For six years I spent a week of my summer vacations at Week of Hope. Week of Hope (we called it Jesus Camp) is a Christian summer camp where you spend the week growing closer to God and doing community service work in His name. My friends and I have some of our fondest memories together at Jesus Camp. It was always a time of love, laughter, and support from your closest friends, and strangers who we soon considered forever family

These are 10 of my favorite things that I know every Week of Hope camper has experienced.

1. The anxiety of meeting your Crew on Sunday night

The most nerve wracking time at Week of Hope was being put into a group of five to six strangers that you would spend the week working with. You spent about an hour trying to get to know each other through team building exercises and trying to memorize everyone’s name. Little do you know on that night you are meeting life long friends.

2. “Now I’m lyin’ on the cold hard ground,” - Our Beloved T. Swift

As Week of Hope Campers, we knew we weren’t going to get the best sleep. Air mattresses on cold gym, classroom, and even bomb shelter (yes, that happened) floors was less than glamorous. Although, being surrounded by your friends who you would laugh and fight over phone chargers with, was comforting. If you were lucky, the Red Shirts would come around to read/perform bedtime stories.

3. The Food…

For the most part, the food wasn’t terrible. Each night a different youth group would help with dinner and usually it wasn’t a complete disaster. If your youth group was anything like mine, then you absolutely refused to eat the pulled pork. Years of horror stories about it from campers older than me completely turned me off to it. I even refused to eat it when I was a Red Shirt and cooked it myself! On pulled pork night my tagline was always: “Alex, can you pick me up some nuggets please?!”

4. The Shower Situation

When it was that time of year to start talking about Jesus Camp plans at youth group meetings, the first thing I would always ask was, “will there be decent showers?” I’ve had some great shower experiences and some not so great. Showers were always a touchy subject, sometimes they were great locker room stalls, other times they were tents outside hooked up to a hose...

5. Night Off

Some of the best Jesus Camp memories took place during our night off. Where you and your youth group would leave camp as soon as you got back from your work site in the afternoon and weren’t allowed back until about 10 PM, having the evening off from program and dinner. Most of the time youth groups would find fun stuff in the area to do, like museums or amusement parks and somewhere nice for dinner. Our youth group usually used this time to get into some kind of trouble. We were very keen on wreaking havoc on the local Walmart for scavenger hunts.

6. Crying Nights

You always knew it was a crying night when you showed up for evening program and the screen said “sit with your youth group” instead of “sit with your crew’. Crying nights were intense, usually Monday or Wednesday where the evening program was about some hard-hitting topics, always ending with an exercise leading us to leave all of our burdens at the Cross and walk away with a new outlook on our life and our faith. These nights taught me to trust and be vulnerable around my friends, old and new.

7. Red Shirt Staff=Super Hero’s

Red Shirt Staff, they could do anything. I looked up to my Red Shirts so much that when the opportunity arose, I jumped at volunteering to be one for a week. They could pull anything off. If we wanted to have a talent show, it happened. If someone had a problem with their crew or work site, it was fixed immediately. A couple of them even let us shave their heads for some reason. Over all, Red Shirts are the only ones who can keep camp running smoothly, and they deserve the world.

8. Get Down by Audio Adrenaline

Dancing to Get Down by Audio Adrenaline was my absolute favorite part of camp. Dancing before morning program really gave us that extra kick to get us pumped to have a great day at our sites, and before evening program just because. It never failed to put a smile on everyone’s face.

9. Care Cards!

The official definition of Care Cards, according to the adorable Teddy and Fluffy is: “Short, positive, encouraging notes of affirmation we write to our crew, friends, and youth group”. Basically, it’s like writing in a yearbook except you wrote your note and dropped it into the envelope of the person it is for. Then on the last day of camp, everyone gets them to read on the ride home. They are amazing reminders and usually made us cry. I still have all of mine and read them often.

10. Post Jesus Camp Separation Anxiety

Once everyone was dropped off at home, the plans and text messages started on when our youth group would be able to see each other again. Sleepovers happened a few times a week for the rest of the summer along with long Skype calls to our new friends who we were missing.

I may not keep in close contact with my youth group or Week of Hope friends much anymore, but they will always have a huge part of my heart. Attending Week of Hope taught me valuable lessons and helped me overcome many fears while I was simultaneously serving and making a difference in the community I was in.