Adventures at Pine Cove

This past weekend, our community group served at Pine Cove as their volunteer kitchen staff. Basically, Pine Cove is a camp during the summer with a full staff, but during their off season, they host retreats for different groups. Since they are without their staff, they depend on church groups to volunteer to work the retreats. Our job was to set-up, serve and clean-up meals.

We went with the guys' community group, but they were serving at the Woods and we were serving at the Bluffs. We arrived Friday night after dinner, so basically, we just got set up in our cabins and had the rest of the night free. We headed down to the lake, and just hung out under the stars. Some of the guys brought their guitars and we sang a little...but mostly listened. After that, it was off to bed so we could get rest for all the work we were about to do.

It was an early morning wake-up call for us on Saturday, but we were in the kitchen on time and ready to work. The 5 of us donned plastic aprons, latex gloves and awesome hats. We set the tables, filled pitchers with orange juice, served breakfast, worked the dragon (their version of a massive dishwasher), put away the pots and pans, mopped the floors, vacuumed the carpet and had a dance party all the while.

group shot in the kitchen

After breakfast, we had a tiny bit of free time, so we explored the camp a little, played some teatherball, climbed Delilah (their infamous hill that connects them to the Shores) and hiked down to the peak. By the time we did all that, it was back to the kitchen to prepare for lunch.

just hangin' around

The same routine was followed for lunch service, only this time, we had the added pleasure of vacuuming about 10 pounds of rice off the floor. Let's just say it was the aftermath of a craft project gone terribly wrong...ha ha. After running the vacuum for about 2 hours, we got to have some quality group time and discuss "Crazy Love" (the book we're currently reading). We also got to play a few rounds of Apples to Apples, which is always a good time. By then, it was time for dinner service.

We served up dinner with a smile and were even able to locate enough cake for our entire table (kind of an inside joke). Once we had set-up, served and cleaned up the meal, we were ready to head up to the peak for a bonfire. The guys' group joined us, along with their guitars again, and we had a great time singing Phil Wickham, Dave Matthews and even some R. Kelly...true story. With our stomachs full of s'mores and roasted marshmallows, we headed to a community room to play "Hit or Miss." It was a new game for all of us, and I highly recommend it.

the girls at the bonfire

Since it was a late night, getting up on Sunday morning to serve breakfast was extra hard...especially for a morning person like me. Nonetheless, I was only a few minutes late for set-up and I don't think anyone really noticed. Our last meal involved some serious clean-up since we had to "close down" camp for the week. I don't think I have ever performed such intense manual labor, but I came away with a whole new respect for those who do that for a living. All in all, it was a whole heap of work, but it definitely provided some awesome bonding time for our community group. I feel so much closer to my girls, and we even have camp names for eachother which are hilarious. The experience was a blessing, but I needed a whole week to recover!

group shot after a weekend of intense kitchen duty
jumping for Jesus...or something like that