Splash On!
Thank you to all who have donated your treasure to finance a new pool at Camp Cherith of WNY! As of May 2021 we have raised $117,000, which is a little more than three-quarters of our goal of $150,000. Continue to pray for God to provide rest of the funds and that the pool will be used to His glory for many years to come!
To participate further, you may donate directly.
from this…
To this…
Splash On! Progress
Looking for a Volunteer
Our current registrar, Michelle (Olive), needs to step back from organizing registration for camp this year in order to get ready for the new baby coming to her family!
We need someone to replace her as registrar that is friendly and comfortable on the phone and familiar with basic Microsoft Office programs. If you would like to know more about this position or volunteer, read below and contact Michelle to discuss further.
Registrar – Camp Cherith of WNY
Responsibilities
Check camp phone and email on a regular, at least once per weekly basis from January to August 2021
Answer phone calls and emails with questions about camp registration
Be trained in the camp database program (which is online) and run reports, check registrations, edit registrations as needed
Enter paper registrations in the online database (usually about 10 total) and deposit checks at the bank
Work with website manager, director, and accountant to reconcile accounts, provide communications to families, provide reports to the director, etc.
Time Commitment
January – March about 1 hours/week
March – August about 2-4 hours/week
Skills Needed
Familiarity with basic Microsoft programs such as Excel, Word, etc.
Ability to upload and download documents from our registrar platform
Ability to be friendly and present on the phone and through email to parents and families
Comfortable with basic math adjustments (such as crediting a scholarship, providing a discount)
Dates for Summer 2021 Announced!
We are excited to announce dates for the coming camp season. Please pray with us that camps can have a more regular season next summer and have campers return fully!
Snow Camp – February 13-15, 2021
Day Camp – July 5 -9, 2021
Girls Only Camp – July 11-17 AND July 18-24, 2021
Boys & Girls Parallel Camp – July 25 -31 AND August 1 – 7, 2021
Boys Only Adventure Camp – August 8-13, 2021
Family Camp – May 29-31, August 13-15
CILT 1 – July 25-August 7, 2021 (stay over weekend included)
CILT 2 – July 4-10 AND July 11-17, 2021 (no stay over weekend)
Find-It Friday
Camp Fun
Go outside and explore. Take a pencil, clipboard, and the “Life Under a Rock” Scavenger Hunt with you.
Sing Along
5 Little Speckled Frogs
Oh, Home on the Range
Don’t Look Down, Don’t Look Around, Just look up, up, up
Think-About
Would you be okay if you had to live under a rock? Why do some animals prosper when their home is a rock, and others need a different place to live? As the five little speckled frogs, found their home on a speckled log, and ate the bugs and creatures that were in their path.
Similarly, with the home on the range, this is the place where the “deer and the antelope play.” They enjoy life together and enjoy each other’s company. They get along. What does that mean for us and our life today?
The last song in the sing-along says it so clearly. The lyrics share this:
“Don’t look down, don’t look around, just look up, up, up. Don’t look down in deep despair, don’t look around in a world of care, just look up and He will meet you there.”
As we are looking up to God, and following His ways, it doesn’t mean that it will be easy to do that, but it will be worth it.
Isaiah 40:26 says this:
Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.
God has placed us, His creation in a certain place where we are for either a reason, season, or a time. So, let’s be in the place He wants us to be in sharing the joy of His salvation with those in our path, as we journey in life.
To quote the movie UP,
Thanks for the adventure! Now go have a new one!
Talk-About:
How can you make a difference in the place you are in right now? At home? At your work? With your family? With neighbors? With friends?
What adventures did God have for you today? Reflect and give thanks for the opportunities He provided you to share with those in your path today.
For further reading: Luke 19:1-10. Notice the “looking up.”
Throwback Thursday
Camp Fun
Make a paper airplane and race with your other family members. Experiment with different designs to see which can fly longest, shortest, loop the most, etc. Check out this website for patterns.
Sing Along
Boom Chicka-Boom
If You’re Happy and You Know It!
