Christ-Youth Student Ministries

Pics & Prose by Joel

Well, as we went to sleep Friday night, the rains began, and then continued, and continued, stopped for a while, started again, stopped, started, stopped…..I think you get the picture. The whole night all I was thinking was how horrible tent tear-down/trailer load in was going to be in the rain.

We woke up at and started packing up, with no rain. God does provide! By breakfast(at 7, instead of 6) we had the trailer loaded with all the luggage and had 4.5 tents down. We went up for breakfast, then headed back down to finish in the camp site. By shortly after 8 we were up at vespers(which started at 9)

Vespers started with site reports, but with a twist. Instead of telling what we did on the job site that day, the kids were supposed to tell how they saw God work during the week. Cody took his rock up and talked about how he saw God with his rock, then Hailee and Megan helped with communion. We took a huge picture of all the kids in camp, then our normal regular camp picture with just us. We loaded up and headed out, making it home by about 3:45.

I want to thank everyone for the prayers, the support, the donations, and for just being there for us. We couldn’t do what we do without you!!!!!!

Pics & Prose by Joel

Last night in Berkeley Springs! It’s been a great week, but I digress. We were up at 6 to watch the sunrise….however, the Sun evidently never got the memo, cuz it never showed. but oh well, we saw it a few times earlier in the week. Breakfast was the normal, waffles, eggs, bacon, etc……then we were off to the job sites

Adham, Terry, Tori, Sam, Hailee, Trey went to Paw Paw to finish up the Largent house, then head over to the Del Cid site to do some minor ramp repair. They knocked it out in short order and almost made it to the Vincent site before we left, but not quite.

The rest of us, descended on the Vincent Site and finished the baluster’s, sanding, and a few other minor accessories for the ramp and deck.  We finally got finished about 2, then packed up and headed to Goodwill.

After our annual Goodwill trip, we headed back to camp for showers, clean up, then we were off to dinner at Maria’s, another Camp Joy tradition. As I write this the kids and some of the adults are bowling. We’ll be home tomorrow afternoon sometime, and I think all of us are ready. Like I said earlier we had a great week, and everybody got along really well. Thank you for the prayers and support!!!!!!!

Pics by Joel
Prose by Natalie & Tori

Hello world, It’s my birthday!! -Tori

And it’s not mine. –Natalie

This morning, after waking up too early, we went upstairs for breakfast. The menu this morning was sausage, pancakes, and toast. The birthday girl had Frosted Flakes. During breakfast, Mr. Jeff played “Happy Birthday” on the harmonica while the rest of us sang to Tori (who was wearing her birthday tiara, of course). Before heading to our job sites, we stopped at Sheetz for our morning needs (coffee, donuts, etc.). Tori bought her first lottery ticket to prove she was an adult, which she proceeded to remind us of all day long.

Joel’s site consisted of MoJo, Joel, Janet, Amy, Trey, Shawn, Jarod, Megan, and Carrie. At Joel’s site, they started off by finishing the decking. Then they cut the balusters and finished the railing on the ramp. After checking to see if the baluster would fit, they quickly realized that they were too long. They fixed the balusters and had to re-drill them. After the short lunch break, they put on the balusters and were given delicious peach cobbler, which we’re a little bitter about now that we just found this out.

Adham’s site consisted of Danny, Jeff, Adham, Terry, MoMo, Bob, me (Natalie), Tori, Sam, Taylor, Cody, Hailee, and Carter. On Adham’s side, they put up all the balusters, and sanded the deck and ramp. Then they joined Danny and Jeff’s crew on the other side of the house. Once uniting as one team, we resurrected the dilapidated front porch and ramp. We also constructed new posts and railings around the porch.

We arrived at the Catholic Church and were welcomed by the smell of garlic bread. For dinner we had spaghetti and meatballs. Once back at camp, we prepared for vespers. It was our night to the message/skit. It was a great success, and we sang happy birthday to Tori…again.

