12 Tips to Level Up Your Summer Camp Experience

After 17 years of camp, Amber has learned a few things. Listen to 12 tips that will level up your camp experience, making it a powerful week of discipleship. 

Transcript

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Gather round, Kidmen leaders, and be encouraged and equipped as you build the kingdom. Now here's your host, Amber Pike. Welcome back to the Kidmen Huddle. We are talking about one of my most favorite times of the year, summer camp. I think, I did the math, mostly, I think I'm on year 17 of summer camp. I absolutely, I love it. Just the, there's something about camp. There is something about... That five days where kids are just immersed in Jesus. There's something about camp relationships. I don't know what it is about camp, but I have seen over and over again, camp having the power to change hearts and eternities. So I'm a big, big, big camp fan. Obviously, you need to make sure that the camp you are taking your kids to is one that is Bible-based, that it is intentionally discipling and not just fun and games. You can have all the fun for sure, but there needs to be intentionality in it. I love for camps to have every aspect being intentional from the games that they play to free time options, for sure, worship, Bible study, all of those things. You need to find an intentional camp. But with 17 years of camp experience, I've learned a lot. Like so many things that I did right at camp and wrong and wish I had thought of and then did it the next year. So I have got 12 tips for you to help you level up your camp experience. One, you need to start prepping the excitement well before camp. So this could look like a lot of different ways. One year I had stickers for camp. It came with the camp that we were going to. They had stickers. I'm signed up for camp. Great. So much fun. Pictures and videos from last year. I think I take about 500 pictures each camp. A lot of camp pictures on my phone. They are great ways to let the kids who didn't go or maybe weren't old enough to go get really excited for camp. Prep that excitement. Here's What we get to do, here's why, as you're prepping the excitement, make sure you're casting the vision to moms and dads or grandmas and grandpas. Get your whole church excited. Side note, which was not on my list of 12, when you are talking about camp, maybe you're sharing afterwards or you're sharing before you guys go, don't just focus on the fun. Like, it is assumed the kids will have fun at camp. Show your church family the importance of what is happening spiritually. Tell them about the discipleship opportunities, the relationship opportunities. Don't just focus on how fun it was. Trust me. All right, camp tip number two. Know where your kids are at spiritually before you go. Who is saved? Who is running away from God? Who is close to making a decision? When you know where your kids are at spiritually, then you can better prepare for camp. So maybe I have a kid who every single camp is going to, I need to be saved and I'm going to go to the altar call and talk. Okay, no, but you've done this every year. You are saved. We need a conversation. You just want to walk up front. Knowing your kids is important. Maybe this is a situation where, hey, I've got extra people praying because I know this child is so close to making a decision or this child is struggling with this. Hey, will you prayer warriors pray? I've had camp situations where I'm texting at home. Hey, start praying now, guys. Like, Let's do this. Know where they're at spiritually so that you can better prepare for camp, tailoring to that child what to expect. Maybe be prepared to have response time with them or answer questions. Maybe push a little harder to get them thinking. Know where they're at spiritually. Number three, train your leaders on how to do altar call and salvation conversations. Camp mentality, especially for our preteens, can complicate when we are making a response to the gospel, especially an altar call. Think of your group of preteen girls. They want to be together. Everything's a group mentality. And that boy camp counselor, ooh, he's cute. So if we all go together and we say that we're going to accept Christ, we get to go and we get to talk to him. Seen it happen. I love how Centricid Camp started doing their altar calls years ago. I think it is beautiful, wonderful. Love it. No groups. So if a group of girls or boys or kids come and respond, it's not a group conversation. I'm going to talk to all of you all, but we're going to do it individually. I love for the camp to let the church leaders be a part of this conversation because we are the ones with them at home. They will see you for this one week. I know where my kids are at. So involve the church leaders when possible. Do not have it opposite gender. So if a girl responds, she needs to go with a girl leader. This is especially with your camp counselors and maybe even some of your church staff. If you've got teens helping chaperone, same genders. You want another person when you can for security purposes, since it is kind of a sensitive conversation sometimes. If you have open areas... You're not in a closed room together. Maybe you guys are sitting off by that tree over there to where you can have that one-on-one. You're still in eyesight. Not in a room with closed doors with opposite genders. Ever, ever, ever. But train your leaders on how you're doing this. Train them on what your church is doing. I know some churches baptize at camp. I don't like that because me as a parent, quite frankly, I'd be mad at you if you baptized my kid and I wasn't there. Parents should be part of this conversation. Have the conversation with the kid, but then bring in parents. So do your church leaders, any adult or teen chaperone going with