Where to Start???

There's just NO good place to start when you're this far behind! But if I don't blog something it'll just keep on getting worse, right? It seems like I should start with Camp, then maybe catch the other stuff here and there if I ever get time. Okay, truthfully, I have no idea what "the other stuff" is--I can't remember much about the past month because it's been pretty well consumed in Camp preparations! I did LOTS of praying and trying to prepare myself for The Great Unknown, otherwise referred to as Alabama Family Camp.

I think I mentioned that I was the cabin leader for the 15-19 year old girls. I had feared that there would be 10 or 12 of them, all perfect heathens that I wouldn't have a clue what to do with! Ha! As it turns out there were only 5 girls, one of each age: Ashley Werkheiser (15 -- I'm sooooo glad she was there! It gave me one girl I already knew, along with other reasons it was wonderful to have her there!), Savannah (16), Brandi (17), Emily (18), and Stephanie (19). I must confess that the first day was horribly uncomfortable--simply because I have a terrible time finding my niche in "new" situations. But by the time we hit mid-day on Thursday it's like something just sort of clicked, either with the girls or with me, and it was smooth sailing from then on out. I felt totally and completely comfortable with them, had a great time with them, got more and more at ease with getting on to them when necessary (ha!), and ended up LOVING this teen cabin leader job. :-) It was a blast and a blessing! Our cabin devotions went very well. I think. ;-) I talked to them about modesty one day and dating another day. I could really feel the Lord helping me with the right things to say and--however the girls end up responding to it all--their eyes were glued to me the whole time. Those are topics of interest to young people--they want to hear about them. Those are topics that we have a lot of "rules" about, but often times young people are never taught WHY the rules are there. I know that there have been things taught and preached in this state about these things in the past few years, so it's not like it was the first time these girls had heard it. But they acted like it! Ha! Maybe it was the intimate "just the six of us" cabin setting or something, but they were right with me. One girl went and changed clothes (without being told--yeah!!!) right after our modesty devotion, then came and thanked me and asked me for a copy of the devotion later on. Another girl came to me the next day and told me how the dating devotion had really gotten to her and that God was dealing with her. :-) God is sooooo good. I remember making all of those choices and decisions as a teenager in these specific areas. It's tough to do at the time, but I'm so, so, sooooo thankful that God placed people in my life to teach me and train me in the ways of righteousness instead of just slapping a list of rules in front of me without explaining any of them. In the end, I feel soooooooooooo blessed to have been given the opportunity to share some of the things God worked in my heart about with other girls who seemed so hungry for it. God is moving in His Church and I just felt so unworthy, but grateful, to be able to be a part of what He's doing!

And then one day we hauled a bed frame, nine mattresses, and the pillows and such that went to them down from a second story room, loaded them into the truck of a willing accomplice, hauled them to the middle of the campground and stacked them up, leaving them for the rightful owners (and everybody else) to discover on their way back to the cabins after lunch. :-) I could tell my girls were getting "pranky" and wanting to do something big and I didn't want them doing something I didn't know about. I wanted to be sure that whatever they did was fun, but harmless (not damaging personal or campground property), was away from the boys' dorms, wasn't embarrassing for anyone--you know, all the rules of a good, clean prank. So I HAD to help them, right?! ;-) I've got to say that I was a little worried when it was first discovered. Lots of people laughed and thought it was great, but there were some people who were disturbingly quiet. It's THEN that I thought, "Uh-oh... I hope nobody gets offended by this!!!" I'm one of those people who thinks of things after. I know there are some people who may not feel like it's "respectable" to be involved in "nonsense" and I just felt sick over it, wondering if there was anybody like that at this camp and if it would reflect on their feelings toward my husband and his ministry. I walked over to the "quiet" side of the crowd and tried to save it. "If I get kicked out of Camp on my very first year, please don't hold it against my husband--he didn't know anything about this and had nothing to do with it!" About that time James came walking down the hill holding up both thumbs, saying, "This is great! That's the best prank I've ever seen!" HA! Okay, I tried--he's on his own now!!! ;-) I did lots of checking around and, unless they're not coming clean with me (ha!), the quiet folks were mostly quiet because they were wondering what everybody else was thinking and ended up laughing over it later on. So far I haven't found anybody who was offended or thought it was out of line, so I'm hoping that everybody took it as the good, clean fun it was intended to be. So at this point, I'm pleased that we were able to pull it off--it was fun (though exhausting and HOT!) and the girls will have great memories of it--and everybody else seems to be okay with it. We had several compliments on how great it was, but they would mean nothing at all if I discovered that just one person was upset over it--that would kill me! But from what I can tell, we're all good. Even some of the quiet folks came around later and talked about what they "used" to do at Camp and how fun it was. :-)

