last weekend

This last weekend has been to put it plainly, epic.  I spent a day at my friend Josh's house with our friend Melissa, where we watched Gladiator and the Princess Bride, we ate awesome food, talked about Asian missions, had a Value Village adventure, and ate ridiculous amounts of ice cream at Ron's, a classic Yakima place.  I'm now Facebook friends with two of my future residents via the Dykstra Hall Facebook group, and I got to do my job by answering the same questions I asked about laundry and closets and rice cookers and such.  We went blueberry picking at Josh's family friend's farm which was super cool, and met up with our friend Katie.  Then we set out on a most epic of adventure to Boulder Cave.  The drive itself was beautiful.  We hiked to the waterfall, which ends in cave.  I've definitely gotten a lot braver this summer.  Climbing through the creek and up and over the rocks didn't scare me at all- it would have scared me at the beginning of the summer, but it didn't.  It was straight up fun.  I sat under the waterfall, splashed my friends and swam around the bottom.  We went through a small cave which was cool.  Then we started hiking down the creek, through a ravine.  I love Tevas, I was just splashing through the creek as happy as could be, enjoying God's creation and being with my friends and just appreciating how much I've grown this summer.  Words cannot describe.  It was amazing.  Then we caught up to eight more of our friends who had come from camp that morning.  We went down a natural water slide.  It took all of three seconds but was still super fun.  Screaming.  Laughing.  Fellowship.  Together.  We hiked all the way down the creek and then back up to the trail.  There was one point where there was no bank and we were just wading through with steep rocks on either side.  So fun.  I love being adventurous.  I rode back with Katie, listening to techno and Needtobreathe, and we went to a tiny diner in Naches for dinner.  The food took forever, but it meant we got to have great conversation.  I rode back to camp with friends and we listened to Tim Hawkins and watched the sunset.  Great day.  Epic day.  Came back, watched 27 dresses and chatted with Krystal at the Sundeck. So fun.  So awesome.  God is so good.  I had been praying, as silly as it sounds, for an amazing weekend.  I just gave my weekend up to God and He delighted me totally.
The next day:  I woke up and went and had a great quiet time outside.  I love camp.  Its so beautiful.  I hung out with friends, and then we had lunch and started our debriefing process.  We had an hour on our own to look over the questions and just reflect.  I spent it in the zipline, with Needtobreathe and Hope chapel music.  Great time.  Then we got together and started listing things off and putting them on a giant whiteboard timeline.  It was really cool to hear how people have grown and to see everyone's summer portrayed at once.  I've grown in confidence enormously, and I've gotten a lot braver.  God gives us the hard times to prove to us that we need Him.  He's been there this whole summer.  That's the amazing part.  That is why I love and serve my God.  I lifeguarded for the guest group for an hour and had a great conversation with one of my fellow lifeguards.  Back in Pondy, I laid on the floor with a couple friends in a giant pile.  I love those.  Snuggling is the best.  After dinner, I took an adventure walk around camp with my friend Emma who has been there for me since lifeguard training.  We are super similar, and she's just a great person to talk to.  Then came my favorite part of the day.  We each had two minutes for everyone to encourage us.  Two minutes of people shouting out encouragement and affirmation to you.  It was great.  I didn't know what people thought of me, and its cool to hear other's perspectives about yourself.  I was called mama bird, a great speaker, a great listener, and "purple" (even amounts of passion and peace) among other things.  Then we had a camp fire up at Vesper.  Prayer, worship, awkward family photos, s'mores, stars.  A great end to a great day, our last time to be completely together.  We gave one of the guys a reverses mohawk when we came back down (he looks ridiculous) and that was about it.  I've had the blessing of working with a really amazing group of people this summer.  I'm going to miss them loads.

