Today was the first full day of camp. A typical morning at Pre-Teen camp begins when the camp bell peals at 7:30 announcing a new day. Campers and cabin staff work together to clean their cabins and prepare for the day's activities. Cabin inspection takes place during breakfast. Campers compete against each other to win the Cabin Clean-up Award which is awarded at the end of the week. Cabins frequently leave creative messages in their cabin in order to get extra credit points each day.

The entire camp gathers around the flagpole for the flag raising and morning announcements. It's also a great time to review memory verses for the week. Then everyone heads in to breakfast for a wonderful meal prepared by the kitchen staff.

The morning rotation includes crafts, chapel, and either swimming lessons or outdoor activities. The teaching theme for Pre-Teen camp is 3:16. The chapel teacher will be highlighting 3:16 from a number of books in the Bible over the course of the week. Bible teacher Travis Strong writes:

John 3:16 may be the most well know verse in the Bible, but God has placed other powerful messages at 3:16's all through the Bible! This week at Pre-Teen camp we will dive into Genesis, Exodus, Joshua, Nehemiah, Daniel, Acts, Colossians, and more! Pray that God reveals Himself to be "strong enough to save". (Zephaniah 3:16-17)

Craft time is a great opportunity for the staff to interact with the campers and look for teachable moments to share Jesus with them. Volunteer Craft Director Val Willhite has planned great projects for the campers. They will be working on sail boats, memory boards, pen pots, and picture frames. Val took a picture of each camper on the first day of crafts in order to place their own picture in the decorated picture frame.

Val had this to say about volunteering at Camp CUMCITO:

As crafts director for Camp CUMCITO, my job start a few weeks before camp even starts. I usually attend the final training session which is about 4 weeks before Pre-Teen camp. At that training session I get to brainstorm with other craft oriented people to come up with ideas for fun projects that are age appropriate.

Rudy Bradburn always has a great wood project that he shares with all of the craft directors. This year it's wooden sail boats. On the last night during carnival, they get to run their boats down a water shoot made of guttering and over a waterfall into a pool. They get SO excited!

They also work on other projects that I've brought and prepared ahead of time. This year campers are painting clay pots and making tissue paper flowers. They get to make these great ribbon/button memory boards that they can hang in their rooms at home. We took individual pictures of each camper and they are decorating a picture mat to frame their picture.

I have four great craft assistants that work so hard during camp to make it all happen. This year we have five tables with six or seven campers per table and two craft sessions each morning. The campers are having a great time and will take home some really cool projects.

I also spend lots of time before camp starts gathering and shopping for just the right supplies for each project. One of my goals is to keep each project at around $1 each. The camp budget for crafts is $5 per camper for the week.

Some of the supplies are donated. This year a friend gave me all of the picture mats, my husband used all his own wood to cut the pieces for the boats, and I cleaned out my quilting closet to make the button boards. HyVee had clay pots they were selling 50 cents each; they sold us the whole lot for half that amount. Thank you HyVee! The Kansas City Children's Museum also has a great resource supply room where I can always find helpful items really cheap.

It's always difficult to imagine ahead of time how it's all going to work out once we get to camp. God is so faithful to give us exactly what we need in order to have a really fun week crafting with the campers.

Dave Todd, Recreation Director,and his staff are responsible for swimming lessons and outdoor activity time. Campers choose between two options for their morning rotation - swimming lessons or outdoor activities.

Campers are grouped according to their swimming ability on the first day of swimming lessons, and the staff then works with small groups based on their needs. Beginning level swimmers work on gaining confidence in the water and learning put their head under water. Many campers simply need to work on being able to swim across the pool without stopping to take a breath. More advanced swimmers actually begin learning skills that could lead to them becoming a lifeguard.

Outdoor Activities change each day and include such things as water games, kick ball, archery, and lake activities.