Pilgrim Youth Camp 2008

The highlight of my summer is still Pilgrim Youth Camp. It's a tradition I hope to pass on for many more generations. The past couple of years Pilgrim Youth Camp has been growing in number. Last year we broke our record and had 176 campers.

On a personal level, I'm involved in taking photos throughout the week. I have them developed nearly every day and then sell them to the campers. It seems to be something they really enjoy. I believe this year we sold about 200 pictures. The night of the banquet can be a bit overwhelming with trying to take so many pictures in a short period of time, but it's a lot of fun! I am usually involved with Bible Bowl too. This year I was a quizmaster. The experience is amazing... to see kids who have studied so hard get so involved! Our staff, specifically Ruth Nichols, has been on the cutting edge of adapting Bible Bowl to still be fun and relevant, even after many years of using this game among our youth. In recent years we have started inserting bonus questions from the evangelist's evening messages. These kids really are intent upon listening and then being able to answer the questions, sometimes even before the full question is given. Amber studied hard this year, but we had no idea she would be at the top of the list as far as points earned in Bible Bowl. I knew her good friend, Amber Petty, was certainly earning a lot of points for her team. So whenever President Zeigler announced the 2nd place winner as.... Amber--- I just automatically assumed it was Amber Petty. Anyways, we were pleasantly surprised to find out Amber Plemmons had come in second place, receiving a gift certificate to Wal-mart. And we were very excited that Amber Petty came in 1st, as Amber Petty is 19 and this is her last year.

More than any of these things, was the awesome sense of God's presence among our young people, many who are street kids who are in need of so much love and attention. The Tuesday night service has been talked about a lot, as it lasted around 4 hours. Some serious conversions took place. It was great to see some of them back at Family Camp testifying to how they had gone home and witnessed to their unsaved family members.

This year was extra special to me because my sister brought her son, Carson, to join us for the week of youth camp. He is only 11, so wasn't able to be a camper this year, but I thought it would kind of prepare him for if he was able to come next year. We had so much fun with him. He's such a good kid!! He really enjoyed himself.

Here are a few photos of my family. There will be many others available for viewing on the Pilgrim website.

1. Amber and the annual first night tug-of-war. 2. Clayton and Carson with those classic Pixie Sticks. 3. It was pretty cool, Carson and Clayton were asked to show the campers how to do this afterglow event of holding a ball between their arms without touching it with their hands. It was a relay activity. 4. Carson, Ryan Burley and Clayton 5. With Amber 6. Carson and Clayton, ready for the banquet set up for the "staff's kids". 7. Amber trying to get out an answer for Bible Bowl (Brandon Petty on right.) 8. Bro. Zeigler and Amber 9. Amber with her date (Seth Fish) for the banquet