Summer Camp is on its way!

It's hard to believe I just said that, but it's true. The calendar has turned to 2009, which means summer isn't all that far away. We've even sent out the first batch of brochures. Yup, that's right over 600 brochures were sent to former campers and their families just after the new year. If you haven't received yours yet, you can get more information at the Camp Dixie website. 

I thought I would tell everyone about a couple of changes that I am very excited about for the summer of 2009. First of all, if you have seen the summer camp materials or the website, you may have noticed that we have changed the age groupings for the summer camp programs. More specifically we have changed from grade level groupings (i.e. Conqueror camp is for 6-8th grade) to age level groupings (Conqueror camp is now available for campers aged 12-14.) This will hopefully alleviate some situations where friends wanted to be in the same camp, and were the same age, but were in different grades. It should also get rid of the problem where some campers were older than conqueror age (they were 14 and in 9th grade) but were not old enough to be a YLT yet.

We've also added a new program to encourage campers to bring friends that have never been to Camp Dixie before. If a camper brings a new camper to Camp Dixie, the person who invites the new camper will get $10 off their registration fee. If they bring two that's $20 off. (Sorry, the new camper will still have to pay the full fee.)  I am secretly hoping (can it be a secret if I just blogged about it?) that some camper out there will take the challenge and try to get free camp out of the deal. That means they would have to invite 18 new friends. Can you imagine how many people could be reached with the love of Jesus if everyone brought 18 friends? Amazing.

Finally, parents and campers in the 12-14 year old age group can look for a new cell phone policy to be in place this coming summer. I haven't worked out the complete details yet, but it looks like we will not have a complete ban on cell phones for this age group next summer. Check your registration confirmation information for the full policy.

Well that's it for now, I hope you are having a great week, and had a wonderful new year. Kim and I managed to head up to Minnesota for a couple of weeks over Christmas, but that's a whole nother post in itself.

See you at camp!

Mac

Where were you?

When I was growing up I would most often hear that question if I returned from someplace covered in something that shouldn't be on my clothes. Usually for me it was grass stains (we used to play a lot of football and soccer in my friend's backyard.) Sometimes and depending on the season, it could be mud, snow, sand, or even possibly some of my own blood. Like I said we liked to play football. Tackle football.

Sand is something that we see a lot here at Camp Dixie. Basically having all our land on a beach means that sand comes into the building an

d our house on almost every one's feet. If you have the right kind of shoes (mine are my new ones made by Reebok) they almost act like sand vacuums and you can have your own desert inside your house if you like!

Why am I asking where were you, and telling you about sand? Because since I last posted on the blog, Kim and I have been to a very sandy place. Egypt. I could probably talk for days about the interesting things that I saw there (we flew into Cairo, and the path to the runway leads right over the pyramids, and we traveled down the Nile river in a riverboat cruise.) But I thought I would share a couple of pictures, so you can see where we've been since I last posted.

Here is the obligatory picture of the one of the Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx. It was an amazing sight to actually be standing there and looking at those things. The pyramids are one of the seven wonders of the ancient world and the only one that still exists. Incidentally the pyramid 

behind the Sphinx here is the great Pyramid of Khufu which was built before the

 other two pyramids and the Sphinx. The Great Sphinx is commonly believed to have been built at the time of the second pyramid (built

 by Khufu's son, Khafra.) We were able to enter that pyramid when we were there (no cameras allowed). They only let 300 people each day into each pyramid so it was quite a rare treat. If you've never been in a pyramid before it's cramped, stuffy, and smells like the sweat of the 299 people that went in before you did. But it was 

amazing nonetheless.

