Hijinks!

Day 5 - Tuesday

We painted the camp brown for 1.5 days. We were prepared to joyfully paint the rest of the camp brown but instead we got to stack wood! This was just going to be a brief reprieve from paint but it was very welcome.

Caleb and Erika were still gone getting some prescriptions filled for Erika when we split into two groups after chapel. We left Sarah behind at camp with Trouble and Chacho figuring that Caleb and Erika would join them when they returned. The rest of us drove to the campground to take our positions at the woodshed while we waited for our first truckload of firewood to arrive.

We didn't even have the first load stacked when the second load arrived! We were determined to change that. By the time the third load arrived we wanted to appear that the load wasn't enough to keep us busy. Truth was we had just finished and quickly sat down when we heard the truck.

Let the hijinks begin! The next load included a stump. Maybe because we failed to mention that we sent back about half a load of wood because it didn't fall out of the truck. Our bad but it made for quick stacking! What are we supposed to do with a stump?

This was only the first of many.

Here's your stump back.

Then we had this great idea to ambush Caleb when he brought the next load of wood. We worked extra quickly so that we could get set up and find enough wood pieces for everyone that resembled weapons. Sadly Caleb wasn't in the truck this time. So our buddy Glen made sure Caleb would be driving the next time. Thanks, Glen!

In the meantime, we had 2 lovely messages from our friends that we needed to take care of plus a load of wood to stack.

Right in the back of the truck, awww!

Buried in the truck. Just kidding? Not nice, guys, not nice.

Now not only did we need to set our ambush up but we needed to come up with a message to send back to them. No worries though, we got it all taken care of.

This time we ambushed Caleb and Sarah!

Being the good Bible scholars we are, we decided to use a VERY law-oriented verse to get them back. It was slightly difficult to get this in the bed of the truck. The first time Caleb heard the wood hit the metal bed and got out to see what was up. Thankfully, Fender the Ninja, came to the rescue and grabbed the wood before Caleb saw it. With his ninja skills he was able to place the piece of wood in the truck silently. Caleb said he stopped and looked in the bed of the truck prior to leaving the campground and saw it then but he didn't know the reference until he looked it up. Have I mentioned that this is a VERY law-oriented verse?

But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral,
those who practice magic arts, the idolatoers, and all liars - they will be consigned
to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.

Not long after this verse was sent and we rejoiced at our genius it was break time. The two groups were reunited at the campground since the campground had shade and where they were loading the wood at camp had full sun. There we were standing in a circle drinking water, eating jolly ranchers and other snacks when the camp director showed up. He immediately went over to Fender and started talking about some lady calling camp about a bad word on a piece of wood on the back of the camp truck. Fender was sweating, the girls and Daniel were sweating but for some reason Caleb wasn't sweating (figuratively, I'm sure he was sweating literally for other reasons). Once I noticed how relaxed Caleb was (he wasn't even paying attention but distracting himself with his phone), I sat back and enjoyed watching everyone get nervous. The director let them sweat it out for a bit and then said, "Psych!". I found out later that it was our good buddy, Glen, who included the director in our hijinks. Thanks, Glen!

Sadly we were never able to get them back. The group at the campground did disappear for a bit as we traveled to the bog (swampy mud hole). As we were walking back from the bog we heard the truck returning with more wood but everyone was gone by the time we climbed back up to the shed to stack the last load of the day. The shed wasn't completely full at the end of the day so we finished it up the next morning.

The whole gang. Great job, guys!

The hijinks didn't end when we were done working for the day. We opted out of the all camp game Capture the Flag to "pack". Packing took a few minutes and then we sat at our picnic table between the cabins and talked and listened to music on Caleb's phone. The campers and counselors from the lake side of the camp kept running by and quickly figured out we weren't playing nor would we reveal their hiding location to the team on the cabin side of the camp. A couple of our youth decided they had to go to the bathroom (not so much) and walked with one of the counselors from the lake side team. They helped her find the hidden flag without her getting sent to jail. Thankfully everyone was a good sport about the youth involvement. I think it helped that the flag didn't get stolen, just found.

The night ended with as many smiles as it began with our second campfire on Med Hill. We sang a silly song called I've Been Redeemed and learned that we can't get to heaven in Fender's shoes cuz the Lord don't want no big canoes. We also learned we can't get to heaven in Caleb's pants cuz Caleb's pants are full of ants. We ended the day by watching a beautiful sunset, eating s'mores, and having a great devotion led by Caleb.

Kick it!

Lord of the Dance polka!

S'mores