In the morning, it seemed like any other Friday–the campers got up bright and early to pack up and then it was off to breakfast, just like usual! But, today was unlike any other Friday. After breakfast, the entire camp went to the stop of the stairs to the lake where the bell hangs. This summer has been one filled with celebrations to last for eternity, namely each of the 150 boys and girls that gave their lives to Jesus on the grounds of Camp Longridge. To celebrate each of these souls that were saved, the staff rang the bell 150 times as the campers and leaders counted each ring. The sound of the bell tolling echoed over camp, and it was an emotional and joyous new tradition for the end of the summer.

After this ceremony, we went to the chapel for our final praise gathering! The praise band led us all in exciting worship songs, and Mr. Frank gave a devotion with a baseball glove–just as the glove requires a hand inside of it to do it’s job, so do we all require God’s hand in our lives so that we can do His will. As long as we abide in Christ, we can do anything He can do, just as the glove could do whatever Mr. Frank wanted it do as long as he wore it.

After a final canteen break, it was time to finish packing and cleaning the cabins! Once everyone was packed and the cabins were looking good, the campers gathered together for a final team activity.

After this, we gathered in the Chapel for lunch and the awards ceremony. Every camper was recognized and awarded a ribbon for their participation in Peanut Patch Olympics, and the winners for each Peanut Patch event were also announced along with the winning team, camp champions, and Bible drill winner. After the conclusion of the awards ceremony, we all joined together as a camp family to sing the theme song, “Alive Again,” one last time.

From a veteran staffer’s point of view, this summer has been one of celebrations, of committments, of rededications and salvations, of new friendships and reunions. We have sought to glorify our loving God in every team activity, every devotion, every conversation, and every song, and He has responded by blessing the lives of hundreds of students and leaders, as well as shaping and directing the lives of staffers who may not have expected to leave the summer so affected.

Each day with your students was a joy! We hope to see each of you on the grounds again soon for camp retreats and of course, for Summer 2011!

Gratefully,

Hillary Beasley

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Hey yall! It’s your ol’ buddy Jimmy here, just checkin in. Today we started the day off with a trip to the Longridge fishing hole (Clark Lake), followed by some delicious oatmeal with brown sugar and cinnamon for breakfast. After that, the moment we’ve all been waiting for! Drumroll please! THE SHAVING CREAM FIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! we all had an awesome time covering each other in shaving cream. We then headed down to the lake to rock out on the blob, slide, zipline, canoes, and swim area. After the lake we headed to lunch for some roast beef sandwiches, and some scrumptious chocolate chip cookies. We made our way from the cafeteria to the chapel for our afternoon praise gathering where we sang some awesome songs, and had our bible drill. After that came bible study with our teams. Then the peanut patch olympics finals. We had a terrific time playing pool, fooseball, football toss, basketball, darts, ball bounce, pillow polo, goodminton, bean bag toss… and so much more. alright where was I. Oh that’s right, we headed to dinner next where we chowed down on some BBQ chicken. After dinner we had our chapel service where Mr. Frank talked about packing our spiritual suitcase for the trip home. Next came our canteen break, and then a game of volleyball with our teams. We ended the day with ice cream in the dining hall, and let me tell you what. It was yummy!!!!! Overall i couldn’t think of a better last full day of the week then this thursday. it was simply marvelous!

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Hi everyone! It’s Betsy and we had a great Wednesday!! We started off with delicious pancakes for breakfast. We then went to the Low Ropes and participated in many different elements with our cabins. This allowed us to trust each other and build stronger relationships with our friends. After Low Ropes we went to the lake where we slid down the slide, jumped on the blob, paddled the canoes, and swam in the lake. It was so much fun! Then we went to lunch and ate chicken sandwiches, salad, fries, and cake. After lunch we had our Praise Gathering and sang a lot of songs. We then broke off into our teams and went to our Bible Study. After the Bible study we had Peanut Patch! We bowled, played basketball, threw the football, played darts, and participated in many more games. It was REALLY fun! After Peanut Patch we had a very good spaghetti meal for dinner. After dinner we went to chapel, sang songs, and listened to Mr. Frank speak on the word “T.H.I.N.K.”. We learned how we should think before we speak. After chapel we had a canteen break where we went to the gift shop and canteen. We then had our talent show! This was a special talent show because it was our last one for the summer. We were able to see many different talents and skits from all the campers. Each team did a great job on their skits! At the very end the staffers acted out a special story Mr. Frank narrated. It was extremely funny and made everyone laugh! We had a wonderful day and we’re looking forward to a great Thursday!!

