A week of "extreme pandemonium and chaotic madness:"
YES
Our camp speaker for the week, Dr. David Wheeler from Liberty University was full of solid biblical teaching. On one of the evenings that he preached, he challenged the students and camp staff to say "yes" to God. He handed out index cards and asked us to write "YES" at the top... allowing God to "write" whatever He wants on our cards for the rest of our lives. This challenge was a good reminder of the prayer I prayed a couple of years ago during Bethel's World Christian Action Conference: "ANYTHING, ANYTIME, ANYWHERE for the glory of God."
Odors
After a week of craziness, the cabin that I shared with eight junior high girls and my co-counselor, Nicole, was definitely odorous. I thought that boys' living quarters only smelled that disgusting. However, when you have to change out of your wet clothes just about every day and try to find a place to hang them... and share a bathroom between 10 people, it gets pretty disgusting. Particularly, after not having a whole lot of air ventilation. We were, however, POSITIVE & UPBEAT amidst it all! :)
Uncertain Tomorrows
The first message that Dr. Wheeler preached was about facing uncertain tomorrows. I sure needed to hear it! It's crazy how easily I've found myself worrying about the uncertainty of tomorrow... with raising gas prices, crazy world events, spending a large amount of time overseas, and thinking about finances. Dr. Wheeler's message was a good reminder of God's faithfulness and sovereignty, regardless of our circumstances. So encouraging!
The Questions Game
I think a few of my girls got a little tired of all my get-to-know you and extremely random questions, but we had a good time. During free time a couple of different afternoons, we played the "Ungame for Teens," basically a ton of questions spread throughout two different decks. The questions were pretty good. I think the girls were challenged to have more of a biblical worldview and the question: "How would you feel if you were your parents and had yourself as a kid?" seemed to make them think, which was good. I absolutely loved getting to know my beautiful girls throughout our random questions and crazy stories. Junior high girls can be a lot of fun.
Habits
So, I knew that I wink at my friends a lot, but I had no idea that I wink at people so much when I meet them. My girls mentioned it after we got to know one another. They said they liked it and thought it was a fun unique aspect of me... but it made me a little nervous that I wink at people so much unconsciously...
Charades & Cabin Time
During our last afternoon of free time, our entire cabin went to the Old Lounge and played Charades and made up a bunch of random skits with our inside jokes that formed throughout the week. It was funny to watch the girls imitate me and my waking-them-up-in-the-morning procedures. We definitely had lots of laughs. It was especially meaningful to me that our whole cabin enjoyed spending time together (that has not always been the case in previous counseling experiences).
Away
It was SO refreshing to be away from everything for awhile. Sometimes it's nice to take a step back and leave my cell phone off, my laptop at home, and have some time off of work and all of my ridiculous worries. Although the week was definitely EXHAUSTING, it was also quite REFRESHING for my heart.
Memorization
Something unique about this camp was the amount of time devoted to verse memorization. We spent an hour each morning listening to students say their verses. One particular highlight for me was working with a couple of students who were convinced that they were absolutely unable to memorize anything. As we worked on small chunks, they began to be amazed with how much they were able to remember. By the end of the week, they had more than two whole pages of verses memorized. That was really exciting and encouraging for me to see.
Privilege
It was definitely a privilege to serve at youth camp this past week. It's been awhile since I've done camp counseling, so it was fun to "get back into the saddle."
So... I guess that's a brief recap of my week. In the midst of the crazy games like slip & slide dodgeball, I lost a bit of my toenail, which was somewhat painful. Although we had a few medical emergencies, things seemed to go well for the most part. I didn't realize how exhausting camp was for me until last night. After I got home from an 8-hr. day of work, I was feeling achy all over and felt cold and hot all at the same time. I decided to nap... and then basically ended up being in bed for the night. I slept for about 12 hours... which is a new record for me. I'm feeling mostly better today. I guess my body really suffers when I don't get enough sleep. My mom woke up at 3 a.m. praying for me last night and I'm feeling much better this morning, just a little light-headed. Praise the Lord!
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