Phoenix First Rangers

              Last weekend at the Jamboree, we had an awesome time.  We went camping in the cool pines of the White Mountains.  It was soooo beautiful.  We camped near a rushing creek and a cool pasture.  You never had to take your jacket off it was so cold.  At night you had to dig deep in your sleeping bag to stay warm.  It was a great camping trip.

             When we got there on Friday afternoon, we took all our stuff off the bus and put it in the tents.  Then we went out and explored.  After that, Commander Jerry came back and asked if some of us boys would go out and bring back some dead tree limbs for lashing projects.  So we went across the creek and up the mountain in search for the dead limbs.  When we came back we were hauling instead of dead limbs, dead TREES.  Some of them were huge.  We had to cut a bunch of them in half.  By the end of that night, we had lashed a ladder and a music stand.

             That night, we had a campfire devotion led by Pastor Jerry.  Praise and worship was done by a couple guys from the Dream Center.  We had hot chocolate and roasted marshmallows by the campfire.  We weren’t in bed before 11:00. 

             The next morning we had to wake up at 6:00.  I think a couple of us just stayed in bed because we were so tired.  We had a nice breakfast of pancakes, eggs, sausage, and hot chocolate.  At 9:00 we went to our first church service.  Our speaker was a man from Southern California.  He spoke well that camp.  After the assembly, the events began.

             We had quite a few events this year.  We had an obstacle course, a water balloon launch, a chariot race, a pancake flipping contest, a compass course, and a ranger’s skill course.  Phoenix First got third in the obstacle course, second in the chariot race, and second in the pancake flipping contest.

             That afternoon Commander Mark set up an orienteering course (with some help from the Adventure Rangers).  It ran up a road across a field over the creek and back to the starting point.  Some of the rangers did it in less than 20 minutes which is very quick.

            Then it was time for dinner.

             After we finished dinner, we went to find more dead wood.  We took a small axe and a tomahawk to cut off limbs.  When the rangers came back, they were proudly carrying humongous limbs and trees.  Then they took off all the branches and cut it into smaller pieces to use for lashing.

             After the assembly that night, we roasted and ate what seemed to be millions of smores.  The commanders had a smore assembly line to keep everything moving.  Some people roasted theirs while others burned theirs.  After that, we went to bed.  

             As soon as we woke up at 6:00, we started to pack up all our gear.  Then we took down the tents.  After breakfast, we went to chapel where they handed out all the awards for the games.

             After chapel, all the rangers piled on the bus for the long ride home.  The ride home was even longer because the bus broke down 36 miles from Mesa.  The church sent out another bus to rescue them.  By the time they got back it was close to 9:00.  But overall we had an amazing time on the Jamboree.

From Adventure Ranger Z.P.

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