What awesome and amazing things that can be done when you are in the hands of God. This summer has truly been an amazing experience.
This past week was Starter Camp. It is a one week camp for brand new campers for the Apache (7-9 yr olds) and Shawnee (10-11 yr olds). The majority of the staff leave and we get some new folks. We have a lot of people who come to work just this on week who have been around camp for a while. We have former Program directors and Tribal Leaders that come in to work. It's really cool to work with these people who have been around camp for a while and just love to come back to camp and work.
We had a great group of kids this past week and it was an excellent way to end the summer. On Thursday, our last night at camp, we had just finished camp fire and some bears came into camp and were coming down the road. Some of us (staff, not kids) took off down the road actually chasing the bear. As we got down the road, papa bear came out of the woods followed by Mama bear. Although we should have stopped, we kept chasing. We chased them all around the camp. There were enough of us, so they were scared but still, not the smartest thing to do. It was a lot of fun though.
Since returning from camp, there have definitely been things that I have missed, others, not so much. Here are a few:
1)Being waken up ever 1/2 hour from midnight to 5am because a kid was sick or needed to go to the bathroom.
2) Walking around shirtless everywhere and being able to pee anywhere
3) Having to ask a dozen times for something to be passed during meals
4) The amazing cool mountain weather every day.
5) Being able to do the most crazy and ridiculous stuff and knowing that there is someone that will join in with you or someone who will do something even more crazy or ridiculous.
6) Losing 18lbs at camp
7) Camp food
8) My kids
9) The "brotherhood" of staff
10) Camp
"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.
The biggest thing that I have learned from God is that he has a plan for all of us. We should not focus too much on that plan though and the end result. God will give us that end result in time. God cares most about the process that we go through. His purpose is the process itself, God is not working towards a particular goal. Before I left for camp I spoke at TBC about faith and the story of Jesus walking on water. There is some good imagery there that talks about when Jesus walks on the water. In Mark 6 this story is told again. In talking about God's purpose and the process that we go through, what God desires for us most is that we see him "walking on the sea" with no shore, no success, no goal in sight but having the absolute certainty that everything is alright because I see "him walking on the sea" (6:49). God is preparing us for now, not later. His prupose is for this very minute, not for sometime in the future. What people call preparation, God see's as the goal itself. God's purpose is to enable us to see that he can walk on the storms of my life right now. If we have a further goal in mind, we are not paying enough attention to the present time. If we realize that moment-by-moment obedience is the goal, then each moment as it comes is precious.
I know over the next few days, I will reflect on this past summer and all that has been done. I hope God is up there saying "job well done. Coming away from camp, I feel that I have have made a difference, or at least that is my hope. Thinking back to the beginning of the summer and all that has happened has been overwhelming. This was a summer of being filled with God's presence each and every day. Changing lives through discipleship and adventure. That is camps mission. Lives have been changed, and it has been cool not only to see that, but to be able to say that I was a part of it. I'm not just talking about being there and being ready for when it comes, but actually being in the cabin and having those one-on-one, sometimes heartbreaking conversations with my kids.
I would be lying if I said that I wasn't tired by now, because I am. Only being back a couple of days from camp, I still find myself finding camp in everything I do and everywhere I go. Saturday morning, I woke up at 6:30am (7:30 camp time). That is when we woke up. As much as I wanted to go back to sleep, I couldn't. This morning (Sunday), I was up by 5am and couldn't go back to sleep. I know that will change in time. Every time I see kids, whether walking in Walmart or somewhere else, I think, "oh, that's an apache, or that's a shawnee".
I already know where I want to be next summer. There is still much work to be done and I can't wait to be a part of it again.