you, know how to have these conversations. Train them before. Number four, pack everything and more. If you can think of it, pack it. Plan for every possible scenario that might, could potentially, maybe, possibly happen. I have made it easy for you. If you go to amberpike.org, if you go to church.renewnation.org, go to the blogs, I have a 17 years of learning camp packing list. Now, this doesn't have things like clothes and stuff like that. This is the church stuff. The stuff that is going to make your life as a church group leader, as a chaperone, so much easier. Things that you might not have thought of, like tampons. Not just for girls who are getting their periods, but the smallest size tampon that you can find, if you can find the teen ones, those are really good for nosebleeds. Did you know that? Had a nurse tell me about that. I love break open ice packs. You're going to need them. Extra knee bandages. I always run out of knee bandages. What about Ziploc bags? Trash bags. Laundry detergent. That might sound a little weird, but some kids have medical conditions where they're bedwetting way longer. I mean, fifth, sixth grade. And it's a medical condition. They're on medication. This way, you can discreetly go and take care of it. A small broom. Those kids and their snacks. And then they would be in my room. And then there would be like chip crumbs and cookie crumbs. And then my feet are touching it. So I have a small broom that goes with me. 17 years of camp things. You guys maybe could benefit from it. And then there's a space on there to add your own. So check it out. It'll be linked in here. I also encourage you, make your packing list as you go. So I have a notebook that goes with me to every camp and I write notes. I'm like, ooh, it would be a really good idea to have next year. Then I go and I put my notes on my master list. Trust me, you don't want to get to camp and realize you've forgotten something. You're going to have ideas like nightlights. Have you guys thought of nightlights? Those fifth, sixth grade boys, they're going to say, yes, I would like a nightlight in the bathroom. It's a new place, right? So I just have them. I have all these things. Make your own camp box, camp crate, whatever you want to call it. The church things that need to go that you just might possibly need. Because if you do need them, you're going to be very glad that you have them. Number five, start a vitamin regimen right now. You're around a lot of kids at camp. And kids, as we know, tend to not be very good at keeping their germs to themselves. So usually... By Thursday night, I start to feel like, oh, I'm getting a little something. And then by Friday morning, when I wake up, I'm fighting something. I usually catch a germ at the pool because kids, you guys know exactly what I mean. And then I'm sick. And for me, in the past, it was always camp. And then a couple weeks trying to recover from sickness, moving into VBS. But then I am just special. My doctor called me a unicorn the other day. And I tend to have reactions if I have to go on antibiotics. So then I have more reactions to clear up the reactions from the antibiotic. And then I'm sick at VBS time. And I've had some rough VBSs because I was still sick from camp. Take your vitamins, drink your water, get plenty of rest. And then make sure you're doing it at camp too. So if you have been to the camp facility before and you know that the food doesn't doesn't have a lot of good options for you to eat healthy, bring it with you. I've done that in years past when I was on some pretty stringent diets for health reasons where there wasn't enough protein or fresh fruits and vegetables. So I was bringing it and I would make my smoothies before I went to breakfast and do those things to help keep you healthy so that you can do all that you need to do as a ministry leader. Number six, Happy Meal is wonderful for camp. Whether or not your camp program has a place where you can mail it in, think about maybe just doing the happy mail in advance. So I will print out postcards. I've designed postcards. I will print them out. I will hand them to parents. Hey, here are some postcards. Have it back to me by X date. And I will pass these out to your kids throughout the week and they can receive letters from home. You can also get small group leaders in on this, church leaders, maybe you've got a group of Sunday school ladies or men who would love to pour into these kids. One year I did it for my teens at camp and I made all the boys, their postcard was like a unicorn wearing a tutu, obviously. But it's just a really nice touch. So pre-do your camp happy meal. They'll love it, I promise. Seven, have a back pocket game list. There's going to be some dead time. Maybe you guys have early dinner rotation and the kids didn't like it or they're really hungry. So you're out of there quick and you got 20 minutes until chapel starts. What do you do in these 20 minutes? Kids can find stuff to do on their own, but sometimes that's not the best choice. So have a list of back pocket games that you really don't need many supplies for. Or if you need supplies, have them in your backpack. A good camp backpack. Mine is waterproof because I've learned. Have that list to where you can engage with kids. This is great for relationship building, both from kids to kids and leaders to kids. So I'll give you a quick one. Poison dart frog. Super fun. Super easy. There's no spiritual aspect of this. It is just a fun game while we are waiting for doors to open and for our next thing to hang out together. It's intentional in building relationships. So you get in a circle. One person is in the middle. Their eyes are closed. You pick someone in the circle to be the poison dart frog. The poison dart frog during the game is going to kill off people because