the camp hammer blog

We just sent out a series of postcards with the 2012 dates! We are so exited to already be counting down to our summer season! Just a couple of things we need to clear up:

Registration will open on January 1st, 2012. Simply, visit our website to register online. We apologize the Post Office UPC sticker is apparently covering that information up on some of the cards!

The other thing is some of our cards got mis-labeled and were sent to the wrong campers. So if you got a Junior Camp card and you know this is your first year of Junior High Camp, we apologize, our age groups haven’t changed we just sent you the wrong card. I will post the correct info below. I do want to remind the Freshman (9th grade) that you do have a choice to attend one of our Junior High Camps AND/OR High School Camp.

I also would like to highlight that we are offering 3 Junior Camps this year as opposed to only 2 from 2011, so check out the new dates! And don’t forget about the Early Bird Special for all camps, register before February 15 and receive a discount!

I am actually putting the finishing touches on our 2012 brochure this week! That contains all our prices, dates and important information for all of our programs. I have been going through all the pictures of last summer and seriously, cannot wait to see you all. You have been missed!

Rooted in Love,

Jeff

aka Sawzaw

Junior Camp (Entering Grades 4-6)-

J1: June 17-23

J2: June 24-30

J3: July 1-7

Jr High Camp (Entering Grades 7-9)-

JHA: July 8-14

JHB: July 15-21

JHC: July 22-28

Apostle (Entering Grades 10-12)-

A1: June 17-30

A2: July 1-14

A3: July 15-28

High School Camp (Entering Grades 9-12)-

July 29 – August 4

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Hey Friends!  I hope this blog finds you well!  As I have been saying for the last few weeks, Camp is busily preparing for what promises to be the best summer in Camp Hammer history.  Amongst all of the things going on around here, there are some exciting transitions coming up!  This blog will give you a glimpse of who is leaving and who is coming in!

First off, as I, Andrew, write this, my mind is flooded with all of the incredible memories my wife Lori and I have made at Camp Hammer.  I say that because this summer will be our final summer at the place we love.  Last fall Lori and I felt that God was calling us to step out in faith and leave the place that we have called home for nearly 5 years, as well as 2 summers before that.  In August, the Bradford’s are headed to Portland, Oregon.  It will be a crazy transition to say the least, but an exciting one as well.   Lori and I are expecting a new addition to our family this summer, and that is a big reason we decided to move.  We want to be near family as we start this new chapter of our lives, and Portland will allow us to do just that.  Please pray for us as we pack and plan over the next few months.  We are confident in what God is doing, and feel unbelievably blessed by the time we have been able to spend in the redwoods.  Also, we are so excited for one final full summer here at Camp.  We are determined to make it the best ever!

Ok, so enough about me.  Let me tell you about three amazing people who will be joining us in the next few weeks!  First, coming back for his seventh summer of service at Camp, and his 2nd summer as the Apostle Director is Will Witt aka “Noobie.”  Will is going to be running our Apostle program which is our two week discipleship program designed for high schoolers.  We are incredibly blessed to have him back for another amazing summer in the redwoods.  Apostle will continue to foster authentic growth in our campers with Will heading up the program!

Working alongside Will beginning in May is Rosemary Conn aka “Okra.”  Rosemary is joining us as the Apostle Female Lead.  This summer will be Rosemary’s 5th summer on staff at Camp.  Last summer she served as an Apostle Counselor, and we are so glad she will be coming on board to work with Will to make this the best summer of Apostle ever!

Finally, I wanted to let you guys know who will be taking over for yours truly.  Starting next Tuesday, Jeff Neckers will be coming on full time at Camp to train in as the new Program Director.  Jeff is a dear friend and will be an amazing person to fill the Program Director position.  Jeff has spent the last few years working for Twin Lakes Church, more specifically 2701, the High School group at TLC.  It is always a scary thing turning over something you love to someone else, but I am confident that Jeff will do an amazing job and that Camp will flourish with him serving here!

