Dear Prayer Partners,

We just completed our first day of camp ... wow, what a day! We were moved by the bus arrival, the weather (thank you Lord for clouds and a cool breeze when we needed it) and of course, these wonderful kids.

Pray for some of these kids as they transition to a new environment. Pray for their bodies to rest well tonight and to be ready for a full day of camp on Tuesday. Pray for our counselors and staff to have the endurance to get through the long day of camp that tomorrow presents.

Here's a cute story from camp:

At camp, we always have a drone flying around capturing great video of the kids at their various activities. It gives us a great perspective from that high up in the air and the kids are fascinated by it when they see it.

On Monday night after our official games had concluded, we started implementing a game called, "Race The Drone." We simply line the kids up in a row and the drone flies with them. Of course, the boys loved it tonight even though they quickly realized how fast the drone really was. And it's a good way to "tire the kids out" at bedtime.

Actually there was one young 6 year old boy who was not happy that the drone was so fast. He so badly wanted to outrun the drone but could never make it happen. At the end, he simply laid down in the grass, wiping tears from his eyes with disappointment in his quest to be faster than the drone.

One of the staff came up to him and tried to console him. When asked why he was crying, the young boy said, "I'm just not good at anything. I thought I could beat the drone." The staff member thought quickly and asked if the boy wanted to "talk to the drone". The boy's eyes lit up and said Yes. The drone pilot brought the drone closer to the boy (but still in a very safe distance) and they boy said, "Drone, you really are fast and I'm not. But you look really nice so I hope we can be friends this week." The drone pilot moved the drone up and down and the boy took (with a little help from the staff) that the drone was agreeing with him.

The boy wiped his final tears and smiled as he was walking off to the dorm to go to bed. In his quest to beat the drone, he actually made a "friend".

Blessings,

Darren