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Hey all,

Rolled the kids (& adults) at 6am to begin packing up…yea, I’m such a meanie!!! Had virtually all the luggage staged at the rear of the trailer by the time we went up for our final Camp Joy breakfast, which consisted of whatever was leftover from the week….this wasn’t nearly as disgusting as it sounds, I actually find the breakfasts to be above average considering we’re “camping”. We headed back downstairs and started to dismantle camp, taking down tents, loading the trailer, and finally doing the “Walk”…big line, sweep through camp picking up anything God didn’t put there. (Melissa is seriously rethinking her glitter purchase for Tori’s B’Day) We loaded up and headed up to Vespers and were at God’s Open Window by 8:30. The skit people went off to practice, Dr. Trey, bassist extraordinaire rehearsed with the worship team, while the rest of us found the “shady” spot and hung out. Vespers started at 9 with a few songs, then we had sight reports, although a bit different. Each group was supposed to bring back something from the job-site that represented how they saw God working throughout the week. Kate took our scraper and paint brush up and gave our sight report. (To hear it you’ll need to come to our Camp Joy Service on Monday, August 1) Then it was our turn to do vespers. Paige went up and started us off with a totally banging prayer. Then it was skit time. Kate and Sarah co-wrote the skit, based on our theme for the week. Sean the Taller, Katester, T-Fin, AbbieG, Dr. Trey,  Ry-Lo, Little Pharaoh (aka J-Rod), Lil’ Shawn,  and Twiggy all participated in the skit. (Again, you’ll need to come on 8/1 to see it) Finally our very own Rev. Sarah got up to present the message. Communion and a final song, and we were done. We gathered for a group picture at God’s Open Window, then were off to Sheetz to fill up whatever need to be filled up. Off we rolled arriving at CUMC about 3:30.

This is my 11th Camp Joy (13th mission trip overall), and it’s hard to compare year to year. The jobs are different, the kids are different, but this was an AWESOME group. They worked hard, they all get along (which in itself is pretty amazing, considering we had 18 kids), and several times during the week they totally shocked me, by anticipating what I was about to ask and doing it before I could get it out. So to the 18….JOB WELL DONE!!!

The Six – The Six are the adults who gave up a week of their time to join our trip. Without these people, Camp Joy would never happen. I’ll put my group of adults up against anybody’s, for their dedication, and ability to work with (and have fun with) kids. So, to Janet, Joe, Bob, Adham, Melissa, and Jani…..THANKS from the bottom of my heart.

Everybody else – To all of you back at home, that supported us, donated money and items, prayed for us, read our crazy Camp Joy Updates, and whatever else……THANKS!

See you on Monday, August 1….

Joel

With all the worker bees of Christ United Methodist being so productive the past 4 days we were able to have a free day. Today began at 5:30 when most of the group woke up to watch the sunrise. It couldn’t have been a more perfect sunrise; minimal clouds with a red sun rising above the mountains. After breakfast, we went back to base camp where most of the group napped before our big adventure. Around 9:30 we all packed into the cars again and drove an hour to Harper’s Ferry. Our plan was to hike up the trails and eat our packed lunch while looking out over the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah River. However, after mere minutes of climbing the steep, never ceasing trail, we began to question our fitness. By the time we reached the top, calves were burning and tempers were slightly heightened as we debated whether the view was worth the pain of climbing up there. My verdict however: It was definitely worth the hike. The view was incredible. We couldn’t have been any luckier with the weather as well, as it was a cool, overcast day. The descent down was much easier than the climb up, and after we returned to the cars we drove through the small quaint, yet historical, town of Harper’s Ferry. We went to Maria’s Garden for dinner, which was delicious. And afterwards we went to Bowlerama where the boys were separated from the men and the hustlers from the honest. Tonight we have to do our last minutes practice for our skit at Vespers tomorrow morning. It should be pretty interesting…. as Jarod is a bully and Ryan is the victim… Anyway. This week was great! But we are looking forward to getting home! We appreciate all your support and prayers from home.

