Ep. 22 - The One Where We Go To Camp (Part 2)

Anything that draws attention to you and your table, we probably just shouldn't do.

Camp doesn't start when you get there — it starts the second you walk into the parking lot to get on the bus. In Part 2 of The Leader Lounge's three-part camp series, Chris and Emily Storms get specific, walking through camp trip location by location: the bus ride, welcome, leader lounge, and dining hall. They share practical tips for first-time leaders and seasoned ones — from why you should learn your bus driver's name to how to handle phone collection, why every table at the dining hall is round on purpose, and the chants/spoons/under-the-table debates that derail the family feel. Anchored in Philippians 2 and Emily's reminder that "camp is a beautiful picture of the body of Christ," this episode is essential listening for any youth ministry leader getting ready to take kids to camp.

"Camp is a beautiful picture of the body of Christ."

SCRIPTURE REFERENCED

• Philippians 2:3-7

WHAT TO LISTEN FOR

• Why camp starts in the parking lot — meeting parents, welcoming first-time campers, and showing up with energy
• Spread out on the bus, don't sit with all the leaders
• Riddles, games, and conversation starters for the ride up
• Get to know the bus driver's name (and keep them in a good mood)
• Collecting phones and meds: Ziploc bags, Sharpies, and the legendary "wrong box" prank on the ride home
• The moment you roll into camp; check-in, cookies, soda, and the bus loop welcome
• Move kids forward toward program; don't worry about luggage (work crew has it)
• Why someone needs to sweep the bus for forgotten pillows and gear (Chris' 3-hour lesson)
• The leader lounge: a real space for you to rest, take calls, and meet for prayer with your area
• Show up to leader meetings before the meeting starts
• Why everything at camp is a surprise, and how to handle schedule photos respectfully
• Round tables on purpose: recreating family-style meals for kids who don't get that at home
• Fill your kids' waters first; sit with your back to the stage
• Reading Philippians 2 to set the tone for humility
• Why chants, happy birthday songs, spoons, and diving under the table for dessert undercut the family vibe
• Match (and exceed) program's energy when they're up on stage — do the motions, scream the songs
• Seating charts: hold them loosely. "Every kid who sits at your table is your kid."

Note: We provide links to specific resources; this is not an endorsement of the entire website, author, organization, etc. Their views may not represent our's.

Contact Us: leaderlounge@gmail.com

Emily's Instagram

Chris' Instagram

Chris' Substack - Love, Life, and Lampoonery

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hey everyone, welcome back to the Leader Lounge Podcast. My name is Chris Storms.

SPEAKER_00 0:03

And I'm Emily Storms.

SPEAKER_01 0:05

And today we are doing part two of our series on camp. Emily and I are both young life and or wildlife leaders, and we're getting ready to take kids to camp. And so we thought it'd be a good idea just to do a little podcast talking about that and how to get the most out of camp as a leader, but also how to go into camp with a um, I guess with the right mindset. Is that what you'd say? Kind of. And so here's what we're gonna do. We did, if you didn't listen to part one, that was kind of big picture, kind of going in with the right frame of mind in terms of you know your spiritual walk and prayer and that kind of stuff. Um, today we're gonna get more specific. And the way we're gonna do this, I'm kind of excited about it. We are actually gonna give different locations. So I'm gonna throw out a location or a thing, and then I would love to hear your thoughts on that particular thing of how to be, I don't say good necessarily, but excellent. Excellent. That's a great, we're always striving for excellence. So some ideas to to make make it so that you and your other leaders can be as excellent as possible when it comes to camping. And so we're gonna start out the first location, the first thing is the bus. So, Emily, let's talk about the bus. Maybe even just getting on the bus and what to do on the bus as a leader. What are some ideas and thoughts you have?

SPEAKER_00 1:33

Um, well, I don't even start before you get on the bus. Sometimes this might be the this might be the first time you're meeting kids if you have uh kids who brought friends. And so I would say try your best, even though it might be stressful, but try your best to be present and welcoming and excited by and meet the kids that you might not know, and also meet the parents. Uh, you know, a lot of times, especially like first-time campers, the parents have questions and they want to meet you, and they are super excited, but also sometimes nervous. So I think definitely taking time to meet them. And then in terms of getting on the bus, I mean, obviously, make sure, help each other out, make sure every kid's on the bus, everyone has luggage. And um, I would say find spread out, leaders spread out on the bus. That's good. Don't sit all together. Yeah, talk with the kids, don't just check out. Like that's I feel like it's fine to sleep or check out on the way back a little bit more, but like keep the energy up because they're all like super excited.

