"Ever morning, until you dead in the ground, you gone have to make this decision. You gone have to ask yourself, "Am I gone believe what them fools say about me today?"
-Kathryn Stockett (The Help)
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Sweets and Treats
What an amazing summer it has been! I have so many emotions running through my head right now but I am also running on five hours of sleep so bear with me :) This summer at Cho-Yeh has completely blown me away. I had one of my best summers yet and I can't believe that camp is now over. I spent eight weeks there and last night it all came to a close. Not only did I meet some amazing kids, but I had the chance to share my faith with them and really love on them.
I came into this summer with a lot of expectations and thinking I knew what I was in store for. Was I ever wrong! I knew I would probably meet some nice people at camp but I had no idea who God was going to place in my life. Let me start at the begining. At staff training I felt at home, like I already knew these people. I had always been on the shy side and everyone was just so welcoming and easy to talk to! I had signed up to take the first three weeks off so it felt like as soon as I had met these people I had to leave. Upon coming back I found out that I had a cabin of some of the oldest girls in camp. I had preffed to have the youngest! This came as a shock to me and to say the least I was scared out of my mind. I didnt feel equipped to talk to these girls. I didnt feel that I could connect with them on a deeper level. I knew I could be silly with them but had no idea how I would lead them. God was good! He gave me the words that were not my own but His. He provided and I ended up having a great week. As much as I doubted about my placement at the begining of the week, by the end I knew I was where I was supposed to be!
My second week there I was on what was called "A Team" which is a lot of behind the scenes work. This was awesome because I really got to know the counselors better this week. We had a lot of off time and had the chance to get to know everyone at camp better. God showed me that you can still be serving Him behind the scenes. After this week though I requested to be in Sweetgum (which is the elementary age cabins.) Again I came into that next week with my own expectations. I expected to play with the girls, love on the girls, and have a blast! I thought the conversations wouldn't go much deeper than "God loves you!" Wow, was I ever wrong! God had different plans for me that week. There was a little girl named Peyton who came up to me one night and said "How do I have a relationship with Jesus?" This led into an hour long discussion of how much God loved His child and how you can have a deeper relationship with Him. It was amazing to be able to talk to her and really get to know her and teach her. A lot of her questions were hard and I again had this feeling of being inadequate but it was probably one of the best nights of camp and God really shook me and showed me again that this summer was all about what He had planned and not me at all! Needless to say, my expectations were off once again in this situation. The rest of the weeks were spent in Sweetgum for me. I could go on and on with countless stories from this summer but I will spare you! I had fourth grade every week and I loved that age. They were so much fun and really were understanding what you had to say but also just wanted to love on you.
The people I met at Cho-Yeh are amazing! I truly feel blessed that I had the oppurtunity to meet all of them. Like I said earlier, I figured I would get to meet some cool people but I had no idea how much fellowship and growth would take place. I have never been a part of a body of believers like that. Everyone encouraged one another and I can honestly say that I loved everyone there! I met some amazing new friends and luckily for me a lot of them are Aggies so I can see them often. They really built me up spiritually and showed me how I should be living. I have never met so many people who are so bold in their faith. I had some friends spend the night at the lake and as we were talking last night the idea of leading our own church service came up and everyone was for it so this morning we woke up at 6:15 and had church! One of my friends leading the devo this morning said "If you had told me at the begining of this summer I would be sitting here on a dock leading a 'church service' I would have laughed at you" and I couldn't agree more. While I didnt actually lead it, I never would have guessed that I would have grown so close to these friends in such a short amount of time that we would be worshiping together on our own and just talking about our Saviour! It is really awesome to see these new friendships be Christ-centered. God has really blessed me with some awesome new friends. Ironically I actually knew a few of these people before coming to camp and never took the time to actually get to know them. Luckily we got a second chance :)
The theme for the summer was surrender. I had always perceived surrending as a negative but I was looking at it wrong. Surrending can sometimes be the best thing! I was challenged by this and really had the oppurtunity to think about what I want my life to look like and what I want to surrender. I had a lot of different answers but some of the main ones were worry and my plans for my life. Worry because I am a worrier and I tend to want everything to be 'okay' and 'in line' and when it's not I get worried. Although my favrorite bible verse, Philippians 4:6, is all about not worrying I still had never thought of it as surrendering my worries to God and letting Him take that on. Also, I need to surrender my plans for my life because although I think I have the perfect life planned out for myself I am wrong! He has something way better for me and the only way to find out what it is is to surrender my own plans.
As for where I am personally, I didn't think that I was really changing this summer. I would be exhausted every day and felt like I had fallen into a routine of 'camp life' but looking back I can see that I am not the same person who sheepishly walked up to staff training three months ago. God has opened my eyes to a lot this summer and blessed me in so many ways. I know that I was where I was meant to be this summer! I am sad that it is over but I look forward to some great vacations with some of my best friends. Summer 2011 has been great so far and I look forward to the rest of it!
