Sky Ranch

'Ello everyone, this is Aaron. I decided to write this blog a little late because I thought “hey, being fashionably late is classy.” Right? No, actually I just forgot about it until now. Sorry everyone, my bad.
So Sky Ranch was a great camp. When we arrived it was pretty stinkin' hot, and it basically stayed that way throughout the time we were there. There's just something about the Oklahoma sun that's a little more harsh than the mid-west where the majority of us are from.
After arrival and set up we had a little bit of time to find our accommodations for the week. We ended up staying in a very nice house on the camp ground...but we were in a basement with no beds and about 18 other kids. On top of that there were only 2 showers to share between all of us including another group of kids and youth leaders on the other side of the house. It was interesting, but actually pretty great. It made for a good time of getting to know some of the kids and be able to interact with them even though we weren't counselors of the purest sense, and we didn't stay in the cabin/dorm areas with them.
Our role at this camp was primarily as the band during the worship services. Personally, being able to play worship music and hearing the congregation sing along in praise to Christ is quite rewarding, but we had extra opportunities this week. Not only were we able to lead the praise music for the worship times with another camp (Elementary school camp) parallel to this one, but we were also placed in teams with the campers from the senior high camp to participate in many of the camp activities with them. Of course we have the obligatory goofy names of these teams. After much deliberation, and a distinct affinity for the color green my team decided to go by the name “Green Goblins.” If you ask the rest of the Revolution, our team cheer was something legends are made of. That's all there is to say about that.
The teams Revolution were a part of included: “The Winners” with Matt, “The Outlaws” with Andrew at the helm, “The Spicy People” with Chris as one of the leaders, and “The Crazin' (Crazy?) Blazin' Caucasians” with Mike in their midst. Denny was a part of “The Thundercats” for all of you products of the 90's out there. Some of the other team names included “The Mighty Moo Cows” and “The Zebra-corns”. All you parents out there can be quite sure that your children's creative minds are definitely being stretched at these camps.
In these groups, I personally had the opportunity to bond with and encourage a lot of the campers. It was great by the end to be able to call each one of them by name, knowing that the attention and worth us as leaders put into getting to know the kids showed at least one facet of the love of Christ. I'm sure the other band members feel similarly, as we recognize the importance of relationships in this ministry.
Speaking of relationships, during the services our worship was lead by a man named Jeremy from California. He brought the preaching for the week and spurned the campers, counselors, and staff toward living out our relationship with Christ in the way we practice our relationships with people. As he explained the way the different aspects of this can play out, many campers decided to make commitments toward Christ whether for the first time to trust in him, or to re-commit to living out their faith in Christ in the way they treat others. Please pray that these commitments made both at this camp and other camps are lasting beyond this summer!
I'd like to thank you for reading this entry despite it's late arrival. Please keep following us for the remaining weeks of this summer! Peace y'all!
-Aaron Tuscherer