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.
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