SPEAKER_01 2:40

Yeah, and there's some fun things you can do on the bus. I know, like, um, what do you call this? Like, not riddles. Are they riddles where you try to figure out is that what they're called? What are those things called where you like you give them a scenario and they have to try to figure out like like um there's there's a cabin in the woods, or there's a cabin and every window faces south, and there's a bear walks by. What color is the bear? What the bear would be white, it would be a polar bear because it would be on the in order for every window to face south, and all all four windows or all four sides. I've never heard you would be on the north. So just silly stuff like that. Yeah. But you could look some of that stuff up and play some games, keep conversation going. Yep. I I will say it's okay to like I usually get the first seat on the on the bus, you know, for leaders to to kind of put your stuff there, right? And then that way you can talk to the bus driver, especially if you're the trip leader, like that's important. Get to know your bus driver's name, by the way. Everybody, all the leaders should get to know the bus driver's name and talk to them by name, make sure that he or she stays in a good mood, you know. Um, and uh, but then once the trip starts, you can walk to the back of the bus, get get to know kids, practice saying their names, like you said. I know for our high school trip, we our trip includes a meal, so like we stop for a meal on the way up. And so just being the same thing that you said about the bus. Like, don't go eat a meal with all the leaders. Yeah, like split up, figure out where some or most of your kids are gonna go and go with them.

SPEAKER_00 4:15

I feel like departure is when camp starts.

SPEAKER_01 4:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:17

Like, not when you get on the camp. Like, camp's already started, you're already supposed to be having fun and excited.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

So and don't be afraid to, you know, to encourage kids, tell kids to keep stuff clean, you know, especially on a longer trip. A lot of times uh we've had we've had things get ruined on the way up because kids will get back on the bus with like instead of like a bottle of soda, they'll have like a cup of soda with a flimsy top, and then it spills and it gets on somebody's pillow. And so it's okay to like be thinking about that kind of stuff of like, hey, if you bring a drink back on, make sure it has a cap on it. Yeah, you know, um, because we don't want we don't want somebody's trip to potentially get start off on a bad note. If we can if we can handle it, or uh what's the word? If we can avoid it, that's the word I'm looking for. Okay, so the bus, you're on the bus, you're having a great time, hanging out with kids, um, getting to know names, all that, and then you get to camp. Explain what happens. So if we have new leaders, explain kind of what happens when you roll into camp. Like you you first get there.

SPEAKER_00 5:20

Um, well, thinking about Southwind, we stop at what is the place called? It's like uh Oh, I should know that.

SPEAKER_01 5:28

I know. Jose's gonna I know uh it's a guy's name.

SPEAKER_00 5:34

Um oh, this is so bad.

SPEAKER_01 5:37

Oh just go.

SPEAKER_00 5:38

Okay, so you stop at this place where um head leaders are, and then leaders typically will get out, kind of do like we'll check in, take a picture usually, and then hop back on the bus. We drop off meds um and phones there, and then we hop back on the bus and they take us a little further to the bus loop where welcome happens.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

That's great. Sometimes, a lot of times, they give you a cookie.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

Oh, sometimes they give you soda too. There's that's really awesome.

SPEAKER_01 6:07

That's my favorite part of the whole week. Oh gosh, getting the cookie right after I get off the bus. No, you mentioned something that we didn't talk about, that's phones. So let's go back for a second to the buses.

SPEAKER_00 6:17

And meds.

SPEAKER_01 6:18

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 6:18

Meds you should take before you get on the bus.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

Um, they'll say collect. Because we're not we're not taking it.

SPEAKER_00 6:25

Yeah, we collect them.

SPEAKER_01 6:26

There you go.

SPEAKER_00 6:26

And phones are typically we usually take them like 20 minutes out. Um, or honestly, I feel like our last camp trip it was just crazy on the bus, and we were like, it's time.

unknown 6:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:41

So feel it out with your other leaders. But yeah, we take them, collect them, and then turn them in when we get there.

SPEAKER_01 6:49

Yeah. And um, and we usually we usually use Ziploc bags and have some extra sharpies, a bunch of sharpies. They can write their names and they put them into a bin. One of my favorite things to do, so this is the bus ride home. On the bus ride home, one of my favorite things to do is to take the phones out of the case, like when we're gonna hand them back and say names of kids who are not on our bus and like make kids freak out. Yeah, make them think that we got the wrong box.