We also went to

 visit many ancient Egyptian temples. Often we visited them very early in the morning (just as the sun was coming up) or late in the afternoon (as it was going

 down) to beat the heat. It made for some great pictures that way. This is a statue of Ramses the Great that was at one of the temples we visited. Ramses was a very interesting guy. He might have been the Pharaoh of the Exodus (there are about 5 or 6 that are suspects for that Pharaoh) and he ruled for a long time (he was alive until he was 90 or 91). He also liked himself a lot. He made many many statues of himself, and also put his cartouche (his royal name) on any piece of stone he could find. Interestingly enough, when he had his name carved into buildings that he had built during his reign, he had them carved in as deeply as possible. He didn't want a Pharaoh after him

 to renovate the building and take his name off. How did Ramses know this might happen? Because he did it to every temple that he renovated throughout his life.

Finally, the four statues that are in the last photo have as much to do with why Kim and I traveled to Egypt. I will never forget seeing this image in my 6th grade social studies text book. It is a picture of the temple of Ramses the great (here he is again) at Abu Simbel. The temple was actually carved right into the mountain, and there is actually a companion temple next to it for Ramses' wife. I remember seeing that picture and just being in awe of the whole idea of the Egyptians being able to carve that out of the mountain, and that it was lost to the desert sands for centuries. Here's what the area looked like just before it was excivated in the early 1800's. Amazing huh? Well. that's where we've been while we were away. It was an amazing trip

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Hurricane Ike is BIG!

Hey everyone, this is just a quick update to say hi and let you know what's going on at Camp Dixie. Right now we are feeling just a bit of Hurricane Ike. Hurricane Ike is large enough that we are even getting some of the storm surge here (and we are a long way from the Texas coast.) The tide is about 3-4 feet higher than normal, and it's been windy, which means waves over the seawall. Woo hoo. Here are a couple of pictures so you can see what it looks like. Just a note, the bottom picture is all water... Don't worry though, the weather is supposed to calm down, and we are still planning on having the chicken dinner on Sunday. See you then!

Three Kinds of Lies

Mark Twain (pictured on the left) popularized a saying by Benjamin Disraeli (he was a British statesman. Really I looked it up) about statistics. The quote goes like this: "There are three kinds of lies: lies, da**ed lies, and statistics. Well, Kim and I were talking about our busing plan from New Orleans to Camp Dixie (we really did do some work on it before last summer) and were wondering where most of Camp Dixie's summer campers come from. So, I sat down and looked at the registration information and came up with some statistics. I'm not really trying to say anything with them, so they probably aren't lying, so enjoy.

Did you know that the great state of Florida sends more people to Camp Dixie summer camp than any other? Yup, 39% of the campers that attend Camp Dixie Summer Camp come from Florida. The second most common state for people to come from during Camp Dixie Summer Camp with 28% of all campers is... (drum roll please) Camp Dixie's own... Alabama! Third on the list of states to send campers to Camp Dixie is... Louisiana with 23% of the campers. Now, you may be wondering where the last 10% come from? Well, that's a bit tricky (so we put them in the "other" category.) That category includes such great states as Tennessee, California, Maryland, and Georgia.

Well these numbers gave us a little better idea of where campers are coming from. And the busing idea, we're going to determine once and for all in the next couple of weeks if it is a possibility.

So there you go. Some statistics for fun.
See you at camp!
mac

How do you celebrate?

Summer camp ended just a couple of weeks ago, and though summer is probably the best time in outdoor ministry, it's also exciting to see it end. Finally all the planning and hard work that you've been working on for ten months is finally closed and you can look forward to the next summer.

We really did have a great summer. We had lots of amazing people working here, some great campers and a lot of fun times.

But, as the summer ended, I wanted to have a little bit of a celebration. Ever since Kim and I moved down here we saw the sign at the corner of highway 95 and 98. It says "Skydiving, Experience the thrill." The sign was a little beat up three years ago when we moved here, so you can imagine what it looks like now. When we first got down here we wondered if that place still existed. Our questions were answered the first time we went to the Blue Angels Homecoming Airshow. The first act that jumped in with the American Flag? You guessed it, the Emerald Coast Skydivers! So we knew the place existed, and actually had a pretty good reputation. They wouldn't let just anyone jump into that air show right?

