Rocky Mountain Mennonite Camp

The journey continued up north as Girl Named Tom climbed into the Rockies to help put on a Snow Camp for high schoolers. Josh was excited to watch two special worlds collide at camp. Having worked the summer of 2016 at the camp, siblings got to connect with some of the people and places that make Rocky Mountain Mennonite Camp such a wonderful place.

However, the union would take a bit longer than expected because four inches of fresh snow fall kept the van from making the winding drive up the mountain. Tom, a maintenance worker at the camp, kindly rescued us. He brought a Suburban down so we could transfer all of our bags and equipment to the top of the hill.

We awoke the morning of the 14th to picturesque scenery; the green pines provided a warm contrast to the glistening white on the mountains. After setting up and getting ready for the kids to arrive, we took some time to walk around and explore. This including climbing up Monkey Rock and getting a bit of a sunburn (including bloodshot eyes).

Kids arrived that evening, and we had our first session with them. It was wonderful to see and hear them get so into the music right away, so we were grateful. We sang a mix of hymns, camp songs and worship songs. The designated speaker for the weekend unfortunately had the flu so he could not attend the camp, but two youth pastors from Newton churches filled in seamlessly.

On Saturday, we had two sessions with the kids, one in the morning and one in the evening. Sweat, blood and tears filled the time in between the sessions, as some kids went on the tube run, others went on a snowshoeing adventure, and many chose to participate in a heated broom-ball tournament. The best way to describe broom-ball is that it combines soccer, hockey, and quidditch. We felt honored to be on the team of admissions counselors from the Mennonite Colleges, and we took home the title for the year. It left us old folks bruised and exhausted for the rest of the weekend :)

Saturday night we were given the chance to perform, and it was one of the most remarkable venues we've gotten to play a concert in. Singing songs of love in a cozy warm building while feet of snow piled up just outside in the mountains was a wonderful experience.

Sunday morning was our last session with the kids, and it really was sad to see them go after getting the chance to connect with a lot of them over the course of the weekend.

After the kids had left and we were all cleaned up, we went on a snowshoeing hike with Tom and the Service Adventure group from Colorado Springs (they were volunteering for the weekend). It was our first time snowshoeing, and we felt lucky to have beautiful conditions to reap the full benefits of the shoes! The rest of the afternoon was filled with going down the tube run and eating a wonderful soup potluck that Beth-el church let us participate in.

Thank you to Jenelle & Collin Roynon, Corbin & Tanya Graber, Tom, and Mary for allowing us to be a part of the weekend! Until next time!