poison by doing this, sticking their tongue out that you're making eye contact and sticking your tongue out. So the game plays. The poison dart frog is killing off people by making eye contact and sticking up the tongue. And the person in the middle is trying to guess who is the poison dart frog. So fun. Entertains kids. Have a list of games. Card games are great. I keep them in my backpack. Spot it. Just a deck of cards. How can you engage kids in those downtime moments? Thinking, too, if it's really hot when you're going, if it's going to be extra rainy. What's your plan? Which brings me to number eight. Have some inside options. I've had some camps that were hot. Like kids were passing out from heat strokes hot. So they did not want to run around and play Frisbee at free time. Or we've had some really, really rainy ones where everyone is just done and they're wet and they want to be inside. What are you going to do for inside? Maybe you're going to bring some board games for when it's free time at night. No one wants to be outside. You can play some board games. If you have older kids, Quelf is such a fun game. Maybe you're going to have a bracelet making kit for girls. You don't want to have movies because this is camp and we can do better. But what are some inside games that you could do? Maybe some low impact games too. When kids are just done, they are tired, they have walked, they have ran. Maybe their legs are chafing because they wore the wrong kind of shorts. What are some low impact, some inside options that you can have prepared to make a fun camp experience despite the circumstances? Number nine. Take an extra teen or two. This could also be an adult chaperone. Now, I know. Trust me. Get it. Been there. Done that. I had one camp where the night before, my female chaperone canceled on me. Like, we're leaving in 12 hours. And she's like, no, I won't be there. I cried a lot. And I called so many people. And I got so many no's. And it was a lot. So I get it. Chaperones for camp can be really hard to find. But if you can... And teens are a great option. Bring an extra one or two, at least if you can, one of each gender, an extra one. You're going to have to pay for this, but it's worth it. Because what if a kid needs to sit out? What if you have a kid who maybe just... deals with some anxiety and that many kids running around. If you go to a bigger camp where you have five to 700 kids running around and being around that many people and that much noise is just a little overwhelming. Maybe it's your first time away from home and you're feeling all these feelings and you just cannot go to another thing. Well, if you have another chaperone that can sit with them, build relationships with them, give them the need that the care that they need, then you don't have to worry about where you're supposed to be. So think of an injured kid. If you are a small church and you don't have a lot of chaperones or even a big church and you took the bare minimum of chaperones and all of your chaperones have somewhere that they need to be, what do you do with this hurt kid? Maybe they've hurt their ankle really bad and they're limping, but you need to be across the camp to pick up kids at this time. What about this hurt kid? Are you going to make them go hobble along with you? You'll have to. But if you have an extra chaperone or two, you're able to pour in. Maybe you've got a little buddy who just needs an extra helper with him because he is struggling to get from place to place and forgetting everything. Extra chaperone. I've not always been able to have an extra chaperone, but in the years that I have, it's been wonderful for me as the church group leader. So the one, the one sign in the papers, being able to delegate, Hey, I need you to go hang out with this kid at this place. Here's some things you guys can do. Got it. Got it. They're building relationships. It's beautiful. It's wonderful. If that's a teen. So then when the child moves up to the youth group, which they're probably close if they're at camp with you, right? Then they know that kid and they have a relationship with that kid. And that transition to youth group is a little easier because they have a relationship. It's beautiful. That's a whole nother talk, but bring some extra chaperones if you can. Number 10, if you have any birthdays during camp, celebrate them big. Okay, I don't have enough time in this podcast to tell you, but I had one of my camp buddies for years, like six, seven years of camp. His birthday fell during camp and I had so much fun messing with this kid and doing a lead up. So I would start months in advance, just kind of teasing him about what's going to happen on your birthday. And I would just grin at him, be like, it's nothing. There's totally not glitter involved. I did not order any extra air horns. I mean, I had him a little nervous as to what was going to happen at camp on his birthday every year. So the first year, what we did is I sent the rest of the group down to lunch and I needed to talk to my guy. I'm like, hey, I need to talk to you for a minute. I'm buying time for them to go set up a cake at the lunchroom. And I'm telling him how I was really disappointed in some of his actions. Now, this is like one of my kids who is one of my best kids. He was a Christian. He was always doing what he was supposed to be, grew up to be a great leader. But I was making him think that he was in trouble. I'm buying time. And he's like really worried because he's that kid. And then he's like, okay, I'm sorry. He didn't do anything wrong. And I look at him and I'm like, hey, you think I'm messing with you for your birthday? And he's like, Miss Amber. So then he goes down to the cafeteria and they're there for his birthday and it's great. So every year I've messed with him. We have thrown