What is the only word that is spelled wrong in the dictionary? Wrong!
What is big when its young, and small when it’s old? A candle!
What is Dodge Ball Freeze Tag?
River, Road…River, Road…Road…River!
Why does dry ice burn you if it’s cold?
How do you see Jesus in your life?
These are just a few of the riddles, conversations, activities, and things that you would experience in a single day of Wakonda on Wheels. It was a summer that has been like no other in the history of Camp Wakonda! The days were long, yet short. Busy, yet pretty laid back. Tiring, yet encouraging, and in the end worth every second of the effort. We often spent more time cleaning and prepping than anything else, yet the young people that attended will probably never know. The parents were all glad to have something for their young person to do, and even wanted to stay themselves to partake of the silly shenanigans that took place!
Over all we saw 113 young people! We visited 6 churches, but impacted 15 churches in Wisconsin. We had 14 young people, that we know of, attend from the community around the churches. While this may not seem like a lot in comparison to our regular camp attendance of 900 campers, this is a huge milestone for a crew of 6, a small 8’ enclosed white trailer, and odds that were not in our favor of doing much this summer. We made 120 containers of slime, launched 117 model rockets, sent 3 eggs into space and only retrieved 1, exploded 6 water melons, had epic water fights, and learned each day that no matter what, Jesus loves us!
Someone asked me in the middle of Camp WOW what I missed the most this summer. I have to say, besides the overall program that camp is, I missed my staff. I missed seeing all the personality that each of them bring to camp. I miss seeing the simple moments of connection that would take place, I missed seeing the unique friend groups that you would never had guessed would form, and I missed seeing such a large group of young people gather to selflessly serve the Lord at a beautiful place such as Camp Wakonda! Each day as I would watch my staff greet the campers, I was encouraged that there are young people in this world that want to work hard, love others, and serve the Lord. The few staff that I could employ this summer did such an amazing job and I know that the Lord will continue to use them.
Overall it was a great summer! I hope and pray that next year we are all together at Camp Wakonda, but if not we will yet again find a way to serve young people wherever we are!
Blessings,
Pastor Eric Chavez, Youth Director