What a blessing..

This week we went to church camp. This is the 2nd year that our church, Grace Community Church, and 1st Pres Church in Dyersburg held the church camp. We did it at the Reelfoot Youth Camp in Hornbeak. Which was a blessing to be able to do the camp close to home this year. It was about 10 miles from my house. So Deon was able to go home and sleep, then come back to teach his class in the mornings. Other adults also would go home at night to sleep and then come back the next day. I worked the kitchen with Tammy and Julie so we stayed at the camp. But we got to have our own room in the girls cabin. That was great! Because of us getting up earlier than everyone else we loved having our room, we then didn't have to worry about waking up the kids and other adults, or being kept up at night by the kids. I loved working in the kitchen, it is hard work but its a blessing to see the look on the children's faces when they get excited about something we've cooked. Then coming in afterwards and telling us "thank you for the meal" or "thank you for working so hard on our meal"

Sunday, we got all our stuff put up onto the shelves and refrigerators. We had 3 regular refrigerators, and then 3 big refrigerators, gas stove, gas oven and fryer. Tons of counter space and also a food bar that we could sit the food out on to make it easier to serve the people. The first night we had people from church bring casseroles and desserts, so that was easier on us than trying to cook a meal on the first night and we could get things all settled in. It went over very well, and blessed that so many people helped us out that night. We went to worship @ 8pm which was a blessing. We got stuff ready for breakfast in the morning, and then headed to the girls cabin. That first night was a rough one. We did not sleep well at all, the beds were hard as a rock.

Monday, I woke up 4 times that morning, finally @ 4:30am I just decided to stay awake, and Tammy was next to me did the same, so we layed there and talked till 5:00am. Got up and headed up to the kitchen to get the coffee going. Thanks goodness for Mr Bill (Tammy's dad) who also helped us in the kitchen. He did stay at the camp either, he just lived down the road so we would go home @ night, but in the mornings he would get there by 5 am and get the coffee started. So we would have our coffee and wake up before we started cooking. We cooked pancakes, bacon, sausage, and would have cereal, poptarts and fruit for the ones who didn't want pancakes. After breakfast we of course would clean up our mess, and a few minutes later would start on lunch, which was sandwiches (ham/cheese, turkey/cheese, pimiento cheese and PB&J) chips, fruit and cookies. Then we usually had a few hours till we had to start supper, so we would sit around and chat, or go lay down for a little bit. That night for supper we had spaghetti, salad, and garlic toast. We would have worship every night @ 8pm. We went to cabin that night and I thought I wasn't ever go to sleep finally around 11:30 I did!

Tuesday, morning we all slept well that night, I got up once but went back to sleep and woke up to my alarm. I felt refreshed, and my feet felt better, b/c by the end of the nights they Hurt!
Same routine, cooked pancakes and everything the same, and same for lunch. You could tell we slept better this day b/c we were happier and chiper. Oh the stories that were told LOL. I walked around after lunch and watched the kids swim and play games also took a few pictures. Man was it hot! For supper that night we had grilled hamburgers, hotdogs, baked beans and french fries and Flippen's fried pies (peach and chocolate) those of course was a hit! Thanks to Mr Bill and Bro Billy for grilling the hamburgers and hot dogs, they were delicious! Then it was to worship and then to bed. Me and Tammy got our second wind after our showers, so we sat on the front porch for a bit talking with others.

Wednesday, morning we slept pretty good again. Got up to start our day. Cooked breakfast (same thing), next year we decided to change up the breakfasts. I was having a blast but getting worn out, my legs and feet were killing me but I kept going! Lunch we had left over hamburgers and hot dogs, which everyone enjoyed and had sandwiches. Supper we had ham, mashed potatoes, green beans, and mac and cheese, yest rolls and dessert was all the left over desserts we had left. Thanks for Bro Billy having the idea to cook the hams on the grill the night before, they were Great! All we had to do was warm them back up which helped alot. We called this meal our "Going out with a bang". Everyone loved it, and some even said it felt like a thanksgiving meal. It all turned out great! Tonight we got our camp shirts and they turned out so great! Love them! We did our group shot tonight. Slept pretty good that night too.

Thursday, today we are going home. We fixed cinnamon toast, toast (for anyone who wanted to put jelly on it) and cheese toast for breakfast, along w/ cereal, poptart and fruit. We always call this day our clean out day, we let them about have everything. Even cokes that were left over from canteen. The kids enjoyed that! After breakfast we got to watch the slide show of pictures that were taken through out the week. They were so fun to watch. We ended the morning by cleaning up, and packing up to head home.

The week was great, and we made notes on what to change in the kitchen. Some things we bought too much stuff and not enough in other things. I'm so glad the week went so smoothly, and I feel so blessed meeting new people. Loved being able to worship with such great people. Made lots of memories I will not forget.

Thanks to all who helped out! I hope to see you all next year! :)