So, needless to say there is a lot of transition happening!  With all of that in mind, please take time to pray for all of the people coming and going!  We are excited for what God is doing, and hope you will share in that by praying for camp!  Thanks for reading.  Check back next week!

Peace.

Andrew aka “Liger”

Tags: 2011, 2701, Apostle, camp, camp hammer, God, hammer, liger, noobie, okra, pray, program, Summer, transition
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Hey Friends!  I hope this blog post finds you well!  Camp is busy, busy, busy!  We have been working hard to move some big projects forward here at Camp, but I will save that for another post (let the suspense build).

This past Friday (March 26th) was the annual 2701 High School Group’s Mock Rock.  “2701″ is the name of Twin Lakes Church’s high school group, and this is the 4th year Camp Hammer has participated in the event.  Camp Hammer staff had the privilege of “judging” the acts that performed to determine who the best Mock Rockers were!

Some of you may be wondering what on earth “Mock Rock” is.  Well I, Andrew, first heard of it at Biola University.  It is basically a contest in which people lip sync and dance to the best of their ability, and the most realistic and creative group takes the title!  Many schools and youth groups do something similar.  It is truly a blast, and 2701′s version was no exception!

There were six acts total, and they were all amazing.  From colorful outfits and awesome choreography to funny facial expressions and perfect lipsyncing, it was a difficult task to name a winner!  Of the six groups, a group called “Rebels in Christ” came out with the win.  Their performance featured jazzercise and colorful outfits.  It was like something straight out of the 80′s.

Many of the participants have been campers who have attended Camp for years, and it was a blast to see them show their best stuff in this capacity.  What a great night it was!  Families and friends came out to watch, and the house was packed.  All the groups were amazing!  I have attached some photos to this blog so you can see the participants.  I found picture of all of the groups except one.  Hopefully I can track that one down and add it!  Meanwhile, enjoy!  Thanks for reading.

Rebels In Christ. MR 2011 Champs

500 Days of Summer. MR 2011 2nd Place.

Neckers and Co.

Sassy.

Return of "Bat Fight"

Peace.

Andrew aka. Liger

Tags: 2011, 2701, 500 days of bradford, bat fight, camp, camp hammer, champs, million ways to be cruel, Mock Rock, neckers, pictures, rebels in christ, summer 2011
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Hello Friends!  I hope this blog finds you well (and DRY!).  We here at Camp have been experiencing a ton of rain!  There are brief moments when I am so tired of the rain that I forget just how beautiful this forest is because of that rain!

A few days ago Camp lost power for nearly 24 hours.  It was one of the first times in a long while that we have been without power for longer than a few minutes.  As dreadful as the power going out can be, I am forced to consider the amazing benefits of life without power.  When the power goes out, life seems to slow way down.  Because the power was out, instead of sitting around on our smart phones, computers, watching a movie or something like that, my family and I found ourselves sitting in the living room talking.  Now, this may not sound so crazy, but it felt so interesting that no one had their phone in hand, instead we just talked.  Even in a world with limited technology (I am speaking specifically of Camp of course), it is so easy to take for granted the small blessings we are surrounded by.  I am beyond thankful for reminders that there is more to life than entertainment and “things to do.”  What a nice break from the fast paced style of life that we lead.  To just sit, talk, and enjoy each other while being surrounded by this amazing forest was a fantastic way to spend some time.

As I am writing this blog I am sure it is apparent that power is back on, and I am stationed in front of my computer.  I hope this last power outage will be something I remember often as the days press on, and life continues with its business.  Today I went out and took some photos of the storm we are experiencing here.  I hope you enjoy them, and as you finish this, take some time away from the world of technology and spend time with people you love!

Peace.

Andrew aka Liger.

Tags: blessing, camp, camp hammer, computers, family, forest, love, pour, rain, storm, talk, technology
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Hey Friends!  This is an incredibly exciting post!  It may not seem that way for those of you reading this blog from your homes, but let me tell you what has gone on at Camp recently.

