The past four months have been a bit of a whirlwind. Just as I was starting to finally kick the "greenie" Primary Music Leader jitters I received a second calling as the assistant stake camp director. Our stake split recently and they lost the current assistant in that split. Well, if you know me, you know that I LOVE the YW and I especially love girls camp! I was elated to receive this call and had such fun planning camp this year with the director, Chris Sanders. It was such an amazing experience to prayerfully plan & see God's hand pull it all together. I was SO blessed to have had this opportunity to work with such amazing women and young women throughout the process. There were so many awesome experiences at camp and I wish I could tell you about them all. Here are a few of the highlights.
( #1 A VERY sleep deprived Sister Hall arrives at camp and gets mobbed and run down by crazy KW1 Young Women everyday. ;)
Our Theme evolved. Our brainstorming began using the talk Hold On (Ann Gibbs) which Chris had selected. We loved the story from it about the workers who clung to the side of a bridge after the scaffolding they were working on broke. In the story the workers were just one week from completing a bridge they had been working on for a year. About half the workers died. After the accident, the question was posed by locals why those who had died did not have any safety equipment. Sister Gibbs quotes, "The answer was simple. They had the equipment, they just chose not to wear it." We then focused on 5 pieces of "safety equipment" that we wanted to emphasize throughout our week at camp. We wanted to give them the "equipment" or tools they need to Hold On to the Iron Rod and Be Strong!
(Thank you to my friend Nan who got my creative juices flowing and shared many of her camp director ideas with me!)
1. Stand Strong - The power of one. You are a literal daughter of God. Be true to yourself. Listen to the spirit deep inside you. Stand on your own. Know who you are.
2. Believe Strong - The power of two - You can do anything with God by your side.
3. Love Strong - The power of friends. We are literal daughters of God which makes us sisters of divine inheritance. We must put our trust in each other. As a society of sisters you can depend on one another, serve and help each other through. A skill that will strengthen you and others throughout life and living the gospel.
4. Hold Strong - The power of action. Give your heart to Christ. Live the gospel with honor by doing what the spirit deep down inside you guides you to do. Doing requires integrity and discipline.
5. Be Strong - Kia Kaha! - The power of Promise. If we stay true to ourselves as daughters of God, believe strong by strengthening our relationship with God, strengthen our sisterhood by loving strong and DOING what we know is right and hold to the iron rod continually...we will overcome the world and return to live with our Heavenly Father!
1 Nephi 15:24 -
"And I said unto them that it was the word of God and who would hearken unto it, would never perish; neither could the fiery darts of the adversary overpower them unto blindness, to lead them away to destruction."
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I loved the phrase Kia Kaha I had heard in the movie Forever Strong and I grabbed onto it. The word Kia Kaha is a Maoran word and the literal translation is "be strong!" Our theme took wings and we had so much fun with it. Since maoran is a polynesian culture we had fun decorating with tropicals, tiki's, flowers and lays. We also gave each group a Maoran camp name. Kauwhata (1st yrs) which means Legacy, Tiki (2nd yrs) which means Purpose, Mana Motuhake (3rd years) which means Destiny, Awhero (4th years) which means Hope and Wakapono (Stake Leaders) which means Faith.
When it comes to the youth I am ALL about being spiritual and having lots of FUN! Therefore, each day the themes were introduced spiritually and then reinforced enthusiastically!! ;)
We really wanted to create unity among the girls and so we had each age group write and perform a Haka to be performed at each AM & PM flag ceremony, daily. Here you see the stake leaders performing ours for the first time for the girls. I was the lucky one who got to write and choreograph it so since this was the first time doing it, they made me stand in front so they could watch me. It was really embarrassing but I let my hair down and had fun with it. I pretty much mastered the stank face. lol
"Wakapono, Kia Kaha!"
All the girls wrote amazing Haka's. I was very impressed. Here the YCL's perform theirs. "Beat the book on your chest, beat the book on your chest. Read the book, read the book - pray pray, read the book, read the book - pray pray. The fields. The fields. The fields are white and ready for harvest! Beat the book on your chest! Beat the book on your chest. Kia Kaha!"
We performed our service project on site at Camp Arrow. Arrow Ministries is non profit organization that sponsers foster children all across TX to come to their camp for free and have an amazing team building and spiritual experience. The girls picked up trash, washed windows, folded linens, cleaned buildings and worked their hearts out. The biggest part of our service project was mulching a HUGE play ground. We ran out of time the day of the service project and the mulching was still not complete. Our awesome 3rd years went back the next day on their own and finished the job! Amazing girls I tell you!
