Beanie Weenie Day Grace

Thanks to Girls 7 for this grace today:
Do you ever smile
when you think of camp
of all the fun you had
and wanna come again?

Don't you wanna take
the kitchen home with you
'cause even our parent's food
is not as good as theirs?

Always remember to
thank our God
for this camp, the counselors,
staff and for the kitchen too

Like a yummy cake
this camp is great

And in our mind we know
that we just gotta ignite the
spark of saints in our hearts

Make friends, have fun, and eat great food

Everyone knows that CNP is the best camp
The staff is a-ma-azing
the cooks are so wonder-derful

Today's Beanie Weenie Day
The best day of the week
we all are really hun-gar-y
So let's go eat
Amen!

Junior Junior High Camp 2011 - Wednesday

Well, the weather got the best of us again today!  Camp arose to a gloomy, cloud filled day and we all prepared for such a day.
We spent the afternoon doing workshops, like drama, music, "gloop", and many others.  The kids all had a blast and we were all surprised when the sun came out and everyone flocked outside.  After a day and a half of being huddled indoors, the kids were ready to play!
We finished off the day with the weekly Crazy Olympics, and went to bed hoping for clear weather!
Bishop Barry Beisner also joined us for a portion of the day and got pictures with the kids.

Hope all is well for everyone, love CNP

Mikey

Junior Junior High Camp 2011 - Tuesday

Whaddup? Dishboy #1 here!

Today at CNP we got some rain..

While we weren’t able to go on the hike we were planning, we did get to do lots of indoor activities like session  and arts and craft workshops. The kids even got to watch Hercules in Moreland hall with hot chocolate and popcorn. Mostly Tayles and I washed dishes, but even we got a little excited when the trash truck came to move the dumpster. Gotta appreciate those little things! 

We had creamy chicken and wild rice soup for lunch and barbecue chicken with scalloped potatoes for dinner. After that we had indoor campfire! You’d be surprised how good the acoustics are in Moreland hall! There were some awesome skits and lots of singing.

Tomorrow were having CRAZY OLYMPICS and the sweat dance (don’t tell, it’s a secret)

Hoping the rain doesn’t keep us cooped up indoors for too long (or at least that it’ll keep the night-critters away),

-Hannah D

Junior Junior High Camp 2011

Today was the start of the official Camp Noel Porter summer. A multitude of children from all over Northern California (including Ukiah!) ranging from ages 10-14 joined the staff and counselors this afternoon. We feasted on the usual Sunday Night Dinner - Spaghetti. Followed by the tradition of rules and a fantabulous game of Birdies & Pirches. Then, we had our first campfire of the week, run by the one and only… Me! Tomorrow holds a walk to the beach, delicious food, and great activities.

Sammy

We're still here...

It's Junior Junior High camp this week and we are still going strong.  It's a little cold here today so we decided not to go to the beach, but are watching Hercules and eating popcorn and drinking hot cocoa.  This afternoon we are going to apply what we saw in the movie to our spiritual gifts!

Here's to hoping the sun will be out soon!

Rev Jenni

CIT Camp, Day 4

Run in, it's cold!

Today was packed with session, team building exercises, and the beach. We started out the morning with our normal tent and camp chores.  I had tent inspection, Usually I can't do tent inspection because I have to plan church in the morning--but we had an evening prayer! The tents were fabulous, there were lots of sweet signs that the CITs made out of rocks.  After tent chores, we took a trip to Sunnyside beach. It was a quick walk to the beach in the hot sun. The snowmelt ATE Sunnyside beach. The kids splashed around in the ice cold water.  Even though the water was freezing, it was great to jump into it because the sun was on full blast.  Sunnyside was great and the kids had tons of fun.  We walked back to camp and had a long FOB-Flat on Bunks.  The kids needed it after the packed day that we had yesterday.  Then we had session, where we learned about safety precautions with campers.  After our session, we ate a delicious dinner of mac n cheese, chicken tenders, and broccoli!  It was delicious.  After dinner we had a special CIT oriented prayer service--it was a huge bonding moment for the CITs.  Overall it was a beautiful day with lots of useful information and a moving nighttime experience.  I love Camp Noel Porter!


Kacei

CIT Camp, Day 3

The King of Prom selects his subjects for Dizzy Bat.

Another day sets on the beautiful Tahoe Shores! I’m constantly amazed and thankful for this wonderful place and the great work it’s doing with the young people of today’s church. The CIT’s had another jam packed day of team building, leadership exercises, and FUN! Crazy Olympics tonight, and it was most definitely crazy! Dizzy Bat was such fun to watch, they had me laughing out loud.  They are a great group of kids, and truly are enjoying life and all that God has given us. As I type, the music is blaring in the background and they are all dancing away the night. I don’t think they ever run out of energy. Maybe it’s all the food they’ve consumed! 40 teenagers sure can put away large amounts of it. OK- time for bed, have to get up early to get breakfast ready for our hungry CIT’s!

