"Dieciocho" Teen Retreat (Part 4)

Read Part One, Two, and Three...

Game Time at Camp!!

Camp wouldn't be camp without a few games throughout the day. The campers were divided up into two teams called "The Empanadas" and "The Shishkabobs" (the next post will explain why).

During one of the afternoon's, the campers played volleyball, but with towels and water balloons. This provided for some serious competition, cheering, and laughter.


What game time provides, besides exercise, is an informal way of teaching character qualities like: teamwork, honesty, communication, and good sportsmanship.

Dan Thompson (Director of Camps in Chile) and Walter (a Bible Institute student and assistant coordinator of this retreat) enjoy watching the campers play the afternoon games.

Thanks to the planning of Luciano and his game team, there was a multi-stage relay that provided even more competition.

At one of the stages, the two teams lined up, each with a cup in their mouths. The goal was to pass as much water with your cup down the line to the next teammate.

It provided from some interesting and painful neck contortions. Some got the hang of it, but as you can see above, some spilled more water than desired.

Once the last person in line received his or her water in the cup, then they would run to fill up a pop bottle with the water.

The team who filled the pop bottle first won.

Another stage was made up of producing a line of cardboard tubes that transferred a small ball. The goal was to get from point A to point B as fast as you could, without dropping the ball.

Once the ball was through a camper's tube, they would run to the front of the line and extend the line of tubes a bit more.

At this stage, campers would maneuver two strings with a hook to snag an apple with another hook screwed into the top.

Three-legged race? No. How about stepping it up a notch, but taking two boards, some string, and four campers?

The goal was to for the team to walk together on the boards as fast as they could from point A to point B.

As you can see, these games are simple and inexpensive, but loaded with fun and competition. Just another one of the things that camping in a foreign country has been teaching me. You don't have to have tons of resources, equipment, and planning to have fun. The imagination of the Chilean believers is fun to see in action.

Of course, if there was ever a spare 15 minutes or so, the campers would flock to the soccer field. Soccer is king here in Chile (and around the whole world...except in the USA).


Come back again for part 5!