My Summer With Daniel Springs Camp
This last summer, I spent two months as a camp staffer at Daniel Springs Baptist Camp in Gary, Texas. Daniel Springs is a Baptist summer camp where churches can bring their kids to spend a few days. Groups can rent out the camp for different events, or they can attend one of the four camps that take place throughout the summer. My job as a staffer was to lead a small group of kids through daily lessons and rec games.
The summer started all the way back in May, when all of the staff arrived at DSBC to move in for the summer. Because our group of staff was so small, with about twenty-five people, we grew closer throughout our first few weeks doing maintenance on the campgrounds. In between jobs, we spent a lot of time hanging out in the cafeteria talking about our hometowns.
Even though the beginning of the summer was incredibly busy, we still found time to hang out as a group. One of our favorite activities was going bowling in Nacogdoches, Texas. As soon as June began, we began to work hard on the lesson plans for the group study. Our theme for the summer was "Meant for Good". During the first two camps, I worked with the 3rd and 4th grade group as the Yellow Rabbit Leader. I saw some familiar faces and had a blast dressing up in silly yellow items to hype up my kids!
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| My Cousin Jonathan and I after the first camp! |
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| All geared up in my Yellow Rabbit Team items. |
Later in the summer, I was given the opportunity to lead the kindergarten group!We started each day with a morning celebration, where we pumped everyone up with games, music, and a weekly Crazy Hat Competition. Even though I was one of the shyest staffers, I was talked into running the competition up on stage.
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| Here's me with one of the Crazy Hat Winners! |
The excitement didn't end there, though. Every morning before lunch each team would attend Rec, where we faced off against each other in different games.
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| My team dominating the dodgeball game |
During each morning celebration, one team would win the coveted spirit stick. For the rest of that day, it became the winning team's pride and joy.
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| The Red Pug Team Leader after his team won the Spirit Stick. |
The most important role for those of us who didn't run the rec games was leading the Bible studies. Twice a day we taught a short lesson on the story of Joseph. I enjoyed getting to know a new group of kids every week. Each group of kids had the funniest questions for me!
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| Me teaching the Yellow Rabbit team. |
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| The Pink Cow Team Leader |
Each evening we spent time in worship, singing along the camp band on stage. Every camp featured a different guest speaker who shared a short message about the Bible for the kids.
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The camp director teaches the kids during the first camp.
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By the time July was over, I had gotten to know everyone on staff very well. I made several strong friendships that I think about every day.
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The 2024 DSBC Staff
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| My staff friends and I at Denny's |
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| My boyfriend and I our last night working at DSBC |
As a bonus, here's a picture of me as a camper back in 2018!
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