Camp Redcloud

Brad and I spent last week (July 30 - Aug 4) at Camp Redcloud in Lake City, CO, with 11 of our middle school students from church. Camp Redcloud is a Christian Outdoor Adventure camp. In other words a "Christian Challenge Camp". And that is exactly what they did. I spent the whole week with the 7 girls, Val (another leader) and "Countess" who was the camp counselor assigned to us. We did everything together. Our days were filled with challenging activities, yummy meals (they had awesome camp food!!), games, quiet time and cabin devotions. The day was so full that when lights out came at 10 pm there was rarely more than 5 or 10 minutes of giggling and whispering before everyone fell asleep. It was an awesome week. I think that we all really learned a lot.


The activities were: horseback riding, high ropes course, canoeing, rappelling, low ropes course, power pole (a 30 foot pole that you climb up, stand on top, turn around and jump to catch a trapeze hanging 8 feet away in the air) and mountain biking. We also camp outside one night, and the last full day was spent hiking up to the continental divide. Pretty much everything we did either involved helmets, harnesses and safety ropes, or both. We were very safe all week, but fears and self-perceptions were definitely challenged. Plus it rained on us for almost every activity except for rappelling, so wills and attitudes were challenged, too.


There were lots of things that this camp did really well. One was applying a life and spiritual lesson to every activity. Most of the week was focused on getting past fears, learning to trust God when you're afraid, learning to find strength and courage in God when you can't do something on your own strength, and learning to set your mind to doing what you have to do. I loved how they didn't say it was so important to get over a fear of heights or fear of falling or whatever sort of fear the activity challenged. The point was to learn to push through your fear, lean on God and supportive people around you and don't give up. We practiced doing this in the context of physical challenges, but it was applied to life. Like when you have a job interview and you're totally freaked out about - you're afraid of failing, afraid of looking stupid, or just simply afraid. But you have to go in there and do the interview, relying on God's strength beyond your own and setting your mind to just doing what needs to be done.


They also helped us learn lots of relational lessons which I think the girls, especially, really took to. We had to constantly encourage and support each other, wait for each other, help each other. We couldn't leave anyone behind. Except for me! Being pregnant, I avoided some of the activities that had the potential of falling and causing trauma to the abdomen. Every time one of the girls asked "Why can't you do this one?" I explained "Well, if I were to fall, even though the harness would catch and save me, it might bash in the baby's nose. And I really don't want a pug-nose child." Then we'd kinda laugh and they'd let it be.

Ok, so it's maybe not so realistic, but I got tired of explaining that it just isn't worth it to risk my child's health and well being. It wasn't fear that kept me from the activities, but simple responsibility to protect the unborn child who is subjected to everything I do, eat, hear, breathe, etc.


Anyway, it was a great week and I hope that the students will really hold on to the lessons they learned and that we can help them develop their trust in God more this year. I'm so glad that we, as youth group leaders, were able to be there with them because now we know exactly what they went through, how they were challenged and how EVERY single one of them overcame the obstacles. We were part of the discussions and devotions and hopefully can draw those back in through out the course of this year.