The Last...Or is it?

As I write this tears of sadness and joy would be coming to my eyes but I’m in the airport so I really don’t want a bunch of people seeing me cry while sitting in a coroner by myself. The summer brought a group of unknown people together for one purpose and we left as a family with the same purpose, sharing Christ to the nations. It was a summer I hope I never forget, one full of lessons and trials, tears and laughter, growth and brokenness. God moved , He’s still moving, He will never stop moving! My heart is so on fire right now and I just want to quit school and go share the word of God to the unknownJ not the smartest idea considering I have one more year left, Lord willing. I need to remember that The whole world is the mission field, not just the crazy places that are hard to pronounce.

It was hard to focus on this last week of campers knowing that we were leaving in less than ten days. I really just wanted to hang out with the other counselors and share last minute memories with them. I had to continue to tell myself that my reason for being there was not to make friends, but to fill these kids with the knowledge of Christ and His sacrifice for their lives. The theme for this last week was team U-Knighted. We dressed up as knights, evil step mothers, princesses, and court jesters. It was a really fun week. Brit and I put googly eyes all over Dick Todd’s tools in his tool shed. It’s amazing how many little faces you can make out of drills, tape measurers, and oil cans. Dick really enjoyed what we did and his wife took some googly eyes and put them on his deodorant and in their bathroom. Many of the counselors had things that needed to get done for the school year coming up and were getting a little stressed out about things. Prayer for this school year would be wonderful for each of the counselors. It’s going to be weird getting back into society and life outside of camp. We went through a debriefing process this last weekend just to kind of prepare us for the transition into the real world. It was hard to think about the fact that we were leaving soon. I wanted this past weekend to last forever. Saturday night the sky was very clear so a group of us hung out on the sports field and watched the stars. But then a bunch of them left and Michael, Tyler, and I were left to enjoy the awesomeness of God shown to us in the many shooting stars and crazy large moon. It was really great getting to talk to them just the three of us and get to know them on a deeper level.

Our last chapel service was really good. Josh talked about Matthew 17 and how the disciples went up on a mountain with Jesus and encountered God. He related it to the idea that we were on a mountain at camp and we were experiencing God and He was showing Himself to us. Mountains give you a new perspective on things when you are on top of them and we were able to get a new perspective of God while at camp and see Him move in the lives of the kids as well as our own lives. But the disciples could not stay on the mountain forever just like we can’t stay at camp forever. We have to come down and share our experiences with others. But the cool thing is that Jesus went down the mountain with the disciples, He didn’t just send them off and leave them to be. He climbed down with them. The experience of this summer will go with us forever and so is Christ. He is never going to leave my side. The troubles I am going through and the fears I have about the future will not have to be tackled alone. God will be there every step of the way to guide me and give me new strength for each day.

The last day at camp was full of craziness as everyone tried to get everything together. We boated out of camp and went into town for the rest of the day. Saying goodbye to the staff was super hard, but it was great to hear their encouraging words as we left. We walked around downtown and just spent time together. Then for supper the owner of the Subway in Juneau said they would provide all of us with food which was amazing of them. It was cool to see their generosity and experience the love of Christ among believers. Then we went back to the dorms and played games and watched highlight videos from the summer. A group of people went to the Waffle Company but I decided to stay and we watched Mega Mind. Brit and I slept for about an hour while some of the guys watched Indiana Jones movies. We had to be at the airport at four so most people didn’t sleep much. Then we packed up and went to the airport to catch our flight to Seattle.

Week 9

This past week I was on work staff which I was a little bummed about because I had not counseled Jr. High camp before and that’s what last week was, but it was nice to have a break from counseling. The group on work staff this week was super fun and we worked really well together. It’s still a weird feeling being on work staff while everyone else is counseling and you have no interaction with the kids except during meals which isn’t much at all. I had to keep reminding myself that I was still serving Christ even though I was not directly with the kids. The work staff splits into two smaller groups for cleaning up after meals and our group renamed ourselves the A Team and we were total boss. We were quick and efficient and yet had a super large amount of fun. Our group consisted of Kimberly Oyler (DJ for the week and mischief master mind), Ethan Aldefer (hunting extraordinaire and pots and pans king), and Laurie Hildebrand (dishwasher destroyer and floor fighter). Our boss for work staff’s name is Leah and she was super great this week. We had some free time each day after getting all our work done which was super nice.

