One Final Post

I promised to let you know when the photos taken at the dance were posted. Having finally arrived at home after a 2-day stop at Camp Allen, I've now been able to process and post those pics. Check them out here.

Homecoming Concert

The choir arrived safely back at Chapelwood on Friday afternoon, and after dinner with their families, performed a homecoming concert showing off some of the music they learned. We also learned who had the best cabin names (senior girls and senior guys both won the honors), as well as the 15 winners of "The Fred Gibson Servant of Christ" award for regular and devoted participation in Wesley Choir across the years. The Wesley Choir will be in the loft this Sunday morning at the 8:25 service to begin their year of musical leadership and then they will conclude WCC.XLVII with a pool party Sunday afternoon.

This Concludes our Blog Reporting from Choir Camp

I hope you have enjoyed seeing our youth enjoy themselves at Wesley Choir Camp XLVII as much as we've enjoyed bringing it to you. You may be interested to know we've averaged about 650 page views per day. Since our reporter (Bob Johnson) has to leave camp early in the morning, this is our final blog post. The choir will be cleaning up and leaving camp immediately after lunch. We anticipate getting back to Houston around 4:00 p.m. (traffic and functioning busses permitting). Don't forget the Homecoming Dinner at 5:00 p.m. and the concert immediately following at 6:00 p.m. Parents, in addition to actually hearing the music they've been learning, you'll have a chance to meet with the counselors in your child's cabin to get all the good scoop.

As always, you can see and download camp pictures by clicking here. Check back the next couple days as we add more pictures, especially from the dance.

Summary Video for Thursday

Here is a short video showing you our Thursday activities (minus the dance).

Campers Eagerly Anticipating Tonight's Dance

Each night at Choir Camp has a special activity -- tonight's is a camp-wide dance. Parents, remember how awkward dances could be in middle school, and even high school? "What if no one will dance with me?" It's not that way at choir camp. Everyone gets to dance, no one says "no" when asked to dance. Our senior girls will help our 7th grade girls with dress, hair, and make-up. Our senior guys will then escort the 7th grade girls to the dance. Our 7th grade boys will have the time of their young lives escorting the senior girls. Then, each of the other grade levels will escort each other. It's a wonder to behold as these young folks navigate the often scary waters of adolescence, but having caring adults helping them learn how to become men and women.

One of the favorite traditions in preparation for the dance is to have the guys from each grade level serenade their grade level girls, asking them to the dance. This picture shows the senior guys serenading the senior girls. Their plan to serenade them at their cabin last night fell victim to the storm and power outage. But not to be outdone, the guys quickly came up with their own plan B.

Wesley Choir Sings for UM Women

This morning, the choir had the opportunity to sing for a meeting of the Texas Annual Conference's United Methodist Women. Their event, "Mission U" (formerly, the Weekend School of Christian Mission), has been held at this time for several years. When the choir needed a camp two years ago on very short notice, the UMW agreed to make the changes necessary to accommodate our choir. In gratitude, we have sung our first concert for them each of the last two years.

Wednesday Summary Video

Here's a short video on Wednesday's activities at Wesley Choir Camp.

View all our camp pictures here.

Thursday is "Super Day" at Choir Camp

The storm passed, the electricity eventually came back on, and as we woke up Thursday at Wesley Choir Camp, it is "Super Day." Various creative interpretations of the theme are seen throughout the camp, from Super Nannies, to Supercali-fragilisticexpialidocious, to Super Heroes, to Super Target, etc. Our seniors went with Super Mario Brothers. All our seniors, girls and guys, each dressed as one of the characters in the popular video game. Then they "ran a level" demonstrating what one sees as the game is played. It was "super!" After breakfast, we're now in morning rehearsal as we anticipate our last full day at camp and the highly anticipated dance tonight. View all our camp pictures here.

Plan B!!

Unexpected stormy weather has changed our evening plans. Rather than holding evening worship down by the lake, next to the new platform we built yesterday just for the occasion (!), we'll keep everyone dry, mosquito-free, and safe.

UPDATE: When the storm hit, we lost power countywide for about 4 hours. No problem, we have a portable generator to power our musical instruments and tech equipment. We worshiped in the dark by candlelight. Our new senior pastor, John Stephens, led the Communion service. After the service, instead of the taco snack we were planning (no power = no way to cook), the Lakeview staff served us some great watermelon, red and yellow.

It's always good to have a plan B!

Volleyball Semi-Finals

Check out this short video of the volleyball semi-final rounds. (There's no sound. And unfortunately, the drone's battery died before the start of the final round!)

Choir Completes Only Rehearsal of the Day

Wednesday is a full and busy day at Choir Camp with team competitions coming down to the semi-final and final rounds, free time options of fishing, archery, ping-pong, pool, board games, swimming, etc., completion of the all-camp Winter Olympics, and a camp favorite, lake-side worship. All that means less time for choir rehearsal, so the one and only rehearsal of the day (we usually have two) is pretty exhausting. Even counselors get tired.

Pie Team Makes First Appearance!

During choir rehearsal this morning, the feared "pie team" made its first appearance, picking out a couple of unsuspecting victims. It sure livened up rehearsal!

Tuesday Summary Video

Here is a short video of our Tuesday activities.

