This summer, one of our incredible summer staff is taking over the Beacon Blog! Emma “Brio” Deinum will be bringing you highlights of our summer 2020 program, Beacon Unlimited. Here’s a recap about Week 8: Famous Duos and the end of the summer!

Camp is officially over. Beacon Unlimited was so much fun this summer, although hopefully we can get back to being at camp next year. So before I get into “end of camp” thoughts, let’s see what went on in the last week of camp for the Famous Duos theme.

In Much Music, a returning elective, Matthew led a bunch of songs and each day there was a new song that went with a Bible story. Noah, a camper, was very enthusiastic about singing the ‘where’ part from the “Down in my Heart” song. There were many jokes made about the fact that Matthew couldn’t teleport from his piano keyboard to his desk. All in all, everybody had a blast singing songs and trying to do the actions along with singing. In Tapestry Weaving, campers learned how to create a frame, attach the warp threads, and then use various thicknesses and patterns of weaving the yarn to create a mini tapestry, complete with tassels at the end! Leaders took turns telling stories or putting on music in styles requested by the campers while they weaved. All the campers caught onto the rhythm of weaving quickly and it made for a very relaxing elective. 

Now there was also a Baby Gameshow run by Dash, a very interesting elective might I add. Here’s what Dash had to say about their week: “In Baby Gameshow, we had a hilarious time using interesting facts and actions of our baby contestants to earn points! The campers were divided into two teams each day, and team members would take turns being pitted against the other team to see who could correctly guess a fact or anticipate an action about the baby. For example, we guessed the hour and minute the baby was born, when they would wake up each morning (or during the night), and how many diapers they went through in a day. We tried to guess which out of two toys the baby would reach for first. We estimated how much time a baby could sit up without falling, hold their head up off the ground, and climb up the stairs. The moms were superstars at interacting with us and the babies were adorable! In the final minute of our final Baby Gameshow session, we actually witnessed the baby fall asleep right there on their floor mat, on camera! What a way to end!”

In the I AM elective, campers learned all about what Jesus meant when he said the “I am” statements. For example, “I am the bread of life” or “I am the way the truth and the life”. Campers did some very fun games, drawings, and other activities while learning more about the “I am” statements. And another favourite elective returning, Mafia: Final Showdown. In Mafia: Final Showdown, campers played many rounds of Mafia. Each day there were new roles added and there were so many roles by the last day that Circuit could not keep track of all of them! And our final elective, Best of Beacon Unlimited, was filled with many more favourite games and activities played throughout the summer, and discussions about how the summer went.

Another summer for the books, and of course I have to mention the virtual campfire, which was such an amazing way to finish off this summer with Beacon Unlimited. So many new and familiar faces, families gathered around one device and happily joined into the lovely songs being sung or watching funny skit videos. The Beacon Memories video I made even made Kodiak tear up at the end! It was such a fun night and all of us summer staff’s faces hurt from smiling so much at the end.

Speaking of faces hurting, I got my wisdom teeth out the day after the campfire. So my last week of camp ended a bit early and I’m stuck with this lovely chipmunk face. And now it’s time for my tears, as this is my last blog post for the summer. And probably the year. And maybe ever. I’m heading into university this fall with a mixed in person and online schedule, so it’ll be a very different year than I expected, but of course, I know God has a plan for me and what the fall will look like. Whatever your plans are for the fall, whether that’s heading back to school or working from home, it’s always a nice reminder to know that God has a plan for every single one of us, especially in this uncertain time.

Hopefully we can all be at camp someday soon, and we’ll be leaving that in God’s hands as the fall draws near. It has been so lovely keeping everyone up to date on Beacon Unlimited this summer! Stay safe this fall!

I’ll see you (maybe) next time,
Brio :)