Day One - Beginnings

Royal Family Kids Camp 2015 has begun!!! God has been so faithful! Every year we get to see Jesus wrap these kids up in His arms of love. We've always been blessed with such an amazing team of staff and buddies who the Lord uses mightily to welcome these kids into a place of belonging, family and destiny. Our camp theme this year is ROYALTY and every kid has a destiny, a purpose and a place in the heart of God. We are so excited to see what God does in His princes and princesses this year at camp!

Here's a shot of this mornin'. The team pulls out all the stops. The welcome signs for the kids are amazingly put together by their buddies. The first thing the returning kids look for on the bus is their name, telling everyone what is going to happen before they even turn into the camp. The signs are pretty big deal. "Wow! They actually know my name! I'm important, a celebrity!" You can actually see the red carpet we role out every year that the kids step out onto as their names get called through a mega-phone. The kids were highly welcomed and camp officially begins.

Here's some of the signs a little closer up 

The lion on the far right poster is a 3D puzzle that his buddy put together and pasted on it, complete with 3D glasses! 

We got some amazing new activities and things for the kids to do. Today we want to showcase the new paddle boards!!! These kids are FEARLESS! The kids have to go through a swim test before they can use them, but once they pass the jump from the dock and swim to the shore they get a purple wristband that enables them to bodily step into a new challenge. Pretty legit or as my friends from the 70s would put it...groovy!! Next up, wake boarding?? Haha maybe not.

More of the "activity" side of camp to come, but for now we'll move on to our first night together. We normally end the night off with a service of sorts including worship, drama, gifts and surprises, and "more drama" haha jk but the kids always have a blast. Monday night is super special for our new campers. Every camper on their first year gets a quilt, hand-picked beforehand by their buddies. These quilts are so precious to these kids as many of them hold on to it for the rest of their lives!

The three ladies in this picture were the ones who sewed all of these quilts and have done this for 16 years!!

To wrap things up (no quilt pun intended) we send the campers to bed and all of them get a new stuffed animal of their choice. Pretty awesome!

Here's a shot of the night life of RFKC. The buddies and staff who aren't on guard duty with the kids take it to "Cabin 5". Which is totally top secret and I have no clue why I'm showing you this but this is the opportunity for the buddies to work on their campers scrapbooks which have to be done at the end of camp.

P.S. you can probably tell that none of them are "actually working" haha. This maybe for two reasons: One being, we haven't printed today's photos for them to scrapbook and two being the other great part of Cabin 5 is for the team to just hang, chill, unwind and snack on junk food.

Here's the goods.

Thank you for your prayers and support! Excited what tomorrow will bring!