For the past 4 years Camp has been working incredibly hard to improve our internet capabilities.  For those of you who remember a little thing called “dial-up,” which was what internet was before Cable and DSL, we have had something like that, except worse.  For the past several years our internet has been via satellite with a company based across the country.  Although the word satellite may indicate some kind of decent signal, do not be fooled.  Maybe I am exaggerating a bit, but in reality, internet has been spotty and slow at best over the best few years!  With all of that in mind, Camp Hammer is happy to announce that we currently have a T-1 line up and running!  The speed of our internet has increased dramatically, and our internet has been incredibly reliable the last week or so!  Again, this may not seem like a huge deal to all of those who regularly enjoy relaible internet, but for us, this has been a long time coming and is an incredible blessing.  Not only does this new line improve our internet, it also improves our phone system which has also been a thorn in our side for the last few years.

Believe it or not, this new improvement will benefit all of you as well!  How you ask?  Well, with these improvements we will be able to manage more from Camp.  Online registration issues will be easier for us to tackle, and less time consuming.  In all seriousness, it was not rare for Camp staff to wait minutes at a time for pages to load.  You can imagine how frustrating that can become!  With our phone issues worked out and internet capabilities surpassing our previous state, we are excited to see Camp continue to move forward!  This blessing will also give us the capability to serve you better through our website.  In the near future we will be improving our website and our plan is to update it regularly (not just when the internet will allow us!).  Make sure to watch out for all of those great changes!

Much of the credit must be given to Faye Malone, who has worked tirelessly with many different companies to try and make this happen for Camp Hammer!  What a blessing she is to Camp!  We are also incredibly thankful to Barry and Jeremy who work for Twin Lakes (the church that owns Camp), and their commitment to helping us figure out all of the little kinks!  Lastly, we are most thankful to God who loves Camp Hammer and has had his hand on Camp with or without great internet!

Thanks for reading!  What a blessing you are to Camp!  Be sure and check back next week at this time!

Andrew aka Liger.

Tags: blessing, camp, camp hammer, hammer, internet, phone, satellite, Twin Lakes Church
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Hey Friends.  I hope this rainy day finds you nice and dry.  The weather has been so crazy lately!  Last weekend we had snow again!  It was 60 degrees yesterday, and today it is pouring rain!  What an interesting couple days it has been.

In other news, it is MARCH!  Which is insane!  As cheesy as it sounds, I just don’t know where the time goes!  March means that summer is only a few months away.  If you follow our Facebook or Twitter page you can track our countdown to summer.  At the beginning of every post we post how many days are remaining until our first week of Summer Camp.  We are almost down to double digits!

With all of that in mind, we are wrapping up interviews for Summer Staff 2011 in the next 2 weeks.  We have received over 100 applications this year, which, if I am correct, is the most EVER!  What an amazing thing to see so many young men and women interested in serving at Camp Hammer.  We could certainly use your prayers and thoughts as we attempt to hire the staff that God is going to use in 2011 here at Camp.  We know that wherever these men and women spend the summer of 2011, God has some incredible things in store!

Speaking of Camp staff, yesterday morning the current year round staff attended the annual board breakfast at Twin Lakes Church.  If you are unfamiliar with Camp Hammer, Twin Lakes Church in Aptos owns Camp Hammer, and has helped it run since 1965.  Anyway, we all went and had breakfast with the other members of the Twin Lakes Staff as well as the Board.  It was a great morning filled with encouragement, great food, and great company.  It is always a blessing spending time with so many men and women who love Camp and Jesus!  Not to mention a large portion of the Twin Lakes Staff have worked at camp over the last 45 years and have some incredible stories!  It was a great morning!

Thanks for reading, and we all hope you have and amazing week!  Check back next Wednesday for a new post!

Peace.

Andrew aka Liger

Tags: board, camp, camp hammer, facebook, hammer, Jesus, March, rain, snow, staff, Twin Lakes Church, twitter
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Hey Friends!  I hope all is well and that you are doing well on this beautiful February day.  Camp has been busy lately, and there are some amazing things going on right now!  This blog will hopefully bring you up to speed on many of the highlights from the last several weeks!

