trying new things

So I counseled for the first time this past weekend, for outreach camp.  My nine girls were darling.  I had a co-counselor from the sponsoring church and we got along well enough.  It was good to be able to tag team for the first time.  The first 24 hours were pretty stressful because it was overwhelming and I didn't get what I was doing.  I've decided my least favorite part of counseling is meals.  Walking a bunch of kids through how to scrape and stack their plates and wipe the table and sort their silverware and keep them entertained for the whole meal is exhausting.  Not sleeping for more than three hours at a time is too but I figure that will get better.  One of the girls breathed like a freight train when she sleeps and my bunkmate kept coming down for reasons unknown to me.  One girl was crying for over half an hour during the first evening session and it took me awhile to even figure out that she wanted to go home.  A few minutes and a chat with her sister later, she was good as new enjoyed campfire more than anyone and remained glued to my hip for the rest of the weekend.  Some of my favorite moments were connecting with my fellow counselors and swapping stories.  So in the same day that I got my first batch of campers us lifeguards went to the river to practice river tubing which is an activity we will do with some of the older campers.  Lets just say there was a flood warning on the  river a few weeks ago, I did not in fact use my best paddling skills when I realized I needed to be back across the river ASAP and that the river was rapidly taking me past the jump off point.  Needless to say my co-workers ran down the side of the river screaming my name until they saw me walking back toward me.  I had to bail out of my tube and claw rocks/swim to the side.  Great fun.  Then we thought we lost our kayaker as his helmet (which he lost without harm) came floating down the river.  So then we spent a frantic 20 minutes trying to find him.  Talk about an adrenaline crash right before going to pick up the campers.  Awesome.  All in all I mostly enjoyed the experience, especially once I bonded with the girls and they understood me and the rules.  Seeing a few of the them stand up to accept Christ at the last evening session was beautiful.  I can only pray that it will mean something to them in the long run.  Now were in our first session of junior camp and since the session is so small I'm on program staff this week.  Last night we played plane crash, where staffers are 'victims' and the kids find us and carry us in to get points.  Trying to a group of ten year olds about center of mass is just hilarious.  Especially the ways they encourage and boss each other around.  Lets think guys, you can put your arm under my waist or hold my belt loop by one finger.  Which method will be more effective?  I led bb guns this morning which was fun.  The kids get so proud of themselves for hitting the targets.  Another Ghormley tradition I'm coming to enjoy is Techfast, breakfast + techno.  The meal ends with a giant dance party.  What a way to start the day.  I went on the zip line today too which was pretty cool.