staff week was a total success, and then this was the best first week i've ever had. the new staff have all done so great and we all work together amazingly! God is doing SO much.
i have fifth graders in my cabin this year and i LOVE them! i've had sixth graders and their attitudes before, and i've had third graders and their homesickness, but i never knew how perfect and easy and fun the in-between ages were. fourth and fifth graders are young enough to love you and think you're cool, but old enough to make friends with each other and not need to be clinging on you all the time. they've still got some of their sweetness but can have really intelligent conversations too. don't get me wrong, i had tons of fun with my third graders last year and i've had some great sixth graders, but this is just the best mix of everything.
this week i had one of the best cabin groups i've ever had. they were some of the best behaved and the most fun at the same time! we could be laughing and bouncing off the walls playing a game, and the second i said it was time to calm down or do something or go to bed, it was like someone flipped a switch and they'd listen and do anything for me. some of my favorite moments:
-one of the in-the-cabin rules is when the lights are out, that means no talking. well, thursday night they got done with showers early as always. we played games until about 9:50(five minutes past when they were supposed to be on their bunks), then they got in their beds and before devotions like i always do, i had them all share about the best part of their day. we were laughing and talking and having so much fun that it got to be 10:15 before i finally looked at the time. i got up and said "okay yall, i love you guys, but i like my job so we need to go to sleep..." they laughed and laid down and i walked over to the light switch and one of them says "no, don't cut the light off yet!" i asked why, and she said, really sadly "well, because we won't be able to talk anymore."
then the next day when their parents were picking them up. we have this big hill from the dining hall that the girls come down when they're coming to say goodbye to us and get signed out and everything, and most of the girls run down the hill to their parents. we never care since it's the last day and they're about to leave, but they're technically supposed to walk. anyways, one of my girls moms got there, and a minute later she was walking down the hill. her mom goes running towards her, and morgan, still walking, says "hey mom! i can't run...no, i'm coming! i just can't run!"
sweet things wouldn't break the rules for anything.
-i observe tie-dye tuesday religiously. so on tuesday morning i woke up the girls, went to get dressed, then came out and saw one of them had on a tie-dye shirt. i said "hey, happy tie dye tuesday!" three others look from the tie-dye girl to me, go back in the bathroom, and a minute later they've all got on tie-dye too.
-also on friday. usually when i have a great group like this i'm already crying before we sing our goodbye songs after lunch, but got through the singing okay...and then i come back to my table and every one of my girls is in tears group hugging, except for my little twins(they were in their chairs with their sunglasses on, refusing to look at me because they said they didn't want to make me cry). so we all hugged and cried and then i went down to wait for all of their rides to get there. and i didn't cry when any of them left, but of course the twins were the last two left, and they were still crying. once they left, i turned to head back to clean my cabin and i bawled my eyes out for ten minutes.
besides my own cabin, i had about thirty or forty old campers spread around camp. another totally awesome thing about having the middle age this year is since last year i had the youngest ones, they've all grown up into middle age now, so i have tons of them in my unit. monday at lunch i seriously had fifteen kids scream my name when i walked in, and i remembered all their names and they were telling me stories all week from last year or years before, and it's just crazy. i'm that staffer that everyone knows. even when i was a camper and knew i'd work here someday, i never thought i'd get there. crazy, crazy, crazy.
when i got back to my cabin on friday, and i was getting the "see all the empty bunks and get sad" moment over with, and i said to my CIT "this is super dumb. i don't know why i'm crying so much, i get 12 more of them on monday!"
but that's what's dumb. i don't. i'll get 12 more campers, but i won't get 12 more of these. and even though that's sort of sad, it's what i love most about camp. i get 12 totally new, special, wonderful girls to pour into and give the five best days of their life to.
okay enough seriousness. this week's funny camper story:
-i was walking to dinner, and the twins were holding my hands like usual. the one on my left looked at my ring, and with the most priceless look on her face, says "you're not married already are you??" i said no, and she asked what the ring was for. i never know how to explain it but i just said "it just means i'm waiting for God to bring me my husband." the one on my right says "well don't worry, you are DEFINITELY gonna get married. you're a REAL nice lady." and the other one says "yeah, and you're REALLY pretty. i mean, you SHOULD be married already!"
and here's what you can pray for this week:
-we have a full camp! well, about 175 campers i think...but it's a lot. pray that everything goes smoothly as some people get moved around and some get to be cabin leaders for the first time. full camps are the best even though they're more stressful. we used to have them all the time so they make me happy. it's like the old days when i never knew what less than 16 open cabins looked like.
-i lost my voice...funnily enough it wasn't even at camp, but one way or another i need to be able to talk and yell and sing by monday.
-this is our first week having acteens!(camp speak for 7-12th graders) pray for their cabin leaders and staff a lot. older girls need such different things from their staffers; third graders just need you to braid their hair and tell them their pottery looks good, but high schoolers need you to answer big life questions and make them feel like they aren't little kids.
-really, everything has gone so great that i can't really think of much for specifically me. so i guess just pray that i keep listening to God and doing his work, that i will NOT let satan get me all full of pride, that i'll remember to thank God for all the great stuff going on and give him the credit for it, because it is most definitely NOT me that's responsible for all this.
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