Pics by Joel
Prose by Megan & Hailee

Hello world and all who inhabit it,

This is Megan and Hailee with our daily report. Today, on July 11^th, we had a breakfast that consisted of bacon, eggs, pancakes, and toast. After the delicious meal, we made our way to Sheetz to buy our necessities (Coffee, Snacks, Milkshakes, Gas, Etc.). Then, we headed up to our separate job sites.

At Adam’s site, we finished building the back ramp, but we still have to put up the balusters. His site consisted of: Carter, Jarod, Carrie, Sam, Ms. Janet, and Bubba.

On the same house, which was Danny’s site, we took off the old balusters and rails on the front ramp/deck so we could build brand new ones. His site consisted of: Janet, Ms. Amy, Trey, and yours truly, Megan and Hailee.

At Joel and Joe’s site, we put on deck boards, framed the lower ramp, and completed the landing strip. Their site consisted of: Tori, Natalie, Cody, Shawn, Taylor, and Ms. Terry.

After a long, hard, successful day we head to Cacapon State Park to cool off. Unfortunately, it was thundering so we could not swim. We ended up just heading over to the pavilion for dinner.

Then, we headed to our annual Dairy Queen trip and had some delicious ice cream. We have a tradition of “Interfering with Traffic”. We make the honk signal to see how many we can get. This year, we beat our old record of 127 to a new score of 134!!!!

Pics & Prose by Joel (bunch of slackers conveniently forgot how to type…)

Food, Weather & Stuff

Cool evening last night, but got a bit warmer today. Still real comfortable, compared to some years.

Up to breakfast by 6ish. Pancakes, Sausage, Toast, then back down to camp to load up and ride out. Stop at Sheetz(of course), then off to the job sites.

The Paw Paw crews are eating lunch at the Paw Paw UMC, while the Vincent Crew sat around a small table in the yard and ate sandwiches, etc.

Dinner was at the Catholic Church in Berkeley Springs, hamburgers, beans, corn, salad, and ice cream and cookies. Other than not enough chairs, it was a welcome end o our work day.

Danny & Janet’s Crew

Danny, Janet, Sam, & Taylor stopped by real quick to replace the 2 broken window panes at the Frankfort Site in Great Cacapon, then proceeded to the Powell Site in Paw Paw to work on the kitchen sink(was leaking), a window(was open and wouldn’t close, or vice versa),  and painted the ramp and some railings.

Adham, Terry & Bob’s Crew

Adham, Terry, Bob, Natalie, Shawn, Carrie, Hailee, & Cody continued work on the deck and ramp at the Largent Site in Paw Paw. Things are going well, and they should be done soon. It’s looking like we’re going to do some repair work on the front deck and ramp, starting tomorrow.

Joe, Amy, & Joel’s Crew

Joe, Amy, Trey, Tori, Megan, Jared, Carter, & Myself decked and ramped at the Vincent Site in very very south Berkeley Springs. We got the 2nd long ramp section installed, bolted and added numerous structural elements to strengthen and tighten up the structure. We started cutting ramp boards, and dug out for the bottom deck(ground level section), and will install the final ramp tomorrow. The homeowner’s son brought out some ice pops to eat, which tasted mighty good!!!!

Tomorrow (Today by the time you read this)

Danny’s and his merry band are gonna tackle the front deck/ramp repair job at Largent. Adham and his peeps will probably finish the back deck at Largent. Joe and his cronies will start installing ramp/deck boards, we’ll finish the lowest ramp, and probably start on railings. Tomorrow(Wed) is also swimming day at Cacapon State Park, with dinner at the Park. Melissa and Jeff(Jeff for 1 day) will be joining us tomorrow as well.

Blessings

Joel

Pics & Prose by Joel

Breakfast time was moved up this year, 6am-6:45am, so we were up bright and early….can’t say all of us were bushy tailed, but we were up. Waffles, Bacon, Eggs, Toast were on the menu, and after b-fast, we went back downstairs to divvy up tools, supplies, kids, etc. Off to sheets, then we were off to our respective jobsites.

