Staff training... or lack thereof

Transitioning from teen camp to kids camp is no walk in the park. For years I begged for a young cabin (ranging 7 - 10), but I always managed to get the older girls (11 and 12). This first week of kids camp I had mostly eight-year olds. Quite the change from mostly fifteen-year olds. Suddenly the understanding that they did not quite grasp really huge concepts or words was a bit unsettling as I attempted to change the way I communicated. How you communicate to an eight-year old is so completely different than the way you communicate to a teenager. In teen camp the biggest challenges were getting them to sleep, then getting them to wake up. With the group of girls I had everything was a challenge. With the group of girls I had in week one of kids camp everything seemed to be a challenge. I had two relatively quiet girls, an energizer bunny, a love bug, a slightly older attitude, one who got sick Wednesday, and one who was “homesick” at first then we realized that she was just an attention seeker. The week was not made easier by the injuries I received last weekend. Saturday in a failed attempt at walking on the seesaw I managed to bruise and scrape up my legs, it looked like I had been beat up or something. Sunday when we first got the campers, one of them wanted to do this balance beam partner log walk and I did well until it came time to get off when I sort of rolled my ankle. It hurt Monday morning but then it stopped causing pain, eventually I put ice on it later on in the week due to unnecessary swelling and such. It is more or less back to normal. I will say the coolest part of this past week was Tuesday night, my co-counselor, Kassy and I got the privilege to lead our cabin to Christ, they all wanted to make the decision. So, despite being exhausted, without patience, and beyond drained I have to say it was an incredible week. This next week they are giving my a break of sorts and making me LIT (leaders in training) leader which means lots of dishes and bathrooms and pouring into just two young ladies who will be LITs.
I will say this in regards to the kids accepting Christ. From what I understand the whole cabin accepting Christ is not terribly uncommon, what is uncommon is when just one will. The girls were all from the same reserve so it is not terribly unbelievable they all wanted to do it. A couple years ago I had one girl who accepted Christ and that was a rather uncommon occurrence because in the cabin were a couple others who were from the same reserve and they actually did treat her noticeably different and not in a good way when she made the announcement. Perhaps it is rather cynical of me, but I wonder how many were sincere, if nothing else my prayer is that the girls will at one point remember something from this week later on and lay the groundwork for a decision.
Strangely Monday night seemed to be the night that Satan attacked our cabin. First it was the “homesick” girl, then another girl went to the nurse, and by the time we got back to the cabin it seemed just like this heaviness had settled on the cabin. I laid down and hoped it would all go away, but it didn’t, and I felt the strong need to pray. So I got up and started praying protection and safety over the cabin. After about half an hour of that I knew I need someone else to pray, so I went to the LIT cabin and had them pray and then to the program director for the same. I went back and prayed some of the psalms over the girls and finally at about midnight I slept. It was incredibly strange and frankly tiring.

Lessons from Kayaking

I thought about writing some deep thought provoking post on the past week of camp. Instead I would give you a little something to make you smile. Tonight after the campers went home, the work was done, and we were done with supper, a few of us went kayaking. We got in and went out and it was so peaceful and beautiful. It turned out that my kayak as well as one of my friends had a slow leak, no big deal. We started heading back and I kept my balance it was all good. I made it back to shore last because I was sitting in the middle of lake enjoying the beautiful scenery. I got back to shore and there came the difficult process of getting out of the kayak. My leg was out of the kayak and I was more or less ok, until the mud started slipping from underneath and my kayak tipped, it was hysterical.

Surprisingly a fair amount has been accomplished in breaks and free time and such. Learned to play 5 chords on the guitar as well as a blues rhythm. Finally finished a song that I'd been working on for a long time. Regardless, teen week is finally over and it is rather bittersweet while I miss the campers I am glad that next week is kid's camp, and that I have a couple of days to recover and study. I wonder what God has for all of us this next week. Please

Teen camp tomorrow

So much has been accomplished this past week. We re-carpeted the stage, cleaned the boathouse, mowed the extensive grounds, and so much more. It is great being up here and seeing everyone again, like one insane/dysfunctional family we are.

Tomorrow begins teen camp and I am bunking and leading with an awesome chick named Brittany. Craziness because five years ago we were in the same cabin as teen campers. Now so many years later we join forces as leaders. I cannot wait for church tomorrow and for the arrival of campers.

Please pray for unity in the staff, open hearts for everyone, and though it may get me into trouble later, patience. This summer will be awesome. Next week I will post pictures.

Tanning beds, airplanes, and the good God

Today is the day to depart to Canada, and not exactly a good start. To say the least I am not the brightest bulb in the tanning bed. I managed to completely misread the reservation and figured out that my plane left at 11:15am today at about 11:08am at my house... whoops. Called the airline and pleaded for mercy while silently pleading with God to somehow make something out of this predicament I managed to create. After about a year and a half on hold (okay 15 minutes) I got a hold of an agent who managed to get me on a later flight getting in a couple hours later. Also by the grace of God it was inexpensive and painless. I now wait in the airport for my new flight and all I can say is praise God it worked out.

Feedback requested

I was talking to a couple of my advisors (yes multiple because multiple degrees being pursued = multiple advisors) about missions, curious for their feedback. One of which is a foreign missions minded person, and the other is a "let's tackle the home front first," kind of gal. So i want to know which way do you swing.

As I have said before, God is calling me to foreign missions, but I need to explain where I stand in the whole scheme of things. There are many churches in my town, 1 church for every 100 people, yes the math was done correctly, roughly 30 separate Christian denominations, and 3000 people. I know OF a single person who does not attend church at all, but she has "heard the gospel". Everyone else is at church at least semi-regularly. Here is the crazy thing the majority of the churches do not support foreign missionaries. There is another town 65 miles east of here that for the 1200ish people that live there, about 300 go to church. So there is still a lot to be done there. I believe that churches need to be active in there community to not only reach out at home, but also to send people out into the world. We have the man power to change the world, but we need stop warming pews and actually do something. It starts at home, but there is also a great deal of work to be done in the rest of the world. Christ called us to deny ourselves, not to be a part of a religious sect.


Please provide your thoughts on missions, and the current state of the North American church. It is always fun to hear what your church is doing so please comment.

Missions

I do not know how many times I have posted about missions. If you have not guessed it is something about which I am passionate. Up until about 45 minutes ago I believe that after I graduated from Wayland I would spend the rest of my life in missions in Nicaragua... Oh no, see tonight as I was sketching the life cycle of bread mold I was only about halfway focused (I know) because I was thinking and praying about Nicaragua and missions. Then out of nowhere I felt God saying, "I have a much bigger plan for your life then what you have planned." Well ok initial reaction (please no judgements) can we please save the epiphanies for after I am done with biology, a little irreverent? yes. Minorly sarcastic? have you met me? Of course I thought about what had just happened and started to realize, yes I will be going to Nicaragua, yes I will be ministering to the deaf, but that is not the rest of my life, that is just the beginning before going to the "ends of the earth" Not entirely sure where else God has planned, but I know that His plan is a lot more elaborate and a lot more extensive then just one place.

Nicaragua... again

Not sure how frequently I have told you about this, but I will say it again. I know that I am called to deaf missions in Nicaragua likely to church planting (sort of new still praying it out). After much email communication I finally got to "meet" (via skype) two missionaries who live there and are part of a school for the deaf there. Not only that, but in March there is a possibility that I may get to travel there and meet them and work with them for an entire week. How incredible would that be?!?!? I am consistently in awe of the ways that God works things out, assuming of course that the outcome will be what I am anticipating, which it likely won't because God is so much more awesome and bigger then I am.

I have also decided that I want to be fluent in 5 languages by the time that I graduate from Wayland. English of course is at the top of the list, followed by ASL, Spanish, and ISN (sign language of nicaragua). Well that is only four, so I want to toss an idea out there and get feed back. Through one of my amazing advisors at Wayland I have the opportunity of getting my hands on a Swahili Sign language book, which includes the pictogram of course, the Swahili word and the English word, so of course that would mean I would learn the two simultaneously. Just a possibility that I am tossing out there. Let me know your thoughts