Junior High #1 (or should I call it death week?)

Junior High.
Probably my favorite age group to work with. For several reasons.
1. They're old enough to have an intelligent conversation, and they know a lot of stuff.
2. They're not too cool to do stuff. Which makes my job WAY easier.
3. They think I'm cool. :)

So, after that being said, you might be like why would you call it death week?

Well, lucky me was entrusted with a lovely girl this week who was very not a stereotypical junior high girl. Sigh.

I spent the week yelling, arguing, drying tears, fixing drama, and pulling my hair out.

Needless to say, this girl was a handful. And, by the second day she decided that my other campers hated her/ she hated them. Not the best way to create cabin unity or happiness.

A typical day would consist of getting up at 6:30 to shower, then I would read my Bible as they either played or also read. We went to flag raising then breakfast. However, anything after that easily became a challenge. Cabin cleanup became a nightmare that I only heard about because we have counselor meeting during that time. I usually heard that so and so yelled or didn't clean, or left early without the others. Then came chapel, which somehow became the hardest part. Just getting her into the chapel and sitting down was a miracle. I never expected to be outwardly told NO. over and over. I would ask nicely like..."Please come to chapel with me?" But it was instantly a NO, i dont like those girls. So, i learned quickly that no pleases were allowed, because that made whatever i was saying into a question. It ended up being. Come to chapel. NOW. I don't want to hear attitude. Come in here right now. I'm not asking again.

So, this for me was a challenge. I don't like being mean or that authoritative, but, wow did I need to be.

Along with this happening each chapel or activity, she thought she had every illness in the book. Aand she literally cried every 5 minutes. That is not an exaggeration. I didn't know what do do with myself. Since I cry like never. She cried over everything. And i just didn't get it. So, I wasn't probably as sympathetic as she would have liked. Oh well. :)

But above all that, bed time was the worst. By far. At that time of night she was tired, as was everyone else, and so she was also emotional and irritable. We had devotions one night last week. She would refuse to sleep in our cabin because she didn't like the other girls. She would act as if she was going to leave the cabin and sleep outside. Or sometimes she would pick up her sleeping bag, pillow and stuffed animal and just leave. To which I would have to follow her. She would only talk to men about how she felt, which made things difficult.

But there you have it. Along with dealing with her, I attempted to love and spend time with my three other super sweet campers.

Sooo, to give ya'll a feel for my cabin, here are some pics!

Back door.

My bed...

Front door.

My campers!

Yes, i know that they're all almost as big (or bigger) than me. 

Two super cool dudes. Jack and Ethan. 

Last day. we're exhausted. 

I love me some Sandy. :)

Well thats it for last week. I'm just gearing up for my new campers to come. 

Thanks for the letters!!! :)

I promise I'll respond ASAP.

But seriously, they made my week SOOOO much better.

Love you all!

OOOHHHH

P.s.

For anyone who cares..my bro got engaged early this week...and he's getting married in AUGUST.

AHHH

life is flying by this summer.

Thats all. for real.

High School #1

What a first week.

It started out on Sunday night with a trip to the malt shop with some super cool people that I hadn't seen in a long while. Then, we had a super sweet crib tournament. Eric and I were partners, and made it to the finals where we lost. Sad day, but we definitely dominated. If you're at all associated with camp I'm sorry you've heard this a billion times, but if you're not, we had 82 points then at the end of ONE HAND we won. which is 121. Yah, it was crazay.

So, Monday morning came and we had our book study. We're reading Why We Love The Church, and I'm pretty stoked. I was a little nervous for the mesh of my cabin just because I knew some of the girls in it, and they were very different, plus I had a co-counselor that was quite different from me, although cool nonetheless.

Overall it was a super great week. My campers were (for the most part) happy and willing to do stuff. We definitely had some rough spots (one being my camper piercing her nose) and some other rough stuff, but thats life.

Here are a few pics to show you a little bit what my week looks like.

Awkward first day picture. It was SO hot. 

Counselor hunt!

Two awesome guys: Tay and Eric.

After the talent show. We rocked some sweet interpretive dancing moves to Barlow Girl beauty from pain. Be jealous you missed it. ;)

Me n Eric doin what we do best. Being losers. 

Friends after the ineloquent concert. SO good. 

