Excel Camp 2001

There are soooooooo many stories from Excel Camp. It's become Student Ministry lore at CH for those who were there. Excel Camp was the summer camp that we went to in Ducktown, TN (I think). Typically Jim Randall, Student Minister at the time, would take a pre-trip to scout out the location for summer camp. He sent a group in August. In August the camp was still being constructed, but hey, that was 10 months before we were to be there and the owners had ensured us that everything would be ready by the time we got there.

We arrived the following summer to a camp that was ..... less than complete. We arrived to Excel Camp believing that we had the camp to ourselves. By the end of the second day, we were there with two other youth groups, meaning there were approximately 350 people there sharing a men's and women's bathroom with 2 sinks, three toilets, and two shower stalls. The water pipes were exposed and broken meaning there was no drinkable water (it was dirty and gritty), there were no walls on some of the cabins where some of the girls were staying, and on and on and on.

The pavilion we were having worship in didn't have any walls either and it rained like we were in a tropical rain forest throughout the week. We were getting wet and our sound equipment was getting wet. After one day of a typical downpouring and drying off the sound equipment once again, I turned around and all of a sudden JD and Matt Ervin walked in with power tools that who knows where they got. Immediately they were climbing around the pavilion like a couple of monkeys (with Bryan Rose) attaching think plastic lining around all of the outer walls of the pavilion to provide some kind of shelter. I'll never forget seeing how JD sprang in to action (as he always did) and started addressing problems... and usually with a set of power tools and Matt Ervin. Excel Camp was one of the worst and best experiences of my life and JD was all up in the middle of it!

--Crull Chambless