Love Paige

Today in the morning we ate some delicious pancakes and some good sausage. Afterwards we stopped at Sheetz and had a Jam-Out session in some cars with the radio (Mostly Adhams). After tasty time at Sheetz we drove down to our final jobsite. Lil’ Shawn and Jenna started out on the front roof scraping and painting everything up. While they were on the roof Sean and Ryan were trying to be as proficient as possible on the side of the house and back corner on the scaffolding. While all of this was going on and Lil’ Shawn and Jenna got off of the front roof Momo was having fun with all of the others sanding down the railing on the back stairs saying quote on quote “Smooth as a baby’s bottom.” Then some of the extras without a job at a time started to scrape the shed (just another smaller house.) After they started on that a little we sat down and ate some nice sandwiches for the 4th day in a row and (potato) chips went flying during the trading market time. After we had lunch and chill time we went straight back to work and finished all of our jobs. After we finished our jobs then we had a fun time tearing down the scaffolding and putting it in Adhams trailer. Well that’s how our shorter than normal day went so… peace!

-Lil’ Shawn

Editor’s Addition – After our goodbyes to the homeowner, Ms. Janet and Rebel, her ferocious man-eating miniature Papillion our merry caravan proceeded to the Goodwill store for our annual visit. We then jetted back to camp to change, with a few showering, then were off to St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Hancock for spaghetti. Back to camp for Vespers, then headed downstairs for fun and frivolity.

A bit strange this year as we have completed our jobs by Thursday, and with no further work available, we have a rare Camp Joy Day Off. We’re off to Harper’s Ferry for a day of fun on Friday. As John Messner, one of our past Site Coordinator’s, said…”This makes up for the year you worked til midnight in Paw Paw a few years back” 

*beep* Attention, shoppers: (as quoted by Sheldon Reese @ Vespers”)

Today was a very productive and yummy one. After an enticing plate full of plastic eggs and rubber bacon, the crews stopped at Sheetz and prepared to roll out to the jobsites. The not-so-scary sum of uncompleted jobsites (temporarily) withered from three to one. The epic team of Adham, Missy, Natalie, Andrew, Carter, Sam and Trey terminated the work at the deck jobsite, weathering the rain downpour. Andrew and Trey sawed balusters and other lumber for the deck while Adham, Sam, Natalie and Carter worked on drilling and screwing the deck together. This jobsite has been known to have the least shade of any of them, and finally the job was completed. At the paint jobsite, the crew of nine (Ryan, Sean, Tori, Kate, Lil Shawn, Carrie, Hailee, Abby and *breath* Jarod), administered by Joel, Janet and Bob, much more scraping went on in the little-bitty crevices – that reminds me of a song. “One for the little-bitty baby…” Anyway. – Also, a little bit of painting was done. The roof jobsite was run by Joe and Jani, the crew of Taylor, Paige and Sarah fixed missing shingles, flashing at the chimney and flashing at the roof joint. To boot, this was all accomplished in just a half-day of work! After lunch (which was delayed for Adham and Missy’s crew because of “unfair” weather), we went to the lake for some swimming and a lot of water-gun battles, including a battle between the half-Egyptian(aka Jarod) and the Italian Mafia(aka Natalie) – to be known as the First Mediterranean War. Afterwards, we went to Dairy Queen to continue the tradition of enforcing our mind control over the drivers and truckers of West Virginia – they have no chance! We barely racked up over 60 car and truck honks, well below last year’s record of 100-and-something. We traded the hardworking adult Jani for the even-more-hardworking Jenna! Teehee… Now we’re back at camp, and Joel called me over here to do this just as I was about to get on the swing – not the same swing on which Carter dented his face. So long!

“Dr. Trey” Mason, PhD in beats and bass

Captain’s log, star date 7122011.