Anyway, I had lots of FUN with the girls, as well as everybody else. The classes were good, the clubs were fun (though Sam wasn't very happy about having to be in Cake Decorating Club--it was the only one available for his age other than choir, which entails standing in front of people and singing: no way!), the services were great, the sermons were really good (if a little long--ha!--James was the evangelist), the Fun Time was fantastic--everything was just so, so good. It sounds like they really faced some struggles at Camp last year and everybody was so relieved to have such a good, trouble-free Camp this year--especially me! Ha! God was merciful to let us slide in on an easy year. ;-) Oh, and they have a TERRIFIC campground here!!! I was a little overwhelmed by the price ($110 no matter your age--that would make it tough for a lot of families!) and had intentions of looking around to see if perhaps there was a cheaper campground somewhere that would work for Camp. Huh-uh, not now! Ha! The facilities are amazing and meet every need you could possibly have at Camp. And they have--hands down--the BEST swimming pool I've ever been in. :-) It's been years (5 years, maybe?!) since we've been able to swim, so the kids and I just ate it up! It was FANTASTIC, especially considering how HOT it was the last two days. Sooooo relieving to be able to get into the pool. :-)

What else? I loved Camp because it gave us a chance to get to know all of the folks better! That's always been my favorite thing about Camp. Something happens when you are LIVING together for a week, eating together, worshipping together, working together, sweating together (ha!), playing together, praying together, laughing together... it just does something to knit your hearts together and brings about a nearness and a unity that just can't be accomplished in a Convention setting. I LOVE IT. :-)

The other great joy of Camp was watching Brother Ridlespurge chase all those little boys all over the campground all week. HA! It was GREAT. He had the 6-10 year old boys and I think there were six of them. He did a great job with them (it's got to be one of the toughest--and amusing--jobs at Camp!) and I was so thankful to know that both of my boys were in his group. They did great and loved every minute of it. Well, as far as I know they did great. They could have been holy terrors, for all I know! This is the first time we've ever been in a setting like this, where we didn't have our children under our own supervision. To be honest, it really freaked me out and we did LOTS and LOTS of praying about it ahead of time! But it worked out great and I was surprised to learn that they were probably more heavily supervised than what they've been before under our own watch in the past. Out west all of the kids sort of run loose during free time with parents checking on them and relaying messages about who's where and what they're up to. Here they were with their group and counsellor pretty much all the time. Watched like hawks. That's the way I like it, I'm just used to being the one doing the watching. I WAS the one doing the watching, but I was watching 5 teenage girls--a brand new and exciting challenge all its own. :-)

~whew~ I started writing this early this morning. Just now finished up--though "finished" is a silly word to use. I'm sure there's lots more camp stuff to share, but I'm sooooo tired and not able to think of any of it. It's way past bedtime now, so I'll call it quits. I must apologize for my complete and utter failure in the picture department. Believe it or not, I didn't take a single shot at Camp. What is wrong with me?! Weird. One of these days I'll snag some pictures off of Facebook to put on here--but there aren't just a whole lot available just yet. Give it time. :-)