Unpacking Time at Camp

We'll admit, it is a little early in the summer to start talking about unpacking camp, but since we just had our first Intro campers return home, it's an important topic to cover. We want to share some ways to connect with your children after they have had a powerful camp experience.

Look at Pictures

We just launched our photo website where you can browse pictures of the session of camp your child attended, as well as purchase prints. Look through the pictures and let them tell you the "who, what, where, when, and why". While they won't know all of the details of every picture, catching a glimpse of an activity instructor or a place on camp can spark their memory of more details and start more conversations. Hopefully through these conversations you will gain a greater glimpse into their time at HoneyRock. 

Use Conversation Starters and Links

Below you will find two separate conversation starters that you can use to connect with your child on their camp experience. The first was created by HoneyRock parents while the second by HoneyRock staff. Click on the following conversation starters to begin great conversations with your children.

• Reflections on My Time at Camp (PDF)
• HoneyRock Camp Transition Home (PDF)

Do something active and/or let them teach you.

Maybe your child learned how to make a campfire or how to kayak for the first time. Allow them to show you what they learned by engaging in that particular activity. This will show them that you are interested in what they learned at camp. This method is particularly useful for children who have a hard time talking about things.

If possible, plan on coming to Family Day.

Parents and caregivers are the primary transfer agents for the campers. It is your role to help your children figure out how to bring the learning and life change from the temporary community back home (the "permanent" community). Coming to Family Day will help you experience what has happened in the life of your child(ren). 

What happens?

• Eat at a cook-out on the front lawn
• Participate in one-on-ones with your child's counselor
• Go to a meeting for parents to get to know the director and other staff
• Visit "open house" style activities for campers to show their parents activity areas
• Watch the Rodeo & Waterski show featuring campers who have worked in these areas

Why come?

• Learn firsthand what happened in your child's life this summer as you experience HoneyRock for a day
• Meet one-on-one with your child’s counselors, allowing you to hear about the specific ways that your child was challenged and grew while at HoneyRock
• Begin the process of connecting with your child’s experience and applying it to life back home

We pray the day will also deepen relationships with the Lord as experiences and stories are shared that glorify Him for what He has done in the lives of people through HoneyRock. Interested? Register here for your Family Day. 

Saturday Snapshot

It's been a busy couple of days around here! There are so many moving parts of camp at this point that we thought giving a brief snapshot of each program would be a good catch-up.

Intro Camp

We just said goodbye to our Intro campers this morning. It was a crazy fun-filled week of experiencing new things with our 3-5th grade campers: eating yummy meals in Chrouser, singing at Zacco, buying candy from the BeeHive, diving into the Word in Cabin Impacts, sitting around a campfire telling stories...not to mention the time visiting all the activities HoneyRock has to offer! Talk about a busy week!

Make sure to see Monday's post about how to unpack your camper's week at HoneyRock!

Strutting their stuff during this year's Olympic Fest

Res Camp

To all of our Res Campers out there, we are SO pumped for you to be up at camp and finally meet you! Our first session begins this Monday (click for drop-off details). The counselors are busy this weekend resting up, planning, and doing the much needed laundry-run into town.

Camper Worship - looking forward to do the same with this year's campers!

Advance Camp

The boys have been out on trip since Tuesday afternoon and will arrive back at camp sometime today! They will spend the next two weeks in camp where daily bible studies, activity time, group worship, campfires and more occupies their time.

Yesterday, the girls went rafting on the Wolf River! They made it back in time for the ski show and the cook-out on the lawn. They are busy today doing laundry before they go on trip this Monday. After a busy week of being in camp, they are ready to get out into the wilderness to experience creation and all God has to teach them there.

The "Protons" make a rainy day bright with their colorful jackets.

2:22

2:22's counselors just returned from their final training trip! This Monday about 60 2:22ers come to camp, ready to engage in activity areas, a wilderness trip, service opportunities, and delve deeper into their faith through daily group bible study, evening hot topic discussions, and guided personal quiet times. 