SPEAKER_00 7:16

Especially because we usually go to camp with Seminole. That's right. And we're Seminole County. Yeah. And so it easily could probably get mixed up.

SPEAKER_01 7:23

Yeah. All right. So you got your bus, you got welcome. Also, with welcome, a lot of times there'll be some sort of program event. So your bus pulls up, and they're that's the first time that kids will see program, and the work crew will be out there clapping their hands, and and so you get off the bus, and there's always an encouragement to like move your kids forward. Yes. And so that's something to be aware of. Like when you get off the bus, don't worry about your luggage. Make sure kids aren't worried about their luggage and that they're moving over toward program. However, one of the one somebody needs to stay on the bus and check the bus for uh stuff that you know. So this happened to me last year. We left some really important things on the bus.

SPEAKER_00 8:06

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 8:07

And thankfully we only did. Yes. You don't remember that?

SPEAKER_00 8:09

I wasn't there.

SPEAKER_01 8:10

Oh, that's right. Yes. So thankfully, we only live about an hour and a half from camp, but I had to call the bus driver, and he he had just gotten back, and so I had to drive. Also, thankfully, I had I had driven a separate vehicle up, but I had to drive an hour and a half. And so, good idea to have a leader or staff person go up and down the bus, make sure everything's out, check the top for pillows or everything, um, and make sure it gets off. But the luggage, work crew is gonna get all the luggage off, so you don't have to worry about that. So you're gonna move all your kids over for welcome and program is gonna do a little bit. Um, and then you head to your head to your cabins, right? All right. Um, let's talk. So, we're gonna talk about cabins later. Usually, one of the first things that you do once you get to camp after you know you get get settled and you might have some free time or whatever, but then they have like that first leader meeting, and that's in the leader lounge. So um let's talk about the leader lounge. Like, what what do you want leaders to know about that space and those meetings and just in general?

SPEAKER_00 9:12

The leader lounge is for leaders, obviously. So it's kind of a I would think of it as like yours a place to take a minute, rest. Um, if you absolutely like need to make a call or check your phone for something, that's a really good place to do it because the kids don't have their phone, the leaders do, but it's not nice to like rub it in their faces. So, like, try to also be off your phone. But leader lounge is totally cool to make a call or something. And we do have leader meetings there. Our area typically will, if there's morning leader meetings, we like to meet before that or even just before breakfast if there's not a leader meeting of just our area to like do check-ins with each other in the leader lounge and pray together and be in the word together throughout the week.

SPEAKER_01 10:00

Yeah, that's good. And um, and then so you you that space is for you, but there's also leader meetings, and during leader meetings, it's uh, I mean, obviously show up, be on time and before time. Before time, that's good. So you're gonna be in there. Um, you're gonna get a ton of information. So you can write down um the schedule. Um, sometimes you know, we're getting into the technological age now where like they'll put everything up on the screen, the you know, and so I I do see a lot of leaders like taking pictures on their phones of the schedule. Just keep in mind that all of that is a surprise. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:33

I think now, I think at our last weekend camp, they had uh usually it's like all the leaders they ask go in, or at least in the past that I've been, but they started having like just a couple from each area or one from each area or cabin. And so if that's the case, I think taking a picture is definitely good because then send it to your send it to the leaders that are there. Make a group chat of all the leaders from your area, send it to them.

SPEAKER_01 10:58

Yeah, I've even there's I think it was last year, they they had a website that they created like on Canva with the schedule, and they gave us all the link. And so there was all these information.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

I think I actually have that. This I feel like yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:10

All the information we needed for the week. So yeah, you can use your phone. But um, but it also so the other thing about the leader lounge is every cabin has a cubby that you can you can leave a Bible in there, you can leave notebook, you can whatever. So that's the leader lounge. Uh, let's talk about your favorite and my favorite, the dining hall. It's not that's not your favorite?

SPEAKER_00 11:33

Oh club room.

SPEAKER_01 11:34

Okay, okay. Let's talk about the dining hall.

SPEAKER_00 11:37

How many rules though I'm most passionate about?

SPEAKER_01 11:40

How to be an excellent leader in the dining hall. Let's keep it positive and talk about how to be an excellent leader in the dining hall.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

Okay. Um, I think the dining hall is a super, super special place. It's young life. We talked about this last episode. It's so intentional. It's um just everything, the way camps are built, the way camps were designed, is so intentional. And I think every young life camp, except what is it, one, has round tables.