pie in his face. We have sprayed him with silly string. One year we had masks of his face and we were hiding in a room to the point where the COVID year, which canceled camp, I worked with his family. I drove to his house. His dad's like, hey, I got the mower stuck. I need you to come help me push it out. I was hiding in his house with a super soaker and I jump out and scare him on his birthday because that was our camp tradition. If you have birthdays at camp, celebrate them. Make them wear a ridiculous button or a funny hat. Some camps do this where they have a big celebration. It is so much fun and it makes them feel special, especially think about it. You're missing home. You know, you're not with your parents at camp or maybe if their camp has visiting and they're close enough, they could come visit. Either way, celebrate birthdays at camp. Little fun spoiler alert. I will be kind of celebrating camp this year on my birthday. I'll be driving to camp and it starts the next day. So I'll be at camp on my birthday this year, but there won't be kids there to celebrate, but that's okay. All right, number 11, we're almost done with my 12 tips to level up your camp. Invest in relationships. This is a huge, amazing thing that camp provides is time to build relationships. Use it. So you, the leader, you, the chaperone, shouldn't just be holing up where the air conditioning is. You're going to be tired. You're going to be sweaty. You're going to walk a lot. Do it. Go do the things with them. Have you gone down a slip and slide in the last 30 years? No, maybe not. Guess what? You're going to. Do you hate swimming in a pool with a bunch of other kids who were like swallowing the water and spitting it out? I do. I go in the pool with the kids. They get one night because I'm not going to shower at like lunchtime. So they get like one pool time with Miss Amber and we would play the game called Trip Larry. They called me Larry at camp and they would try to knock me in the water, but they only were successful about twice in a 10 year span. Be with your kids. Play games with them. Be silly with them. Stay up a little later talking to them. Tell them about your life. Invest in their life. This is a time for you not to be the leader in charge who is busy doing all the things. Be the leader who's loving on them. I love going to camp for that reason because me as the leader, I'm not teaching the lesson. I'm sitting with them during chapel. I'm worshiping alongside of them instead of leading the worship. I don't have as many responsibilities. My responsibility is to love on my kids at camp. That's huge. So do that. Love on them, love on them well, pour into them. If they're keeping you up because they just want to sit in your room and talk and it's two in the morning, you can sleep when you get home from camp. I say that as every year, it gets a little harder to do that as I get older, but it is worth it. I promise you that relationship building is huge. Because why do they care what you have to say about God on a Sunday if they don't feel like you care about them? Build relationships with your kids at camp. Lastly, number 12 tip, if you want this camp to be the best year of camp ever, pray it up. God knows exactly what is going to happen for each boy or girl. That came out a little wobbly. We're going to say that again. God knows exactly what is going to happen for each boy or girl who is going to be at each camp all over the world every single week this summer and next summer and the next and the next and the next. God, our sovereign God, is omniscient and he knows what's going to happen. So let's start praying now. for what is going to happen for what works god is already starting in these kids and he will faithfully fulfill in them whether it's this summer or next summer or several summers down the road pray now get your church praying get your small groups praying get your leaders praying cover every aspect of camp from the finances to the chaperones to the sign ups to the stuff you need to pack to the kids' hearts, to the parents' hearts, cover every aspect of camp in prayer. Because camp is an amazing opportunity for eternities to change. Lives are changed at camp. Maybe you've not seen that yet. Maybe you've not seen kids accept Christ during camp, but it happens. Maybe you're taking saved kids and you're like, but they're all saved. Eternity's good. They're going to grow in their faith. They're going to be challenged to go deeper, to go more. They're going to leave with memories of how wonderful camp was because they got to go and worship and learn about God. Camp is powerful. So pray it up. Hey, if you were going to camp this summer, I would love to talk to you. I just love talking to camp. If you have questions about camps, Reach out to me. I would love to have camp conversations. I do. I love it. I love camp. If you are looking for a camp, please check out Manderly Camp. Manderly.camp. It is a ministry of Renew Nation in Pikeville, Tennessee. I get to be the camp director. This is like bucket list for me. Not only do I get to take kids, I've done that for 15, 16 years. Now I get to go and lead camp being the director. I get to play the games with the kids. I get to love on all the kids and it's bucket list. Amazing. So exciting. If you're planning your own camp, Manderly Christian Camp has, you can rent out the facilities. It's gorgeous. It's wonderful. Our camp director, Dave Secura, is amazing. He has had 30 plus years of camp experience and he is still doing it in his 60s. That's how much he loves camp. Definitely go check out my camp packing list. See what you might have not thought of yet for camp. I'm going to change out my ending this time because I want you Kidmen leaders to remember, camp matters.

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