Our son attended Cohutta Springs Youth Camp in Crandall, GA for five days (and five nights). It was very difficult to be without him for me. I missed him a lot, especially the first day. Deciding to send him there was a God thing back in May, so now that it was all done and settled, I prayed harder for peace. Peace finally came, along with confirmations that he was having a wonderful time. One of the counselors happens to be our sitter and she texted me by the second day that he was doing well and enjoying his time there.
He really enjoyed himself there. Every day, each cabin experienced four activities from a list which included: archery, swimming, BMX, the blob (giant air-filled pillow floating on their lake), banana boat rides (two boats shaped like bananas, connected in the middle, three kids per side), creative arts (they painted ceramic turtles), canoeing, indoor sports in the gym on rainy days, and more. Each cabin had their own worship time in the morning and then, as a whole, the campers assembled for morning and evening worship.
They put pictures on their secure site for parents to look at and it was fun to look for our son’s lovely face every day. He did not appear in the slide shows every day, as they could not get all the kids in there. When we did spot him, it was such a strange feeling: our son, so far away, having fun and living life away from us for almost a week.
My son (Superman shirt) with friends plus their counselor
It is not exactly a good feeling, but I decided I was going to be brave and accept the cycle of life. Children grow up. We are not ready to send him to college, you understand, but he demonstrated to us that he is capable of being away from us in the name of summer fun at a Christian camp. His counselor had no complaints.
In fact, this counselor had 12 boys in his cabin and he called them the 12 disciples because they were so well-behaved. Of all the tragedies and bad things I imagined would happen to my son, none came true. He did not even learn a bad word, which a friend of mine predicted. I can tell he has matured a bit in his social interactions, which is always a good thing.
Our son also returned asking for spelling lessons. Apparently, they played “Spell this…” in the cabin and the other boys discovered he could not spell certain words. He told them he would ask his mom to teach him more spelling. They said, “It is summer break right now!” His reply? “I know I can convince my mom to do spelling even now.” Of course, I will be delighted to teach him spelling anytime, so, thank you, summer camp.
I am sure that we will discover different lessons he learned throughout summer camp, which is called Adventure and it is geared toward children ages 7-9. He only just got back and we are happy to listen to all his stories.
While he was away, I treated his sister to Camp Mommy: extra cuddles and reading, library programs, swim lessons, The Track in Pigeon Forge, baking projects and nature walks. She loved it and claimed she did not miss her brother. By the fifth day though, she was begging me to go get him from camp…