Our team woke up and made their way to the fuel up station (upper camp pavilion) where they served hard waffles and sausage. After the fleet was properly nourished, two crews set out to their space pods due to Scotty fixing our beaming system. Admiral Momo and Admiral Adham leaded a team to Quadrant F.3 with our scouts Ryan, Paige, Shawn, Hailee, and myself, Commodore Sarah to work on the space-age deck. We accomplished steps, decking, and railings on our project. Our team did take a break to help one of the natives find his dog Ko-Joe. The other team went to Quadrant A.1 in hopes to work on a massive living unit that was in need of a good paint job. Commander Joel, Admiral Joe, Admiral Janet, Admiral Bubba, and our newly appointed Admiral Jani leaded this team of scouts (The rest of the crew on the Starship Christ) onward and upward as the reached new heights on their scaffolding, finished a railing on the back steps and chipped more paint. This team has boldly put paint where no paint had gone before. They were rewarded with a treat the natives called “ice cream” and cooled themselves off in a flash. The team from Quadrant F.3 met up with the team from Quadrant A.1 at the living unit to help clean up in order to meet some fellow Starfleets at Starship St. Vincent de Paul. There we fueled up on hamburgers, corn, baked beans, watermelon, salad and an assortment of sweets. It was quite delicious. After we replenished ourselves, we all returned to Space Camp Harmison for our nightly meetings. At this meeting we all wished our very own Scout Tori a happy birthday. Confetti was flown, the song was sung, and then it was repeated once again. Once our nightly meeting concluded the crew of the Starship Christ returned to base camp to relax, play cards and play volleyball with some of the crew from Starship St. John’s. There were no major injuries today to report. We will continue tomorrow as usual.

Commodore Sarah – End Transmission.

Pics by Joel, Prose by Sean

It’s just another Manic Monday…. We wish it were Sunday. Welllllll we started off by having breakfast at the marvelous time of 6:30. Some were ready, others, well. They had to catch up to the trucks as they drove away. ONWARD! We embark to our first job sites, a paint job, a porch job, and the roof job. The roof job was ill informed. The materials weren’t there and the job changed when they got there. So Mr. Joe’s team joined Joel’s fearless team of…. PAINT CHIPPPERRRSSS! They worked vigorously and managed to get 1 and a half sides of the house done. This is great! The team included; Paige, Trey, Andrew, Natalie, Carrie, Jarod, Ryan, Sarah, Abbie, Hailee, Carter, LIL Shawn, Sam, Mrs. Janet, Momo, Bubba, Joe, and oh I guess Joel. MAD props to those kool kats! And now to the other job…. It took us awhile to find this job…. Adham was driving and the street sign was barely visible beside the trees. With a little help from the home owners we found it! We (Sean [Yours truly], Tori, Kate, “The Pharaoh”, and Jani) started by digging! Jani, Kate and Uncle Rhamy dug, and finished 30 inch post holes. While tori and I dug holes to put concrete slabs for stabilization. OH!!! Side note…. It was 105 degrees here. And our job site had 10% shade. Back to the story! We met up and had a scrumdidaliyumptious dinner at Wesley Chapel UMC! It was slammin! Lasagna. Cake. Salad. The works! After this fantastic relief of Air Conditioner and food we head out to Vespers in which our very own Trey Mason played, and will be playing bass for all the vespers services. He’ll be here all week.  And now I’m here… writing this. I hope your day was as fun as ours. And remember God made you special, and he loves us very much!

This is Sean Irwin. Signing off.

Editor’s Note: We had our first injury Sunday Evening. Carter was swinging on the creek swing, and a combination of bad swinging technique and gravity, Carter’s face hit the seat on the swing. 3 stitches inside his lip, 5 outside, and a butterfly on his chin, and he’s all better. Never had to go to the Hospital this early in the week, so Carter get’s the record.

Pics by Joel, Prose by Joe

Ready to go we gathered at 8. The coffee and pastries were really great.

We posed for a picture, the entire bunch. Most of us already thinking of lunch.

We randomly chose our places to sit. (That way nobody throws any fit.)

We stopped at a Wa-Wa, for a break and a snack. Then to the road, we had to get back.

Our next stop McDonalds, to grab us some lunch. ‘Cause by then we were hungry, the entire bunch!

We all got here safely, and set up our tents. (Thanks for the cots that some of you lent!)

Supper was the usual, picnic type food, not anything special, but none the less, good!

Now it’s back down to our camp site to relax and rest. Hoping this week will be best of the best.

We’ll keep you posted every day, about the adventures we have on our way.

Please keep on praying while we’re away. That safe we will work and safe we will stay.

Now off to bed, so we’ll say good night. Know that we all are in the Lord’s sight.

Sub Sale Stuff

• Sub Prep – Sunday 1/16 @ 4:30
• Sub Sale – Monday 1/17 @ (to be announced Sunday Night)
• Sub Sale Info
• Sub Sale Order Form

OC Rally Pics Available

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HS Rally Info Out

• Open to 9-12 grade only
• HS Rally Reg Form 
• 1st Deadline – Jan 23
• On-Line Registration Available