UPBC Family Adventure Camp

Last week we attended The UP Bible Camp . We were a part of the first ever Family Adventure Camp hosted by Dean and Annette Ferris from downstate MI. There were two other families that attended as well. Let me say, it was truly an awesome adventure!
Our friends, Jeff and Angie Martin told us of the camp a while back. I have always wanted to go to a Christian Camp and Josh thought it would be a great event for our family. Jeff has been involved with the camp since he was a child and it has been around for 70 years! His dad and mom are the directors. His dad was saved at a church camp when he was young and spent most of his life serving with this one from what I heard.

The weekend before was really busy for us and the kids were not really excited at the idea of camp. But they were really enthused about the cabins once we walked in.

Before we went to the dining hall each day, the kids played Griz ball.
The first adventure was to the climbing wall and zip line. Josh went first and made it to the top.What an example to us! I went the same time as Blake. I have a true fear of heights. I only made it about 5 feet and begged to come down. I just get a mind block in my head when I get up so far and I am almost paralyzed! I truly can't think what to do next. Blake is a little afraid of heights too, and Lauren just had a hard time grasping the rocks. I felt bad that I let my fear control me the first time so I thought I'd try it again. The instructor told me to look at the wall and set a goal. I said that I wanted to get to the part of the wall that was raised out. So I attempted and got a little farther than the previous try, but I settled and begged them to let me down. They just kept encouraging me to press on to my goal, so I prayed for strength and made it! It is so freeing when you can conquer your fears. I pray that I set an example for the kids to realize they can do all things through Christ, even terrifying things!


Now for the zip line. There was a lower line and then a higher one. Lauren was only allowed to do the lower and so we all started with that one. I thought after the lower one I'd quit, but I actually made it to the high one as well (hugging the pole for dear life! ) It was windy and the pole was moving...YIKES!




Here is Dean instructing us on how to cook a meal and start a fire on a backpacking trip. He and his wife Annette also got us ready with everything we needed for the expedition. They are holding the lovely little shovel that we were going to have to use to dig a hole for bathroom time! They also briefed us on letter boxing. The kids really enjoyed the clues and finding the boxes this week.

The food was SO good! They rang the bell twice and you wanted to make sure you weren't late for it. They had this meal called "Build a Mountain" I would have never thought such odd combinations of food could taste so yummy.

This is a pic of the quiet place where we learned new family games to play while camping. There is a memorial above the fire place UPBC volunteers or workers that have been tragically killed or have died of an illness. Very moving.

On this day we met with a family counselor and reviewed the Myers-Briggs personality test we took. We learned alot about each other so as to hopefully help us understand one another better. There are no bad personalities, we are all just different. Yeah!

Josh and Blake scored the same ESFJ . I am a INFJ and Lauren is a ENFP. E is for Extrovert, I is for Intravert, S is for Sensing, N is for iNtuition, T is for Thinking F is for Feeling, J is for Judging and P is Perceiving. While we are all probably somewhat a balance of these, we usually lean towards one or the other more. Anyway, I will not go into it with great depth, but maybe tell you a few things we learned. For example, all of us are Judging except Lauren. That means we generally prefer an organized lifestyle, while she, being Perceiving ,prefers a flexible lifestyle. That helps me because I get a little frustrated with her messiness and it not bothering her at all!

We are all Feeling so that means we generally don't go around hurting each other's feelings too often. I am iNtuition and Josh is Sensing. That means I live toward the future and like opportunities to be inventive and Josh is Sensing which lives more in the present and likes the definite and measurable. That explains why when I get big ideas in my head, he is always there to ground me. Sometimes I feel like he's shooting me down, but he really just needs the facts about how we are going to get there! Cool! Everyone in the family is an Extravert except me. That means they are energized by being around other people and I am energized by inner resources and privacy; or quiet time. I love people don't get me wrong, but I find after being around lots people that I am drained when I get home and Josh and the kids are energized by it. Now we can all live in understanding with one another better!

This morning we had "Hobo Breakfast" right out on the train tracks. Jeff's dad dressed for the occasion. Everyone cooked an egg sandwich on top of a tin can just like the hobos did long ago. It actually started as a tradition here years ago when hobo's would come by the camp and beg for food. Out of compassion they gave them some. How neat! this was really fun!





This day we went on a 4 hour biking excursion to Grand Island in Munising. It was really beautiful and exciting. There were some hard hills but we loved going down them. The more speed the better for me! We did some letter boxing on the island as well.

Our bike guide was Don Van Ryn. He and his wife Susie are moving up here soon to run the new retreat center at the camp. They are the parents of Laura Van Ryn who died in a Taylor University auto accident. You may have heard the story or seen the family on Oprah and I think they were also on Good Morning America, but I am not absolutely positive about that. Their daughter was thought to be alive and Whitney Cerak was thought to have died. But the exact opposite was true, and the book below explains how their identities were mistaken. His wife, Susie is the cook at the camp and on the last day they presented us with the book and signed it for us. Afterwards, I was in tears because I had wanted to buy the book earlier in the week at the camp store, but we really didn't have enough money. I was so touched because God always knows my heart and my desires and he blesses us greatly through people like the Van Ryn's. I have started the book and let me say, I feel all the emotion. It grips you from the get go and pulls you into their story.




Here is one of the letterboxes they found. Also a pic of a red dragonfly. There were many red and bright blue ones all over the island.
This is the beginning of our backpacking trip. There were many mosquitoes! Blake got 40 bites! We had to filter our own water , find wood and kindling for the fire, hang up our food in the tree and cook in the dirt. It all took so much time! I am pouting in one of the pic's because I depend so much on things being organized that I don't know how to cook in this fashion! Here I sit with all the stuff around me in the dirt and I really have a mind block. I don't know where to begin. It is hard being out of your element. But the next day was better because we knew what it looked like from the previous day. The first night was so scary! The animals were so loud. Lots of screeching and howling, and pitter-patters all around our tent. Blake said he was literally shaking. Josh went right to sleep because he doesn't hear as well as us. I just kept praying for God to protect us and to help me fall asleep. I prayed it over and over and over and over until I konked out. Because I was sleeping on the hard ground in a sleeping bag, I had to change positions many times during the night. At one point I woke up to the full moon beaming through the tent and seeing the leaf and branch shadows. It was beautiful! I tried to take a picture by sticking my camera out of the tent but all I got was the moon. Dean was camping somewhere around us. The next morning he said those loud screeches were foxes and the loons were really loud too. There was also a coyote howling . It was nice to have him near...I don't think we'd ever do this on our own for sport.
We watched the sunset. Glorious! And after that the dark came quick!
The kids struggled on the next day. We did as well. We were all a little grouchy and tired and we really just wanted to go home. But we didn't give up! We persevered and came to our next destination for another night. Here we camped by a river and even bathed in it (with swimsuits on). It was very clear and beautiful!

Notice the tree stump that was a stump gnawed away by a beaver in the above pic .

That evening it rained and poured! In the morning, everything was soaked and Dean came by in his kayak and took our stuff. We hiked the last mile in the rain, but at least there was nothing was on our backs!
The next day at camp we were so glad to get a shower and take a nap. The kids did some archery and won a pin.

Over all there were really fun moments and not so fun moments, but the lessons we learned were so valuable! We came back home with such an appreciation for the things we take for granted like our toilets, running water, being able to wash your dishes properly, our beds, our home, our food, and each other. I recommend this camp for all families who need an adventure!