So, for my celebration, how about a skydiving jump? Sounds good to me! Kim gave the place a call, and I was scheduled for a jump. We arrived at the airfield and got to watch a fun video that was starring the guy who created the tandem jumping equipment. Basically that means someone like me can go skydiving after only a few minutes of instruction, rather than the 6-8 hours of instruction that it used to take before they would let a newbie skydive. The video was awesome to watch, and what made it even more interesting was that the guy had a massive beard. That's a picture of him over to the right there. He's a genius, and has invented a ton of stuff for sport skydiving. They showed him jumping, and while he was jumping he had to have the beard tucked into his jump suit. Crazy huh? I don't know if we should tell him, but I think he might be compensating for the lack of hair on his head? Maybe?

Anyway enough about Bill Booth (that's his name.) So we took off in the Cessna 182 and headed up. We needed to get to 10,000 for the jump. Unfortunately a 182 isn't the fastest thing when trying to get altitude. In fact, it took almost 20 minutes to get up to the jump altitude. I got some beautiful views of the area however, and I can see why they call it the emerald coast. The water was beautiful and there sure is a lot of it. We flew right over camp, twice while getting up to 10,000'. Once we got there it was time to go. I got out the door, and the tandem master that was strapped to my back jumped out the door for us. We fell head first for a little while, then tipped back up to look at the plane flying away from us. Then we actually did a whole flip before getting into the "free fall position." The feeling was amazing. Terminal velocity for someone in that position is about 120 mph, so we were heading down at 120 miles an hour! Talk about noise!

All the noise ended when the chute opened. We slowed down to 14 mph and it's a kick in the crotch when that happens let me tell you. As we went down my tandem instructor showed me how flying the chute works, and how to flare the chute for landing. It's a crazy feeling, practicing the flare it felt like we completely stopped. Anyway, we spiraled a little bit to get down to the ground, and set up for our landing. Kim overheard the local skydiving crew sitting at the Drop Zone mentioning that the winds were pretty gusty, so they had a couple of guys help us out when we landed so we wouldn't get pulled by the parachute. We also "sat" the landing, with me landing on my butt instead of my feet, turns out that's more stable than trying to run the landing. I guess little kids have it right when the land on their backsides when they are learning to walk. Anyway we landed safely and it was an amazing experience.

I did learn a little bit about faith and trust during the jump. It's amazing the amount of faith and trust you put into people to help you. When I signed up for the jump I had to basically trust that the guy who packed the parachute did a good job, that the tandem master I was with knew what he was doing (he had over 1000 jumps to his credit so I wasn't too worried) and that the pilot who flew us up to 10,000' was having a good day. Incidentally as a side note, the pilot was wearing a chute too. He mentioned on the way up that he wished he could be jumping out with us, but someone had to get the plane on the ground for the next group. Funny.

So anyway, that's how I celebrated the end of the summer. It was a great way to end a great summer camp. Well, I think that's it for now. If you ever get the chance, go skydiving. It's amazing!

A (slightly) Rainy Day

Today is one of those days that I've come to look forward to on the Gulf Coast. It's raining off and on, and it's sunny off and on. Essentially it rains every hour or so, and the time in between has some clouds, but a lot of sun. Pretty interesting to the guy from Minnesota who didn't grow up with weather like this.

It's been a long time since I have written, and a lot has gone on at Camp Dixie. This summer we had over 250 campers at our main camp program, and over 200 campers take part in our Traveling VBS program. We are very excited about these numbers! That means by God's grace over 450 campers learned more about Jesus!

Much has been happening since then as well. The most recent "happening" was the donation and installation of a new playground set at Camp Dixie. Thanks to the Engel family, Camp Dixie has been able to replace the playground that was partially destroyed in Hurricane Ivan, and then didn't weather very well in the years after that. The installer put it up yesterday and today between rainstorms (during the sunny times) and it looks great!. Here's a picture so you can see what it looks like.

You can just see the old swing set behind the new playset. Don't worry that will be taken down shortly. We also need to get some more landscape fabric and mulch down around our new set. Those will be coming shortly, so the next time you visit Camp Dixie with your children, they can play on the new playset.

