Carlos Whittaker

Jul31

Church Camp, Hot Girls, & Jesus

Posted by loswhit in Amigos,Family

Last night I got a text…
“I’m emailing you a video of us 20 years ago at church camp”
It was from my friend Joel Berry.
And the video was from 20 years ago TO THE DAY
It was from Glorieta, NM.
Centrifuge Southern Baptist Youth Camp where dozens of youth groups would convene for a week of Jesus and Flirting.
Which meant only one thing…
It involved me as a teenager probably acting a fool…
And lovin the ladies…

After watching this I realize one thing…
I’m locking my girls in a closet to keep them away from boys like me and my friends.
Did you ever go to church camp?
Los

http://andrewgergen.com Andrew

Wait….what did Jesus have to do with church camp?

http://www.ragamuffinsoul.com loswhit

hahahahahaha

Bree

Ohhh no. That is gold!! No kids yet, but when they come; daughters will not go to Church Camp
http://www.blakethompson.net Blake

Was this recorded on one of those big VHS camcorders you have to prop up on your shoulder?

And was that one girl licking her lips at the camera? And the next girl looked stoned “…and Jesus loves us all…”.
http://mikecelebrating.wordpress.com Mike

Attended summer camp then worked at two different ones over 5 summers. Loved every minute of it.

The kids always acted surprised when we caught them acting up and chasing the girls. I explained to them that they were doing the same thing I’d done years before, I was always 2 steps ahead of them haha.

No daughters for me! Hopefully I can teach my son to keep it under control better than I did.
J Pettigrew

I found the solution for this dilemna. I am my daughter’s youth pastor.

http://mikecelebrating.wordpress.com Mike

haha i remember the PK’s, they were always the worst ones at camp!

J Pettigrew

Not MY kids. lol. Isn’t that what all pastors say about their PK’s?
Christina

it’s true!!! PK’s were ALWAYS the worst!!!

http://www.parenthoodexperiment.blogspot.com Auntie J

Yeah, that’s my husband’s plan in about six years…that, and being bigger than any other guy there.

http://foodjournalcorifraser.blogspot.ca/ Cori

I just had a moment with MWS. damn that song!!
http://bobbyshirley.com Bobby

Is it possible to create a church camp free of hormones and flirting? Probably not as long as we let teens attend. Hmmm, how do we get rid of the teens?
http://ordinarybecomingextraordinary.wordpress.com Jennifer

I’ve been going to church camp since I was in third grade. I actually just got back from being at camp with middle school and high school students for 10 days. 10 really long, but totally amazing days. Days where I’m pretty sure I threatened to duct tape a number of teenage boys to trees to keep them away from the girls in my youth group.

Until my sister and I were in high school, my dad went to camp as one of the leaders… probably one of the wisest things he’s ever done.
http://kylereed.info Kyle Reed

What I am confused about is that girls actually fell for all of that.

Los

Every week. And we would be there 3 weeks in a row…

http://www.parenthoodexperiment.blogspot.com Auntie J

Oh, gosh. Four summers in high school. Our district’s camp (basically, all the churches in our denomination from 90% of the state) was in the middle of nowhere in midwest Upstate NY, surrounded by corn fields.

Heavy patrolling by counselors was necessary.

Mail call at every session usually involved at least half a dozen notes, read ALOUD (anything not delivered via USPS was fair game), suggesting meetings in the cornfield. The youth pastor who was the mail call MC was great at dramatic interpretive reading.

I was never one of the kids who got in trouble, but I knew plenty who did. I was more the type to hang out with my own friends, and have late-night conversations through the dormer walls about which guys thought they were all that and a bag of chips, but were really nothing more than stale studmuffins. *snicker*
Worked well for me!

I actually married the boy that I flirted incessantly with at church camp. We met in Johnstown, PA in 1998 – he was from Texas, I was from Maryland; we were pen pals (real letters with stamps and everything). We both went on with our lives (he got a girlfriend and broke my heart) and reconnected in 2008 over Facebook, started dating in 2009 and were married in 2010.
I sometime think about how I married my camp romance and then I bust out laughing. I can’t say I will never send my kids to camp, mostly because it worked out well for me
Dewayne

Funny video! I think a lot of us guys were like that, although at the time we just thought we were cool. Wait, I mean, we WERE cool, and funny, and basically awesome.

Church camp has been a big part of my life. I attended several youth camps as a kid, and family camp was always a huge highlight on the calendar. I also was a counselor one year, and have recently worked for a Christian camp for five years. I think the ministry of church camp is evolving, but it also continues to be an important one.
HeatherEV

First of all…MWS at the beginning and end…oh my goodness…

Secondly, I think I just decided to never let my kids see the light of day…ever…especially in anything resembling style. Maybe we’ll go Amish and I’ll dress them in burlap. And they’re never allowed to write letters.
http://reflectinghearts.com Morgan M.

hahahahaha!!!! This is fantastic….I was 10 when you were at church camp! Soooo….my first year at church camp was this summer as a leader with SHIFT. I think it’s safe to say I got the best end of the deal.
http://nextstopnineveh.wordpress.com Virgil

Love the “Friends are Friends Forever” music bed.

