Pine Hills Girls Camp -- 2009

Spending a week at Pine Hills was the best thing that happened to me in my summer! I met so many friends there. There were so many activities for us that the councilors and staff put together, such as game day and workshops, but most importantly there was the prayer meeting which was where I and other girls could just say “Yes” to Jesus. As I said before, I met so many new friends at Pine Hills. I thought I knew everyone there, but I was mistaken. We had 125 campers this year and 50 counselors which is the record. I met girls I had never met in my life and girls that I saw before at Pine Hills but never spent time talking with them. There were campers that traveled from Florida and Ireland to come.  I have so many new friends who are going to the same high school as me.

There were so many activities that we could do at Pine Hills. In the morning we would have initiatives, which were different obstacles for cabins to try and overcome. We would have to work together as a cabin and listen to each other, or we wouldn’t be able to finish it. Those were one of my favorite parts of the day.

My favorite initiative was the 12 foot wall. The 12 foot wall was a wall (of course), but we had to climb up it with nothing to hold onto just our cabin mates pushing from below or pulling up at the top. The catch was that only three people were allowed at the top.  The extras had to go down the latter and ‘spot’ for the ones who hadn’t climbed yet. You were not able to help them up. We had so much fun doing that.

Other activities were workshops which would last most of the afternoon. Earlier during the school year we signed up for what we wanted to do during workshops. My favorite workshop was swimming. They had a high dive that was 15 feet high, which you could jump off. Other workshops I did were Broadway Revue, which was dancing. We would perform that later at the talent show. I also did Pine Hills Scrapbooking. They had all sorts of activities from dancing to sports to arts and crafts to horseback riding even to a high ropes course.

Most importantly at Pine Hills we came closer to God through morning and night prayers and on Wednesday and Thursday night prayer meetings. During morning prayers they would introduce a new chapter to us because our theme this year was: The Greatest Story ever told. The counselors would perform a skit for us and then one of the leadership team would give us a talk about the chapter. 

For example, one chapter was the Entrance of Evil. Ruth Dirkes gave a talk to us about because of the fall of Adam and Eve, Satan is going to tempt us, but we have our guardian angels to protect us from Satan. After the talk we would have a some time to praise Jesus.

On Wednesday and Thursday we would have one night to just praise Jesus. It was exactly like morning prayers with very moving skits and a talk. The only thing that was different was that we had so much longer to praise God. There was prayer ministry in the back of the tent. I saw so many girls slain in the Spirit and almost everyone was crying (in a good way). I felt so much closer to God.

Before I went to camp,  I was very anxious about high school, but after those two prayer meetings I felt so much more peaceful. God worked through so many girls and especially in me. I feel that I can praise Jesus without worrying what my friends think of me.  The prayer meetings were by far my favorite part of Pine Hills.

Pine Hills was so much for me and I bet for all the other 124 campers there also. I can’t wait to be a counselor there someday.