Three of the counselors left this past week which was really hard for all of us. We know the summer is coming to an end, but seeing others leave just makes that end seem so much closer. Kimberly left on Wednesday a while after supper and it was sad to not have her on our work staff group anymore. We hung out a lot the last few days and did some funtivities. We went on a walk to see the “glorious spot” and the “wedding location,” and one day we thought it would be super fun to create a poop log to put in the bathrooms of the boy’s and girl’s dorms. There are different columns to be filled out which consist of: date, color, shape, amount, plunger or not, and kernels or not. The log has been filling out nicely (and I won’t forget to show it to you sometime Kim!!!!). The night that Kim left she thought it would be a wonderful idea to put packing peanuts in my bed and in each of my drawers, such a great friend you are KimJ

The rest of the week went well and camp finished up strong. On the weekend Bethany and I decided it would be fun to clean out the program office and so we did. It took a while but it was well worth it and it looks a lot cleaner and neater than it did before. Friday I rode the bus in with the little tykes and then we ate Chinese and headed back to camp. That night we had a barn party (but it was in the loft not the barn) and we played Texas holdem’ while listening to Country music. We all had on plaid, cowboy hats, and extra tuffs. Saturday morning Ethan, Laurie, Brittany and I thought it would be fun to give the full time staff members breakfast in bed so we made coffee cake and had fruit and yogurt to go with it. It was cool to be able to serve the staff after they have been serving and taking care of us all summer. After lunch Kathleen and I wanted to make knitting needles so Ethan helped us. We made them out of spruce wood from arrow shafts that were left over from when the boys were making arrows. I’m almost finished making mine but we still have to put a finish on them. After that all the counselors and Nick and Matt went across the bay/ocean to a beach/creek called Antler Creek. It was such a beautiful place. The beach had fine white sand and there were mountains surrounding us. We ran around barefoot and took a bunch of fun pictures. Then we played ultimate frisbee in the sand, but the tide was coming in so we had to quit the game once the water started covering one of the end zones. Then we made a fire and roasted brats and hotdogs for supper. We just hung out for a while and then rode back over to camp. When we got back a few of us started the movie “True Grit” but were super tired so we didn’t watch all of it till Sunday.

Sunday we talked about being one body with many parts. It was interesting to think about because I had just been on work staff and was feeling a little out of the loop with those that were counseling and felt like my job was not as important as theirs because I wasn’t on the front line with the kids. But I was reminded that every job is important and the without the hard work or work staff the bathrooms would not get cleaned, laundry would not get done, food would not be prepared, and other jobs would not get done to make camp run more smoothly. The Bible says we should be working so closely as a group of believers that when one suffers we all suffer and when one rejoices we rejoice with them and not feel sorry for myself that I did not have something good happen to me. It also says that God has arranged the parts in the body, everyone of them, just as He wanted them to be so we should not complain about the gifts and abilities we have or those that we lack because God has given them to us for a reason and only He knows why. Later that night Brit and Laurie and I slept outside under the pavilion on the beach. It was really fun to do that with them and talk with them about different things and grow closer together.

This next week is the last week of camp which is really sad to think about, but yet it will be good to go home and get back into the swing of things. Thanks again for all your prayers and support this summer and throughout my whole life!!!

I Love Christmas

This past week we had colt camp and I was able to counsel with one of the girls who I’ve grown very close with throughout the summer; we had wanted to counsel together for a very long time and it finally happened. We had a great cabin of nine very fun and well behaved girls. Some of the cabins weren’t so blessed. One cabin had a very misbehaved and disrespectful girl who acted like she was 13 but really she was only 9 or 10. She would not listen to anything the counselors said and called them ugly and stupid many times. It was a tough four days for them, but God gave them the strength to make it trough and gave them help from others at the camp who were willing to spend time with this young girl so the counselors did not have to focus all their attention on her and could focus on the rest of the girls in their cabin.