Seniors Present "How I Met the Seniors" Theme at Senior Night

 After another afternoon of games and classes, including "The Flight of the Drone," our 40+ members of the senior class, after literally a year of planning, presented "how I met the seniors" as the theme at Senior Night. About 100+ parents, siblings, and grand parents of our seniors drove up to Palestine to enjoy the event. Even our new senior pastor, John Stephens (pictured here with Toby Dagenhart), was on hand to enjoy the show. After a video and several entertaining skits, the seniors led us in a time of worship together, followed by a time for families to visit before heading back to Houston, or a night in town nearby.

View Frisbee Football from Above

Check out this video of the yellow and white teams facing off in Ultimate Frisbee Football, from the perspective of Bro. Bob's drone.

Pierce Beyer Wins the Annual Choir Camp Cricket Spit

During a break in choir rehearsal this morning, it was time for the annual, highly-anticipated "camp cricket spit" competition. Yes, they are REAL, LIVE crickets. Don't worry, we follow the 5-second rule: if a cricket jumps our of your hand onto the floor when you're trying to get up the courage to actually put it in your mouth, if it takes more than 5-seconds to capture it, we get a new one. We practice safe cricket-spitting. There were girl and guy contestants from all grades, so check out all the pictures of the contest at the camp picture site here. Senior Pierce Beyer shattered Junior Kevin Stout's last year record. If you are the parent of a junior girl, ask about the "special" cricket given them by the senior boys -- and ask why!

Welcome to Tuesday! "Sea Day!"

Choir camp opened on Tuesday with everyone showing their interpretation of the theme of "Sea Day." We had pirates, jelly fish (one of two interpretations pictured), fishers of men (each with a picture of a man on their hook), boys in ball caps with a C on them standing for "under the C," and even big red C's on a white T-shirt. Get it? The Red C! And more... See more at our Choir Camp pictures website here. Everyone is eagerly anticipating a huge Choir Camp tradition tonight ... SENIOR NIGHT! Our seniors have literally been working since Choir Camp last year planning tonight's show. Due to the number of campers we have this year, we expect a huge crowd of parents, brothers and sisters, grandparents, etc. for tonight's big event.

Monday Summary Video

Check out Monday's summary video here.

Talent Show Displays Youth Talent

The Choir Camp Talent Night was awesome! The kids sang, did skit comedy, played guitar, piano, ukelele, and showed just how talented they are. These are incredible kids. Following Talent Night, they wrapped up the day with worship and cabin sharing. See all camp pictures here.

Monday's Activities Include More Competitions

Today's late morning activities included more team competition in volleyball, water polo, low ropes, ping pong, pool, and miniature golf. Weather today is beautiful -- clear and, so far, not terribly hot, temp in the upper 80's. Afternoon activities included everyone's favorite -- LUNCH! -- then cabin time for devotions and nap (yea, right!). Then section rehearsals for the choir. Everyone is planning what they will do for the talent show tonight, a favorite Choir Camp tradition. All camp photos can be viewed here.

Monday at WCC47: "Candy Day"

Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday at Choir Camp are theme days. Today is "Candy Day." Each cabin is offering their interpretation of the theme, from Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, to Candy, your local diner waitress, and everything in between. Check out the camp pictures here. Following choir practice this morning, we'll be back to team games. Everyone is looking forward to tonight's talent show, always special at Wesley Choir Camp as year after year we're reminded how talented these kids are.

Choir Camp Olympics

After our first rehearsal, we competed in part #1 of the Wesley Choir Winter Olympics: Biathlon (running with flippers to pick up a dart gun), slalom (running with boards on feet), and the bobsled (pulling yourself on a soapy sheet). We also had some surprise sports like curling and field hockey. Points were awarded and the winning team will be announced after the competition is completed later in the week. This judge made sure everyone knew she meant to keep things honest (Stephanie Stephens).

UPDATE: The Yellow Team ended up winning the competition. Congratulations!

Photos from Choir Camp

Check out this link to see pictures from camp. See anyone you know?

Sunday's Summary Video

Here is a link to a short video of today's activities.

We're Here!

We arrived safely after our stop at Buccees. We got a great welcome from the seniors AND Bro. Bob's drone (it's a TOOL not a TOY). We're settled in and enjoying team activities. Each of us is assigned to a color team made up of all the grades. Some of our teams played volleyball,  others, water polo, some did the low ropes, others went biking. After supper, we had our first rehearsal, and Bob L said it was the best sounding FIRST rehearsal he's ever had! Tonight we have an all-camp activity, Choir Camp Winter Olympics, then our 7th graders get to spend some time with the seniors at the campfire.

Camp Weather Forecast

Choir Director, Bob Lindsey, found this graphic for the Palestine area weather forecast for camp week. Looks like a great week weather wise! Be sure to drink lots of water and put on that sunscreen!

Check here for daily photographs

Click on this link daily for photographs to see what's going on at camp. Also, there will be a daily upload of a short video compilation of photographs.

Wesley Choir Camp XLVII Set to Begin July 20

Wesley Choir Camp 2013

The Chapelwood United Methodist Church Wesley Choir is a choir made up of youth in grades 7-12. It serves God and Chapelwood by leading worship in the Sunday morning, 8:25 service and during other special times of worship and service throughout the year. 

Wesley Choir Camp XLVII (meaning this has been going on for 47 years!!) will take place at Lakeview Methodist Conference Center in Palestine, TX, from Sunday, July 20 through Friday, July 25. During that week, campers will learn to sing worship music, play together, and grow spiritually as they form a close-knit, supportive community in a fun atmosphere, surrounded by caring adults. A record number of campers is set to attend.

Check back daily once camp starts for glimpses of what our campers are doing!