Capture the Flag!

Wednesdays at Camp during a one week session usually signal the halfway point of Camp. If its the second Wednesday of a two week session then it signals the end is near. Luckily Wednesday is the favorite day of the week for many campers, especially the younger groups...Capture the Flag Day.

If you can't tell from the picture above, I'll let you in on a little secret...the campers take their capture the flag games very seriously. Capture the Flag Day is a day of camouflage clothing, some serious strategic planning, and some super stealth sneaking around the woods. This day also gives the campers an excuse to paint their face so that they can't be seen playing in the woods.
Capture the flag is played on Wednesday's during each Group Activity. There are 2 teams and 2 sides for the game, and each team is tasked with guarding their flag on their side play. Your flag has to be visible, but depending on the strategy, you can still manage to make it difficult for the other team to find the flag. All of Camp is the playing field. If you are tagged by your opponent while on the wrong side, then you have to go to jail. The only way out of jail is to be tagged by one of your free teammates. The younger groups often play boy campers and girl staff vs. girl campers and boy staff. This tends to give the teams the a little more equality.

When the game starts, many of the boys tend to head off into the woods on as if they are on some sort of military mission. Often times, these campers will try to go so far out of the way, that they take themselves out of the game. Most of the true game play takes place on the ball fields where the jails and the flags are located. The way the game ends is by "Capturing the Flag". If one team captures the other teams flag and safely brings it back to their side, then the game is over.
When Group Activity is over, and the Capture the Flag victor has been crowned, stories about the game are told and retold for the rest of the day. There is usually some claims of cheating thrown around by the losers, but no claims are ever proven. Every once in a while a couple of campers who went out into the woods on the military style mission tend to get lost in the woods and don't make it back to the group after the games are over. Some members of the staff will have to go out into the woods to "rescue" the lost campers. Their stories are always great to hear. They tend to think that they walked miles away from Camp, when in all actuality they just got turned around and were only 100 yards away from the fields.
One of the best parts about Wednesdays at Camp is evening Worship. There are usually several visitors that come out to Camp to worship, and it is just another reminder of how awesome it is to worship God at Camp. No matter how worn out the campers and staff get during the day at Camp, there always seems to be excitement on Wednesday nights to come together to worship the Lord. It is a wonderful way to start winding down and finish up another day of Camp.

Hail, Dear Ol' Deer Run,

Sparky