Brittany (the girl I counseled with) and I had a great time with our cabin. We made a scavenger hunt for them to do the first day which they really enjoyed, and I did too, maybe more than they did at timesJ We also had a camp fire with another cabin and read them a story and sang songs. Brit knows how to play the guitar so that was really nice to put the girls to bed by playing the guitar and singing to them. Each day for colt and bronco camp the kids have cabin clean up time and then each cabin is judged on their cabin cleanliness as well as decorations. Sometimes cabins challenge each other to see who can get the higher score between the two of them and this week Brit and I challenged one of the guy’s cabins. We had done a great job and felt really good about our cabin, but then it turns out that the counselors from the other cabin put horse poop on our cabin stoop, toilet paper in the trees around our cabin, and trash in our trash can which made us loose by a lot. But the fact that he broke some of the camp rules by doing those things he had to take the punishment instead of Brit and I which happened to be a few things: thrown into the ocean, pie in the face, and eating his dinner without his hands. He also had to walk around for the afternoon with a puppet on his hand and used it to talk. Then during supper our program director, Nick, said that he was going to take Peter’s (the guy counselor who did the pranking) punishments from him because he cared about him and had a relationship with him. It was neat to see the sacrifice of someone right before your eyes and think about God and His sacrifice for our lives. Nick ate his supper without using his hands, Brit and I threw a pie in his face and then we dropped him into the ocean. I’m not sure if the campers really understood everything, but I know many of the counselors, especially Peter, learned something from Nick’s example. It reminded me of God’s unconditional love and despite the fact that He knew we were going to sin and cause Him grief He was still willing to die on the cross for us. He allowed His son to be put to death. He turned His back on His own son for me, someone who half the time I’m turning my back on God. If you have never read the book called Crazy Love you should because it’s so good.

So after all of that, the next day the same boy’s cabin asked us if we wanted to have a rematch with no pranking to see who the true winner was. We decided to take them up on that challenge, and another boys and girls cabin was also challenging each other. We decided to change up the punishments for this round. If the girls lost the boys would be allowed to write on their faces with maker and if the boys lost the girls would be allowed to put makeup on their faces and paint their finger nails. So, our cabin worked very hard and made sure everything was super neat and our decorations were amazing (it was Christmas morning so we had snowflakes and cookies out for Santa). And guess who won…both girl cabins. So we got to put makeup on three of the four boys and paint all of their finger nails. The one boy who did not want makeup on had to walk backwards for the whole afternoon. The week was a lot of fun and we were able to share God’s love with the kids in a fun and creative way.

The week was shorter so we had a lot of time to do fun things over the weekend as counselors. One of those fun things consisted of four of us putting all of our clothes that we brought to camp on at the same time. It was super hard getting them on, but well worth the trouble. We walked around camp and showed off our added pounds. Then Brit and I slept outside in a super amazingly awesome place (you’ll have to ask me about it in person). It was a wonderful night and the stares were out. The only problem was that we got a little cold and the sun comes up early so we woke up super early, but it was ok cause we were able to have God time and get some things done even before a lot of people were up. That whole day was a very relaxing day and Brit and I just hung out in hammocks and read and talked. Then the next morning Brit, Laurie and I went for a hike to the point around 7. It was a lot of fun, but we had a little trouble with the water getting there, but we made it. When there we read Proverbs 31 and talked about what it means to be a true women of God. We also talked about what we had learned throughout the summer and things we were struggling with or worrying about as our summer comes to a close. It was so nice to just be able to sit with them and be real. I love both of them so much and am so thankful to God for allowing us to meet each other and grow so close. Brit and I also did some baking. We made buckeyes, cookies, and popsicles. They all turned out really yummy, but the process was interesting. I accidently put salt in the cookies instead of sugar so those were interesting at first, but we started over so that worked out fine. Then for the buckeyes, the recipe was not very good so we just kind of added some peanut butter, vanilla, and butter to the powdered sugar till it tasted good to us. They were super super super yummy I might add.

I’m on work staff this week again and it’s been a lot of fun. Keep praying for focus as our summer comes to a close. God has been doing some amazing things up here and I don’t want us to miss out on any of it because we are thinking about going back home.