a blur

That is what this week and now the whole summer are becoming- a blur.  We only have one week left.  I can't believe it.  I don't want to believe it. Since this week was junior camp, we finished up today.  It was such a random week.  I didn't have Katie (my co-counselor for 12 campers in a big cabin) with me until Monday night because of her sister's wedding and trees on highway 12.  This didn't end up being nearly as bad as it sounds, since many of the girls came with friends and therefore clumped together naturally, but I tackled her when I saw her.  It wasn't easy.  We had our cabin aunt (program staffer who fills in for counselors in their times off) with us thankfully.  Some of the girls definitely had some attitudes, but they were all in all pretty good.  Sunday night was marked by a wonderful thunderstorm that had us all awake for the day around 6:30 am.  None of the girls freaked out completely, it was just an exhausting night for me.  We all slept so well the next night that (some of you will crack up here) I slept through the alarm I set to wake girls up to go polar bear swimming.  I woke up right before breakfast when Katie woke everyone else up.  Counselor fail.  Whoops.  Also on Monday, we were walking back to the cabin after lunch and we found three recently hatched baby birds on the ground.  Like pink, eyes closed, just hatched.  One was already dead.  My counselor friend Twyla and I then spent our hour off making them a warm box and trying to get them to eat.  We lost another one that night, but as of a few hours ago, one of the birds is still alive.  I named him Maverick, because he's a fighter.  And he's a bird- Top Gun, flying, idk.  He sits in my hand and cries with his mouth pointed straight up for me to feed him.  I don't know why I'm so attached to this bird, because he probably will die soon anyways, but he's hung on so far at least.  All in all, such a random week.  One camper had participation issues which is always fun, the lightbulb in our cabin burnt out, just random things like this.  I've learned that the more tired I am, the less patient I am.  Patience is one of the if not the virtue of a camp counselor.  Prayer that we all remember why we are here in the last week of camp when it's so tempting to want to be with friends, that we are here for campers.  We've also been filling out a lot of debrief forms for the summer- which has made me think.  What have I learned you ask?  To seek God and His kingdom first, to put Him above everything else including my desires or wants for myself.  That I can do all through Him who gives me strength.  I've had to accept who I am, who I'm not, and to embrace these things.  I have to remember that the opinions of others are not what matters in God's plan for me.  It's been amazing.  Challenging, but amazing.

best. cabin. ever.