Be Thou My Vision
Think-About
Back in the day, before airplanes were invented, how did travel occur? A stagecoach took people on adventures, or a steamboat would cross the body of water, or even before then a ship would take sail and go on journeys without a GPS! Imagine life before airplanes, or cars. Imagine the planning it took to go around corners of a racetrack, as a verse in Boom Chicka-Boom, challenges us to move with our racecar Vroom – shift a corner-shifta a turn – shifta BOOM!” Unfortunately for that racecar driver, it sounds like a tragedy occurs, as the shifting doesn’t go as smoothly as planned.
No matter what our circumstance, Paul challenges believers in the book of Philippians to “Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say, Rejoice.” (Philippians 4:4). Note that it doesn’t say be happy in all circumstances, but be grateful again and again and again for the joy that the Lord provides through these circumstances.
James 1:2-5 has this to say as an encouragement and challenge to those following Jesus:
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,[a] whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.
As far as our travels in daily living go, we may feel ill-prepared, or not ready to do what we are supposed to be doing. However, God makes a way that we can be grateful for His provision, as He is our vision and our True Word all the time. God’s wisdom provides us what we need as He will give us generously the way and the wisdom to know how to move forward walking with Him.
Talk-About
In what way do you need wisdom to follow after God?
What are some steps you need to take in your journey with your Savior?
Is He your guide? If not yet…why not today? Ask a friend who follows Jesus to help you along this path.
If He is your leader and guide, then how is your heart, mind, and mouth aligned as you follow in His ways?
Wacky Wednesday
Camp Fun
Make a crazy hat to wear the rest of the week.
Sing Along
My Hat it Has Three Corners
‘Twas on a summer’s Evening (Cuckoo/Mr. Moon)
Thy Word
Think-About
What hat do you like to wear? A favorite baseball cap? A sports team? The “hat” of being a student? A parent? A sibling? The “hat” of an occupation that you take on daily? Well, in the song, if the hat doesn’t have three corners, “it would not be my hat.”
There are some things about summer that are perceived to be ‘normal.’ The Cuckoo Song says that the sound of the cuckoo, is a sign of summer, and that the moon shouldn’t appear until a certain time of the day. It is also true about our season of life that we live in right now, that are not quite fitting so nicely in the ‘box’ of life that we have in front of us. Many things are in flux, changing around us, however, we can rely and count on God’s Word to be true no matter the situation. Psalm 119:105 says,
“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”
This song shares with us this truth from Scripture that states how God’s Word will help us walk in wisdom and in truth, despite the deception that tries to trick us.
So, back to the three-cornered hat. Will you wear it if it doesn’t fit? If it isn’t yours? How about the lies of the enemy? Will you accept the lie that you’re not good enough or the truth that God says in Romans 8:1-2 that “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you[a] free from the law of sin and death.” Will you accept that God has a plan for your life, plans to give you a hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11), or believe the lie that today doesn’t make a difference. Or how about that lie that sneaks in to say that no one cares about me…or there’s the truth that nothing can separate you from the love of God through Jesus Christ (Romans 8:38 – 39).
What will you allow to ‘fit’ on you today?
Talk-About
What truth do you need to replace a lie that you have let enter into your heart and mind?
Memorize a verse from God’s Word that is TRUE and trustworthy that will help you to come against a lie, and put on the Belt of Truth today.
Tune Tuesday
Camp Fun
Paper Plate Awards:
Gather paper plates. Write someone’s name on the middle of the paper plate, something kind or appreciative you have to say about that person, and pass it around to each person in the room to also write something encouraging on the plate. Give the plate to the person so they can read all the kind things that were said about them.
Sing Along
Alligator
Father, I Adore You
Think-About
This Tuesday’s closing song, praises our God is! Yes, we usually sing it at Sunday night dinner, to remind us of how AWESOME God is– that every good and perfect gift comes from Him.
James 1:17 [17] Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. (ESV)
God’s good gifts are to be appreciated when we find them in other people. We can be the one who is an encourager and thank them for displaying God’s workmanship which is exhibited through their lives.
As we thank God for His goodness, and adore Him, we can also find His craftsmanship on display through the people He has made that are in our lives. Our Maker, Creator God, has made each of his creations unique and special, as David writes it this way in Psalm 139:13-14:
“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”
It is God who has made His creation beautiful, and we have the opportunity to thank Him for His good gifts that are ours daily: blessings from the heavenly realms, the opportunity to be united with Christ, His glorious grace given through Jesus, being chosen, adopted into God’s family, and having the promise of the glorious Holy Spirit to dwell within us (See Ephesians 1 for details).
