Midwest Camporee 2007

God brings challenges to our lives at different times and at different places. They are for different reasons but I believe they are to help us grow in our maturity both spirtually and for our wisdom. From July 14-18 I was a cadre counselor for the 2007 Midwest Camporee. These boys pictured below were in my cadre and we lived together in the tents behind us for four night and five days.I can easily say it was more difficult than maybe I wanted it to be from a fatigue standpoint but it was easy because the boys were very well behaved and respected each other. Our nights were very humid and not very cool. Sleep was not of very high quality and the hot 90 degree days were tiring. It was a blast and I wouldn't trade it for anything. Cadeting was a part of my church life growing up and Lord willing Sarah and I will have a son or sons and I want them to be Cadets as well.

For activities we volunteered at the Neal Smith Wildlife refuge cleaning up tree branches as well as repelling and zip-lining from a 40 foot tower on Mon. The repelling and zip-line was fun. On Tues. we did archery and riflery as well as camp craft and made a dream catcher. Below are four of my boys doing riflery. Jake, in the white shirt, won the Tues. morn. session out of about 25 boys and came within five points of winning for the entire camporee out of about 100+ boys.As well we had a frisbee golf tournament and I was able to use my ultimate frisbee skills and show off for the boys. We tied for first place the first time the tournament was played. The steering committee decided to rerun the tournament the next night in hope of having a single winner but we again tied for first place only this time with a different team. The prize for winning was Blue Bunny Waffle Ice Cream cones.

Thought of the day: Those that stay in the middle of the road get run over.