Saturday, April 9, 2011

March (and April) Madness

The craziness of March and April had nothing to do with VCU making it to the Final Four or my beloved Lady Vols getting beat out by Notre Dame. While March used to mean the coming of a much needed Spring Break, it was almost the complete opposite here at Camp Bahamas.

We started off March with a group from the Baptist Collegiate Ministries at the University of Central Florida. This was a special group because, after spending all of February putting on the finishing touches, they were officially the first group to stay in the cabins on the Camp Bahamas property! While they were here they put the hurricane clips on the foundations for the two duplex cabins along with putting the flooring on.

The group from UCF was followed by the high school boys volleyball team from Florida Christian School. They were a fantastic group who took on the difficult task of prepping the foundation of the main building for a concrete pour by shoveling dirt and rock out of trenches and tying steel. During their time here they also played volleyball in the afternoons with school children and played nightly volleyball games with some local adults.

Right after we said goodbye to Florida Christian we welcomed a youth group from First Baptist Oviedo, a group of high school students from Orlando AND Rod Straw. You may remember that Rod was here for all of January building and came back for 3 weeks in March to start work on a duplex cabin. The team from Oveido worked on the beach, the paintball field and helped Rod complete and raise the walls of the duplex cabin. While they were here they also did a VBS program in the afternoons with children from Palmetto Point.

Afer the group from Oviedo left we had a week without a team, but with Rod here that didn't mean a week without work. During that week we put a roof on the duplex cabin. It seems that amount of work should have made for a longer sentence, but oh well :)

On Monday we welcomed a youth group from Sugar Hill Church in Atlanta, GA. While they were here work continued on the duplex cabin, adding a porch with a roof, some interior walls and a set of stairs. They also continued work on the paintball field and built bunk beds. They also did VBS both in Tarpum Bay and Palmetto Point. They closed out their week last night with the first of many bonfires on the Camp Bahamas beach.

Whew! As you can see it has been a busy busy time here, but SO much has been accomplished and we have met SO many amazing people who sacrificed their spring break to come serve with Camp.

Along with all that has been accomplished by the teams, work continues to be done in preparation for the main building. Two weeks ago the building itself was delivered to the Camp Bahamas Property. As soon as the work on the concrete foundation is finished the building will begin to go up. Exciting!

Keep checking the Camp Bahamas Ministries Facebook Page for updates!