camp sumatanga

The third, fourth and fifth graders from our church went on a little retreat to Camp Sumatanga the second weekend in March.



Sending my two big boys off to camp!  Banks has been so excited about going to Sumatanga.  As they drove off...all the fond memories of going there in the summers as a child came flooding back.  I think I went for about 5 summers straight.  I remember staying in the lodge camp as a younger child.  Then finally getting to stay in the cabins at the big camp.  I remember our parents dropping us off for a week of fun.  I remember getting letters from home [I think I still have a few squirrelled away somewhere].  I remember looking forward to the hike up the mountain to the chapel.  I remember our daily bible lessons, making new friends, trips to the canteen, seeing who had the most chigger bites, visiting the nurses hut for a special medicine-soaked cotton ball to put on all those chigger bites, singing all the silly camp songs, having a camp out with a bonfire and ghost stories one night and the our daily hike to the swimming pool.  I still remember cracking up with Sasha Love Landreth as she rubbed base on her lilly white legs to try to knock off the paleness.  Wonder whatever happened to her?  And we always hit the outlets at Boaz on our way home.

Jody and some of the other parents went along to help Ms. Debbie chaperone the 60 + kids who filled up the 2 church buses + a rented one.  The high schoolers at our church lead the retreat which I think was brillant.  I think they all had a fabulous time!  Banks has talked non-stop about all they did in his 24 Camp Sumatanga experience.

The crew...



...taken with Jody's iPhone.  Banks is on the bottom, far right, in the red shorts.

I did notice when I was unpacking their bag that Banks still had a clean pair of underwear and socks [and I didn't pack any extra]!  Glad it was just an overnight retreat.  Maybe that is why our mother's always hit up the Vanity Fair Outlet on the way home?