Jr. High Camp Edition

Jr. High Camp 2007

By Josh Watkins

Jr. high camp is the place to be,

Fun in the sun for kids like you and me.

Put a smile on your face,

And join the Jesus race.

From memorizing verses to eating a meal,

Jesus was there and the food was a great deal.

Take 5's and small groups were Jesus time,

This is only the beginning of my rhyme.

The games were fun as most of us can see,

Especially roller skating to the hokey-pokey.

In the big meetings Jesus was there,

To bring His presence and His tender-loving care.

Medic ball was off the wall,

And sometimes you had to take the fall,

So your team could win,

And we all know cheating is a sin.

Capture the flag takes skill,

Running with the flag is a thrill.

Half-way safe and it's looking bad,

O shoot! I just got tagged by a jr. higher named Brad.

Swimming was a great way to cool down,

After a long day out on the town.

Water polo was the game,

Where jr. highers rose to their fame.

After the pool the guys hit the shower,

Right then and there was a fresh sort of power.

Voices rang out, singing in shout,

As songs of Jesus were heard throughout.

Jr. Highers took the floor,

At musical plates to start a score.

The boys fought hard and the girls were tough,

The guys nearly won, but there was a cheater in the rough!

One boy, one girl, who was it going to be?

Each fighting hard for a victory.

The music stopped and there was a loud cheer,

As the girls winning screams shattered my ear.

Best of all was the bondfire,

Many hearts burning with the Lord's desire.

Singing loud for everyone to hear,

So eyes even released a tear.

Because I am losing my voice,

And by choice,

This poem has to stop,

Or I am going to drop!

For those of you who have been to a jr. high camp, you know that there is a talent show at the end. I decided that year I was going to write a poem about the week. To jog the memories of those who went, this was the year we were at Ashland Woods.

Let me explain some of the highlights and events. In verse three, we took the kids out to a roller skating rink

and made all of them use the old fashioned box-pattern wheel skates. To make it more interesting, we all danced to the hokey-pokey. My ankles were killing me after that.

Verse five details or highly anticipated capture the flag game. I remember racing towards the flag, wanting so bad to snatch it and race to safety waving it in victory...those dreams were dashed the moment a got tagged by then jr. higher Brad Sprau.

In verse 7, after we had gone swimming, the jr. high boys were in the showers and suddenly burst into song, multiple in fact, of ones they had enjoyed during the week.

Verse 8 tells the exciting outcome of our musical chairs...er plates game. Every year we have a massive game of musical chairs. But since we were at Ashland Woods, the only area big enough was the nice carpeted meeting room. So instead of chairs, we used paper plates. Once the music stopped, theirs butts had to be on a plate on the floor. When it got down to the final three (two boys and one girl), the music stopped and the three of them hit the floor. The boy erupted in cheers seeing two boys occupying the remaining plates. I however noticed that as they were going to the ground, one of the boys had yanked the plate out from under the girl. He was disqualified and the one boy and one girl literally spun around the remaining plate back to back until the music stopped. You can guess what happened by the last line of that verse.

It was a great year and I had hoped (and still do) that this piece would inspire ones to rise up, answer the Call of Duty, and serve at Jr. High Camp.