Lookout Point

Well, I finally did it.  I finally got Luke talked into asking Katrina about horses so he could take Lu and I up to Lookout Point.  What an adventure!  :)

I rode Zeke,

and it was one fantastic ride up the bluff to Lookout Point!

The view was incredible, and the conversations are unforgettable!  We captured so many moments in photos from the adventure.  I'll share a few.

The view.

The friends.

The boots.

God has given me so many amazing adventures and friends here at camp, and this is just a small little glimpse.  

The Wrangler Strut

This week was a wonderful week of Horsemanship Level 2.  I was excited to break in my boots, and slightly disappointed that I only had one pair of jeans for the entire week since I sent my other pair home with my parents a couple of weeks ago.  I even got a radio!  WHOA!

It was a great week of laughter, challenges to overcome, sweat, camping out, saddles, and runs through the hay field.  I helped out during the afternoon arena lesson with Luke.  It was so much fun!  He made them work hard, but they also enjoyed all their time with him.

During every horsemanship camp there is a trail ride to the campsite and then a camp out.  BEST.CAMP.OUT.EVER.  It was a fantastic night!  I got to ride Jackson who I've never ridden before.

I also did this wonderful direction of setting up the tent...

All in all it was a great week and I'm so glad that I was given the opportunity to be a horsemanship counselor.  On Saturdays during our staff meetings, we give shout outs.  Andrew gave us horsemanship counselors a shout out with a special one to me for getting the Wrangler Strut down with my boots, jeans, shades on my head, and radio on the back of my belt.  :)

Prayer requests for the week include soft hearts, more rain, wisdom and direction for my job for the week, staff/volunteers for the last couple weeks of camp, and health for the staff.

Orphan

This week was Family 2, but I didn't have a family.  Also, I'm stealing the title of this blog from Lu!  :)

I needed a recharge.  My introvert self was slowly dying after weeks and weeks of campers and kids, not that I don't like what I do, I just have been doing things different this year and didn't realize the impact it had on me until the end of this week.

I was put in the bakery and it was WONDERFUL!  I'm not even lying!  Sure, it was hot, but it was so much fun to work on my skills as a bread maker and learn some new skills as well.  It's unbelievable how much I could crank out in 6 hours.  I also got to spend lunch time in the servery greeting guests, cleaning up messes, and refilling food.  Naturally, I got to smile and look pretty!  :)  I then got to spend the whole afternoon in the Craft Room where I got mail caught up, created a new craft, helped many people and had my TAG time.  I can't believe how much of a different person I feel at the end of this week even with all of the hard work that this week brought.

I GET TO BE A HORSEMANSHIP COUNSELOR NEXT WEEK!!!!!!!  I'm sooooooooo excited!!!  I get to ride, camp out, and watch a movie in the barn!  I will have 4 girls and there are 3 boys coming too.  I'm so looking forward to the week and the chance to be friends with my Justins again!  :)

Prayer requests include soft hearts, more rain, continued transformations in the lives of campers, and continued energy, enthusiasm, and unity for us staff.

Tuck it in and hike it up!

Young Teen 2 is in the bag, and I'm not gonna lie, it was one rough week!  It was my hardest week out of the past two summers combined, but it was still good.  I had a cabin of 7 girls that all knew each other, and only one of them was having her first summer at camp.  This week made me realize the difference 8 years makes for the 13 year old girls of today's world compared to that of when I was 13.

My girls were all amazing.  A couple of girls are where I was at 13.  Just kind of sitting.  They aren't really pushing forward, but they know enough not to regress and fall into obvious sin traps of today.  A few of my girls were reading their Bibles at other times besides TAG time and could tell me where they have seen God working in their lives.  I had one girl who is just so broken and blind to that brokenness.  My heart just ached as she told me her story and aches because she doesn't have that many people who are pouring good things into her.  She is really hurting, but not reaching out.  Please pray for her.  These campers all find their way into my heart so very quickly and it's sometimes so hard to send them back to homes that are broken and to places where you know they won't get poured into like they do here.  The campfire night was a very emotional point in the week.  They all came back crying and we talked for a long time, and cried too.  The week drained me.  I was also a little distracted by the thought of my parents coming to visit me, waiting impatiently for mail, and thinking about Whit's journey to Africa.

