What a day! The ridge runner hike was on again, though the numbers were slightly diminished today. After a delicious breakfast (thank you Hannah!) we had yet another team challenge. This time the goal was to balance m&m's on top of straws using only another straw and our mouths as a vacuum to pick them up and place them there.

I am proud to say that today my cabin tied in first place with David and Austin's cabin for the Grimer award (given for having the cleanest cabin and most creative theme). After some missionary stories from Missionary in Residence Jim Albright, it was skill builder time again. I am the leader of Camping Skills, and today we learned how to properly pitch a tent. Today during activity areas there were quite a few people canoeing and playing paintbal, but there were also quite a few who wanted to do the zip line, the activity I lead. It was a little scary for some campers who had never done it before, but just about everyone went down it about 3 times.

We ended the day with a rousing game of capture the rubber chicken. Who wants to play with boring old flags anyways? After that we sang some worship songs and Brian talked about how we can listen to God and find out where he is leading us in the Quest he has given to us. It's off to bed soon! Another great day of camp.

Josh Kaltenbach, college staff

The first full day of camp was full of excitement and adventure!
The day began with the optional Ridge Run Hike, which several campers participated in at 7:00 AM. After breakfast, we had our first team challenge. One camper from each team competes at a time, and today the challenge was to stick cotton balls on our noses and run them to a paper plate, using only Vaseline and our noses! It was a lovely (and a little bit gross) event.

After that we heard from our Missionary in Residence about the gift of Life, and then we were on to Skill Builders! I am one of the Climbing Wall instructors, and though we only have four campers, we had a blast learning how to safely climb the wall and practicing some techniques. After lunch and Take It Easy (TIE) Time, we headed to one of several different activity areas. I had the privilege of going canoeing on Hyalite Resevoir with a few campers. We enjoyed the warm sun and the frigid water, and my arms might be a little sore tomorrow from all that paddling!

After dinner, we had a group game of Killer Ball which is like DodgeBall but everyone is against everyone! We just finished evening chapel where we heard from our speaker for the week, Brian Loewen, about the adventure that we are on when we follow the Lord. The campers are enjoying free time right now and filling up on sugar from the camp store. We will soon be heading to our cabins to get ready for bed! I must say that today was a successful first day of camp! Thanks so much for taking the time to share in our adventures!

(written by Amy Stenlund, college staff)

7th-9th Grade Camp

Another week of camp has officially begun!

Welcome parents to our blog. A way for you to stay connected while your kids are away. Thanks for entrusting us with your children. It will be a great week.

Once all your kids got here, it was a great first day. Everyone started to get to know one another with some icebreaker games and some fun competitions. After dinner, we got into our 5 teams. Throughout the week, we will have different challenges for each team to accomplish.

We just got finished with Jim Albright, our missionary resident, talking about the power of prayer and our salvation through Jesus Christ (a big topic, I know, but Jim is great at getting it across). Jim will be speaking for the remainder of the week about the importance of missions and his own experiences in Africa and Europe. Our camp speaker, Brian Loewen, will also be speaking as well. I look forward to seeing where they take us.

Well, we have a little bit of free time before its off to bed. I certainly want to get some rest before this week reallly gets going. We have everything from the zipline, paintball, canoeing, and even tubing the Jefferson River. Its gonna be a good one.

My name is David Denny, and I am the Program Director at this awesome camp. That basically means I am in charge of all the fun I just mentioned and more. I look forward to hanging out your kids. Each day, I will have a different staff member give their view point of how it went. A different flavor for each day. I hope you enjoy our reports. I know we will enjoy living them out. Thanks again for entrusting us with your children.

God Bless,
David Denny

Whitewater Rafting!!!!

Thats right. We went white water rafting today! It was a first for many of the campers and for some of the staff. Don't worry parents. There were no unintentional fallouts this time, but there sure was plenty of fun. I don't think I have seen so many people having so much fun while getting drenched in freezing water. I hope to make this an ongoing staple of the high school camp. Everyone enjoyed it. Make sure to ask your kids how it was. I wouldn't be surprised if it was a high point for several of them.

Once we got back from the wet'n'wild time, most of the day had gone by. We gave everyone plenty of time to relax after a high impact morning. After we had an early dinner, we kicked up the energy again with a game of killer ball- think dodgeball but there are no teams.

We just got finished up at chapel tonight. Jim Albright spoke mainly about the amazing nature of God. It is a big subject, I know, but he brought out how big God really is (drawing from Isaiah and the wonder he shows) and how nonchallant we tend to be. It was a good wake up call and I hope it brought about some good conversations.

Well, I have to go again. Tonight we are going to do some night games and then finish up the day with some ice cream. I love camp!

God Bless

Camp Amp'd!!!

Hello all!

Its about time that we got this blog started again, and what better way then to start with our new High School camp! The summer has long been underway and I am happy to see another week of camp start.

I have to be honest though, I am even more excited about this camp. This is not your normal week of camp. Just to give one example... we are going whitewater rafting tomorrow morning!!! Thats rights, rafting! I am looking forward to some rough water fun. Thats just the start to this amazing week. I don't want to give anymore away, but I will keep you posted as the week progresses.

Today was great. When we start a normal week of camp, I am prepared to give a short introduction about the camp and some of our traditions. Little did I know that two of the campers would already be giving the intro before I even arrived there. They did a good job. They even got some of my predictable mannerisms as well. I've never seen myself give one of my intros, but I feel like I got a little taste of what I look like... This camp definitely has a different feel to say the least.

After we got settled in and had dinner, we moved on to our evening game: Human Foosball with Yuck! Yes, it is as awesome as it sounds. We have a giant inflatable rink that we filled with water, soap, and yuck (think of a applesauce-like substance)... It was a blast. We played several different games in the slippery arena. Everyone enjoyed the mess. There will be plenty of other fun games to follow as well.

The campers are just now finishing up in chapel and get a little freetime before bed. I am looking forward to a good nights sleep before we head out for rafting! Sorry I didn't introduce myself earlier, but I am David Denny, the Program Director. I am enjoying putting together all these events for your kids. I look forward to what else the summer has in store.

Throughout the week, I will have other staff tell you all about our days at camp. Thanks for entrusting your kids to us for a week. I will keep you updated on what they are up too.

God Bless.

Sooo much snow!

Hey all! It has been some time since David’s last update to the blog. Hopefully you haven’t lost interest with us yet. I’m going to try and get you updated on what we’ve been up to here at camp for the past month or so. I almost don’t even know where to start. The weather here the past few days has been snowy. We got about a foot of snow on Monday. As a New England girl myself I’m not used to seeing snow in October. Actually I’ve never seen snow in October…until now. The snow puts a damper on any projects we were hoping to complete before winter. But even so we were able to accomplish a lot in the past few months since summer camp ended, at least from my perspective. A lot of our projects had to do with improvements on the Hawethorne’s house, such as building a new deck, putting in a mud room, finishing the siding, and finishing a new room in the basement. Other projects included building and finishing benches for the new tables in the dining hall. Those were completed in most part by Josh Vinson. Josh, his wife Lauren, and there baby girl Ruth joined us on staff this summer and were invaluable to the camp. Since summer Josh has worked to complete a few projects for us, the benches being a big one. They look amazing and I can’t wait for you all to see them!

As we’ve entered our retreat season we have already welcomed over 8 groups onto the grounds. Many church groups and a few school groups. It has been fun to interact with them. I hosted my first group just last week. Which basically means I make announcements to the group and see to anything they might need. Now for a person who has a hard time with public speaking like me this can be very nerve racking. But the group was very gracious with me and it went very well. A great help with this has been watching Cathy do her thing. And by her thing I mean host other groups and being able to watch how she interacts with people. She is highly relational and very good at seeing to a groups needs. She’s an all star when it comes to her job.

Some of my favorite moments so far this fall have been in the kitchen. When we host a group at camp we often cook for them. Which entails the actual cooking of the food (done by our lovely cook Hannah Wolinsky), serve it and do the dishes afterwards. You know, the normal kitchen stuff. But this is also a great time for us as a staff. We’re not usually all working in the same place on any given day, so for us to all be together serving a group is just fun. Fun to interact with the group and with each other. More often than not we joke around and enjoy the opportunity to all work together. The kitchen has been a very joyful place for me this fall.

Well I’m sure that’s enough to get you up to speed for now. May God bless you in your every day interactions!

TessaCoates Intern Yellowstone Yellowstone Alliance Adventures

Labor Day Family Camp and reflections

Its very rewarding for me to see all the people at our Labor Day Family Camp. It always amazes me to see all the ways people are connected to the camp. People that used to be campers in years past that now send their kids here now. People that come here because they consider it one of the few places that they can retreat from everyday life and relax. We even had two women bring their families that were YAA counselors more than a decade ago. These are just a few of the ways that people have been impacted by and impacted the camp itself.

Considering that I have been here for only a year, Family Camps help me truly realize the impact that YAA has and the long history it already has. When you are in the midst of running around while directing a summer camp, you are not allotted much time to see how each individual camper is effected. By the reports of our summer counselors, I can say that 22 campers dedicated their lives to Christ for the first time ever this summer as well as numerous other rededications and the like. I always appreciate parents coming up to me and other staff thanking us for the change that goes on in their children's lives, and I appreciate the God that allows us to be a part of that change.

As I reflect on this summer season, I am at peace that God is in control of every outcome of this summer. We as a staff have poured ourselves out in the hopes that God will use our actions and means in order to "Direct people to Jesus Christ and develop them to reflect His Character." There's a reason why that is our camp motto, and we intend to continue with that as our mission.

Thanks to all of you who made this Family Camp a memorable one. It was a time to relax and connect with old and new friends. It was a time for you to recharge and disconnect from the possible troubles and responsibility of everyday life. It was a time to hang out with the family while shooting an arrow or playing carpet ball. As you already know, its not the events that are important here at YAA. It is the relationships that are formed and grow during the events that we try to encourage.

Now it is time to transition into retreat season. We have various groups come and rent out our facilities to them, usually on weekends. Though our interactions are not as direct as they are during our programs, it is always good to see people up here. Though next summer is still a long ways away, it is time to start thinking about it nonetheless. Thinking of ways to build upon and improve an already outstanding program. Thinking of ways to get the word out about our camp to even more people to attract more campers and summer staff.

I am now finishing up my one year internship at YAA, but don't worry. I'm not leaving anytime soon. I am staying on as staff for the next year. My role will basically be the Program Director. So, I still get to have the pleasure of creating all the fun schedules and lessons we have here. I look forward to continuing here at YAA with a year of experience here under my belt. I look even forward more to continuing to form more relationships with all the people that are connected to YAA. I love working at a place that I can contribute to an already rich history.

For all of those reading these blog entries, you can see this one takes on a little different flavor than the past ones. I want you to get a better understanding of the heart of the camp here as well as know some of the actual events that go on. I hope to get the rest of the staff to do entries as well. I don't want you to get tired of just hearing from me. We each bring our own passion and character to explaining why we are here.

So, as we transition into retreat season, I hope you also enjoy our blog transition as well. Thank you for all the ways that you are connected to this awesome camp. I look forward to seeing you soon.

David Denny
current intern, future Program Coordinator