2014
We look forward to this time of the year all year long. We love hosting this camp, because we get to pour out extra love and joy on our children. We also love it because we usually get to see old and new friends from the other Home of Hopes. Unfortunately, again we had to cancel the big camp because of several issues between all three Homes. Bob and Cindy Sayre, who administrate the Xuzhou Home of Hope, are in the States for a time with Cindy battling breast cancer. Thankfully the surgery and chemo treatments were a success. Gongyi had several work projects that you can read on their site if you click HERE. So we decided to just have the camp at our home again this year with hopes that next year we all can finally get together.
Team O.A.K.
(Back Row from left to right)Lauren (our Chinese Teacher) Sarah, Gabe, Debbie and Eli (our middle son). (Front Row from left to right) Noah, Thomas, Joey, Aaron, Dana and Ellie
Team S.K.Y.
(Back Row from left to right)Lucy (our Chinese Teacher) Wendy, Anna, Lester and Mark. (Front Row from left to right) Jake, Emma, Tyler (our youngest son) Eddy, Sammy and Crystal
Team G.O.
(Back Row from left to right)Jessica (our translator) Abby, Jaxin (our eldest son), Hollie and Gene. (Front Row from left to right) Chris, Zoey, Graham, Becca, Frank and Danny
Our first day we separated our children into 3 teams and did a lot of team building games, like:
Potato Sack Race
Chris
Frank
Dana
Zoey
Dodge Ball Relay
The idea of the game is to pass the ball to the person above you with only using your feet.
Tug War
This year the children wanted to challenge Mommy and Daddy in a Tug of War match!
Needless to say that they won, but we had the last laugh by letting go of the rope:)
Watermelon Eating Contest
This year with our kids getting bigger, most of them wanted to take part of the contest.
Joey (left) is our youngest child and ate faster than everyone else!
Dodge Ball
Mark (left) and Gabe (right) race for the ball.
Movie
We were invited to a local movie theater to watch a 3D movie!
They also gave us all a free balloon, popcorn and drink!
Shirts
Each year the
Shirt Shack blesses us with our camp shirts. The kids really love their shirts and the color. After passing the shirts out, all the teams got together to decide a name and design for their shirts and flags for their team.
Water Day!
When we first started the camp in 2007 we planned on a water day just to have a back up plan incase it rained. We did not realize that it would be one of the most favorite days for all the children. When we ask the children what they liked best and worst of the camp; the water day is usually on the best list of most of the children.
My cousin Hobbs (Javier Avila) is back with us and is a huge help to not only Michelle and I but also to our children. Before we started getting everybody soaked with water, we gave a demonstration of why we need a good solid foundation to build upon.
After the morning demonstration and crafts we started in the Water Games as you can see below!
Balloon Toss
Kids line up with a partner and pass the balloon. With each successful toss, they have to take a step backward.
Gabe (left), Emma (center) and Jaxin (right) catching their balloon.
Eli’s excitement from Jaxin catching his toss and moving them into 2nd place
Eddy and Gabe won the balloon toss and their prize was a water balloon being popped over their head…plus they earned points for their team!
Musical Chairs
In this game, not only do you lose your seat, but you get a balloon popped over your head as you can see with Crystal in the above picture
Lucy and Wendy tied for 1st place!
How Wet Can You Get
This game the teams line up and pass water balloons down the line and see how many they can pop over Michelle, Javier and my head. For some reason they really like this game…especially the team captains who get to do the popping:)
Bobbing for Apples
And of course you can’t have a water day without Bobbing for apples!
Jaxin
Graham
Frank
Indoor Swimming Pool
Thanks to the youth group of Calvary Chapel in Danville IN. because their youth raised the money for our kids to go swimming this year!
Noah
Dana
Carnival Day
On the last day we passed out tickets to all the kids and set up several booths for them to go and play at. They can win prizes and points for their team. Michelle came up with this idea a couple years ago and its been a real blast. Its very enjoyable to see the kids with their tickets bouncing from booth to booth to try and win the best prizes. Below is some of the stations we had set up for the kids to play at:
Ring Toss
Ping Pong in a Pot
Clown Toss
FootBall Toss
Hockey Shot
Face Paint
Marble Pickup
Basketball Shot
Cook Out
Then we had BBQ for dinner. The kids ate 2 hot dogs, chips, veggies, cookies, and had a cold drink
Talent Show
The kids are all very talented and did many different things for our talent show. Such as:
Graham, Gabe and Eddy sang. Our dog George also was there for moral support!
Danny and Thomas did standup comedy
Jake, Sammy, Chris, Aaron and Joey almost sang a song…they got too nervous and could not stop giggling
Noah and Debbie told a story
Gene also told a story
Wendy and Anna did a skit
Dana and Crystal asked riddles
Abby did a magic trick
The younger kids danced
Our older girls danced
Older boys danced and were the favorite of the night
Thank you for taking the time in reading about our children. We hope you get to experience some of their joy by seeing all the pictures. We are so grateful for the love, joy and hope you help spread here to our children. If you have not helped before but would like to get more involved, please email us at ben@homeofhope.org or michelle@homeofhope.org to find out more.
Blessings
Ben and Michelle Godard