I had a great week.   My cabin was cohesive and sweet, all sixth and seventh graders to be, on the younger end of mid-high.  I was amazed and inspired by the depth of faith that some of them had.  My faith was nothing like that when I was their age.  Some of my campers actually opened up to me this week, which was awesome.  I actually got to do the part of my job that drew me to it in the first place.  I was in Spruce, which is a cabin with two cabins (groups) in it that share a living room.  This meant that I got to do a lot of tag teaming with one of my dear friends Rachel.  Our styles worked together really well and our girls got along well.  Some memorable moments include one of the girls going up to the kitchen window and asking for raviolis without sauce and them giving her a plate of cheese sauce.  My campers were actually enthusiastic for camp activities so we dressed up for theme dinners and had a lot of fun for meadow and night games.  They rarely drained my energy, in fact I got energy from being around them, contrast to other sessions where my emotional energy is not returned.  I life-guarded the Rave (inflatable water trampoline) for two and a half hours for lake day.  Yes, I got paid to jump on a trampoline in the middle of a lake on a sunny day.  It was amazing until a particularly obnoxious group of boys got on and one of them refused to get off.  I enjoy having authority when I'm lifeguarding.  My cabin times went pretty well.  The girls contributed and cared about what was going on.  Another highlight of my week was being one of the speakers for a morning meeting.  I spoke Friday morning about "God is in control, even when we're not sure."  I talked about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and how they trusted God to have control of their lives and how their faith was thus refined by the fire.  I then talked about the waterfall from Honduras and how that refined faith through water.  I then called one of my friends up and had him stand right behind me.  I "trust falled" without trusting that he would catch me, and I caught myself and of course stumbled.  This shows how we stumble when we rely on ourselves and not God.  When I trusted him to catch me, I fell straight back without a problem.  Life with God is more amazing than we could even imagine and we have to trust in the plan that He has for our lives.  To finish up talking about water, I played part of the song "Washed By the Water" by Needtobreathe, "Even when the rain falls, even when the flood starts rising, even when the storm comes, I am washed by the water.  Even when the earth moves under my feet, even when the ones I love, turn around and crucify me, I won't ever ever let you go."  What a powerful message.  I received compliments from many of my fellow staff and heard stories of how it connected with their campers.  The whole thing didn't really come together until the night before, I had the main ideas planned for weeks but the flow didn't happen until the last minute.  Rachel helped me talk things out and we had fun practicing trust falling on the couches in the living room of our cabin.  I worked out the analogy on my own, with many adjustments and changes.  One of my favorite parts of camp is pool olympics, which we always do on the last day.  My favorite part is the staff synchronized swimming routine.  Its the one time at camp where I have more knowledge than anyone else and everyone actually listens to what I tell them to do.  Plus, its fun and hilarious.  This week encorporated the Pharaoh Pharaoh dance, a roller coaster (think Dew Crew), some epic lifts, and of course, the pants dance.  For the last night, my cabin aunt and friend Lauren and I took the girls up to the zipline to sleep outside.  All was well until... three girls wanted to all sleep next to each other but two of them were afraid to be by the edge and both of those girls wanted to sleep next to the girl who wasn't afraid.  This ended in an inconsolable camper meltdown.  I definitely dealt with more tears this week than in any other week so far, but I just loved these girls.  The ease of loving them was also combined with me feeling like I actually know what I'm doing, and my recognition of what I need to get through the week and how I can ask others to help me in this.  Waking up in a giant pine tree looking up to the sun shining through the branches was amazing though as was falling asleep with a partial view of the stars.  This afternoon found me without solid day off plans.  I went on a rather adventuresome hike away from camp.  I chilled for awhile in the staff lodge (my summer home) and had some fun conversations with my fellow staffers who were either too lazy to go into town or like me, missed the boat for a ride.  A few of the guys went to the kitchen and made cookies with Reeses Pieces and whole Reeses in the middle, which were spontaneously delicious.  I then went to Silver Beach, a nearby restaurant with wonderful milkshakes.  Three of my friends and I then went to look at a cool waterfall.  We looked from the top and and then went alongside the river to a small waterfall.  I stuck my head under one of the streams to the side.  It was so amazing to just be and rest in God's creation and to be with a small group of friends.  God delighted me in that I initially felt lonely when I didn't have plans, but I had an awesome day anyways and the people I was with were the ones I wanted to be with for today anyways.  We came back and had a campfire.  It was great.  I'm co-counseling a large cabin for junior (5th-6th) camp this week with my friend Katie, which I am super excited for.  However, she will be at her sisters wedding until Monday and camp starts tomorrow. I'm sure that I'll have help I just don't know what that will be yet.  Please pray hard for this week.  Camp is maxed out and we need lots of energy for this age group.

12 years

I read Harry Potter for the first time at the tender age of 7.  Actually, it was read aloud to me.  I liked the books so much that I wanted to read it faster than the one chapter a night pace that my dad was going at.  That was the only time I ever did that, though we read many fine books in our bedtime career.  Ever since then, I was hooked.  Those books were, to be cliche, magic for me.  When I came home from seventh grade and I hated myself so much, I just had to plug in my headphones and go to my favorite other world with people who were unconditional friends.  You might say that I should have read the Bible or something in those times, but thats not where my faith was at.  I am a Christian and I love Harry Potter, but I love Jesus more.  Last night, I went with some of my camp friends to the midnight release of the final movie.  We laughed, nearly cried, had a most epic evening of singing Potter puppet pals, inside camp jokes, and tired hilariousness.  It was great.  The girls sitting behind us were obnoxious, and the camp counselors sitting in front of them did plenty of shushing.  There were some parts of the movie that weren't true to the books and easily could have been, which I don't like, but oh well.  It is what it is, and it was amazing <3  12 years later, its all over.