Service Team

Service Team spent their first days at camp doing get-to-know-you type initiatives with their cabins. They have also made the Olympic Parade epic, helped run our big Olympic Fest, and set up camp for our first Family Day of the summer. Service Team also turned Chrouser into an Olympic Banquet Hall, complete with real canoes, kayaks, streamers, archery targets and more for our Intro Campers - it looked great!

Service Teamers just left on trip yesterday, and will soon return! Once they are back at camp, job rotations will begin, working on and off camp to focus on others-oriented service.

Service Teamers ready to start Olympic Fest with the parade

AC's:

Our AC's had their first taste on life on the other side of the camper/staff line as they counseled their first cabins this week. JD, a long time HoneyRocker, remarked how great it is to go through all of the HoneyRock programs - a camper in Res Camp, Advance Camp, and 2:22, catching a glimpse of how camp is run through Service Team, and then making the switch to counseling as an AC. This is exactly what we love to hear! It's been awesome to see JD and others like him grow through the programs.

JD plays on the watermat with one of his campers

Stop back here on Monday to read a few tips about unpacking your camper's HoneyRock experience!

Meet Isaiah: Sailing Instructor

Meet Isaiah, our Sailing Instructor! In the States, Isaiah calls Lancaster, PA home, but has lived in Dakar, Senegal for most of his life. He's pumped to be up at camp this summer for his third HoneyRock experience. After Isaiah participated in Passage, he knew that he wanted to spend more time in this place. 

We asked Isaiah about his favorite part of working at HoneyRock, and he told us that apart from the community, he loves watching the mist over the quiet water in the early mornings before 5am.

Isaiah is at HoneyRock this summer after feeling a strong draw back to the place where he grew in Passage and counseled Advance Camp men. He says, "I know that this fits with the person God made me to be and my desire to bring people together in community...it all comes together to work well in this environment. I'm here to love and serve, all to the glory of God."

Isaiah shows the "Mojo Monkeys" a sail

Intro Camp girls listen as Isaiah explains parts of the boat

Make your way to Family Day!

Already planning on coming to Family Day? Register here!

One week from today HoneyRock will celebrate the first Family Day of 2013. Families of many Intro campers will visit to see everything their children have explored and learned. This day is a “hands on” way to catch a glimpse of what your camper experienced in their time at HoneyRock – meet cabin-mates and counselors, visit activity areas, watch the Rodeo and Ski Show, and sit down to a good cook-out.

More importantly, it’s an opportunity to learn how to help your child bring what they learned in this transitional community (camp) to their permanent community (home). We realize it’s a big investment to send your child to camp, and we want to maximize that valuable investment. Friday, June 28, we ask parents (and especially younger siblings!) of Intro campers to join us at 2pm to begin the afternoon!

Katie (Swim Instructor '12) presents a camper with her Swimming Masters award.

We have a couple requests to keep the day fun for everyone:

• Please do not bring your dog - we do not allow dogs at HoneyRock, and we thank you for helping us uphold that policy.
• HoneyRock is a place apart and we ask that people not use cell phones in the main areas of camp. While we understand that your work may require you to be accessible by cell phone, please take advantage of this opportunity to unplug and fully engage in the HoneyRock experience! You will miss out if you spend the day on your phone!
• Leaving with parents at the end of Family Day is strongly discouraged. We cannot stress enough the value of the camper's last night with his/her cabin. Therefore, it is our expectation that your child remain at camp until the morning after Family Day.

Again, if you are planning to come to Family Day, please register online!

 To see a schedule of the afternoon and learn more details of Family Day, visit our website.

Are You Ready?

Our Assistant Counselors got to camp this afternoon and Intro and Advance campers will arrive one week from today! We're so excited to finally welcome campers to HoneyRock for the summer.

Preparing for camp can be a stressful time for parents and campers - sometimes what should be a time of excitement is overshadowed by a cloud by anxiety. However, it doesn't have to be that way! Here are 5 simple things parents can do to better prepare their children for camp and lower the stress level of the transition.

