursday night a big storm rolled in and around 10 we were told to end the campfire and get all our campers inside the wagons.  I had just gotten all my girls tucked in and was telling them a story (I made up stories about a family of woodchucks every night to put them to sleep) when a van pulled up outside our wagon and Jillian jumped out and told us to get in because we needed to head to the storm shelter.  There was some panicking in our wagon for a few moments, but surprisingly they calmed down and were in the van in just a few minutes (the whole camp made it to safety within 15 minutes of us getting news of the Tornado Warning).  Somehow we packed all 21 campers, 4 counselors, and then Karsten and Jillian into one van and raced our way down the bumpy and muddy valley (Jake was shocked when we told him we had everyone and didn’t need to send the van back for more people).  Once we got everyone in the brand new storm shelter (which made it very uncomfortable because there was construction stuff everywhere and the cement floor was super cold) we lead some silly songs and told some stories for about an hour.  It was almost midnight by the time my girls finally got back to the wagon and to sleep so I let them sleep in Friday.  

All in all I had a great first week, although I am tired and sick (I barely have a voice because of the combination of being sick and singing/shouting all the time).  I am very much looking forward to this week because I will be on River Boats and will be co-counseling 10 high school girls with Kathryn!    

I spent my only day off, last Saturday, playing guitar, doing laundry, and going to the Culvers in Viroqua with a group of people (we got lost on the way home, but it was a fun ride and I felt like we were in the mountains).  Then Sunday we all had to wake up early and go to different churches to lead worship.  My group went to a tiny country church called Northwest Prairie and I played guitar publically for the first time!

 The week was filled with session after session of information; From emergency procedures to tough questions with guest pastors, to dealing with homesickness and wandering children.  We also got acquainted with the nature center, horses, arts and crafts, and canteen.  We did the first run through of the Christ Hike (which is a one hour drama of Jesus’ life that we act out for the campers every Thursday evening), and it went pretty well, with only a few parts where we couldn’t help laughing- Like when Jesus made the raise the roof sign when coming across the lake in a canoe, when the guards knocked Peter down a little too hard, and when Jesse took off leaping through the woods in an attempt to not get arrested.  Oh we also did this awesome thing called Spirit Worship in which people are blindfolded and through auditory and tactile senses, experience a little bit of what Jesus went through.  It was very powerful and definitely made me look at Christ’s love and sacrifice in an even deeper way.  We had overnights one night this week and I was in the Pathfinder Village and we slept in the platform tents.

While my group was sitting outside the nature center, Tipper (the donkey around here who makes some obnoxious sounds) ran past with Bryce (the wrangler) right behind.  Not too far from us, Bryce wrestled Tipper to the ground and then four guys from our group ran over and held him down until Bryce came back with the halter and lead rope.  It was seriously the funniest thing I’ve seen since being here.  However something else that was really funny was The Middle School Dance… On Friday night we all dressed up in middle school clothes, danced to the likes of N’Sync and Backstreet Boys, and created a lot of drama for Karsten, who was acting as chaperon.  It was great fun!

Next week I will be a Wagoneer counselor, meaning that I will be staying in the covered wagons located on the farthest end of camp, cooking all my wagons’ meals over the fire.  I will have five girls, going into 5^th and 6^th grade.  ED (Elizabeth Dalton) is the village leader and Kyle and Phil are the other counselors.  I’m a little nervous about the cooking and being so far from running water and electricity, but I’m excited for all that I will experience and I am also definitely grateful to have only five girls when I could have eight.  We’re going to have a great time and I am so excited to write all about it next weekend!

I arrived safely at Sugar Creek on Monday afternoon and less ten minutes after arriving a deer jumped across my path.  The wildlife here is amazing and within my first 24 hours on camp I saw two more deer (one a baby and one that stunk up on me when I was spending some quiet time by the pond), ate dinner next to some hummingbirds that were eating theirs at a feeder, and met the family of woodchucks that lives near the nature center. 

Everyone I’ve met here is super nice and some of the people that I’ve been spending the most time with are my family group (we’re the Blue Barracudas) and my room group.  At then end of campfire worship ever night we are invited to “share the peace,” which I figured was shaking hands like in church, but here it’s hugging and though at first I thought it was weird since I didn’t know anyone, but I really enjoy it now.

Staff training has been really busy, with different sessions and events filling every minute of the day.  Some of the things we’ve done this week are learning a lot of worship songs, planning bible studies, cooking over the fire, doing the challenge course as a family group, learning about Lutheran Theology, making and performing skits, hiking to Jesus Point, learning about the horses, pool and bikes, going to a speaker in LaCrosse, going on a canoe trip on the Mississippi and hosting EWALU (another Bible Camp) overnight.  

The internet is really slow here so sadly I am not able to post my pictures yet… However, I am planning on going into town sometime next weekend, so I will post them then.  

Have a great week and GOD BLESS  

In less than 24 hours I will be starting my summer at Sugar Creek Bible Camp as a counselor.  I am really excited because I know God is going to use it to draw me and my campers closer to Him, but I am of course also sad to be leaving Winona.  I will only have phone and internet use on the weekends but you should definitely still leave me messages and I’ll get back to you then.  I’ll also be posting on here photos, stories, and things I’ve learned and felt God place on my heart during each week.  So look back every Saturday for those!   Have a great summer all and God Bless You!