Troop 23 goes camping

It's that time of year again for me to head out of my element, into the elements-- Girl Scout camping trip time! We headed back to Camp Taiwan up on Yang Ming Mountain. Last Year it rained the whole time we were there but this time it was really nice weather. It was a little chilly part of the time but that just meant it was perfect campfire weather!
Here are some pictures of our weekend
The girls got to practice their archery skills. Alicia was so good that she got to use the real bow!
I even got to shoot a few. Check out that form! Unfortunately my aim isn't as good as my technique! Ok, so maybe my technique isn't that great either. It actually took Alicia 3 trys to get this picture because the arrow kept falling off when I stood still too long.









Here's Jacqueline in front of her target.




A new activity they were able to do this year was the giant swing. Here's a picture of Pauline swinging. You wear a harness and they clip you onto two ropes one of which pulls you high up into the air. You can decide how high you want to go then you pull a string that releases the latch and you go swinging through the air. It's pretty fun except for a split second while you're pulling the string to release yourself. You pull the string but then there's this delay before you just fall back into space and it's a little horrible. But then it's fun. All the girls--and myself--were pretty brave when we were on the ground because it doesn't look that high, but when you get up there it's a little scary!

And here are two of the coolest girl scout troop leaders ever! Alicia and I are in our gear waiting for our turn on the giant swing. I really appreciate Alicia as a co-leader because she's alot braver/sportier than I am. Plus she has alot of wisdom in dealing with the emotions of a 5th grade meltdown that I am lacking since I don't actually have children of my own! Plus Saturday was her birthday and she was willing to spend it camping. That's dedication!

On Sunday morning the girls had an orientering course. Basically they learned how to work a compass and then set out on a scavenger hunt to find the things on their list using the compass. they also had to look for a good place to set up a camp site and a tent. It's pretty interesting trying to get a group of 14 middle school/jr. high girls to work together to get the tent set up properly. But they finally got it done. Alicia and I were also excited because now we know that a compass does more than just point north!:-)

To get from the main camp area to the activities area we basically had to climb a mountain 3 times. We were pretty sore and tired after we got home but once you got to the top the climb was worth it because it was really beautiful. So beautiful in fact that we decided we needed our Girl Scout troop picture taken up there. We actually have 12 girls this year but only 9 of them could go camping.

Here are some pictures from the last day right before we headed home.
This is one with Bethanie and Kelly. Bethanie is one of our Team Expansion missionary kids.










Here's one that Kelly took that has Bethanie's entire face!




Here are Jacqueline and Lucia. Lucia wasn't able to go camping last year so she came into this year's trip a little nervous. She's afraid of heights so she wasn't sure about trying the zip line and the giant swing. But she did both and actually enjoyed them. She was pretty proud of herself afterwards!






This is Pauline and Caitlyn. Caitlyn is also a Team Expansion MK and Alicia's daughter.











And last but not least, Karen and Emily.











Oh yeah, we can't forget Jordan! Although she looks pretty calm in this picture, she knows how to make every trip interesting! She wanted me to make sure I got a picture of her with her bandana.




One of the best things about going camping with a group of girls from a Christian school is that they are totally shameless evangelists. The first night the campfire song leader asked if the girls knew the song "He's got the whole world in his hands". Our girls must have thought she said "Do you know who's got the whole world in His hands?" because they all yelled out "GOD!". It was great. Then the next day when we were doing the zip line and giant swing whenever a girl would get scared all the girls from our troop would start yelling Joshua 1:9 up to the girl "HAVE I NOT COMMANDED YOU? BE STRONG AND COURAGEOUS. DO NOT BE TERRIFIED OR DISMAYED FOR THE LORD YOUR GOD IS WITH YOU WHEREVER YOU GO!!!!". I'm not sure that I would have applied that verse to outdoor nature activities but it's pretty cool to see that complete faith that God is with them in every situation! I guess that's what God means by having a child like faith.