This week's column

A Week at Camp
Last week I and other adult counselors, went to church camp at Jonathan Creek Camp in Western Kentucky with about 50 middle school kids.
No, I’m not crazy. Well, maybe a little.
The kids learned a few things, we learned a few things and sleep was not had by all.
One thing I learned is that grown men can revert to a middle-school-age boy in an instant.
All the boys had to do is give them a look and then it was all-out WWE wrestling into a large pile-up. The male counselors dropped their backpacks and piled on in.
Another thing I learned is that the kids hear more than we think.
There was a session each night where the kids talked about what they learned from the day and if they needed to talk about anything in the nightly sermon. The kids sometimes had a lot of questions, which is good because if you don’t ask questions you might never figure out the answers.
One night the sermon was about harboring bitterness and the need to forgive. For middle school girls, this is a big concept and it really sunk in for them. I look forward to seeing how God continues to work in their lives and seeing the people they grow up to be.
I also learned middle school kids are goofy.
Ok, I already knew that, but I’m trying to keep with a theme here.
I say goofy in the most endearing way because many times goofy is fun to be around. I laughed more around these kids than I’ve laughed in months.
Two girls spent a couple days trying to convince me they should be the featured story in Wednesday’s Woman. Their final argument was that they were full of awesomeness.
Their argument didn’t exactly sway me but it did make me laugh. Sorry, Laruen and Kate, you will not make the cover of Wednesday’s Woman yet, but maybe this tiny mention in a column will do.
On the same note, I don’t want to hear the phrase “hey, Becca” again for a really long time.
“Hey, Becca, what do you think of the color blue?”
“Hey, Becca, where are we supposed to be next?”
“Hey, Becca, do you like pillow pets?”
“Hey, Becca … hey, Becca … hey, Becca.” I can even hear it now in my sleep.
And then there were the pranks. From what I understand the boys did this on a daily basis. The girls only tried it once.
Their goal was to prank the girls in my room. It didn’t exactly work the way they planned. They had somehow gotten a hold of about five cell phones that belonged to the girls in my room and set their alarms to go off in 15-minute increments beginning at about 3 a.m.
They failed because none of the girls in the room actually wake up when an alarm goes off. So guess who had to get up five times before the crack of dawn to turn the alarms off? That’s right, yours truly.
This made me and the other adults teach the two girls a lesson in pranking.
The person over the camp helped us out on our prank. Here’s how it went down. First, our youth leader told the two girls security was not happy because of all the noise and disturbance they made with their prank.
Then the head of the camp pulled them aside and told them he needed to speak with them, making them sit at a table to wait for him. The girls couldn’t see but he went to another table with a group of leaders to make a strategy for what he would tell them.
After making them wait he sat down and told them they were really cracking down on pranking and they kicked two kids out of camp for it the day before. The girls had a look of fear in their eyes. He told them since it was the last day he would just make them go wash dishes for an hour and a half for punishment.
He waited until they were in the kitchen to tell them that they weren’t in trouble but this is what they got for pranking a room with an adult leader in it. The lesson dear Anne Alyse and Mallory should have learned is don't mess with the adults — we kick it up a notch for the return prank.
Despite the pranking, wrestling, smelly middle school boys, 100-degree heat index, discussions about Justin Bieber and lack of sleep, I had a great time. And the kids not only had fun but learned some spiritual truths along the way.
Now, if I could only catch up on some sleep.
http://www.thenewsenterprise.com/content/column-week-camp

This week's column

Rescue a dog and watch them crawl right into your heart
I am by no means an animal activist. I enjoy eating a big old chunk of cow in burger or steak form. I set out traps for mice for their destruction, not the catch and release method.
I try to teach my dogs they are not humans and I am in charge, a lesson they have yet to learn.
But I do have a soft spot for some animals; especially those four-legged critters that pitifully watch me leave each day and pop their heads up at the window to happily see me return. If only they could keep more of their hair on their bodies and less on my carpet, clothes and furniture — that would make me happy.
So, yeah, I like dogs.
Recently, I have been following some stories of people who have adopted, or should I say rescued, dogs that have completely warmed their hearts. It has made me even more aware of the importance of taking in a dog from a shelter and the love they give.
Here are a few of their stories. (Why did I hear the “Law & Order tone in my head as I typed that?)
By chance, I ran across Prospect the Dog on Facebook. Prospect was abandoned near a trucking company in the Midwest. Ed the Chauffeur, as his owner is now known, had never thought about having a pet but when he visited the business and Prospect ran out from behind a desk he was hooked.
They now travel around the country posting photos and blogging at www.k9roadtrip.com. Prospect travels the country to help other rescue dog and shelter organizations. As of February he has logged 45,000 miles and visited more than 10 states.
That dog gets around.
When researching a bit about Ryan Reynolds to write a review on “Green Lantern” I discovered his chance encounter with a rescue dog.
People magazine reported that he told ABC News he was looking for a dog for a friend when another dog caught his eye. The dog was staring at Reynolds. He leaned down to whisper “Hey, let’s get the [heck] out of here.”
Baxter jumped up as if he understood Reynolds and has been with the “Sexiest Man Alive” ever since.
Locally the plight of Franklin the Pug got some attention when he was featured in The News-Enterprise. Paralysis in his back legs doesn’t slow him down and his owner is on a quest to get him walking again. After Franklin was hit by three cars, the source of his paralysis, his owner abandoned him.
I recently interviewed another person with a dog named Sadie. Sadie’s back legs are paralyzed but she still tries to protect her family by barking from behind a counter to make sure people know she’s there to protect them. Sadie was adopted from an animal shelter.
Rescue dogs sometimes have a heartbreaking story from their past, sometimes are unwanted and sometimes just fell into bad luck when their owners could no longer keep them. Because of this they make amazing pets that have an enduring way of responding to the people who have rescued them.
Of my two dogs, Duke, is a rescue of sorts. He was left at my brother’s vet clinic and after being there a while found his way to my house. He loves people and thinks everyone’s purpose in life is to adore him.
I purchased Boo but I’m pretty sure if I had not bought him he would have wound up a rescue dog as well because there is no one else on this planet who would have put up with some of his shenanigans. So, if I hadn’t got him as a puppy he would have probably wound up at my house anyway.
I guess the moral to this story is adopt a shelter dog and enjoy the ride. And you might want to get a lint roller while you’re at it for all the pet hair.
http://www.thenewsenterprise.com/content/rescue-dog-and-watch-them-crawl-right-your-heart