Pouring of my life into others

So I haven't updated in like forever. I'm sorry! I've been extremely busy!  I'm just about to start week 6 (but by the time I actually post this, it will probably be full into the week)

Things have been going well.  Very tiring, but awesome! This past weekend, Taylor and I were able to go to Kings Island Amusement park, it was fun! Week 3, 4, and 5 have just flown by! 

Week 3 was our fourth of July week. It was def. tiring.  We took the groups to some fireworks on the 4th... made me extra tired.  And the fireworks weren't even that great.  But it was still a fun week.  That weekend I got to go to Kings Island for Spirit Song festival with Skillet, Thousand Foot Krutch, Family Force 5, Chris Tomlin, and Tenth Avenue North.  It was pretty fun!  

Week 4 was really tough.  I was so tired, and it was the middle week, and a hard point to get through the summer.  Lets just say we had a few unhappy, hard-to please campers.  But honestly, we really did love them all! We freakishly had car troubles, on the last day... again. A bus broke down, and then we sent a vehicle to go pick them up, and that broke down.  It was definitely an adventure!

Week 5 was a blast! There was a group from Grand Rapids, and their youth leader, goes to GRTS (basically my school!) So it was kinda freaky in that sense, but it was really fun!  We only had 50 campers this week, so it took a lot of stress of of us.  It didn't take us as long to prepare for that week.  It was such a good week.  Those kids were so great... ok so all of them have been great! It has been really fun to get to know some of them and hang out with them. 

We had some crazy stuff happen too. Like a homeless man sleeping in our parking lot. And then a homeless man trying to get into the church. And tried to get into the door we were sleeping in.  It was freaky! 

It was really cool though because I saw a lot of growth in the campers during this week.  At the beginning of the week, many of them were kind of unsure, and didn't really like their service project.  But throughout the week, I watched as their attitude changed, and they ended up really enjoying them by the end of the week.  We also had some of the best God sightings this week.  There was a group that was helping with a fundraiser for the Foodbank which they were working at, so they were downtown Cincinnati, at Fountain Square, and they randomly went up to a guy, and shared the gospel with him! It was just cool to see how passionate these kids were about serving, and seeing God.

One thing God has really been teaching me, is about discipleship.  It may seem weird and random.  But I'm realizing its why I'm here in Cincinnati today. The church I've been going to (which has also been a huge blessing), the pastor on Sunday was preaching out of Philippians. The title of the series he had been doing was called ReJoy, and was all about how we can experience the fullest joy as believers.  Well the week before he had been talking about community, and then this week he was talking about discipleship.  I've been reading through Paul's letters in my devos, and it went right along with what he was talking about.  We will experience much joy through discipling.  This pastor was using Paul, and Timothy as a good example of discipleship.  Paul poured his life into Timothy, so Timothy could pour his to the rest of the believers he was preaching to, and then they could pour their lives to others.  The pastor was saying how we should ALWAYS be where Timothy was, always being mentored as well as being a mentor to others.  I think about this job, and how that's so true of where I am.  The group staff, has poured so much into our lives, preparing this summer for us, for at least a year.  How much more should I be pouring into each and every one of these kids and adults that come through my camp.  Even though its the end,  and I'm tired and worn out, these kids need me to be an example for them, and I should be giving all I've got to give to them. I guess that's about all I've got. 

So I'm in the middle of week six now, its been flying by.  I have one week left.  And I'm trying to give all I've got.  I guess I can't do it without God's strength.  When we have an adult who has some complaint every time I talk to him, I have to remember that it's not about me.

This summer has flown by so quickly.  This week has been pretty awesome.  Today I got to eat lunch on the Ohio river, and just enjoy my job, relax a little.  Tonight (Tuesday) is our night off, so I just get to come relax at Starbucks.  Which this is pretty much the coolest Starbucks I've ever been to.  They have live music on Friday and Saturday evenings, tons of games, and people just come and hang out all the time.  It's so great! This summer has been such a blessing to me! I've met so many awesome people, seen God here in Ohio, and feel like He has been glorified here.  It's cool to see how people open up, and think highly of what we do here.  There's a guy we see here a lot at Starbucks, and he's a Christian, and went to a Christian school in England, its just cool how he's shared a bit about that, and asks about our summer.  People keep asking me if I'd do it again.  I'm thinking that I would. If I am able to give up my whole summer again because of school and such, I really think I would.  During training we sang the song "Came to My Rescue" by Hillsong a lot.  I would think, and pray about the words in there that say "I want to be where you are."  At first, I didn't want to come to Cincinnati, but God broke wall down fast.  I just said, "God you'll be present in Cincinnati, I just know it, and I want to be where YOU are." And let me tell you, he is here.

