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.