I didnt really mean for this post to be so long but I hadn't posted in quite a while!
I came into this summer with a lot of expectations and thinking I knew what I was in store for. Was I ever wrong! I knew I would probably meet some nice people at camp but I had no idea who God was going to place in my life. Let me start at the begining. At staff training I felt at home, like I already knew these people. I had always been on the shy side and everyone was just so welcoming and easy to talk to! I had signed up to take the first three weeks off so it felt like as soon as I had met these people I had to leave. Upon coming back I found out that I had a cabin of some of the oldest girls in camp. I had preffed to have the youngest! This came as a shock to me and to say the least I was scared out of my mind. I didnt feel equipped to talk to these girls. I didnt feel that I could connect with them on a deeper level. I knew I could be silly with them but had no idea how I would lead them. God was good! He gave me the words that were not my own but His. He provided and I ended up having a great week. As much as I doubted about my placement at the begining of the week, by the end I knew I was where I was supposed to be!
My second week there I was on what was called "A Team" which is a lot of behind the scenes work. This was awesome because I really got to know the counselors better this week. We had a lot of off time and had the chance to get to know everyone at camp better. God showed me that you can still be serving Him behind the scenes. After this week though I requested to be in Sweetgum (which is the elementary age cabins.) Again I came into that next week with my own expectations. I expected to play with the girls, love on the girls, and have a blast! I thought the conversations wouldn't go much deeper than "God loves you!" Wow, was I ever wrong! God had different plans for me that week. There was a little girl named Peyton who came up to me one night and said "How do I have a relationship with Jesus?" This led into an hour long discussion of how much God loved His child and how you can have a deeper relationship with Him. It was amazing to be able to talk to her and really get to know her and teach her. A lot of her questions were hard and I again had this feeling of being inadequate but it was probably one of the best nights of camp and God really shook me and showed me again that this summer was all about what He had planned and not me at all! Needless to say, my expectations were off once again in this situation. The rest of the weeks were spent in Sweetgum for me. I could go on and on with countless stories from this summer but I will spare you! I had fourth grade every week and I loved that age. They were so much fun and really were understanding what you had to say but also just wanted to love on you.
The people I met at Cho-Yeh are amazing! I truly feel blessed that I had the oppurtunity to meet all of them. Like I said earlier, I figured I would get to meet some cool people but I had no idea how much fellowship and growth would take place. I have never been a part of a body of believers like that. Everyone encouraged one another and I can honestly say that I loved everyone there! I met some amazing new friends and luckily for me a lot of them are Aggies so I can see them often. They really built me up spiritually and showed me how I should be living. I have never met so many people who are so bold in their faith. I had some friends spend the night at the lake and as we were talking last night the idea of leading our own church service came up and everyone was for it so this morning we woke up at 6:15 and had church! One of my friends leading the devo this morning said "If you had told me at the begining of this summer I would be sitting here on a dock leading a 'church service' I would have laughed at you" and I couldn't agree more. While I didnt actually lead it, I never would have guessed that I would have grown so close to these friends in such a short amount of time that we would be worshiping together on our own and just talking about our Saviour! It is really awesome to see these new friendships be Christ-centered. God has really blessed me with some awesome new friends. Ironically I actually knew a few of these people before coming to camp and never took the time to actually get to know them. Luckily we got a second chance :)
The theme for the summer was surrender. I had always perceived surrending as a negative but I was looking at it wrong. Surrending can sometimes be the best thing! I was challenged by this and really had the oppurtunity to think about what I want my life to look like and what I want to surrender. I had a lot of different answers but some of the main ones were worry and my plans for my life. Worry because I am a worrier and I tend to want everything to be 'okay' and 'in line' and when it's not I get worried. Although my favrorite bible verse, Philippians 4:6, is all about not worrying I still had never thought of it as surrendering my worries to God and letting Him take that on. Also, I need to surrender my plans for my life because although I think I have the perfect life planned out for myself I am wrong! He has something way better for me and the only way to find out what it is is to surrender my own plans.
As for where I am personally, I didn't think that I was really changing this summer. I would be exhausted every day and felt like I had fallen into a routine of 'camp life' but looking back I can see that I am not the same person who sheepishly walked up to staff training three months ago. God has opened my eyes to a lot this summer and blessed me in so many ways. I know that I was where I was meant to be this summer! I am sad that it is over but I look forward to some great vacations with some of my best friends. Summer 2011 has been great so far and I look forward to the rest of it!
I didnt really mean for this post to be so long but I hadn't posted in quite a while!
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