love, peace, and patience

So I spent a week of mid-high camp on program staff last week, which was an appreciated break from counseling.  I ran arts and crafts which was not my favorite thing honestly, did dishes, got sick, and hung out.  It was a small camp which is why I wasn't needed to counsel, so things weren't too bad and the fact that I had to sleep off sickness for a day wasn't a huge deal.  I grew closer with my fellow staffers on program and we had many fun random moments that only happen in tiredness/late at night/when exposed to children constantly.  I feel so blessed to live in such an awesome Christian community for this short time.  We are almost exclusively with only each other all the time.  When God created camp I know He gave us each other to make it through, because its the only way.  This past Sunday until today I counseled a group for Primary camp.  I had nine lovely 6-10 year olds.  My six year old was a lesson in patience and a challenge for sure though I know God placed her with me for a reason.  We had 150 campers which made a lot of things really fun and really ridiculous.  I love worship with so many kids, jumping around and being crazy and hearing all the young voices sing praises to God, looking over a sea of little heads.  These kids really do think and they don't yet have the filters that older people do.  Our three evening cabin discussions each revolved around the Holy Spirit, satan, and Jesus respectively.  I got to explain to a girl how to pray, why Jesus was never married, and to the best of my ability the concept of virgin birth without talking about sex.  Gotta love primary,  and I really do.  I was blessed by my fellow staffers.  I had to deal with a camper issue and one of my friends on program stepped in no questions asked.  This also happened when I was trying to get the table cleared during a meal.  One of my dearest camp friends since lifeguard training was my cabin aunt and she's just the best.  Cabin aunts are program staffers who are assigned to each cabin and fill in for the counselors when we have our off times.  She put the girls to bed for two of the nights.  Theres nothing better then leaving to take a shower and coming back to a sleeping cabin, and this morning when I was rushing to get the girls packed out she showed up and started cleaning.  I get by with a little help from my friends.  God is good.  This was the first session of camp I really felt like I knew what I was doing.  I recognize my counseling 'style' so to speak now and I know how camp works.  I'm at girl's staff retreat until Friday (Harry Potter!) and then I'll be helping work (lifeguarding and dishes) for a guest group until Sunday while the guys are at their retreat.  Then its three solid weeks of camp and then this beautiful amazing Godly adventure will end.  Prayer is always appreciated <3

high school

What a week.  I had eight high school campers for six days.  There were some awesome moments and some not so awesome moments but God was definitely at work.  This week was a humbling one as God reminded me that His work goes according to His plans and not mine.  I thought and prayed about having program staffers come share their stories with the girls before bed.  One of the staffers, Emily was on my heart for awhile and I asked her to come and share with the girls.  I sat back and watched as God did an amazing work.  At that point I hadn't felt connected with some of my girls.  They instantly connected with her though, asking amazing questions and staying riveted on her every word.  As much as I wanted to connect with them myself, that wish was about me and not about what God had planned for those campers.  It was incredibly humbling that she got through so much more quickly than I did, but its not about that.  Its about that they learned about Christ in that process.  These girls have so much brokenness in their lives yet they want to understand who God is.  We enjoyed some awesome worship, a great evening speaker, and some great moments. (sucking helium from balloons together, winning cleanest cabin- the infamous silver plunger, random talks and laughs, and an awesome time at the ropes course.)  Getting the girls up to do anything was always a challenge- they did not like me in those moments for sure.  I had to lay down the law with a few about star-tripping, and sometimes I felt like cabin times were completely pointless.  However, I hope and pray that my girls learned more about God and themselves this week.  This post doesn't really do the week justice at all, but its the best I can do for now.  I'm on program staff this coming week- small camp.  Prayer as always is greatly appreciated.