Melissa

CIT, Day 3

This is my first summer as staff at Camp Noel Porter and it has definitely been a blast!  Today in the morning, I did the tent inspection for the first time.  The standard for the rake is 10 feet, and everyone was surprised when I actually measured!  Some of the tents didn't measure up to the standard. 

The Rake...almost enough!

Another thing that surprised me was how creative the campers were!  Yesterday, when asked which part of the Bible was the most interesting, I told them the first half of Joshua was (btw, that's the book when the Israelites go back to Israel and beat everyone and reconquered the land).  Then this morning for then inspection, there was a Bible open to the book of Joshua.  But some of the tents tried to use the dame decorations as yesterday, so I had to dock them points.  Tonight at campfire, the skits were some of the funniest I've seen.  One skit was dedicated to poking fun at the staff members and there was a "JT" in the background with a Bible and a tape measure, measuring random things.  He dropped it once and had a nervous breakdown before another one of the campers in the skit returned it to his hand.

Earlier in the day, the CITs had to lift each other through a "Spider Web", a net of strings between two trees.  The could not touch the strings, and people could not go back and forth to help.  This was a trust building exercise designed to challenge them develop strategies of who would go and how to organize when they would go. there were 23 CITs, so the activity lasted a long time.  The activity helped them grow together as a team.

Today was a fun day, but there is more to come.
John "JT"

"Your head weighs eight pounds!" CIT Brooke, emphasising the need to support the heads of people lifted through the Spider Web.

CIT Camp, Day 2

Heyyyy there from CNP! Today was the first full day of camp and it was a great one. 


Things started off as usual with tent and camp chores, followed by our first church service of the summer, where Kacei fabulously introduced us to a new song for our service, Gloria! Then we did some activities and discussion on listening, but I’m not going to say anything more in case you’ve never been to CT, becaussseeee it’s a SECRETTT!!! But I can tell you that all of our CT’s did an excellent job and passed all of the extreme tests that we put forth. Then it was lunch and our first trip to Commons Beach of the summer. After a slight detour on the walk due to some bike path construction, we made it with plenty of time to hang out and enjoy the beautiful day. 

Aw...Adam

Adam, one of our CIT’s, made for a memorable outing when he sat down on one of the park swings and it broke underneath him! After making sure he was ok, repairing the swing, and of course a ridiculous amount of laughter, it was all good. We headed back to camp where we had some FOB, played with some clay, ate some DELICOUS BBQ chicken for dinner, then worked on some more counseling skills before campfire. Now we are getting ready for bed and just judging by how amazing today was, and how AWESOME all of our CITs are, I am already totally looking forward to the days and weeks to come in this summer, and I’m pretty sure everyone else is too. 


Welllll with that I’m off to bed. I’m counseling a tent this week and lights out is in five minutes. I’m so excited to be back as the Patch N Go Tech this summer, and I can’t wait for what is in store.

LOVE LOVE LOVE, 
Jessie

Counselors-In-Training, Day One

So, they all got here yesterday.  Hopeful CITs from around Northern California bright-eyed and excited to learn how to be Counselors at Camp Noel Porter.  There are 21 vibrant young men and women who love camp so much that they are ready to come and serve our campers.

When they arrived yesterday, there was a lot of nervousness but it was quickly overcome when they found old friends and welcomed in our 2 first-time campers.

We had a delicious dinner (the traditional one) of spaghetti and then discussed the rules for camp.  But the highlight of the night was campfire.  It is amazing that we remember all the songs and that we fell into our routine of campfire.  We still sing Kumbya, Climbing Jacob's Ladder, Day is Done, and Our Father... and of course, Pass it On.  Our CITs are learning how it is different to be a counselor at campfire - a lot different from their days as campers.

We have a really diverse group of CITs, each one of them a wonderful addition to our summer camp family.  We ask your prayers as they step into their new leadership roles.

Rev Jenni
TOMORROW: Commons beach, another campfire, and... wildlife?

2011 Summer Staff

Here we are!  We are so excited about all of the adventures we will share with our campers this summer.

Here it is!

It is June 10 and it is Staff Training Weekend.  Yahoo!
We are having our 3rd day of summer weather here in Tahoe City and it looks to be the start of something beautiful.
So, our staff are on the way up the road - I noticed Melissa was already here - and the staff training manuals are being printed.... Wow, I guess we're really going to have camp this year.

Please pray for us all as we get ready for what will be a fantastic summer season!

Rev Jenni