Betsy

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Tarnation! Today started a great week here at Longridge. A whole groups of awesome campers arrived to kick it off! Lake was gallons of fun! We blobbed, slid, and swam to our hearts content, then it was supper time. After a delicious meal came chapel. The campers were introduced to the theme song, “Alive Again,” and the fun motions to go along. Mr. Frank shared with us that God is nocking on the door of our hearts and wants us to let him in so that we can have a relationship with him. Several boys and girls answered that nocking and invited Christ into their lives.
Not long after chapel came our trip to the Longridge Theatre. All the campers and staff went to the movies in the chapel to see the highly acclaimed blockbuster hit, “Veggie Tails: The Wonderful Wizard of Ha’s.” We laughed, we cried, we enjoyed a great film. After the fantastic trip to the movies, we went to our cabins to spend time together, share a devotion, and have a great night sleep.

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So today we finished our next to last kids camp! It was a great week! The kids really enjoyed camp. It was awesome, and we had a blast! Today we ate lunch in the chapel while watching the slide show of pictures from the week at camp! The kids got to look back at their memories from the week! After that, we had our awards ceremony where each kid from each cabin was recognized for participation throughout the week!

Today we also had a retreat group come in for the weekend! They had some lake time this afternoon and then dinner this evening! They have been doing some activities tonight as well as a chapel service! Tomorrow is going to be a great day serving them and hanging out with them!

Thanks,
Nate James

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Hey guys! Today was another craaaaaaazy fun day at Camp Longridge!! We started off the day with a DELICIOUS breakfast prepared by the support staff & our resident birthday girl, Addie!! Then, we headed off to quiet times with our cabins…this is a special time that the campers get to share with the staffer that is in their cabin. We learn about Bible verses, characters from the Bible, and different things a Christian should know! It’s always super fun and exciting! Then, we headed up to our team tables so we could start cheering & getting ready for the day’s team activity! The ORANGE team won the spirit flag…they were obviously very fired up!!! But all the teams have had TONS of enthusiasm this week..& I’m sure if Evan could’ve chosen every team to win today, he definitely would have!!!
So then we headed up to the hill with our teams where we played lots of games led by Mr. Frank, Mark, Scott, & Evan! Everybody played with a lot of heart & the cheering never stopped! Then, we continued the fun in chapel where the campers participated in Bible drill and got to sing along with some awesome praise worship led by Justin & the band! We took a quick canteen break & then we headed back to team rooms for team Bible studies. Brandon, Amy, Bri, & myself taught in different rooms & the campers were involved & enthusiastic about the Bible stories they were learning!
We got lunch after that (roast beef…YUM!) & then we all got back together for my personal highlight of the week…SHAVING CREAM FIGHT! Everybody ran around and sprayed their friends with shaving cream, and even though the staff put up a good fight…we definitely were outnumbered & lost to the campers! We headed straight to the lake after that so we could jump in, get cleaned off, and spend our last day out on the lake. Campers enjoyed the blob, the Bullet, and the zipline. & everyone swam and had a lot of fun playing in the water!
Later on we headed back up for dinner (barbecue chicken…YES!) & then we got to go back to chapel to hear Mr. Frank speak on what we should pack in our heart suitcases when we head home. Just like we’ll pack our clothes & shoes to go home tomorrow, we’ll also prepare our hearts to leave camp and get back out into the real world & show our Christian witness & everything we’ve learned while we’ve been at camp…& packing our heart suitcase will help us do that! After chapel we played more amazing games of volleyball where everyone had a ton of fun! After that it was time for a super secret surprise for the campers…an ICE CREAM celebration of the week! Everyone had lots of delicious home made ice cream & got to hang out and spend time with their new and old friends, staffers, and team mates! It was a GREAT way to end the week, and it was very bittersweet for everyone here! We’ve had another AWESOME week here at Camp Longridge & it will be SO sad to say goodbye to all the campers tomorrow, but we can’t wait to see them back here again next year!!!

