Ken's Tuesday Camp Thoughts

As a adult leader for this year's mission trip, I not only get to watch over the youth as they are here at Camp Kingswood but I am also eating meals with, enjoying outdoor activities with, and working alongside them as we head out for each day's job assignment. In just a short period since arriving on Sunday afternoon, we have done a lot of good work in honor of the Lord! Yesterday, the group that I am a part of packaged over 80 boxes of food destined for starving regions of the African country of Nambia and we repurposed and packaged 1,000 pounds of rice destined for Minnesota area food pantries and soup kitchens. Early today, we helped out at a fellow United Methodist church by repainting the exterior of their parsonage house. Bethel UMC has welcomed a new pastor to their church and will be moving into the parsonage at the beginning of August. Our great youth group from St. Paul is not afraid of hard work! They having been giving their all each day and I, along with the other adult leaders, are very proud of their efforts so far. We begin and end each day with a time of devotions and prayer. Not only are we working hard but we also building team skills and striving to develop a better understanding the world around us. Many of us are learning how we can serve others through even the smallest good deeds. We have free time each day to enjoy outdoor activites from basketball and baseball to hiking and swimming. The weather really has been beautiful this week! We are also joined this week at Camp Kingswood by our brothers and sisters from Calvary UMC out of Ames, IA and have enjoyed spending time and interacting with them. Wednesday is a free day for our group (non-work day). Many of us will head over to downtown Minneapolis to watch the Minnesota Twins baseball team play an afternoon game. The rest of the group will head over to the Mall of America in Bloomington.