Lauren rocked the opener too. You Go girl!

For old times sake. :)

Last morning picture. Tired and ready for a nap!

This next week is junior high and I'm already loving it. More about that later though....

Training Week

With training week behind me, I sit exhausted on my couch at home.

Quick run down of what happened between tuesday and now...

Wednesday we woke up and had CPR plus First aid training, then after lunch we were blindfolded thrown in the back of a pickup and driven off camp property. After a bit of driving we could tell we were on a really muddy road, and we got stuck. They told us to get out of the trucks, and we got to do a team building activity.

They told us our plane had crashed in the amazon and we had to decide what to do. We each got a persona, and we got to pick seven items to help us survive. With 15 people all trying to give input, it was slightly difficult. We had to tell Tyson and the other leaders exactly what we would do. For example, we decided to make camp, but that isn't specific enough. So, we had to say that we were going to use our lighter to get a fire going and then we were going to sleep. It got kinda ridiculous. Anyway...so we did that trying to survive, all the while trying to walk in heinously muddy shoes. Not to mention it started raining. We did eventually make it back to camp, tired, hungry, exhausted, frustrated, and discouraged. But our group discussion of the game later that night revealed that we actually did well.

I honestly can't remember what happened thursday and Friday, but it was a good ol time and I'm ready to crash.

Gospel 101

Alrighty, so this week at camp is what we like to call gospel 101. Basically we as counselors and our fearless leader Tyson go over the main ideas of our Christian faith discussing them in depth, and practice how to talk to kids about them. Its amazing how much time this can take up. At least 8 hours of each day is devoted to this talk, plus meals and a few hours of staff bonding. This makes for tiring days, but good nonetheless. 

So, to get you all into the mood that I'm experiencing, here is a song we listened to that I really liked.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otx49Ko3fxw

(lyrics)

His father was a drinker

And his mother cried in bed

Folding John Wayne's T-shirts

When the swingset hit his head

The neighbors they adored him

For his humor and his conversation

Look underneath the house there

Find the few living things

Rotting fast in their sleep of the dead

Twenty-seven people, even more

They were boys with their cars, summer jobs

Oh my God

Are you one of them?

He dressed up like a clown for them

With his face paint white and red

And on his best behavior

In a dark room on the bed he kissed them all

He'd kill ten thousand people

With a sleight of his hand

Running far, running fast to the dead

He took of all their clothes for them

He put a cloth on their lips

Quiet hands, quiet kiss

On the mouth

And in my best behavior

I am really just like him

Look beneath the floorboards

For the secrets I have hid

Any thoughts about it?

The main thought for us at camp was....if we don't consider our sins (and us on our best behavior) as wretched and as horrible as John Wayne Gasey Jr.'s sin, then we don't understand the depth and the weight of our sin. 

Crazay thoughts. But good ones.

Here are a few other big ideas that struck me, just for funsies. 
*The most important thought you think is the thought you think about God; because it determines what you think about everything else. 
*The trinity. One God, three persons. Crazy but beautiful. 
*People learn more about God by how we pray and sing than how we preach and teach. 
*He is jealous for me. Meaning: when His love meets my love for something that isn't Him. 
*Something I got backwards, and you might have too: The picture of Christ and the church as bride and bridegroom is reality. What we experience as earthly marriage is just a watered down imitation and representation of Christ and his church. 
*The significance of Jesus being completely human and completely God. He couldn't have taken our punishment as humans and for us as humans without himself being a human. However, he could not have given us the new nature we need unless he was fully God. 
*The fall of satan was his action of tempting and causing Adam and Eve to sin. 
*Hard question: Could I praise God for my condemnation? He is glorified when my sin is punished. Yikes.
*Praying out loud....alone. Try it. It's weird, but good. 
*Faith requires emotion, knowledge, and action. All three are necessary. 
*Where doctrine is least wanted, it is most needed. 

Those are some of the many thoughts challenging me and helping me grow this week.

However....

It's not all theology and seriousness. We're having fun too. I'll post some more pictures when I attain them, but here are a few from our afternoon activities today!

80's work out gear my friends. :)

We filmed a video and later after dinner we're headed to the roller rink.

Stay tuned for more theology and fun from training week!! :)