 1. Set some goals and expectations:

Talk to your child about camp and what it's all about. Watch the videos on the website.  Talk to other families who have been to HoneyRock before. While you can't prepare your children for everything, you can give them some idea of what to expect. It will also give you a good opportunity to set some goals for camp.

Some sample goals:

• I want to do Solid Rock Club.
• I want to get an Intermediate in Sailing.
• I want to become friends with 3 new people - kids not from my school or church.

2. Practice being away from home:

We highly recommend this for new campers who are going away to camp for the first time. Have your child do an overnight at Grandma and Grandpa's house or another close friend's house without you. This will give them some experience in being away from home before they head off to camp.

3. Begin praying about camp:

Set aside some time at meals or before bed to pray about camp. Pray for your child's cabin mates, their counselors, the bus ride up to camp, the Bible studies they will participate in, the activities they will do, and for safety while they are at camp.

4. Don't make promises you can't or don't intend to keep.

As parents we often make little promises to our children in order to alleviate their fears before they leave for camp. It can be devastating to a camper if those promises aren't met. Some examples:

• Don't promise you'll be at Family Day if you aren't planning on it.
• Don't tell your child they have $100 in their Beehive account.
• Don't promise they will know everyone in their cabin.
• Don't tell you child that you come and pick them up if they don't like camp.
• Don't tell them it won't rain and that there are no bugs.

5. Read through the Information Packet.

The Information Packet contains packing lists, transportation information, as well as forms to have ready before you arrive for bus check-in. Download the PDF Information Packet for your child's session. 

Meet Regan, Wilderness Skills Instructor

Let us introduce you to our Wilderness Instructor, Regan Jamieson. Originally from Kansas, Regan just graduated from Central College in Pella, Iowa. After hearing about camp from a friend, Regan decided to check it out for herself.

Why did you decide to serve at HoneyRock this summer?

 I have found myself at HoneyRock for several reasons but above all, I am in this place because God wants me to be here. The more time I spend at HoneyRock, the more apparent it becomes that the Lord knows me better than I do. I need a place to transition, a place where Christ is the center and the focus, a place where I can be supported, loved, cared, prayed for and challenged by those whose lives are devoted to Jesus. Based on those needs…I would say that HoneyRock is just the place I need to be.

What do you love most about your activity area, Wilderness Skills?

 I experience and come to know more of God through His creation, both nature and people. Graduating with a Biology and Secondary Education degree, Wilderness Skills is a great way for me to continue my love for learning, educating, and being outdoors. I am most looking forward to guiding campers and all students towards their goals and helping them to see our Creator through His Creation. In my past experiences as a teacher, I most enjoy walking alongside a student in their growth as a person. It is my joy to be a part of the lives of those around me. This is the beauty of being an Activity Staff instructor at HoneyRock. We are given the opportunity to invest, support, serve, and love others every day. 

What are you passionate about?

 I love people and the outdoors because through these things, I experience God. His beauty, renewal, perseverance, the complexity and sometimes arduousness of living the Christian life, the growth we experience through Christ – in all these elements and more I see through nature and biological processes. In people I experience grace, love, forgiveness, wisdom, beautifully broken lives, humility, culture, language, laughter, and fun. I am passionate about my faith. I am passionate about my family and friends. They love and know me just as I am, regardless of my faults and sin. They each bring a different aspect of who I am to the table.

A major part of who I am besides being a daughter of God, is challenging outdoor adventures. I owe most of this to my parents who have continued to trudge my brother and me across the world to remote and wonderfully places to hike, camp, snowboard, and observe wildlife, places such as Yellowstone, Yosemite, the Rockies, Scotland, Zion, and so on. I love this earth and all that inhabits it.

As a follower of Christ, the Lord our God, the creator of all things, I find it my responsibility to preserve such beautiful things that He has made. The mountains, trees, streams, and fields are here for us to enjoy. I pray that I can be a steward and advocate for this planet until my time comes to go home and be with Christ. 

taken by Regan Jameison