The first piece of news, and in my opinion, the most exciting is that registration is up 700% from where we were at this time last year!  Camps are already filling up and it is only February!  Needless to say, the energy here at Camp is amazing in light of this great news.  A big reason why registrations are up has to due with our 2011 Early Bird Discount.  We offered $50.00 off the cost of registration to anyone registered before February 15th.  Because we had such a positive response we have decided to extend an Early Bird discount of $25.00 off to campers registered before March 1st!  Take full advantage of these discounts!  We would love to see our registrations continue to grow over the coming months! And don’t forget, scholarships are available on a first come first serve basis, so register today!

Speaking of scholarships, we have another amazing praise story.  At a meeting yesterday morning, our book keeper let us know that an amazing organization has just gifted Camp Hammer with a sizable donation to our scholarship fund!  What does that mean?  It means that 2011 is looking like it will be a year similar to 2009 and 2010 where we were able to give scholarships to all of the campers who needed them.  We still could use the help of those who would be willing to donate, but what an amazing blessing this gift is!  God is good, and this is an incredible answer to prayer!

This past weekend we had an amazing time hosting The Well Student Ministries from Fresno, California.  We had all sorts of former employees and campers on the grounds and it was an amazing time of reconnecting and growing together!  Some of the old staff gathered together on Saturday night and watched lots of old Cabaret videos from previous summers.  Amazing memories were remembered and it truly was an incredible weekend!  One last highlight from the weekend was that it SNOWED!  Yes, you read right, it snowed here at Camp.  What an amazing sight it was.  For about an hour on Saturday morning we had sporatic snow showers, and I think the flakes were the size of  golf balls!  It was truly incredible.

Thanks so much for your support!  We look forward to seeing you in the near future!  Check back next Wednesday for the a new post!

Peace and Love.

Andrew, aka Liger

It snowed on Saturday! So much fun!

Tags: 2011, camp, camp hammer, hammer, registration, scholarships, snow, Summer, summer camp, support, the well student ministries
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Hey Friends!  Hope this entry finds you well!  Camp is buzzing right along with winter retreats and summer preparations.  Our new employees are doing an amazing job, and we are so excited to have them on board!

Eric and myself (Andrew), will be traveling to the Northwest next week to begin our first recruiting trip.  We will be visiting George Fox on January 18th, and will be at Seattle Pacific University on January 19th, and 20th.  If you will be in the area, stop by and say hey!  We’d love to see you.  If you live in either of those areas, and are hoping to interview, make sure you get your applications in!  Also, we have already recieved an amazing amount of summer applicants for this summer!  What a blessing!  We are excited to see who will be here in the summer of 2011.  We will be accepting summer applications until March 15th, so if you haven’t applied yet, and are hoping to, the sooner you can get it in, the better!  We will also be traveling to Southern California before too long, and will be visiting: Azusa Pacific, Cal Baptist, Point Loma, and Biola.  I will provide dates when they get closer!  In addition, we are hoping to be able to spend a day at William Jessup, and Simpson College in a few weeks!  It is going to be a fun year for recruiting!

Also, I know we have posted a lot about this, but don’t forget to register for camp before February 15th!  You get the great early bird discount, and won’t have to worry about registering in the spring!  It is a very sweet deal!  Alright, well, that is all for now.  Have a great week!  Hope to see you all soon!

Camp Staff.

Tags: azusa pacific, biola, cal baptist, camp, camp hammer, early bird, february 15, george fox, hammer, point loma, recruiting, register, seattle pacific, simpson college, spring, Summer, william jessup, winter
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Hey Friends!  Happy New Year!  What a great opportunity a new year brings to praise the Lord for all that he has done, is doing, and is yet to do!  2010 was an amazing year at Camp Hammer, full of growth, blessings, and love.  After such an incredible year, we have no choice but to be beyond excited for what 2011 will bring!  With that in mind, we wanted to take a bit of time to tell you some of the amazing things that are happening at Camp right now, and some things to get excited about for the upcoming year!