Danny, Janet, Tori, & Natalie went to the Frankfort site to work on the window project. They had to scrape/melt off the old window glazing, then re-glaze the windows. We did manage to break 2 of the panes, but thanks to our resident glass expert, Danny….no problemo! Window panes will be replaced tomorrow.

While Danny and the girls were inside doing windows, Bob, Jared, and Shawn spent about 4 minutes cleaning out clean gutters, so they were almost finished before they started. Afterwards they joined Adham’s group on the deck project.

Adham, Terry,  Trey, Carter, Taylor, & Megan tackled the deck/ramp job at the Largent home. They had to dig a lot so we can get the ramp section close to ground level. They moved right along, getting the deck platform done and starting on the ramp itself.

Joe, Amy, Cody, Sam, Carrie, Hailee, and myself were at the Vincent site in Way South Berkeley Springs. Due to some mis-communication, we weren’t sure if we had a any deck blocks at the site, so Cody and myself drove to Winchester, VA to purchase some. 30 minutes plus each way, plus trying to find Lowes, we finally made it back somewhere after 10. Despite our slow start, we got a lot accomplished on our 47+ foot wheelchair ramp. We got 3 of the platforms done, and the first main section of ramp. Almost got the 2nd section of ramp done, but gravity wasn’t our friend, so we’ll finish that tomorrow.

Dinner was at a church close to Camp. We had lasagna, french bread, salad, and some awesome desserts. Back to Camp for Vespers, and now as I write this, some of the kids are playing volleyball with another church.

No rain today, although it did rain a good portion on last night. Temps have been really good, but in the sun, it’s a tad warm, but overall very comfortable. A few scrapes and bumps, but no stitches, or hospital visits…..woohoo!

Tomorrow, we’re back at it, so keep the prayers coming!!!!!

Blessings

Joel

Prose by Trey
Pics by Joel

This is my sixth time participating in Camp Joy, and I must say that today has been the most eventful “move-in” day of them all. The group met at church at 8am, and after a brief picture taking session, headed on the road. After a short pit stop at Wawa and a longer lunch stop at McDonald’s, we eventually ended up in beautiful Berkeley Springs, West Virginia. Yeehaw! We got all of the tents out of the trailer, and — CRACK! BOOM! – Thunder boomed as lightning lit up the sky, and suddenly the sky opened up and a deluge fell upon us. (I didn’t know what that word meant until Joel told me that it would be appropriate for the situation.) It seemed that the tents would never be able to be set up. We waited around for a while, and then Tori, Carter, and Jeff showed up a little late to see that nothing had been done. After a very loooooooooooooooooong time of sitting around doing nothing, it seemed that the raining was nearing an end, so we decided to start setting up tents quickly. About six minutes into setting up our first set of tents, the bottom fell out again… We had to fold the tarp over our half built tent to protect it from the rain. This on and off tent building process went on for very long. Imagine trying to watch a video on YouTube, and every so often it stops the video to buffer the next portion. After a while, you would get tired of trying to watch the video and move on to some other technological form of entertainment. Unfortunately, this tent process didn’t offer any form of entertainment, unless you include the other youth group laughing at our efforts. Once all of that was done, it was essentially time to go to dinner. Hot dogs and hamburgers were about as delicious as hot dogs and hamburgers can be, and then we headed back to camp. Move in was completed after dinner when we unloaded our individual junks and trunks and put them into the tents. Once we got to vespers, (the camp’s sort of church service and general information gathering), praise began. After a considerably short singing session, Sheldon (the leader of Camp Joy) invited the Camp Joy committee to head to the stage, where the most elder member told us the story of the origin of Camp Joy. Following that was a short lived (due to yet another impending storm) social gathering project following the idea of Bingo, where we all had to talk to people from other groups and have them sign our game board in a place labeled with something true about them. Now we’re back at our comfy campsite, and by comfy I mean humid and uncomfy, hoping that the storms will subside for the rest of the week, allowing our work to be as uninterrupted as possible. Adieu!