SX18 - JUMP

So here we are at Summer Xtreme 2018, and Madison was ready for another adventure.  This week is going to be fantastic, although the "getting up early" part might be a little tough.  Nevertheless, Daddy uttered those words in a whisper, "Summer Xtreme," and Madison jumped up and was ready for the day.  Or, at least ready to go brush her teeth, her hair and change into her new tie-dye t-shirt.  The latest shirts are a big hit with the kids, a style that's apparently in these days.  To Daddy, it is reminiscent of an art camp shirt, or perhaps when we all go outside later for a service, an outdoor hippie concert.  But it's a lot of fun, and the week is going to be really great.  All the kids were dropped off at the entrance we decorated until late last night.  Heroes and balloons everywhere!  The kids go straight to their grade-appropriate room, and not much longer after that, it's time for service.  Here's Madison below with her group.

Worship was outstanding - so full of energy.  The games were exciting, and already the auditorium was filled with screams and shouting for the different teams - or as we used to call them "tribes."  Madison's a part of the "Supers" this year, hence the cape and the poster.  A lot of kids are making posters or adding color-coded decorations related to what they're wearing.  

Daddy's skit went well - you can see above one of the characters taking a selfie during the skit itself, with the audience behind.  The idea is a contest to see which character on stage is the most heroic.  Today's bit was essentially introducing characters to the stage one by one, including Dawn's new nerdy character.

It went really well, and the audience really responded to it.  One strength of this skit series is the simplicity of it all.  No stress at all.  After this each day comes our movie clip, the movie that we've been shooting for the past four or five months:  "Heroes Unlimited."  It was so great to see our heroes back on the big screen, and Josh did such a fantastic job putting it all together.  Writer, filming, editor, sound, director... he's been a one-man-army with this video, and the kids have loved it.  Each day we have a different children's pastor speaking, and today we had our Gwinnett Campus children's pastor speaking to the kids about "Unlimited Power."

Which was funny, because he was talking about "infinity stones," and God's unlimited power.  We tied each message to the theme of "unlimited," as that's the title of our week.  There was so much noise and excitement in the auditorium today - more kids than we've ever had before at Summer Xtreme!

Afterwards, we were off to a new destination, a trampoline park called Rockin' Jump.  Here's Madison trying out some twists in the air.

We've been to four or five different trampoline parks over the past few years, but this one by far is the most creative and therefore most fun one we've ever been to.  There's just simply more to do here.  While trampolines are fun, when you add dodge ball, obstacle courses, jousting on balance beams, stunt cushions for trick landings, trampoline basketball dunks, climbing towers, a rock wall and more, it adds to the fun.  Madison and all the other kids loved it.  We had so many kids that we divided them up - Madison and the older kids went to the trampoline park today, while the other kids went to the pool.

Here's Madison with Pastor Cameron.  You can see she's having a great time today.  She got in line for dodge ball a few times, but chickened out at the last minute.  Some of the older kids and grown-ups were whizzing balls around in the one of those areas, and it was a war zone!  But Madison did so well with the obstacle course:

She's having such a great time here!  She got across those balls lightning fast, while others took forever to carefully move from one to the other.  She just had this method, and she got from one to the next without any problem at all.  

She'll be back again here in a week or so for Gwinnett's Summer Xtreme, and she's already looking forward to it.  There was so much to do here!  And at the end, here she is with the massage chairs and her group.

Each group of four, five, or six kids has an adult leader who stays with them for the entire week, and this week's leader for Madison is a girl in our college program at the church.  She's been great, and Madison had a great day with her and the girls in this group.  One girl lives in Bowden, Georgia, which is pretty much on the Alabama line.  Another girl has come from Chattanooga, Tennessee.  This camp is getting to be a pretty big deal!

The car line was huge, and the dismissal took a while - but we all were really happy with the first day here.  It turned out very well, and the kids were so happy with the turnout.  Everything went as planned, and we're grateful.  Day one is in the books - we all went home, ate a bit of dinner, read from our devotional and said our prayers, and were in bed pretty quickly after.  Tomorrow is another big day!