The Zone

Last week Zane, Miranda and I went to summer camp with 13 of our middle school kids. The camp is called The Zone, and it is organized by local churches here in the St. Louis area. Two hundred kids from six difference churches attended, and the youth pastors from those churches along with the camp directors planned the whole week. Zane led worship for the whole camp in the mornings, and Zane and I together taught a seminar on physicality. Three young ladies from our church (two high schoolers and one college student) volunteered to come to the camp as student leaders, so Miranda and I stayed in a separate, private room, while all the girls stayed in two rooms. Zane was the only male leader, so he stayed in two adjoining rooms with 7 middle school boys! We had a great week, and our kids got to experience all the fun of summer camp like being blobbed into the lake (Zane was the official camp blobber) or making slides out of their mattresses. The last night we were there, we processed the time with our kids, and many shared ways that God was working in their hearts throughout the week to draw them closer to himself. That was the goal of the whole camp, so we were thankful! Here are some pictures from the week.

One afternoon, the kids could make their own t-shirts with stencils and a diluted bleach spray. The shirt turned out great!


Drew was the main camp speaker, and out kids really loved to listen to him. He spoke about how we all are a part of God's story and plan to redeem the world.


Ice cream!!!!!! I don't know who from our group won the award for eating the most ice cream, but I am pretty sure whoever it was ate around 15 servings in the four days we were at camp. And no, neither Zane nor I won that distinguished honor.


Our kids loved to play ping pong during free time.


Each day, we had a little time together just as our youth group to play games or talk. Sadly, this was the best picture I could get of our whole crew.


Last but not least, here is a picture of the blob for those of you who do not know what a blob is. I do not have any pictures of our group on the blob so this picture is courtesy of our camp facility's website. But image a line of scrawny middle school kids, all waiting in line for chance to have Zane jump onto the blob and propel them 20 feet into the air before smacking the water.