The camp is a new ministry under care of SCBCD. We have a wonderful Ministry Team from South Carolina Baptist Conference for the Deaf, who was willing to be involved in Camp Ichthus. We booked two cabins for campers and counselors, three staff rooms for Bible leaders, camp directors and the camp nurse. We also had an activity center for devotion and craft, multipurpose building for worship and playing games, Amphitheater for a Bible story(outside), campfire for s’mores (next to Amphitheater), dinner hall for the meals, and registration table for the arrival of our campers!
On Friday afternoon, November 12th, we had 10 campers aged 8- 19 years old. We had an Ice-Breaker and discussed the rules. They had a great time during the Game portion of our activities. Campers LOVED the dodge ball game with 2 bowling pins in the multipurpose building. Campers would divide up into two teams and try to hit the other team’s pin so they can win the game. They played the game as many times as they could during the weekend. I divided our larger group into three groups with two or three counselors.
Friday Night, we had great time making s’mores and drinking hot chocolate around the camp fire. It was a quite cold. Some of us shared ghost stories.
Saturday morning, we had a devotional/ prayer time before breakfast. After breakfast, we had a great time at the rope course with Edwin Dunlap. The children love it very much! They had a break for a while before lunch. Kevin Clark led a Bible story about The Creation at the Amphitheater. The Amphitheater is a place where we sit on benches outside. It seats 250 nearby the lake. Kevin shared about God’s creation. He showed pictures. The campers had to switch the pictures to get them in the right order. During afternoon activities, campers split into three groups so they can take turns at Archery, Crafts, and Canoeing. Lorreta Demko taught the campers how to use the bow and arrows. Aaron Scarbro has his life guard certificate for canoeing on the lake, and Dana Martin led the Craft time. We provided water bottles and snacks for the staff and the campers. Some campers took a break, while others went on a hike before supper. After supper, we went to the multipurpose building for worship. After worship, we had an ice cream party, snacks and drinks at multipurpose building while watching a movie.
Sunday morning, we had another devotional/ prayer time before breakfast. After breakfast, Robbie led a Bible story. We gave out Bibles to the campers. Boirl group won the first place and received Gospel Silly Bands. Cool Americans won 2nd place – They received a coaster with a fish symbol. Eagles were in third place – They got a fish symbol decal.
We had a group discussion about what to have at camp next year. They loved Archery very much! They wanted to have a time to swim. They voted to have camp in September instead of November. We gave out Camp Ichthus T shirts for the campers and counselors / staffs.
After worship, I asked three students to come to the stage and gave them praise because they accepted Christ during the camp weekend!! After lunch, we had a sad farewell. We cleaned out the cabins, staff rooms, multipurpose building and the activity center. We left camp at 2:30pm, November 14, 2010.
We sure had a great weekend. We look forward to doing it again next year!
Duane Martin
Camp Director
West Columbia, S.C.