Week Seven: Traveling through history!

We're already done with week 7 and in some ways it seems like we just got started and in other ways it feels like we've been with these campers for years. This week we traveled through history learning all about our past, how America came to be and the heritage we have in the faith. We were blessed to have an awesome volunteer group here from City Refuge Church! They were a huge help and we are so thankful for them. 

This week we packed in all sorts of activities from making homemade ice cream, building forts, playing dress up, learning new gym games, playing with the parachute, making colonial cookies, learning new facts, and going on some great field trips!

This week we went to Miss Stephanie's church to watch a movie and have snacks! It was a fun relaxing afternoon to escape the heat. We also cooled off at the Concourse Fountains which is always a blast. Clay County Parks and Rec hosted us for our Friday Field Trip and we had so much fun with the interns and the park rangers. They taught us how to fish, shoot bows and arrows, and even let us check out their wildlife. The campers loved all of it...even touching the snakes!

We are excited to jump into our final week of City Camp for the 2011 season. Please be praying that God really works in the lives of the campers as we wind down and they gear up for school.

Week Six: Around the World Week (07-25-11)

The 6th week of City Camp was 'Around the World' week!  Each day of the week we picked a different part of the world to study.  Monday we studied Australia, Tuesday – Asia, Wednesday – France, and Thursday -  Africa. 

Some of the activities that we did through the week were painting animals from Australia, learning how to speak and write some basic Chinese, and tribal – African face painting. 

On Wednesday we made Eiffel Towers during devotions and talked about having a strong foundation in the Lord. 

 

Friday we took a field trip to the Kansas City Zoo to see all of the animals from around the world.  Thank you Kansas City Zoo for sponsoring a trip for City Camp!

A big thanks to Shawnee Mission Park!  We were able to go to the park for an afternoon and have a fun fill outdoor recreation time.  

Thanks so much to Cleveland YMCA for providing a fun filled recreation afternoon in their gym and pool!  Our City Camp kids loved it!  

New Life Community Church brought their high school youth group for a week at City Camp.  Thanks so much New Life for ministering with us for a week.

Week Five: Celebrating Holidays!

Each day of the week we picked a different holiday to celebrate. Monday we celebrated Thanksgiving, Tuesday - Christmas, Wednesday - Valentines Day, Thursday - Easter, and Friday we all got to pretend like it was OUR BIRTHDAY!

One afternoon we celebrated a new Holiday every 45 minutes!  It was an fun time for the kids. That afternoon we celebrated Cinco De Mayo, Grandparent's Day, New Years, and the 4th of July. 

Some of the activities we did throughout the week were decorating Christmas trees, making gingerbread houses, making piñatas, recording audio books for our grandparents, making valentines for our friends, and so much more. 

A huge thanks to the 'North Kansas City Community Center'  for allowing us to come use their awesome facilities to swim with the campers. They really enjoyed it and can't wait for the opportunity to go back! 'River Roll' stepped up to help us make Birthday Day a fun party for everyone and gave us a reduced rate to take the campers roller skating. Thanks so much River Roll!

This week many of the VYC staff and summer staff were down at Camp CUMCITO, which made it crucial that we had a great volunteer group to help make this week function. We were so blessed to have an awesome youth group called 'Set Apart' from 'Potter's House' in Fayetteville, Arkansas. 

'Potters House' is a ministry for at-risk students and families in Fayetteville. They serve students from kindergarten through high school with small group Bible studies, one-on-one mentoring, tutoring, extra-curricular activities, and life-on-life involvement.

'Set Apart' is a group of High School students who are committed to learning what it looks like to be a true disciple of Jesus. It was fun and beautiful to watch our kids get to learn and build relationships with young adults who have been through similar situations as them and by the grace of God have been OVERCOMERS and are now walking with Jesus!   

You can check out 'Potters House' by visiting their their website here.

Week Four: Carnival Time!

 

This week Green Acres Baptist Church joined us from Tyler, Texas!  They have several teams serving in various ways around City Union Mission.  

One team from Green Acres is at City Camp with our campers, while their ministry team went out on Monday and canvassed area apartment complexes and neighborhoods, handing out 1000 invitations to a community carnival.   

On Tuesday afternoon the ministry team and work crew from Green Acres set up an incredible free carnival for the community!  They served for several hours, cooking hotdogs, setting up pop-bottle ring-toss, a cake walk, face painting, snow cones, and 4 inflatables!  

When the City Camp and community families arrived at the carnival the kids loved it!  The huge water slide inflatable was very popular!  The families were able to get connected with City Union Mission’s programs such as the Community New Life program, the Vanderberg Youth Center, and Camp CUMCITO.  Thank you so much Green Acres for sponsoring an incredible carnival!

Week Three: Dr. Seuss Camp!

We had 62 campers join us this week!  Our teen girls spent their week at Camp CUMCITO.  Each day the campers had recreation, crafts, reading, and education all themed with Dr. Seuss.  We made Seuss characters and “oobleck” one day.  And of course we had green eggs and ham!  

The kids got to learn more about the Bible and Jesus through devotions each day.  

This week we had volunteers join us from Harvest Ridge Covenant Church .  Thanks so much to Shawnee Mission Park for our field trip one afternoon!  The students loved playing at the park.  

On Friday, the younger campers took a field trip to Air Zone where they got to play on inflatables and the older campers went to Dickenson Theaters.  Thank you to Air Zone and Dickenson Theaters for hosting us! 

Week Two: Legacy Camp

During Week 2 of City Camp we had 55 campers.  It was exciting to be able to send off 25 kids from City Camp to Camp CUMCITO this week.  We had tons of fun with our volunteers from Legacy Camp.  They put together a wonderful week of arts for the campers.  

Each morning the campers had a group worship time and Bible study in the afternoon.  During the day the campers were able to draw, paint, make jewelry, dance, and play guitar, make model airplanes, bake, act and much, much more!  

Legacy Camp made it possible for the campers to show off their art to their families at the Friday night banquet were the campers performed their acts, songs, and dances.  The campers had so much fun!  Thank you Legacy Camp! 
  

Week One: Ahoy Matey! It's Pirate Week!

We had an awesome week!  The 82 campers that attended learned about who God is.  They also had tons of fun by participating in all sorts of pirate adventures. We made awesome crafts, played games, learned cool stories from the Bible and went on great field trips. We are so thankful to Sherwood Bible Church for allowing us to use their pool for the campers to enjoy. Another huge shout out to Bump City at the GAGE Center for allowing all 100 campers and staff to enjoy a great day at their facilities for free! We also took students to Kaleidoscope, the Crown Center fountains, and Concourse Park.  Of course we couldn't have done it without the wonderful volunteers from Willow Creek Baptist Church from Heppner, Oregon that helped us this week!  Thanks to all that made the first week of City Camp a BLAST!

What is City Camp?

City Camp is an 8 week summer day camp for low income and homeless families in Kansas City. It offers programming Monday - Friday, 9:00 am - 4:00 pm.

Each week has a new theme presented that consists of devotions, educational activities, recreation, crafts, swimming, field trips, lunch, snacks, and lots of other fun activities. 

We are excited to have 75 campers enrolled this year!

Volunteers can serve in various roles at City Camp. Some will serve as counselors leading their team of campers through each activity; others will serve as cooks helping to prep snacks and meals; some will serve as rec staff leading ativities; but everyone will get the privilege of loving on the campers.