SPEAKER_01 12:05

Yeah, Lone Hollow. I don't know. They might be, I know they're doing some work, but it's been screwed.

SPEAKER_00 12:10

So most, if not all, um, young life camps are designed with round tables in the dining hall. And that's just for like a family style dinner meals together, because honestly, a lot of people don't get that with their families, a time when they can just sit down and talk about their day and have that really sweet intentional time. And so we try to recreate that family time at camp. So we're just very passionate about protecting that, like at all costs of like really keeping it sweet family time. I think it's always fun. I sometimes, especially if I'm with a really quiet group of girls, I'll have like a question of the day. It could be so random. One of the favorites is like if you were a kitchen appliance, what kitchen appliance would you be in? Why?

SPEAKER_01 12:54

Toaster oven.

SPEAKER_00 12:56

Why?

SPEAKER_01 12:57

Because you get to make toast.

SPEAKER_00 13:00

All right, we usually try to go a little deeper than that. But um, yeah, I think also practically you leaders go in first, and something that I love to do that a lot of leaders do is fill up the kids' waters. Summer is so hot, especially it doesn't matter where you are, it's gonna be hot. And so um fill up the kids' waters, there's always a fun drink, also, but they can get that after water. I have girls who will pick up the water that I filled up and dump it back in and then get whatever fun drink is on the table, which is always funny.

SPEAKER_01 13:34

But what is a fun drink? I don't even know what that means.

SPEAKER_00 13:37

Like they have like the peach tea and the lemonade, all the fun drinks, not water. But yeah, so just little things like that that take care of the kids you're with and serving them first. So when the food comes, um at Young Life Camps, usually food is brought out by the work crew, and so get to know the work crew kid, respect the work crew kid, and serve your kids first.

SPEAKER_01 14:02

That's good.

SPEAKER_00 14:02

And sit with your back to the stage, yes, because program will happen during the dining hall, every meal, and so um sit with your back to the stage, yeah, give them the best seats in the house and encourage the kids too to like you kind of know, especially like lunch or dinner when dessert is happening, program's about to come out. So if they're walking around or going to the bathroom, like encourage them to sit back down so that they can see the show.

SPEAKER_01 14:27

That's great. And speaking of that, like I try not to let kids get up during the meal. Like a lot of times they'll try to get up in like groups of seven, right? And so so just make it a general rule like, hey, if you need to use restroom, we can go one at a time. Um, or you know, your worker kid, if you want a banana, like your worker kid can get you a great banana. And so um keeping the aisles free, um, and and so we're gonna talk about a couple other things of the dining hall, but I want to read this first first from the Bible. I usually read this when I'm a head leader, I read this in the leader meetings because it frames kind of the attitude that we should have when we're at camp. And I think it especially applies in the dining hall and in cabins. But let me read this. This is from Philippians chapter two. It says this do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the entrance, to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God, a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant. And so I think having that that in mind of like humility putting others first, um, because there's a couple things in the dining hall that I want to encourage people not to do.

SPEAKER_00 15:46

I thought we were keeping it positive.

SPEAKER_01 15:48

We are keeping it positive. We're gonna make this about Philippians, but a couple of the things that have become really popular, um, but that I would just push back and say, hey, that doesn't keep the family atmosphere. Um one of them is like doing chants and stuff. I would say anything that draws attention to you and your table, um, we probably just shouldn't do. And here's why. If you're being loud and you're drawing attention to your table, you're drawing attention away from the leaders at other tables who might be having great conversations with kids.

SPEAKER_00 16:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:20

Right? Um, the program team, they're gonna come up and they're gonna be loud and they're gonna have fun, and everybody's the entire dining hall is gonna have fun together instead of just one table or two tables having fun. So that includes, you know, doing chants, singing happy birthday to people. What I would do is at the beginning of the week, if you have somebody who's got a birthday, go to your program team and say, hey, could you do like a general, let's sing happy birthday to everybody in camp who has a birthday that week. Um the other thing is, you know, you know what I'm gonna say, right?

SPEAKER_00 16:53

There's so many things that you get. Spoons? Yes. Oh my gosh. We're keeping it positive. Um yeah. Speaking from just someone who's been on pits, camps lose spoons because kids give them to kids and they take them forever. Yeah. That even just goes to don't let the kids get up. Don't encourage it. The kids are gonna do what the kids are gonna do at times. Like sometimes if you've got a crazy group, it's just like yeah, but don't that's the biggest thing is like don't encourage it. Encourage the sitting together, encourage the respectfulness.

