Servant Week - Camp Caudle

This is Jack relaxing in his personal swimming pool at Camp Caudle

Brent, Jack, and I have been gone for a week to Camp Caudle, a Christian camp north of Russellville. This camp means alot to us, especially Brent. He grew up going there since he was 16 and has always said it's one of the reasons he's the Christian he is today. Brent, Lee, Andrea, and myself direct a session of camp every year - LivingStones week (aka Adventure Week) but this year we decided to take on two sessions of camp which included Servant Week. This week was designed to prepare camp for the upcoming summer. Kids from Silver City Church and other surrounding areas come up to work all week long cleaning cabins, or fixing things, or whatever needs to be done. We had an AMAZING group this year and all of the kids worked VERY hard.

Our projects included the following:
• A new deck by the baptistry waterfall
• Fixing the baptistry waterfall
• Rock steps down to the swimming hole
• Fixing the dock (which was almost swept away with the high rains)
• Putting up the huge water trampoline
• Rebuilding the zipline over the swimming hole
• Cleaning Cabins and hanging curtains in each one
• Organizing the old chapel, the shed, the mess hall, the kitchen
• Weedeating ALOT
• Killing wasp

and really, there was probably more, but that is all I can remember right now. Let's just say it was an incredibly tough week, full of work and our teens were AMAZING!

I'd like to say a special thanks to all the ladies who made curtains to go in the cabins - especially Amber Mullins who tackled all the old chapel curtains and made them look so cool! It really adds something to those cabins to have REAL curtains and not paper hanging on the windows.

I'd also like to say thank you to Mandy Sublett for helping me this week with photos beyond doing all her servanthood duties. By the way, Mandy got injured twice while working and didn't complain once about it, but kept looking for work to do. One time she smashed her finger in between some huge rocks while working on the waterfall (something that would've made me cry) She quietly slipped away to take care of her finger and then goes about to find a new job to do. I asked her "Mandy you just smashed your finger! - What are you doing working?!?!" And she said "Well, I still have one good hand" Let me tell you - she's an awesome girl.

I know it sounds like I just won an Oscar but I have a few other people I want to say thank you to... the cooks! Betty Lou Henson, Debbie Shipman, and Andrea Henson did an absolutely fantastic job cooking for everyone this past week. Andrea is one tough woman. Not only did she cook her homemade yeast rolls and cinnamon rolls (amongst other things), but she is also 8 months pregnant, and watches her two year old son! Thank you, thank you, thank you for keeping my belly full!

Jack had an incredible week! I was slightly worried about how he would sleep at camp - but I think Brent, Jack, and I all slept better than we do at home. I LOVED having 30 kids that would help me watch Jack. All of them are wonderful babysitters and were so sweet to help me out by holding him, feeding him, or whatever I needed.

Okay, so enough of the typing - here are a few photos from this past week.

Marreo playing with Jack on the Camp Caudle golf cart.....



Molly and Amanda entertaining Jack ....



Brent working hard on the deck - he was exhausted by the end of the week....



Brent, Lee, Greg, and Scott playing the guitar, banjo, mandolin, and harmonica one evening on the porch.







Here are a few different views of the deck by the baptistry waterfall. It's not finished in these photos, but it is done. Brent stayed the last day till late in the evening to finish off the handrails and a few details. Lee worked with a group on this all week long. It was probably our biggest project of the week.







Here is one of the crews who worked on the baptistry moving rocks to make the waterfall flow right...



another photo of Marreo and Antonio hanging out with Jack ...