2013
This summer has been the busiest summer we have had since opening our home in 2010. The main reason for having such a busy schedule is because of the construction of our girls wing to our building. If you are interested in seeing our building please click HERE.
Another thing that unexpectedly happened was that 2 of our children came down with the mumps and after they got better, I (Ben) came down with it too and was sick in bed for 2 weeks. So when Summer Camp time came closer, Michelle and I started wondering if we were going to be able to host it the same time as the prior 6 years. We also knew that Nathan Bell (administrator to the Gongyi Home of Hope) has been fighting bladder cancer for the past few months and might not have had the time, energy or funds to host a camp or travel to go to camp do to his frequent trips to the hospital for checkups, surgeries and chemo treatments. Bob Sayre (administrator to the Xuzhou Home of Hope) also was having an extremely busy summer with getting new windows to his building and making a trip to the States. Unfortunately, we all three had to make a tough decision and cancel our big Summer Camp and just do small camps with our own kids at our own places.
GROUP PICTURE
This year our theme for the Camp was the “Fruits” (Gal 5:21-22). The children memorized all the Fruits in both English and Chinese. We also came up with some “fruity” names for the teams as you can see below.
BLESSED BLUEBERRIES
(left to right)Crystal, Wendy, Noah, Eddy, Debbie, Chris, Graham, Dana, Anna and in the back is Janis, the team counselor. Janis is a college student who has interned with us for the past 2 summers.
BELIEVING BANANA’S
(left to right)Emma, Mark, Frank, Gabe, Thomas, Becca, Joey, Ellie, Gene, Sarah and in the back is Vivian, the team counselor. Vivian is one of our teachers who has worked for us since last August.
Godly Grapes
(left to right)Zoey, Jaxin(our eldest son), Danny, Eli(our middle son), Aaron, Hollie, Jake, Abby, Tyler(our youngest son), Lester and in the back is Nicky, the team counselor. Nicky is one of our teachers and executive assistant who has worked for us since we opened in 2010.
TEAM LEADERS
We usually have the older college and high school aged kids from Gongyi and Xuzhou help be team counselors and captains. Staying at home this year gave our older children and our younger staff members a chance to shine brightly for everyone to see how helpful they truly are.
(left to right)Eddy, Janis and Wendy.
(left to right)Sarah, Vivian and Gabe
(left to right)Hollie, Nicky and Jaxin
TRANSLATORS
Tony has been our translator since January 2012 and will be moving on in October. Jessica has been training to take over when Tony leaves. They both helped out tremendously throughout the camp.
Our first day was going over the rules of the camp, separating into teams and decorating the camp shirts. Knowing that we lacked all the helpful older kids from Gongyi and Xuzhou that we have relied on so much in the past, we had Janis who is a very talented artist design all the shirts and flags before the camp started. We told the counselors to have the kids sign their shirts and flags and if they wanted to add anything to go ahead and do it…two of the three counselors have never been to any of our summer camps before, so when Michelle and I walked into our classroom and saw everyone signing everybody’s shirt, it was a little shocking because we meant that each child should sign their own shirt. All the kids were having a great team and it reinforced what we told them in the beginning of the camp, even though we have three separate teams, we are still one family.
Jessica asked Michelle and I(Ben) if we felt like movie stars signing so many shirts:)
TEAM BUILDING
We played many different games to try and help the children of each team to build on each others strengths. Below are several pictures of the kids playing those games:
Tug of War
Dodge Ball Relay
The team captains lined up to give all the kids an example how to play the game…Wendy is pretty flexible so this game was not too difficult for her to do:).
This was Jake’s first summer camp and he enjoyed every bit of it…he was the first in line to pass the ball to his other teammates,so he while he waited for his team to finish, he just kicked backed and relaxed.
Potato Sack Race
We have never had a Potato Sack Race in the 7 years we have had the camp, so Michelle and I showed them how to do it. I showed them the jumping technique while Michelle showed the kids the walking technique:)
We were quite shocked how well and fast little Crystal could race. With her speed, it helped her team to win the race. As you can see below…Eddy was extremely pleased with his teams effort.
Dodge Ball
The Believing Banana’s beat both other teams to win the game!
Watermelon Eating
We did not have the entire team compete on this one…just the captains.
All three boys have always thought it would be fun and a good idea to eat watermelon really fast in a race…but later, after doing it, knew better:) Gabe (middle in the yellow) finished first!
Bouncing Out Ping-Pong’s
This game we tie an empty Kleenex Box onto the back of whoever is playing. We then put ten ping pong balls into the box and give the kids thirty seconds to shake out the balls. Above you can see Eli (left) and Mark trying their best to get those balls out!
Water Day (2nd Day)
On our Water Day we also played many games:
Balloon Toss
Aaron(pictured above) and his partner Noah won!!!Holy Cup Race
The object of this game was to fill a cup that has many holes in it up with water. Run down to your teams bucket and dump the remaining water into the bucket. Whoever had the most water won and got the privileged of getting the water dumped on their heads as you can see below with Jaxin and Hollie.
Musical Chairs
The children walked around chairs and when the music stopped, they had to sit down…if they had no seat, they got a water balloon popped over their head.(see the pictures below)
Eli
HollieHow Wet Can You Get the Admin
After all day of breaking water balloons on our kids head, they had a chance to pass water balloons down a line and break them over Tony, Michelle and my head:)
Swimming
About a week before the camp started, a truck advertising a newly opened swimming pool passed by our yard. We were so excited we chased the truck down and found out where the pool was at. The place allowed us to swim for free and told us we can come two more times for free this summer!
Emma (left) and Anna
Becca(left) and Danny.
(Above)Michelle teaching several of our children how to swim. (Below) Ben testing how well they listened:)
Eddy
Abby
Wendy
Carnival Day(3rd Day)
Our last day of the camp was just a day to let the kids walk around an enjoy. We gave each child 14 tickets to go and play at several game stations as you can see below. At each place they had the chance to win points for their team, candy or prizes. We do apologize for not taking more pictures this day but we had to use every available hand to man a stand.
Ping-Pong Toss
Nicky
Diva it up
Jessica (left) fixing up Emma’s hair
Face Painting
(left picture)Janis(left) painting Hollie’s face. The picture on the right is of Becca
Marble Pick Up
QiFang (one of our housemothers)
Ring Toss
Vivian
Bowling
Tony
Clown Toss
YuLing (one of our housemothers)
Party
That night we wrapped the camp up with a BBQ. Each person had two hotdogs, chips, veggies and a cold soda!!!
Frank
Lester and Michelle
We also had a talent show allowing all of our children to show just how talented they truly are:)Above picture is of Michelle and our 3 sons doing a dance
(left)Anna and Janice tell a story and on the right Ellie gave some riddles.
Chris(left) and Crystal(right) told a story.
Emma(left) and Wendy did standup comedy…which had everyone laughing pretty hard
left to right-Graham, Gabe and Eddy sang a song.
All the kids sang a couple of Chinese songs and one English songs.
Once the talent show was over we had the teams line up and we passed out 1st, 2nd and 3rd place medals! Hollie, Nicky and Jaxin led the Godly Grapes to first place.
(Left to right)Anna, Chris and Dana showing off their medals.
We also danced and played until 9:30 that night. Our children had an outstanding time even though they really wanted to go see their older brother and sisters from Gongyi and Xuzhou. Sorry for the length of this update, but it was just too much fun and we wanted to share as much of it as we could with you. Thank you for your continued support and helping us spread love, joy and happiness to all of these wonderful children.
