Home Sweet Covecrest

Xtreme Adventure

Never would I have imagined that I would one day come full circle with Covecrest. I went as a camper for two years, I was blessed to be part of the Traveling Summer Staff last summer, and this summer, I was able to be a chaperone for our middle school youth that attended camp.

All three experiences are totally different and rewarding in their own ways. As a camper, let’s just out it out there, you have not a care in the world. You are at Covecrest for a week, what more could you want? You don’t have to worry about being in charge of anyone but yourself, knowing the schedule and how it should flow. You are there to dive in the deep end for the transformation of a lifetime! The stories and memories that I have as a camper will last me a lifetime.

Summer Staff, well if I tried to explain it in a small paragraph, I would not being doing it justice…look for one about The Traveling Summer!!

Oh being a chaperone. You are on the other side, and get to see what your chaperones did for you while you were a camper. Something tells me that we didn’t kept ours up late and covered them head to toe in mud, unlike my experience.  But, I wouldn’t have traded it for one minute!!

Here’s how our week went!!

Monday

Travel day…nothing like security lines at 7am with 24 middle school youth!! So after a two hour airplane ride and about a two hour bus ride, we arrived at Home Sweet Covecrest.  There is nothing like pulling in and being greeted by staff that you worked with last summer. You have family wherever you go with LifeTeen. That is one thing that I will always love.

Once we got going the kids took part in some IceBreaker games & then whole camp played a game of Capture Covecrest. It was so fun!! Our host, Kevin, also broke open the theme for the night about being included and excluded in life. What does it mean for the middle schoolers, how does it make them feel, how can you combat it? We broke it open even further in small groups. My all-girls group rocked! They were the “perfect” small group…if there is such a thing out there. We ended our night with our first Parish Pow-Wow of the week.

Tuesday

Messy Day…what can I say? One thing for sure is that I somehow managed to get messier and more banged up than when I was a camper. Jon oh so kindly covered me in oatmeal, and many others got the oatmeal experience head to toe as well. Then it was off the fin the Queen’s jewels that a Unicorn stole…in ‘Unicorn poop’. I don’t make these things up, only repeat what I'm told. It was gross…red Georgia clay. The it was off to the big water slide the goes down “Big Mama” (the largest hill at camp).  I must say that the slide did me in.

We then cleaned up to come back together for our evening session. The theme for the night was Reconciliation. We rotated between three different stations. We started out with Reconciliation. All of our kids were willing and ready (with a few butterflies) to go. It is so awesome to see the teens ready, and some excited to go to the sacraments and receive His Grace. Second we headed to a witness from one of the missionaries about making a mistake in life, but God gives you a second chance in life. He is all loving and all forgiving. The last station was a mini parish Pow-Wow. The kids were great…all of them had something they wanted to share. They ‘officially’ took in Jonathan as one of their own…Family Hug!!! It was great to see. In our true Pow-Wow at the end of the night, some of the kids had some awesome glory stories to share. One that still sticks out is the conclusion one came to. He put messy games and Reconcilation together. We got messy, covered in oatmeal, mud, goop. Our souls get covered in sin and God’s light can’t shine through.  We got clean/went to the waterfalls, and we were ‘clean’.  We got to Reconciliation, and God wipes our souls clean.  

Wednesday

We tackled high & low ropes courses to build trust and teamwork.  Our girls and guys tackled fears and took on high ropes…the Static Course, Zip-line, and the swing!! Low ropes they worked together to build trust with one another, and relate the challenges they faced on the element to real life.

We ended the night with Mass, and a Eucharistic procession to the Chapel. Any experience where you get to see the teens worshiping their Lord is breathtaking.

Thursday

Time to float the river. It was a great day of fellowship, storytelling, song singing…all around fun!!

The evening was spent in girls/guys sessions. The girls heard a wonderful testimony about centering your life with God and listening to His call for you.  Then they also heard from one of the sisters there. She shared her story about joining the convent.

The evening ended in Adoration. The boys prayed over the girls, then the girls over the guys. It was awesome…not words can describe the roles the fall into of becoming true sisters and brothers in Christ. Emotions were flying, kids were worshiping, and they understood what was going on around them. They understood when He was processed around the room.

Glory story of the night. One young man talking about another. “ I saw him crying. I just stayed where I was, and I knew they weren’t sad tears. They were tears of happiness. It was like a little bit of Heaven and Jesus in his tears.”

Friday

It’s our last full day of camp. Time to tackle the Obstacle Course…it was rough, but our team tied for first!! There was many things that they had to do…swing across a creek, team building, over/unders, slides, sling-shots, bubble gum contest, plus more, only to have it end in the mud pit…you got 30 points if everyone covered themselves in mud head to toe. Needless to say, my group wanted those points…I was covered in mud…they say its good for your skin, right?

That night, we talked about the obstacles that we would face when we got home. What is going to keep you from growing in your faith? What will keep you from keeping what you have gained at camp? The teens then wrote down their obstacles and places them in a metal tub, in which Fr. Tom then prayed over them and set them on fire to lift them up in prayer that you may have the strength to overcome them. This was followed by a bonfire, and a lot of dancing.

Saturday

Time to head back into the real world. We attended Mass one last time, ate lunch, said our goodbyes, and then we were off to the airport.

All together, it was an amazing, Xtreme week, and I wouldn’t have changed any of it for a minute!! We have a great group of teens at SEAS!! I was so blessed to be able to go with them.

Lesson Learned: You are never too old for Covecrest. You will learn something new everytime you go & you have the opportunity to grow in your faith! Live every moment in the present, not the future.