Love & smiles,
Nicole Bailey:)
1 Corinthians 15:58

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This wednesday here at camp has, in fact, been rather wacky.
Delicious pancakes for breakfast, followed up with some low ropes
course action. All the teams went through various, teamm buildining
elements. This was followed by a great time with the morning praise
gathering, during which time we had one of out Bible drills, getting
us one step closer to our final bible drill and our final bible drill winner
of the week. We, of course, had our awesome talent show. All the
teams came up with amazing skits that every kid was able to be in!
God is doing wonderful things here at camp longridge this week!
It’s a blessing and an honor to be apart of things here.

This is Jason signing out for the night!

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Today was so AWESOME! We began our day by eating yummy grits, eggs, and bacon for breakfast, and then I went with a group of excited students to the high ropes course! EVERYONE went to the top of the course, did the course, and then went off the swing. Chaos was also today! It was a blast! We then had fun playing Peanut Patch games and earning point for our teams!
We then were getting to head down to the lake when a thunderstorm hit! Oh NO!! …but never fear! We had an AWESOME time playing games and having a staff talent show to pass the time!
We then had an AMAZING time in chapel learning about how to tame our tongues! It was a good message for the students, staff, and leaders alike!
We ended this terrific Tuesday by watching an amazing movie on the Prodigal Son! We all LOVED it!! Can’t wait for tomorrow and the rest of the week!!!
In addition, today was my birthday! There is no where else in the world that I would rather be than with all of the kids here this week at Longridge!! Today was easily the BEST birthday ever because of all the students and staff here!!!

Don’t Forget!!…”If it doesn’t have a tail, its not a monkey, its an ape.” haha

-Kayla Barton

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Hi everyone! My name’s Betsy and I’m the ropes course coordinator here at CLR. Thursday was a fantastic day! During the morning after breakfast we had our morning praise gathering. Following was a fun day on the hill with tug of war and several other exciting games for our teams. Throughout the day we had four trips to the ropes course, including a climbing wall trip, which was loads of fun! After lunch the students got ready to head to the lake. Many students did the blob, slide, zip line, canoes, and played basketball. Later we had an amazing dinner which included: barbecue chicken, baked potato, salad, and a roll. We then gathered in our small groups and later headed to chapel. Mr. Frank had an incredible message that spoke to many of the students. After chapel, we headed to our canteen break and was surprised with our first annual outside movie lawn extravaganza. We had popcorn, ice cream, blankets to sit on the lawn, and a blowup screen to project the movie on. Everyone had an absolutely wonderful time! Thursday was filled with many incredible activities and the students really had a fun filled day!

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Hey everyone its me again James Newton,
Well today started our first FULL day of student classic 2010 and boy was it a good one. The day started out with everyone gathering at the dining hall for breakfast, then shortley after a group of students was taken up to the high ropes course w/ me, Jen, And Betsy. While we were on the ropes course the rest of the camp went up to the hill to play some fun games such as BIG ball kickball with a twist and water ballon launch. So after everyone was done with thier activites we all met back at the dining hall for lunch.
After lunch the day got even better because it was Lake time!!!!!!!!!. the students enjoyed the zip-line, water slide, and of course the BLOB. Afetr some time had passed all the students headed back to thier cabins to get cleaned up for dinner. Dinner was pretty amazing we had bonless chicken, mac & cheese, a roll, and a slice of pumpkin pie. So after dinner all of the students got into thier small groups to prepare for mr. frank’s sermon. After Franks sermaon all the students heaed to thier canteen break. Then once canteen break was finished we all headed back to the chapel for a movie witch was entitled ” Lay it down” witch was really good. THenwe ended the nite by everyone goin back to there cabins to get rested for tomorrow. Well this is James Newton signing off until next time keep it classy Camp Longridge

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