I can't say how grateful I was for all the example of all the leaders who sacrificed their time and energy to come and work at camp. We had two full time cooks in the kitchen, the entire Stake YW Presidency there and many ward leaders who came, supported and enhanced camp with their talents. It was wonderful to see their testimonies shine through their commitment and service to others.
Stake Leaders performing our Haka on Skit Night. Yes, they are totally using cheat sheets! lol
"Strong as Iron, we hold, we hold. Daughters of God, we know, we know. We will love with all of our might, helping Gods children feel of his light.
"We are the hens who gather His chickens, show them the path to the tree not the kitchen!"
"Follow the path, hold to the rod, we are his children the daughters of God!"
I regret we did not catch this on video. At least, I don't think we did. :)
Stake Leader Skit
Since we went with the Maoran vibe - we choreographed a classicly awesome maoran stick dance to some fantastic maoran tribal music. Complete with all kinds of warrior dance & fighting skills of course.
Maoran stick double dutch.
We even Limbo! Ok, that's not Maoran but we worked it in anyway along with a shimmy and a few sweet moves!
For Bishops night, the 1st counselor in our bishopric brought the best team building activity! "Walking each other to the celestial kingdom." I was running around camp and arrived late to the activity As I did, they were unanimous in their nomination that I must do it. I have to say this was a little scary and a lot of fun. I felt the spirit so strong and even got a little teary eyed under my safety glasses. I felt such a strong impression of our Heavenly Father's love for us all. I have been blessed by so many great people in my life. I thought this was the perfect visual for Love Strong. :D
The closest thing to Facebook the girls could get during camp!
All our beautiful girls!
Each day at flag ceremony the stake leaders awarded a spirit stick for the group that really shined that day in their activities and who performed their haka with the most spirit. There was only one and it was passed around. The spirit stick became a much sought after commodity at camp and the girls got SO into it. By the end of the week, groups where in serious competition for it. Two had re-written their haka's and others had written & performed cheers in the stands as each group finished their haka. It was awesome and best of all it created the unity we prayed for at camp! Hooray for the spirit stick! As you can see in this pic, the current honorees display it proudly above their heads! :D At the closing flag ceremony we as we started our huddle to award the stick....a group of girls jumped out of the stands, got in a huddle and giddily started circiling around (totally mimicking us), grabbed the megaphone and awarded the spirit stick to the leaders! It was so funny and so sweet of them!
Last but not least. Our fourth years spent the entire day setting up for our commitment hike they modeled after the darkened path and iron rod. They drilled holes through the forest, installed Tiki torches lighting the path, set up their various stations with tables, chairs, etc and prepared the spiritual messages to be shared on the hike at each station.
As we started dinner we could see storm clouds. The girls huddled together (on their own) in the dining hall and prayed that we could still do the hike and it wouldn't rain. Even the Stake President told them they just needed to have faith! As we finished dinner the HUGE thunderstorm rolled in and the down pour began. It was one of the biggest I have seen since living in Texas. All their hard work and preparation for the hike was destroyed and flooded out. We even lost power in the dining hall. They were SO disappointed.
Then I remembered, as leaders, what we had been praying so hard for with camp. Unity. In that moment I felt peace and confirmation that Heavenly Father still wanted us to have this experience, he just wanted us to receive it unity, as one. We shared this with the girls and they seemed comforted. They re-grouped and they brought the commitment hike to us. We sat in the dining hall and they shared their messages station by station with us, in the dark with only flashlights lighting their faces. We ended the hike/meeting with a testimony meeting that lasted until 2am! I think every single girl bore their testimony. The spirit was so abundant, it was amazing!
So, the coolest part of this story is the picture you see above. After testimony meeting we left to walk girls back to their cabins, when we could see in the distance our Tree of Life still lit! The girls had created it as the last station in the commitment hike as our final place to gather as one. They filled a tree with white paper lanterns and as you can see it was beautiful! I can't tell how awesome it was. My heart just about popped! It truly was a miracle. It had stormed so bad all the tiki torches had flooded out of the ground and the paths were completely swamped. Yet the tree of life filled with PAPER lanterns was perfectly intact and still a glow. Not one lantern fell out of the tree or was dimmed. It was incredible! So, I will just end this camp experience with my testimony that the Gospel is true and I know with out a doubt that Jesus Christ lives and is our Savior! He is ever mindful. I know it with all my heart and I am very grateful for the capacity in which it blesses me to serve. Partake! Partake!
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