I had the best instruction hour assignment!  I did trampoline as kids got done with their hours.  This meant that we only had to do it for about 15 minutes!  :)

I also was in charge of hiking/photography this week.  It was a ton of fun!  :)

I found a backpack buddy!

It also rained!  :)

We played Dodge ball!

God is so good, even when life it hard.  Even with so much hurt and longing in this world, He is still here.  I have been given a week to kind of recharge.  I'm in the bakery from 6am-noon, work in the servery, and then I head to the Craft Room for the afternoon.  This week is going well, but I miss my friends who thought they needed a week off...Lu and Alison!  No video this week, the weekend was too much fun!  :)

LAKESIDE!

WHAT A WEEK!  It's been a hot and happy week here in the Valley!  Family 1 is in the bag and I loved every minute of it!  I got to drive the Lakeside van and it is a beast!  I love it!  :)  Lakeside was a practical hotbox, but so peaceful being away from the rest of the camp.  I had a wonderful family and learned so much this week!  My children were all so precious as were the other kids who came.  The week was filled with laughter, puppies, kittens, chicks, dam additions to tubing in the crick, naps, pony rides, and sweat.  I seriously feel like I've been sweating since last Saturday.

I had a little girl in my family who looked just like I did at that age and was just as shy and bashful as I was.  My goal was to get her talking by the end of the week.  I did well.  She would start talking to a few of the other girls!  She also didn't like her photo taken, that was me also!  She finally did take a really good one with me on Saturday.  I learned a lot about potty training and had a bubbly baby to help.  He was one of the best babies that I've had to go down for naps and sleep at night!  I learned quite a bit about life in India.  It was really great to have this family!  Nap time was great because I always tried to take one too, but it didn't always work.  One afternoon, I was able to get a ton of encouragement notes to staff written!  :)

We had our chapel groups that we started planning the second week of summer.  We do have some debriefing to do, but I do feel like it went well, and the kids seem to enjoy the lessons as well as the missionary stories.  It was a lot of fun to be Corrie ten Boom, but sometimes the questions at the end seemed to turn things into a history lesson.

Prayer requests for the week ahead include health for the staff who have been battling colds and such, RAIN, RAIN, RAIN, soft hearts, RAIN, RAIN, RAIN, continued unity among the staff, RAIN, RAIN, RAIN.  I'm sensing a theme.  :)

June 2012

This post is a little late only because I've been so wonderfully busy and exhausted!  I love camp!  :)

Low:

• I lost my voice playing dodgeball during Senior High week here at camp, but it was sooooo worth it!
• I was taking an online class and it was hard for the first and last week to have stuff due everyday of the week and have spotty internet.  Good thing the end of June brought the end of the class!  I had to do 7 Dippy Dips to celebrate.  :)
• There is only 6 more weeks of camp for me.  

High:

• CAMP.  Seriously, just go back through my blogs for the past few weeks.  There is so much that goes on that I feel I can't list here.  Its just been so wonderful up here!  I get to serve God by way of counseling His children and its just been amazing!
• One of my goals for the summer/forever is to work on Scripture references and fine tuning verse memorization.  It's going alright.  I'm glad I decided to work on it though.
• I've had 2 camp outs and 2 times up to Trail Breakfast.  Stars are a beautiful creation!  
• Weekend outings have been a BLAST even if the ice skating rink was closed last weekend.  Its been so much fun to connect to the staff even more and do uncamp related activities.  I've also frequented The Skinny Dip almost every weekend for chicken strips and cheese balls!

• I found out on the last day of June that I would be spending a week at Lakeside!  I LOVE this cabin! Sure, it's a little hot, but it is so peaceful to be away from the rest of the camp and to pick red raspberries right away in the morning.
• God has just been working here in the Valley and it's amazing to be a part of this ministry here.  There is a lot of unity among the staff and there has been much laughter and encouragement all around.
• I chopped 9 inches of hair off during Senior High week!  It feels wonderful to have short hair again!  The time was right and I don't regret not being able to wait until August to cut it!  :)

I thought I would leave you with some adventurous pictures from the month here at camp!  :)

The wranglers didn't let me ride like this though...

Lu and I really are partners in crime...

I managed to throw my keys on the roof, and then almost hit Alison in the face...

We participated in the first ever VCBC Dance Party!  I had the best dancing shoes...

Its been amazing, June.  July, you've been good so far!  Keep it up!  :)