"I am the vine, you are the branches.  If you remain in me, and I in you, you will produce much fruit.  For apart from me, you can do nothing." -  Jesus

Living through rainstorms and changed lives.

Wow. Wow. WOW! God is so good! I can't believe that I've finished two weeks of camp!  I've been thinking and dreaming about it for months. I am so blessed! I don't even know where to begin. I've experienced so many special things, and I wish I could write about them all.

First of all, my partner who I'm working with this summer. Amazing.  I'm so glad God put us together.

We finished our second week of training in Estes, and made the trek across the country to Ohio.  This city is great!

Our Monday evening program went okay, none of the campers seemed to grasp the message, they had a lot of energy.  But the coolest thing happened, (we found out) afterwards,  One of the campers was really shy and the youth leader said he had only spoken a few words in the past, and last year at Group, he shared with their whole youth group.  So Taylor asked a kid next to him (not knowing any of this) to read the bible for the night, and the kid said, hey, this other kid (the one the story is about) should do it! And he got up there and did it! The youth leaders were thrilled!

Tuesday was hard.  The work projects that day were great, but as soon as everyone got back to the church, it began to storm.  And it was a crazy one.  The rain was coming down so hard, and the wind blowing so much that even opening the door you would get soaked.  And then the basement started flooding. So we spent most of our day off bailing water out of the basement.  Eventually we were able to get away for a quick dinner out.

Wednesday evening was amazing.  So incredible.  Wednesday is what is known as "cry night" by some people.  This is where we present the message of Jesus Christ being our savior, and it is moving to most of the campers.  God was working and I could feel his presence in that room.  One kid accepted Christ as he had watched his brother become a Christian and wanted the same thing, but finally was able to accept it.  He found his youth leader and was like, I need to get baptized.  So his youth leader baptized him over a garbage can.  Everything of that night was so amazing and it was so cool to see God break down these kids and make them yearn for him.

The rest of the week was awesome, and it was fun getting to know some of the campers, but they all left Friday morning.

The next week, campers started arriving early, so we jumped right into that week.  The first couple days of the week was really tough.  I didn't think I would be able to make it through the week.  There were so many last minute switches I had to make in the crew assigning that it messed up a bunch of vehicle situations, and there were just a lot of problems with it.  Many of the youth leaders seemed a little tired and crabby.  There were also problems with the rooming situation.  Some of the girls had spread out a bit, and then a youth group that got in late wasn't able to find places to sleep.  There was just so much going on at once.  Monday, and part of Tuesday, I was just feeling like I wasn't adequate at my job, and I couldn't do it.  But God showed me otherwise.
Our night off was so much fun! We went downtown and hung out with our HTMs.  They were such a blessing! (Kris and Christen) Seriously, we couldn't have had better HTMs. HTMs our our volunteers for the week that basically do everything we can't do, and help us do everything.  They are so great.  But anyway, we had beautiful weather Tuesday and we weren't bailing water out of the basement so I was so excited and happy about that! We just had a great evening/ night off.  Wednesday, it seemed I was starting to really connect with campers.  Wednesday evening program was awesome.  I had campers coming up to me, thanking me and giving me a hug.  God was so present in that room, it was incredible.  This came to the point where God was teaching me, that even though I feel week, he is strong and he used me, to change lives.  And I feel like I didn't do anything.

The rest of the week was so much fun, and an absolute blast!  When I went to visit sites, it was hard to leave because I wanted to hear the campers' stories of the day, and things that had been going on.  The campers this week just loved getting to know us more, and  hanging out, which made camp so much fun.  They really enjoyed our lights out, because we wrote them songs, read them stories, and on the very last night, did the hoedown throwdown dance, and they loved that because they could join in.  It was all just so much fun!
One of the youth leaders had actually graduated from Cornerstone so we got to share college stories, so that was fun.

These campers were just a joy to hang out and be with.  God changed my heart as I had a bad attitude going into the week.

I'll end with a story that make me know without a doubt that God's hand is on this camp.  One of the groups was from Pennsylvania and on Thursday, their bus broke down.  They were able to get it into a shop right away and the guy there was so awesome.  He was able to get the bus in, to work on it starting the next morning.  (Friday)  Dave, the bus driver had said he figured it would cost around $500 to fix it, but the after hearing the story of why they were here, the guy at the shop ended up bringing the price down to $73.  He had taken $200 off the bill, and said, we'll find a way to make that up somewhere.  What a blessing! The group was finally able to get off around 6 PM Friday, and get off safely to Pennsylvania.  God was so good this week, and not only changed lives of the campers and adult leaders, but also my life as well.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!
Praise Him all creatures here below,
Praise him above ye heavenly hosts.
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost!
Amen.