It's gone from mostly sunny to mostly cloudy again, which probably means it will be raining shortly. I hope everyone has a great final few days of summer (many schools down here started yesterday) and we will see you at camp!
Mac

Lots of things

Looking at the latest post on this blog prior to today, I was overcome with a wave of nostalgia. Ah, those were good times when we were waiting to get the floors finished.

Since then, a lot has happened here at Camp Dixie, so I thought a photo montage was in order to show what has happened.

First of all we have finally finished this wave of floor improvements. New tile has been laid in the Kitchen, Dining Hall, front Bathrooms and the two front storage rooms in the main building. We've also fixed all the light fixtures so that they are all lighting up now. It makes the inside of the building look like a million bucks. Well about $7000 anyway.

Here's a picture of the Dining Hall with its new tiles.



Since we last chatted we also had a NLOMA Conference in Arizona. At this conference all the camp directors in the nation get together and talk about important issues facing outdoors ministry. We also use this time for our Joint Recruitment process for summer staff hiring. I also took an extra day and headed to Tuscon to visit the Pima Air and Space museum and the Titan Missile Museum. It's pretty fun stuff, the Air Museum had more military planes than I have ever seen in one place, and at the Missile Museum I literally got to walk into a cold war missile silo.

Here's a picture of one of the more interesting planes at the Pima Museum (a NASA super guppy that helped move rocket parts during the start of the shuttle program) and a look down into the Titan II Missile silo. Just as a note, the sides and bottom of the silo were made of concrete eight feet thick, and it had no seams in it anywhere.

The beginning of March saw the return of the Blue Angels (always a sign that summer is coming) to Pensacola Naval Air Station, a visit by Kim's family, and this year it brought one of the earliest possible Easters. The Easter sunrise service at Camp Dixie, which is an annual tradition for St. Mark's Lutheran Church of Elberta, AL, actually had a sunrise during the service. We were actually singing a song, and just as we started the last verse, the sun started to peek over the Florida side of Perdido Bay.

Here are a couple of pictures of the 2008 Blue Angels team. I didn't get any pictures of the sunrise during the worship service, I thought it might be best to pay attention to the service as much as possible.


Throughout the past couple of months we have been going through the hiring process for summer staff. We are planning on hiring 14 or 15 counselors this summer, and we currently have 11 of those positions filled, so we are well on our way. Once again we have great people coming from all over the country, from as far away as Minnesota and Kansas, and as close as Southern Mississippi.

In April, I've been working on getting summer camp registrations processed, as well as getting ready for summer camp. I was however able to take some time to head to an airshow near Panama City at Tyndall AFB with FTP from the past two summers at Camp Dixie (better make that three, he is working here this summer too. The Thunderbirds were headlining (ask me sometime who I think is best after seeing the Blue Angels a lot, and the Thunderbirds twice in my life.) But the best part is where we sat. We sat to the right of show center a little ways, and as we were sitting there, four F-15's taxied right in front of us and sat there for their part of the show which was coming up. So for about 10 minutes we were 20 feet away from some very powerful, very loud fighters. The best part however was as they turned onto the taxiway in front of us, the pilot decided to give the throttles a little kick, and we got to enjoy the rear end of two F-15 engines at what I am sure was just a bit above idle speed. The resulting wind blew over the trash barrel next to us (which had a very large sandbag in the bottom holding it in place), it blew FTP's hat off his head and about 10 yards away in an instant, and i'm pretty sure it embedded some pieces of dust into my legs that won't be coming out for a while. All in all it was a fun weekend.

Here is a picture of one of the F-15 pilots, as well as my first F-22 sighting. Doesn't it look a little bit like a UFO?

Well that's about it for now, this past weekend we had a great group from Slidell, LA. We had some fun doing challenge course with them (I've never actually made everyone in a group not be allowed to talk before.) And we even tried some fishing, but after having our bait stolen numerous times by fish that were too small to even be hooked by our hooks, we decided to quit that little excursion.

And today it's windy. Warm, but cloudy and windy.