SPEAKER_01 17:30

Yeah. And like I said on the last podcast, it's okay to say no to a kid. Yes. Like you can say, hey, we're not gonna do that. And we can talk about later why. And you explain to them why. Like, hey, this table might be that table over there might be having a great conversation. And if we're if we're getting up and walking around, not only are we disrupting conversations, but we're getting in the way of work crew who are trying to do a really good job of serving us. Um, we might lose, we might break plates. Um, you know, even the banging on tables when work crew comes out, it just escalates, right? Like I've seen I've seen it where tables have been hit so hard that plates just go toward the side and then just fall on the ground and break. And so um just having those things in mind, it's okay to tell kids, to tell kids no. Or here's another one. It's when work crew serves dessert and the leader and all the kids from a table dive under the table to eat the dessert. Again, that's just not in keeping with the family dynamic. And what it does is it it creates attention at your table while other tables and other leaders are having their kids sit at the table and continue to eat the normal way. And so anything we're doing to draw attention to ourselves or to create traditions that everybody else in camp is not doing, I would say we should just shy away from and we we should just tell kids we're not gonna do. And so, but when the program team comes out, like by all means, be all in, do the repeater lines.

SPEAKER_00 18:53

If there's motions, do them. Usually the that first leader meeting, they'll like say, we want to get everyone in the dining hall doing this, or like clapping, or whatever. Um, and go along with it. I think someone said, like, whatever, if like kids are always gonna be like 10 or 20% less energy than you are at things like that, like, and so always go like 110% so that we get kids just as excited.

SPEAKER_01 19:20

Yeah, that's good. And uh get your kids as best you can, get your kids quiet when program is up on stage. And I giggled about that a little bit because I was doing program at family camp last year, and um I heard something. I was on stage, like we're doing our lines, and we're like into this, you know, the scene, and I hear something, and I'm like, what? It's like sounded like somebody was watching TV. Like I was like, what is going on? And I look down, and there is literally a boy sitting in the closest chair to me, and his parents were letting him, he had like an iPad, and he's watching TV right in the middle of it. So, out of respect for your program team who's worked really hard, um, just try to get your kids paying attention, and that keeps them from disrupting other tables who are trying to pay attention as well.

SPEAKER_00 20:09

I think camp is a beautiful picture of the body of Christ, and it's like we're all leaders are working with a signed team, with head leaders, everyone on a signed team, um, with camp staff to bring kids closer to Jesus, but like we have to work together on it.

SPEAKER_01 20:25

Yeah, that's great. And the last thing I would say about the dining hall is so you're gonna come into the dining hall, leaders come in early, like you said, and there's usually some sort of seating chart. And so they will they'll put you in particular seats. I have I have had leaders in the past who are adamant that every kid in their cabin has to sit at their table. And I would just say hold that loosely. Like if some of your kids sit at your table great, if all of them do, that's great. Sometimes numbers don't work out that way. And so there might, you know, if you're a female table and you have more guys on your trip than girls, there might be, you know, you might be sitting there as a female and a couple guys from your area go to sit down. You don't want to say to them, oh no, these seats are saved for for the girls. We we want to be welcoming, we want to, yeah. And so, and and there's been years where we've had that just the way it shook out, I I had zero kids from my table or from my cabin sit with me because there are college age leaders there that they would much rather sit with than dad leader, you know. And so I had kids that weren't even in my cabin at all sometimes. And so you just gotta go with the flow.

SPEAKER_00 21:33

Um every kid who sits at your table is your kid.

SPEAKER_01 21:36

That's great. Then that's great. Awesome. Well, hey, this is episode two. We're gonna do one more episode. Episode three is gonna be just like this one. We're gonna go over a few more things, but we want to keep these kind of tight. So, Emily, would you pray us out? And we'll see you guys on the next one.

SPEAKER_00 21:51

Dear Lord, I uh thank you for camp. I just thank you for the joy it brings and the excitement um that we have just talking about it. I pray. For every leader that is attending camp this summer. And I pray that you would just give them confidence, especially if they're a first-time leader, help them just have the peace that you have equipped them. And I pray that they would know that perfection is not attainable, but excellence is something to work towards. And so I pray that we would um just come together as truly the body of Christ and point all these kids to you working together. So we love you so much, Lord. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 22:36

Amen.