Let’s choose to praise God from whom all blessings flow and give Him all the praise He deserves!
Talk-About
What good gifts has God given you?
Have you thanked Him today for these gifts? If so, continue to praise Him and talk to God to thank Him for these gifts. If not, take time right now to give Him credit for what He so generously gives to you.
Marvel-ous Monday
Camp Fun
String rope or paracord between 2 posts or trees like a spiderweb. Each person from your team must make it from one side to the other through one of the openings. You may only use each opening once, and you may not touch the ropes on your way through. Points are given for the team that finishes first. Take points away for each rope touched.
Why was it easy? Why was it difficult?
Sing Along
Do Your Ears Hang low?
I Will Call Upon the Lord
Peter was a Fisherman
Think-About
“With great power comes great responsibility.”
Spiderman…is a MARVELous comic hero. Even though he is not a scriptural character, he too can teach us a lesson. Peter Parker could use his spidey power for selfless or selfish ways. His motive for actions affected the outcome. God has given us great power through the Holy Spirit and great knowledge through the Bible and the many Bible teachers we have access to. With this power and opportunity, we have a great responsibility to act selflessly according to God’s kingdom ways to spread God’s love and justice to our neighbors.
In the songs above, starting with “Do your Ears Hang Low?” it is necessary to coordinate our words with actions! That can be difficult sometimes. Especially when singing the song faster and faster! Similarly, as a follower of God, we are challenged to follow God every single day, in all our actions and words.
But, how will I know what God wants me to do? Good question to ask. Jesus has something to say about this when he responds to a question in Matthew 22:36 – 39, in a conversation while teaching. Jesus is asked:
36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he [Jesus] said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
As we love God with our whole being, we will know, receive and be able to share an outpouring of His love to our neighbors. It may not be easy to care for those in our path, but this is what God helps us to do, with the empowering of the Holy Spirit.
Another way to say this is from John 13:35 (NLT), which declares:
35 Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.
As we are able to love those in our daily living, at home, in our family, in the grocery store, on a chat on the computer, or through an online forum, you will be able to prove that you are a disciple of Jesus. When Spiderman did not use his powers responsibly, it got him into trouble. When we try to use our human power instead of depending on God’s power, we are irresponsible, tarnish God’s name and don’t get to participate in His work.
Talk-About:
Where does our strength come from? Do I try to live life on my own? Or is God my strength?
Did I call on God to help me throughout the day today?
How can you kindly care for someone else in your day today? Or what can you be more intentional about tomorrow?
Flummox Friday
Camp Fun
Puzzle-me-this!
Find a puzzle to put together. However, not in a 'regular' way– try to put it together blindfolded, by yourself. Then, try a second time, and put the puzzle together still blindfolded, but having a friend or family member give you directions! Enjoy the challenge :)
Sing-Along
Bazooka Bubblegum
He's Got the Whole World in His Hands
Peace, Peace, God's Peace...
Think about
Right now, you campers may have some things running through your head like this: Why is my life in pieces? I just don't understand...what is going on with school in the fall? Can I go to this place with or without my mask? Will I be able to ride the school bus with my friends? and more…
All these pieces are part of a bigger puzzle– who or what are you relying on during this current time, and always, to bring peace into your life?
There are some insights that may be valuable from 2 Thessalonians 3:16 (NLT) which says this:
Now may the Lord of peace himself give you his peace at all times and in every situation. The Lord be with you all. (NLT)
The author writes that God HIMSELF is our peace - not just a piece of the puzzle, but HE knows what the puzzle looks like from all angles.
As "Bazooka Bubblegum" says, "My mom gave me ____________, then I ___________" just like when we sing this song, we have the choice of what we put our resources towards. The resources of our mind, heart, and soul, and our whole being. Will we rely on God to be our PEACE, who pieces together all parts of the unknowns in our lives? He is the God who has the whole world in His hands, so won't our caring, loving, Prince of Peace care for His creation, us, a special treasure to Him?
Talk About
Ask the Prince of Peace to give you his perfect peace through a tough time that you may be encountering. Jesus doesn’t promise to fix everything right away. He promises peace when we trust that He is in control.
Isaiah 26:3 (NKJV)
You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You.