the camp hammer blog

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
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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
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Hey Guys.  Sorry for how long this entry has taken.  As I am sure you can imagine, things are only getting busier around here!  That is no excuse though, so I will do my best to keep you guys updated on Camp for the next few weeks, especially because so many incredible things are going on!

The Cedar Deck is finished and looks amazing!  It is so incredible to see what God is capable of doing through some dedicated men and hard work!  Thank you to TLC Men’s Ministry!  We are now in the process of putting in the new bridge from the Fire Circle to the Horserails area!  It will be another incredible addition to our facilities here at Camp Hammer.

Summer is quickly approaching and Camps are filling up!  Don’t miss out on an incredible week (or two) of Camp this summer!  It is going to be the best summer Camp Hammer has ever seen!  We’ve got all kinds of great new stuff, and we are confident you will love it as much as we do!

Just this week we have had two new employees come on board!  Will Witt (Noobie), and Chelsea Fenwick (Nitro) are officially here, and working on this years Apostle program.  It is going to be an amazing year with these two additions!

Camp Hammer will be at Twin Lakes Church in Aptos’, 3rd Annual Mock Rock this evening (Friday April 16th).  We will be giving some information on our High School programs, judging the competition, and raffling off some incredible stuff (Sweatshirt, Sweatpants, Stainless Steal Water Bottle, new Sunglassess, Ipod Shuffle!)!  Don’t miss out.  Come out to the church, bring a dollar for the raffle, and enjoy the show!

Ok, so that is the fly by of what is going on at Camp today!  Stay tuned for more info on all of the incredible things happening at Camp Hammer between now and summer!

Love,

Camp Staff.

Tags: 2010, Apostle, camp, camp hammer, Cedar, fun, hammer, Ipod, love, men, ministry, mock, Mock Rock, rock, Summer, TLC, Twin Lakes Church
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Hey Friends and Family!  Hope all is well on this cold and rainy February morning.  Even though we would love to see the sunshine, the rain is always a welcome guest here in the woods for a few reasons:

1. It helps replenish out water supply!

2. It will help fill the pond a few months from now!

3. It keeps everything nice and green!

So, although the sunshine gives us hopes of summer, the rain is a friend of the redwoods!

Three By Spring

Camp is busy, busy, busy these days!  Our maintenance team is working hard building and creating drainage for all the rain that has come through.  Let me be the first to say that our maintenance crew here at Camp Hammer are all-stars.  They are two of the most servant minded people around!  God has truly blessed Camp Hammer with our maintenance team!  I would also like to give a shout out at this time to the Twin Lakes Men’s Ministry who have devoted countless hours, and continue to in hopes of making Camp Hammer a better place!  Thanks guys, you too, are incredible examples of what it is to serve!

Ok, so what are these guys doing at Camp you might ask?  Well, they are helping Camp Hammer move forward with a campaign we like to call “Three By Spring.”  This 3BS campaign consists of three very specific needs that Camp Hammer has: Re-roofing buildings, Replacing/expanding the Apostle Lodge Deck, and scholarshipping students to attend Camp this summer.  The TLC Men’s Ministry is helping by donating the time and skills needed to complete these tasks, but there is still much more to be done!  We have begun to move forward on some of these projects, but we are still in need of funding and prayer!  In the month of March we are focusing primarily on the Apostle Lodge Deck!  This is a very exciting project because it will allow Apostle students to have more space of their own for meeting, hanging out, and storing personal things.  If you would like to partner with Camp Hammer and lift this project up in prayer, pray that God would continue to provide the funding and resources to complete this project before the end of March!  If you feel led to give financially, check out the “give” section of our website for specific instruction, or call our front office at (831.338.3200 x10).  We are incredibly excited for all of the amazing things God is doing here at Camp in this season!

Recruiting Recap.

Mossi, Noobie, and I (Liger), just returned from our Southern California recruiting tour.  We met a lot of incredible young men and women looking to serve at Camp this summer!  After all of the people we have met, it is clear that we are going to have another incredible staff devoted to serving the students who attend Camp Hammer in the Summer of 2010!

Well, I think we have given you enough to chew on for this week, so as you go through the next few days, please remember to lift Camp up in prayer!  Keep checking back to the blog for news and updates on the 3BS Campaign, and also other cool things to come!  Peace.

Camp Hammer Staff.

Liger.

Tags: camp, camp hammer, February, friends, give, hammer, hope, pond, rain, spring, Summer, three by spring, time, TLC, Twin Lakes Church
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