Also, the dude who responds to “Jesus loves us all!” with ” … and so do I!” is my hero. And pretty much sums up the church camp experience.

http://nextstopnineveh.wordpress.com Virgil

Coincidentally, he’s also the reason I’ll never be sending either of my girls to church camp.

And so was I.

http://athomewithgod.wordpress.com Elaine

I’m going to be a leader at a church camp in two weeks, now I have more things to pray about…Lol
GaryMoore

Los! I went to Centrifuge camps too summer of 1996 & 1997 Panama City Beach. The camps were a blast but my game with the girls was downright depressing. LOL
Erin

I was at Centrifuge in 92 @ Panama City. Now I’m married to a Youth Pastor and we’re still taking kids to Fuge Camps….and there are definitely still boys like that. Thankfully I’ve got 9 years before I have to worry about sending my princess to Youth Camp!
http://mimiandbutterbean.blogspot.com Shayne

1992…I was married with a baby on the way.

*sniffle*

No church camps for me as a kid. It was band camp. Except we didn’t get to go anywhere except the school parking lot, so…double sniffle.
http://inspiredrd.com Alysa (InspiredRD)

I didn’t go to church camp but I went to piano camp (yep) and soccer camp. I always came home from camp with a new boyfriend. Yikes. I’m not sending my daughter either!
http://twitter.com/whereisanthony Anthony

Nice! That place is right up the road from me… like an hour up the road.

The only time I went there when I was single was to a men’s retreat, so I never got the full experience I guess.
http://dkzody.wordpress.com dkzody

I never went to camp but have volunteered as a counselor for many years for jr high and high school camp. Reeedikulus. Our daughter, however, was camp director, met her husband at camp, got married at camp, and he now works as techie for camp while she is a youth pastor who takes kids to camp. Yep, it’s in the blood.
http://www.house-of-stone.blogspot.com Jenn

Ha! My teenage boy just got home from camp (14), and I have to say that it’s the aggresive girls that the boys need to watch out for these days! They text him now at all hours!
http://www.calebgordon.com Caleb Gordon

YES!

I won a talent contest. I sang Michael W. Smith’s song ‘I will be here for you.’ to this chick and i got on my knees and everything. She kissed me at the end of song!

I got a BIG SET OF LIPS that said “Most romantic man award”

Good memories.

By the way I WILL be at camp with my kids…
http://oneyearstransformation.wordpress.com Steve

My parents knew me too well to send me to normal church camp. I had to go to RA camp that’s all boys. My family saw me in action too much with the youth group girls to unleash me around other church’s young ladies.
http://www.leadnet.org Dave Travis

Looks like my old friend Charles Mathews of Lithonia, GA in that vid. Charles is doing great work now in international aid. Was in my youth group many, many years ago.
http://jonnmcdaniel.com Jonn McDaniel

I went to Georgia Baptist Youth Music Camp every year in middle & high school during the early 80′s in Toccoa, GA. We learned music (voice, instrument, music theory, but NO dancing of course!) and recorded an album (yes, a vinyl record) every year of traditional church classical anthems. (Jealous yet?) While there were many memorable and fun things we all did as part of the music camp experience, the goal of almost every guy there was to sneak out at night and meet up with a girl down at the lake to “watch the submarine races”–as it was affectionately referred to.

Great times. Great stories. I still have favorite friends I hang out with today because of those experiences (“…because the Lord’s the Lord of them!” Ha!). If I could go back and change it… I wouldn’t change a single thing. Scratch that. I’d apologize to those hearts I broke and then I’d tell myself, “Dude, buck up and appreciate the times your heart is broken. It all works out for you really well much later!”

That all being said, I’ll be chaperoning when my daughter is old enough to go to an overnight Christian camp.
Brad

I went to Centrifuge in Greenville, SC in 2007 as a “leader”… I was 18 years old, fresh out of high school… man oh man was that a good time. But the strictness has changed quite a bit, at Greenville they have the “curb rule” even as a leader I couldn’t step over the curb of a dorm for the opposite sex… instead of stepping i hopped the curbs nbd
http://www.not2us.net Lindsay

Yep. I went to church camp. In fact, I went to THAT church camp. Many times. And I remember it being very much the same…
Bjon

I caught myself laughing yet shaking my head while watching this….although I was much shyer than you (Los) appear to have been, my first kiss was at church camp.