Staff.

Camp has undergone some staffing changes, and we would love to let you know who has left and who has arrived.  Our Office Administrator, Michelle (Picadilly), has moved into Santa Cruz to intern at Vintage Faith Church, begin a Master’s program, and work with the Youth Theater.  She was an amazing blessing to Camp, and we are sad to let her go, but are confident that God has some amazing things planned for her!  Taking over for Michelle is our new Office Administrator Andrea!  Andrea joins us with an amazing background in camping ministry, and a heart to serve!  We are beyond excited to welcome Andrea to our community, and believe God will do amazing things through her!

In the Maintenance/Guest Relations departments, we welcome Tim!  He will be assisting our facilities director Dennis with general Camp maintenance, and will also be hosting for our weekend retreat groups!  This is Tim’s first year at Camp, and we are excited to have his fresh perspective and willingness to partner with Camp!

Lastly, we want to welcome back Katie (Copper), who will be a Kitchen Lead for us this year.  Katie has been around Camp for years, and we are excited to welcome her back in a year round position!  She is an amazing addition to our kitchen staff and camp community!

Recruiting/Summer Camp Jobs.

Like I mentioned above, we are beginning summer preparations, which means recruiting and interviews!  If you are interested in working at camp, make sure you check out the link on our main page for working at camp!  Applications must be submitted by March 15th, so don’t wait!

Registration.

REGISTRATION IS OPEN!, and you know what that means!  Summer is just around the corner!  Although it seems a bit far off, we are beginning summer preparations already, and cannot wait for all of the amazing things that will take place here in 2011!  If you haven’t already, when you are finished reading here, go back to our main page and begin the registration process!  If you register by February 15th you receive $50.00 off the cost of registration. High school students, you can get a total of $200.00 off the total cost of registration if you register for Apostle and High School Camp before February 15th!  That is the biggest discount we have ever given!  Take advantage now, space is limited!

Once again, all of us here at Camp Hammer hope your new year has started out well, and if it hasn’t, remember that each day is an opportunity to begin fresh.  We look forward to seeing you soon, and hope you will continue to pray for our ministries here!  Much Love.

Andrew. aka, Liger.

Tags: 2011, Apostle, blessing, camp, camp hammer, February, hammer, High School Camp, jobs, liger, love, New Year, recruiting, registration, staff
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Hey Friends!  I hope this long overdue blog finds you well!  We are officially in our off-season for the next few weeks, and it is nice to take a short break!  We are all still working up at Camp, but in different ways.  The best part of December is that it means we start planning for next summer in just a little while!  We are already in the midst of putting out brochures and postcards, doing some advertising for some of our deals for next summer, but that is just the tip of the iceberg!  Soon we will begin recruiting summer staff and planning all of the amazing activities for Summer 2011.

The air is cold and fresh at camp, and it is not uncommon to see a group of wild turkeys or deer roaming the field trying to soak up some sunlight!  What an amazing place Camp Hammer is!  It is almost as if December is a month where not only camp’s employees, but camp itself gets a bit of a breather.  Don’t get me wrong, we all enjoy it much more when the forest is filled with kids laughing and playing, but it is nice to allow things to slow down and recuperate from an amazing year filled with the work of God!  We are currently working on some new ideas for the blog, so whether you are a parent, camper, or just a lover of Camp Hammer, let us know what you would want to read about!  We would be more than willing to have multiple feeds for different topics if people were interested!  Some examples are (Apostle, General Camps, Facilities, Daily Bible Verse/discussion, Projects, etc.).  You are our audience, and we want to write about things that you would love to read about!  So let us know!

Ready for Summer 2011,

Liger.

Tags: Apostle, break, camp, camp hammer, december, deer, hammer, off season, recruit, Summer, turkeys, weeks
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »