Here are two of the counselor's that I work with that have been doing all the music for worship this summer. They are awesome!!!
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11
Friday, July 30, 2010
Don't Let it End!!!
Two weeks left... that's it... Two weeks from this day, I will be back home in Madison. It's kind of bittersweet. While I am looking forward to getting back home and seeing friends and family and getting back into normal routine, I am already missing camp even though I haven't left yet. This summer has certainly been full of many new challenges and experiences that won't be forgotten.
The most difficult part of the last two weeks will making sure that I seize every moment to pour into these kids. The summer's almost over, great things have been done in these kids lives already this summer, but there are still even greater things to be done.
My cabin for this session, 2B, has been great. We have a bunch of leaders in our cabin and it has been going very smoothly. Next Friday, we will say goodbye to the kids as well as most of the staff. The last week of the summer will be spent working Starter Camp.
Starter camp is a one week session for brand new campers in the Apache(7-9 yr olds) and Shawnee (10-11 yr olds). We will only have two Shawnee cabins so we will go from 70 Shawnee kids to 20. My co-counselor for this week will be one of my dearest and closest friends here at camp, so I am excited about that.
It's almost over, but there is more work to be done. Pray that we will all finish out strong and not let a minute be wasted with these kids.
Friday, July 23, 2010
Glory to God Forever
Session 2A is done. One more two week session to go, 2B and then Starter camp. It's hard to believe that the summer is almost over. This past session was amazing. Every single one of the kids in my cabin were awesome, and they will all be missed. Some really cool and interesting things have been going on over the past couple of days.
Our cabin, cabin 7, won Honor Cabin for Session 2A. This is a really big honor. Our kids worked hard and deserved it. Honor cabin is given to the cabin in each tribe who shines in all the different activities. Each morning we have to clean up the cabin. We then have a cabin inspection where we get points. There are also OA's or Organized activities where we compete with the other cabins in our tribe. By winning those, we also get points that contribute to honor cabin.
Bear Mace, part 2... So we learned that the bear mace that we took on the camp out did not have the clear safety clip that it was supposed to have. That is why when I went to close, what I thought was the safety clip, I actually fired the spray.
The bears are back... We have had several sightings of black bears around camp over the past couple of weeks. Last night, or actually early this morning, I came face to face with one. Since last night was the final night of session 2A, we let our kids stay up a little later. I was going to go to bed about midnight, but I decided to sit outside on my porch for a bit and pray for each of my kids. I forgot to turn the porch light on but had a flashlight with me. As I was sitting there, I looked up and thought I saw a black fuzzy blur right in front of me. The first thought was, that could be a bear. I turned my flashlight on, and sure enough, there was a 300lb bear staring right back at me. I looked at him and he looked at me. I then turned and looked at the door to the cabin thinking about if I would be fast enough to make it to the door. I started to move slowly towards the door and then the bear started to move towards me. I then took off running towards the door and it then turned around and ran back up the hill. After getting into the cabin, I piled a few trunks in front of the door. Needless to say, it took me about an hour to get to sleep after that...
The last two week session will start on Sunday. It's hard to believe that camp is almost over. I am spending this weekend getting plenty of rest so that I can go full speed ahead for the next three weeks and make the most out of camp.
As I wrap this post up, I would leave you with this versus:
"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God."
1 Corinthians 10:31
Our cabin, cabin 7, won Honor Cabin for Session 2A. This is a really big honor. Our kids worked hard and deserved it. Honor cabin is given to the cabin in each tribe who shines in all the different activities. Each morning we have to clean up the cabin. We then have a cabin inspection where we get points. There are also OA's or Organized activities where we compete with the other cabins in our tribe. By winning those, we also get points that contribute to honor cabin.
Bear Mace, part 2... So we learned that the bear mace that we took on the camp out did not have the clear safety clip that it was supposed to have. That is why when I went to close, what I thought was the safety clip, I actually fired the spray.
The bears are back... We have had several sightings of black bears around camp over the past couple of weeks. Last night, or actually early this morning, I came face to face with one. Since last night was the final night of session 2A, we let our kids stay up a little later. I was going to go to bed about midnight, but I decided to sit outside on my porch for a bit and pray for each of my kids. I forgot to turn the porch light on but had a flashlight with me. As I was sitting there, I looked up and thought I saw a black fuzzy blur right in front of me. The first thought was, that could be a bear. I turned my flashlight on, and sure enough, there was a 300lb bear staring right back at me. I looked at him and he looked at me. I then turned and looked at the door to the cabin thinking about if I would be fast enough to make it to the door. I started to move slowly towards the door and then the bear started to move towards me. I then took off running towards the door and it then turned around and ran back up the hill. After getting into the cabin, I piled a few trunks in front of the door. Needless to say, it took me about an hour to get to sleep after that...
The last two week session will start on Sunday. It's hard to believe that camp is almost over. I am spending this weekend getting plenty of rest so that I can go full speed ahead for the next three weeks and make the most out of camp.
As I wrap this post up, I would leave you with this versus:
"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God."
1 Corinthians 10:31
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
God's Sense of Humor
The summer is flying by. This group of kids will be gone by the end of the week and 2B will begin on Sunday.
Last night, we went on our second camp out for this session. We went to a place called Joshua's Hollow. It was my first time at this camp site. It is one of the shortest hikes that you can take. There is a good size creek to play in and a small covered shelter. We made it there pretty early and got enough wood gathered together to cook dinner. At 5pm we started to hear thunder so we decided to cook dinner early. Just as we got the first batch on the fire, it poured rain and started to thunder and lightening. This lasted till about 7pm. The other cabins in our tribe that were at other campsites had already hiked back to camp. We were told to wait it out since we had a shelter. The rain went away by 7:30 and we built the fire back up from wet wood, which was interesting, and were able to get the meals cooked.
The weather was fine for the rest of the camp out.
2:30AM the next morning: I wake up because I heard something drop to the ground. I reach over to the pocket in my hammock and the bear mace is not there. I look around for it and finally see that it has fallen to the ground. I get one of the kids to pick it up and hand it to me. No big deal... When I go to put it back in the pouch, I notice that the safety clip has been flipped up. Not good... This is easy to fix though, in theory... All I had to do, per the directions, was just flip it back down and it's fixed. As I flip it down, a stream of bear mace shoot out into the air. Here's a little bit of background about bear mace.
Bear mace is like a high powered version of pepper spray. If sprayed directly into humans eyes it can cause serious damage. It if it gets on your skin or eyes indirectly then rinsing with soap and water does the trick. It does burn a little though. Bear mace is also a one time use. It's not like wasp/hornet spray where you can choose how much you spray. It's a one time shot that lasts about 5 seconds. It is used to spray in the face of a bear if they are getting ready to attack. It has the same effect that a normal can of pepper spray would have on a person. However, once sprayed, you must evacuate the campsite. Bear mace attracts bears, believe it or not... So, even if you spray it to get rid of a bear you still must leave. Once sprayed, you have about 30 min before bears start showing up.
Back to the story, the spray went off at 2:35am. By 2:55am we were hiking back up the trail. The response time to get everyone packed up and moved out was incredible. A few kids had come in contact with the spray, so we had them take a shower when the got back. The last person got back to the cabin by 3:30am. By 4am, everyone was in the cabin asleep. It was a long night to say the least, but at least everyone made it back safely.
It's kind of ironic, during the rain, while we were under the pavilion, I said a short prayer asking God to provide for us and get us through the night. Sometimes God has a funny sense of humor when answering prayers and doesn't always answer them in the way you want him to. Imagine that...
Last night, we went on our second camp out for this session. We went to a place called Joshua's Hollow. It was my first time at this camp site. It is one of the shortest hikes that you can take. There is a good size creek to play in and a small covered shelter. We made it there pretty early and got enough wood gathered together to cook dinner. At 5pm we started to hear thunder so we decided to cook dinner early. Just as we got the first batch on the fire, it poured rain and started to thunder and lightening. This lasted till about 7pm. The other cabins in our tribe that were at other campsites had already hiked back to camp. We were told to wait it out since we had a shelter. The rain went away by 7:30 and we built the fire back up from wet wood, which was interesting, and were able to get the meals cooked.
The weather was fine for the rest of the camp out.
2:30AM the next morning: I wake up because I heard something drop to the ground. I reach over to the pocket in my hammock and the bear mace is not there. I look around for it and finally see that it has fallen to the ground. I get one of the kids to pick it up and hand it to me. No big deal... When I go to put it back in the pouch, I notice that the safety clip has been flipped up. Not good... This is easy to fix though, in theory... All I had to do, per the directions, was just flip it back down and it's fixed. As I flip it down, a stream of bear mace shoot out into the air. Here's a little bit of background about bear mace.
Bear mace is like a high powered version of pepper spray. If sprayed directly into humans eyes it can cause serious damage. It if it gets on your skin or eyes indirectly then rinsing with soap and water does the trick. It does burn a little though. Bear mace is also a one time use. It's not like wasp/hornet spray where you can choose how much you spray. It's a one time shot that lasts about 5 seconds. It is used to spray in the face of a bear if they are getting ready to attack. It has the same effect that a normal can of pepper spray would have on a person. However, once sprayed, you must evacuate the campsite. Bear mace attracts bears, believe it or not... So, even if you spray it to get rid of a bear you still must leave. Once sprayed, you have about 30 min before bears start showing up.
Back to the story, the spray went off at 2:35am. By 2:55am we were hiking back up the trail. The response time to get everyone packed up and moved out was incredible. A few kids had come in contact with the spray, so we had them take a shower when the got back. The last person got back to the cabin by 3:30am. By 4am, everyone was in the cabin asleep. It was a long night to say the least, but at least everyone made it back safely.
It's kind of ironic, during the rain, while we were under the pavilion, I said a short prayer asking God to provide for us and get us through the night. Sometimes God has a funny sense of humor when answering prayers and doesn't always answer them in the way you want him to. Imagine that...
Friday, July 16, 2010
A beautiful thing...
Camp is awesome!!! This will definitely be a summer to remember. We have a great group of kids this session. We have a full cabin, 10 of them. Three extra kids makes a big difference, but a good one.
This past Monday we went on our first camp out and guess what we ran into again... Hornets... Short Story...
So, we are hiking to a place called Buck Flats. This is a hike that we have already done several times this session in our tribe. Other tribes have also gone on this hike several times. We have 69 kids that are going on this hike. We are in the first part of the hike, I am about 2/3 of the way in the back of the line. I am walking with a couple of kids as we go up and all of the sudden I hear a kid screaming really loudly up ahead. I take off running ahead to find a kid coming running towards me with hornets attached to him. Even though I am not a fan of stinging things myself, I do my best to get these hornets off the kid. After that, I try to get the kid calmed down, he has been stung several times, but luckily he isn't allergic. A few more kids come up behind us. I have them wait with me until more counselors arrive. Pretty soon a couple of more counselors make it up. We get the medical kid and give the kid some medicine. I then send two counselors ahead to see if they can find the nest. The come back and say that it's all clear. We then decide to walk in one group the rest of the way. We put a couple of counselors in front, the kids in the middle and then I round up the back. We then head up the the rest of the way. We get back into the woods on the trail and it's not but 3min later, the kids in front of me turn around screaming and running, so we run back to where we started. Somehow we got tangled up in the nest again. We re-group, send a couple of counselors ahead to check it out again. This time they found it. Hanging right over the trail in a branch was a hornets nest about the size of 2 basketballs. It was huge and we had made them mad. We created a trail around it and were able to get the kids safely that time through.
The crazy part is that we have all hiked that trail several times this past summer. In fact, the nest is so close to the trail that our heads have passed right by it every time. I guess, unfortunately this time one of the kids ran into it.
This Sunday night I will speaking in front of the whole camp at Vespers. Vespers is like a devotional time in the evening on Sunday right before Council Ring. I will be talking about a passage in the John 21: 1-14. This passage talks about finding Jesus in the most common places. Many campers at camp, including myself when I was a kid at Camp, feel that they feel "closer to Jesus" while at Camp. When we leave camp, we find ourselves wanting to change things in our lives but sometimes we fall short of doing so when we return back home. We sometimes feel that we have this "real life" and camp is different. The truth is that the feelings and the closeness that we experience at camp is something that we can experience at home in our daily lives. At camp, we are constantly surrounded by christian friends that we can talk to and be ourselves around. These kids are surrounded by christian men that they can look up to and talk to when ever they need to. When they go back home, they may not have all of this love and acceptance that they get at camp, but that doesn't mean that God is any less there. As I prepare to speak on Sunday, I ask that you will be in prayer for me that God will allow me to speak his words that night.
There is only 4 weeks left at camp this summer. It is going to go by all too quickly. Please pray that God will allow us to seize every moment with these kids, give us the strength to press on when we get tired and to give us spiritual strength to improve our own lives.
This past Monday we went on our first camp out and guess what we ran into again... Hornets... Short Story...
So, we are hiking to a place called Buck Flats. This is a hike that we have already done several times this session in our tribe. Other tribes have also gone on this hike several times. We have 69 kids that are going on this hike. We are in the first part of the hike, I am about 2/3 of the way in the back of the line. I am walking with a couple of kids as we go up and all of the sudden I hear a kid screaming really loudly up ahead. I take off running ahead to find a kid coming running towards me with hornets attached to him. Even though I am not a fan of stinging things myself, I do my best to get these hornets off the kid. After that, I try to get the kid calmed down, he has been stung several times, but luckily he isn't allergic. A few more kids come up behind us. I have them wait with me until more counselors arrive. Pretty soon a couple of more counselors make it up. We get the medical kid and give the kid some medicine. I then send two counselors ahead to see if they can find the nest. The come back and say that it's all clear. We then decide to walk in one group the rest of the way. We put a couple of counselors in front, the kids in the middle and then I round up the back. We then head up the the rest of the way. We get back into the woods on the trail and it's not but 3min later, the kids in front of me turn around screaming and running, so we run back to where we started. Somehow we got tangled up in the nest again. We re-group, send a couple of counselors ahead to check it out again. This time they found it. Hanging right over the trail in a branch was a hornets nest about the size of 2 basketballs. It was huge and we had made them mad. We created a trail around it and were able to get the kids safely that time through.
The crazy part is that we have all hiked that trail several times this past summer. In fact, the nest is so close to the trail that our heads have passed right by it every time. I guess, unfortunately this time one of the kids ran into it.
This Sunday night I will speaking in front of the whole camp at Vespers. Vespers is like a devotional time in the evening on Sunday right before Council Ring. I will be talking about a passage in the John 21: 1-14. This passage talks about finding Jesus in the most common places. Many campers at camp, including myself when I was a kid at Camp, feel that they feel "closer to Jesus" while at Camp. When we leave camp, we find ourselves wanting to change things in our lives but sometimes we fall short of doing so when we return back home. We sometimes feel that we have this "real life" and camp is different. The truth is that the feelings and the closeness that we experience at camp is something that we can experience at home in our daily lives. At camp, we are constantly surrounded by christian friends that we can talk to and be ourselves around. These kids are surrounded by christian men that they can look up to and talk to when ever they need to. When they go back home, they may not have all of this love and acceptance that they get at camp, but that doesn't mean that God is any less there. As I prepare to speak on Sunday, I ask that you will be in prayer for me that God will allow me to speak his words that night.
There is only 4 weeks left at camp this summer. It is going to go by all too quickly. Please pray that God will allow us to seize every moment with these kids, give us the strength to press on when we get tired and to give us spiritual strength to improve our own lives.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Halfway there...
The summer is halfway over. Session 1B has just wrapped up. We only have two more full sessions left and then the 1 week starter camp. It’s hard to believe that things are going by so quickly. This past session we had a great group of kids who were ready to talk and open up. It was awesome to be able to have those one-on- one conversation with kids that young. One kid in particular at camp, had some life changing experiences and did a complete 180 from where he was when he first came to camp.
Last Tuesday, we went on our second camp out for that session. We went to the Catawaba camp site. From there we were able to hike down to the Catawaba falls. This is one of my favorite campsites to go to. It is really a cool place to be. The campsite is situated in a valley, which does mean it gets darker a littler earlier than normal. But after you get to the site, you can hike down to the falls. The falls are about 200ft high. There is a little bit of room to climb on them before it gets too dangerous. The kids had a blast playing in the water and see all that there was to see. I have included a few pictures in this post so you can see how awesome it is.
Unfortunately, the hike back up to the campsite after our visit to the falls was not so successful. We were almost to the campsite, I was in the back of the line, and we had about 15 kids with us. All of the sudden, I hear kids screaming in front of me and they take off running. I look up and see this huge swarm of about 15-20 hornets fly out of the ground. All but two of the kids take off running towards the campsite. Two of them come running back towards me with hornets attached to them, stinging them. As you may already know, I absolutely hate anything that stings, with a passion. So I take off running backwards as well. We finally stop to assess the situation. We get the kids shirt’s off and kill the hornets that were on them. Then we sit there for a bit and let everyone calm down. In the end, we had 4-5 kids that were stung several times. We gave them all Benadryl when we got back and they were fine.
Here’s the coolest part of the hike. The next day we set off to hike back. To say the least, there are a few nervous people as we prepare to hike back up, afraid that we will run into another nest, me included. We actually do run into another nest on the way back…. The kids had all walked over it, I was in the very back, No one got stung though, I had them run and we got away in time. Here’s the cool part though…. As we are hiking back, every single scenario is running through my mind, what if we run into another nest, what if this happens, what if that happens, how we will handle it. I was scared out of my mind to say the least, but I couldn’t show it. The kids couldn’t see how scared I was, that wouldn’t have helped the situation. About 20 min into the hike I realized something, I was trying to do this on my own, I wasn’t asking God for help, I wasn’t asking for his guidance. Right there on the hike up, I prayed and asked God to take all these fears from me. I couldn’t do this on my own; I needed his help and strength. The Jeremy camp song “Trust in You” kept ringing in my head and I thought about the words to that song on the hike up. A few minutes later, all my fears were gone. I felt completely different. It was amazing. God works in many different ways, sometimes he answers prayers directly, and this was one of those times.
For this next session, session 2A, we will have a full cabin of 10 kids. I already know that some of these kids are coming in with heavy burdens on their hearts so I will ask that you keep them in your prayers as they begin camp next week. I would like to leave you with one final thought from a morning watch last session. To be fully known with God means that we have to be willing to admit that “we are nothing but he is everything.” This is something that we were really focusing on in our cabin the past couple of weeks. We all have burdens in our lives. We have to be willing to give all of those up to God, no matter what they are, no matter how difficult it is, we have to give it all up to him, because he is the only one who can give us true peace and rest.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Hard Work... Greater Rewards
Well... we are almost a week into the second session of the summer, Session 1B. We have another great group of kids in the cabin this time. We have 7 kids, with a couple of them from Alabama. This session has been going by slowly, but that is a good thing. This session has been stressful, mentally. But it has also been very rewarding.
There have been several opportunities to reach out to the kids in my cabin. I ask that you keep each of them in your prayers as several of them are dealing with some difficult things. While these are only 10-11 yr old boys, they are dealing with some pretty adult stuff. Stuff that you wouldn't normally expect until the teen years.
One of my kids believes in God, accepts that he be forgiven for his sins, no matter what he does, but is struggling greatly with the guilt for his past sins. Another kid, who seemed to have it all together on the outside, completely broke down last night after camp fire. He began to question whether he really had faith in God. The list goes on, but as you can see, God is present at camp this session, more than ever.
It has been amazing having these conversation with these kids every night. I don't think I have gone a night this session where I haven't been sitting down with one of them and talking to them about Jesus and how amazing he is. This is what camp is all about. Building these relationships with these kids and telling them about this awesome guy named Jesus.
During the Session the staff get's one day off, either Thursday or Friday. Friday is my day off during a session. That means, for those two days we only have half of the staff at camp. On Thursday, I took the big chair. Our Tribal Leader had his day off and I took over his responsibilities as well as my cabin staff duties. At Camp each tribe has a Tribal Leader. The TL is in charge of the whole tribe. So yesterday, I took care of my kids as well as being in charge of the whole tribe. This involved some extra work on my part for the day, but the majority of the day went smoothly. The greatest compliment that I received yesterday was from the Asst. Program Director and he told me that I would make a good TL and should apply for the position next year.
We have a less than a week left with these kids. There is a lot of work to be done. I think this next week these kids will open up even more. I am excited to see what the week will hold.
On a personal note, I have found myself developing some good spiritual habits. I find myself praying more, going to the bible for guidance and feeling overall more spiritual sound. There is still a lot of work to be done and I am continuously praying that God will continue to strengthen me for what ever comes my way.
There have been several opportunities to reach out to the kids in my cabin. I ask that you keep each of them in your prayers as several of them are dealing with some difficult things. While these are only 10-11 yr old boys, they are dealing with some pretty adult stuff. Stuff that you wouldn't normally expect until the teen years.
One of my kids believes in God, accepts that he be forgiven for his sins, no matter what he does, but is struggling greatly with the guilt for his past sins. Another kid, who seemed to have it all together on the outside, completely broke down last night after camp fire. He began to question whether he really had faith in God. The list goes on, but as you can see, God is present at camp this session, more than ever.
It has been amazing having these conversation with these kids every night. I don't think I have gone a night this session where I haven't been sitting down with one of them and talking to them about Jesus and how amazing he is. This is what camp is all about. Building these relationships with these kids and telling them about this awesome guy named Jesus.
During the Session the staff get's one day off, either Thursday or Friday. Friday is my day off during a session. That means, for those two days we only have half of the staff at camp. On Thursday, I took the big chair. Our Tribal Leader had his day off and I took over his responsibilities as well as my cabin staff duties. At Camp each tribe has a Tribal Leader. The TL is in charge of the whole tribe. So yesterday, I took care of my kids as well as being in charge of the whole tribe. This involved some extra work on my part for the day, but the majority of the day went smoothly. The greatest compliment that I received yesterday was from the Asst. Program Director and he told me that I would make a good TL and should apply for the position next year.
We have a less than a week left with these kids. There is a lot of work to be done. I think this next week these kids will open up even more. I am excited to see what the week will hold.
On a personal note, I have found myself developing some good spiritual habits. I find myself praying more, going to the bible for guidance and feeling overall more spiritual sound. There is still a lot of work to be done and I am continuously praying that God will continue to strengthen me for what ever comes my way.
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