Week 10 – Imagination

We were excited to still have an average of 70 kids and youth joining us for the last week of City Camp 2013!  Staff, interns, and campers were all exhausted by the time we said goodbye to the summer and sent kids back into their schools.  The week was full of cheers, hugs, and sad goodbyes, but we are all excited to hear and see these campers grow in their communities.  Our memories will hold strong throughout the school year because we have had a summer full of living life with these wonderful students. 

In our last week hanging out with our campers, our younger kids enjoyed the 4H Fair in Johnson County and our older campers spent a good deal of time playing all of their favorite gym games.  Red and Orange Crews competed in a few events such as dodge ball, won by Orange Crew, and basketball, won by Red Crew.  These crews also learned about outlines in reading.  We did a good deal of hard work, but we also had a lot of fun. 

A special thanks to Rob from the Kansas City Public Library and to Priscilla Howe for joining us to give our camper an engaging reading experience.   Thanks to Stacy Boline for taking two afternoons off work to come and lead cooking and baking classes with our teenage girls. They learned a lot and got to taste some really awesome food! Thanks to our City Camp Summer Staff for investing long and tiring hours at work to make programs happen. 

Thanks to Sherwood Bible Church, the Vivian Road YMCA, and the Platte County YMCA for opening your pools to us all summer.  Thanks to Amanda and her amazing life guards for being SO welcoming to our kids and to working with our campers on swim lessons.  We saw more than one temporary tattoo and swim goggles given to students in swim lessons on at SuperSplash on Friday!  Also, a shout out to our boys Sauce Remix and Hizway for bringing the beats to our facilities and allowing our kids to rock out in a concert.  Sauce, thanks for being so generous with your new CD and posters.  I’m sure our campers, and staff, will be greatly enjoying your rhymes in the months to come. 

This summer, we accomplished a lot.  We had a lot of fun.  We learned a lot.  We read a lot.  We wrote a lot.  We learned about God a lot.  We learned about each other a lot.  If you can’t tell the summer was a lot about ‘we’.  We did a lot together.  The best part of our summer is that we, staff and campers, spent hours upon hours living life together.  We created memories that will last for years to come and our lives have been impacted by the stories of the campers that shared the summer with us.  So, we, the staff, have to say a huge thanks to the campers that brought smiles to our faces and joy to our hearts.  So, to our campers, thanks!

Week 9 - Legacy Camp & Explore KC

The ninth week of City Camp was as full as ever.  With the 12-17 year olds participating in a week long fine arts camp, the younger children got to spend the week exploring the city that they live in.  These children got to enjoy feeding the goats at Deanna Rose Farms, making their own money at the Money Museum, creating sculptures at the Nelson Atkins Museum of Fine Art, and playing at parks.

At Crown Center, students went through the Hallmark Museum and played at the Curious George Exhibit.  They also made fun and crazy craft creations, from cards to watercolor butterflies to puzzles, at the every so popular Kaleidoscope.  On Friday, the students explored the waters of CoCo Keys.  They spent the day swimming through the lazy river and chasing one another with lots of laughing and splashing.  They climbed the stairs to ride the slides time and time again and they played water basketball with their friends.  Explore KC was quite the adventure for our faithful young children.

While our younger children were out of the building most of the week, our 12 to 17 year olds were hanging out with a group that we like to call Legacy.  Legacy spends one week every summer hanging out with some of our students and invests hours and time teaching them all sorts of fine arts.  The group comes from a church in Wichita, Kansas and the camp they run is called Legacy Camp.  Our students have grown to love their staff and their camp over the past four years.  They look forward to seeing old friends and learning more of what Legacy brings with them. 

This year was special for Legacy.  Students get to sign up for the classes they want to take and for the first time ever, most of our students signed up for the same class, Step.  It turned in to one very large group learning three different parts to an impressive step routine. After Step, some students went to drama, some to music, some to flying things and some to baking.  Karate, spoken word, and painting were also part of the classes presented.

The best part of Legacy Week comes on Friday evening at the Ice Cream Social, when our students invite their families to come watch them perform the activities that they have worked SO hard to learn.  There is lots of clapping and cheering from peers, parents and staff as the kids show the talents that they worked hard all week to learn and improve on. 

The music group performed a song, which they wrote every part to, from guitar chords, to drum beats, to lyrics.  The Karate group broke boards with their palms and elbows.  The Flying Things Class wowed us with their balsa wood planes that fly with the twisting and releasing of a propeller attached to a rubber band.  The baking group let everyone sample their fine desserts.  The drama group made us all laugh with their improv and our friend Taylor stole the show with his funny and quirky one liners.   The painting group had their work on display for each of us to view.  The Spoken Word class had us laughing hard, thinking deeply and understanding more of who they were through beautifully crafted words. With all of the amazing things that took place that evening, the best part of the entire night was watching a 45 person step group rock the gym with their routine. We ended our week eating ice cream and saying goodbye to our faithful friends from Legacy. 

Week 8 - Sports Week

Attention ladies and gentlemen:  City Camp has rounded third base and is heading for the home stretch!  Week eight, Sports week, sprung into action in a big way.  When we say big, we don’t mean in the sense of numbers.  All the younger students were away at Camp CUMCITO, leaving just the oldest of our bunch at City Camp. 

We kicked off the week with a tour of the most amazing stadium that any of us had ever seen -- Sporting KC Stadium.  Students learned about game suites, the pipes that run under the field, and the reasons that the builders chose to do various architectural ideas.  They learned about how the field is versatile and can be used for various sports as well as concerts.  It is amazing that KC has such a well thought out stadium. 

Throughout the week, the Blue Crew got to do many special activities.  They walked to parks, watched movies, and made T-Shirts using a basketball. Their gym time was full of sports games like Chinese Fire Drill Basketball and Four Corners Soccer.  They read about a baseball team made all of brothers and about other sporting events throughout history along with some fictional stories.  On Friday, during the memory verse challenge many Blue Crew members could be seen proudly wearing the shirts they had created earlier in the week. 

The Red and Orange Crews read about Jackie Robinson and the obstacles that he had to overcome.  They discussed values that Jackie used in his life and they all worked hard to present one of the nine values in a fun way.  They did skits, they rapped, and they worked hard to make their presentations fun and entertaining to watch.  At the same time, they informed each of us what their value was and how we can put it in to practice today.  They used the discussions on barriers and values from throughout the first three days to write essays about barriers that they face. From homelessness, to absent fathers, to fear, they poured their hearts into their writing and they thought creatively about how to overcome those obstacles both today and in the future. 

Sports week opens up some powerful opportunities to hear what God has to say to His children about training hard.  Our theme verse for the week was 1 Corinthians 9:25-27, which talks about training with purpose.  We discussed the weight of sin and how heavy things keep us from running well.  God has given us a path to follow through His word, and sin weighs us down and bring bondage, but the good news of the Gospel is that Christ died to relieve us of that burden of sin.  The Armor of God lead into a discussion about the spiritual war that is going on every day.  We also talked about uniforms and who’s team we are playing on.  Our crews were asked to think hard about which jersey they are wearing, Christ’s or the world’s?  They were asked to consider how they were representing Christ’s team if that’s the jersey they were wearing. 

The best part of the week, by far, was having a local hip-hop artist, SAUCE REMIX, join us to discuss rap as a positive influence.  It’s amazing to see him discuss the history of rapping and the ways in which it has changed over the years.  Sauce grew up in KC and had his life radically changed by the message of Christ’s redeeming love.  He knows what our students face each day because he’s been there and he’s very real with our students about where life in the streets can lead.  The best part of the entire week is watching him encouraged our students to write positive raps that could impact their city.  On Wednesday afternoon, we hooked up the sound system, cranked some beats and spit some rhymes to the sound of cheers from our fellow Crew members.  The messages of our students was to be understanding to people in hard situations, stop violence, stay in school, and represent Christ.  They left our hearts with hope for the future of Kansas City. 

Week 7 – Let’s Roll!

Campers got to learn about ways to get from one place to another during our Transportation Week. It was a fun week with all our campers and staff back in the city after time at Camp CUMCITO. From feet to trains, we packed the week with all kinds of activities and field trips. We started the week off with a visit from a pilot who helped the younger campers understand how things fly and answered questions for the older campers about what it takes to become a pilot and what it’s like to fly planes. Campers also got to enjoy watching “Happy Feet” at Cinemark Merriam.

It was a hot week, so it was a great blessing to be able to swim at Platte County Community Center North YMCA, Sherwood Bible Church Public Swimming Pool, and Vivion Road YMCA—thanks so much for letting us come play! We had two guest readers for our younger campers: Mr. Rob from the Kansas City Public Library Outreach Team, and Ms. Carrie who helps us out with so many parts of our youth programs. Thanks to both of them for encouraging our campers to read and grow their minds. In keeping with the theme, we took a field trip to Union Station to get an up close look at the trains. Finally, we toured the Kansas Speedway, which was an incredible experience for everyone who got to come. Thanks to the staff at the Speedway for being so generous with their time and for allowing us to see so many cool things.

We’re continuing to offer breakfast, a snack, and lunch to every camper. It’s good to know that during the summer when school is out, these kids are still getting nutritious meals twice a day. During the month of June alone, we served a total of 2,539 meals to our campers! It takes a lot of work to provide this part of City Camp. Thanks to Ms. Kalie and the other staff and volunteers who step in each week to make sure these meals run smoothly.

With the end of the summer drawing near, we’re starting to feel the long days take a toll on our energy level. Please pray for each of the staff to find rest and that God would be our strength when we are weary. Thanks to each of our interns and many volunteers who spend their days showing Jesus’ love to all of the campers! It takes so many people to make City Camp happen and we are grateful for everyone who lends a hand.