well. this was officially the worst week of the summer.
my girls were wonderful.
my adventure rec group was AMAZING.
but i missed all of that because i was all alone in the infirmary and not allowed to get up or be near the campers.
instead of throwing a pity party, i'll tell you all the good stuff that i did get to be there for.
to anyone in my mccall group who's reading this, that Jesus-luv we talked about? every group of kids i was around at any time this week was showing it all over the place.
-my cabin was great! they were all my favorite age(five 4th graders and seven 5th graders), and they were best friends within about an hour. i kept getting the buddies mixed up because they had all made new friends so quick. two girls had come by themselves(most come in groups of two, some in threes), but pretty much instantly bonded with at least one other girl.
i guess it worked out for this to be the week i had to get sick; my girls loved each other too much to miss me too terribly.
-the girls in my adventure rec group were SO good. i'd never seen 3rd-6th graders enjoy debriefing so much, or bond so well as a team. they LOVED each other, in everything they did. on day 1 they learned each other's names right away. on day 2, i was told by one cabin leader that this one girl had felt left out in track groups, so for the first few minutes, i tried really hard in the first game or two to pull her in to the group. the girls caught on like *snaps fingers* that(that doesn't work when it's not in out loud conversation, does it?) and immediately started talking to her and praising her when she did something good. (then a few minutes later i was sent to the nurse so i don't know how they did the rest of the day)
i didn't get to see them on the ropes course on day 3, but on day 4 i got them all to myself.
i'm about to break into adventure rec lingo because i don't feel like thinking of normal human terms to translate into. bear with me.
we started out on the tension traverse. the girls were PERFECT spotters, not only were they totally focused, they were always encouraging each other, without me even telling them to first(usually i remind them before we start any element to be positive). Shy Girl had at first not wanted to go, but after a few people tried it(and most of them didn't make it all the way to the end), she said she wanted to try. she got up there, and made it less than halfway, but the other girls were so sweet to her the whole time; all i heard were constant calls of "we got you, you're doing good, you can do it!" and when she stepped off in the middle, one of our youngest was the first to say "you tried so hard! that was awesome!"
after everyone had gone that wanted to, Shy Girl asked if she could try again. normally we only let everyone have one chance on each thing, but we had a lot of extra time that day, and ALL the girls backed her up and said she should get to try, so i let her, and she made it all the way this time. she was so proud of herself, and when we were debriefing and got to the part where you say what was hard about the challenge, Shy Girl says "it was hard to get up and try first. but the second time was really easy because i knew everyone was there to help me!"
we moved onto the nitro crossing, and since they'd done so well on the first thing, i wanted to see how they'd do with what i call "acteen rules." normally with younger groups, i just let them try to swing across, and with acteens, i say if someone touches the ground, the whole team starts over.
so the first few girls make it across, and then it's Shy Girl's turn. she hits the ground. she looked really upset at first, but all the girls just go right back to the starting line without complaint, and one even says "it's okay, i wanted to go again anyways. now we all get another turn to swing!" and so they kept trying. others besides Shy Girl fell, and every time the ones who were real good at it happily went back and started over. but finally, over half the group had made it, and Shy Girl tried again, and fell again. the girls all went back and someone suggested that she go first, so that if she fell, it wouldn't be a big deal. all the others agreed but added positive things like how they all wanted her to make it. it took her two more tries but she finally did it, and she had the biggest smile, and all the girls got excited.
basically they just encouraged me whenever i got to be with them. watching them lift each other up and hearing what they learned from everything was so much fun and probably the best part of my week!
okay so...the bad.
i got sick. awful bad sick. it started sunday night. being as it was my birthday, i didn't wanna rain on everyone's parade and go to bed, since i can only turn 21 once, so i didn't bother telling anyone i didn't feel great. long story short, each day i felt worse and worse and kept on not telling anyone, until people started noticing that i was A)not smiling as much or moving as fast and 2)always wearing a hoodie even though it was 95 degrees out.
to make a long story short, i got worse and worse, people kept making me rest, i got some quality time with one of our missionaries when she took me to the doctor, i spent an entire day asleep in the nurse's office, then my girls left with me knowing next to nothing about any of them, and my week felt pretty much wasted.
but as you saw above, God still worked. which brings me to that boring part of each week's post where i think out loud about myself for a paragraph or two. feel free to skip over this and go straight to the prayer requests if you want. =]
all summer long, any time i've made any mistake, whether it's something tiny like forgetting to bring the essays to dinner on thursday night or being the last cabin to flags in the morning, or slightly bigger like two of my girls having a fight that i can't get them to fix or a homesick camper that won't respond to any of my usual tactics, i've freaked out and felt like everything's gonna fall apart.
i've forgotten the simple principle that made 2010 the perfect summer: camp is not about me. camp is about God; we're just his way of putting his love in it.
camp can function without me. yes, God wants me there and i want to be there, but any way that i mess up, God can very easily fix. nothing me or anyone else does wrong is going to destroy camp for anyone, as long as our hearts are in the right place. if i'm loving my girls in every little thing i do, then the other little things that i'm not great at don't matter.
so. for all of us, pray for strength and good rest. same old same old. week 6 is always a really hard week energy-wise. the last two weeks are always easier because it starts to hit us that we're leaving soon, so we get a sudden burst of let's-make-camp-extra-awesome spirit. but we should have that spirit every week, so pray that we can!
also. this week is when coed camps start. the first half of the week is a normal minicamp with just girls, but the guy staffers come on tuesday for their orientation, then the second half is coed minicamp when we'll work with the guys. things always get crazy for coed camp. the schedule changes up and the poor guys haven't been doing this all summer so they need a lot of help, so even if drama and distraction isn't a problem for us, we'll still need prayer. pretty much, just pray for everything to go smoothly, that everyone would focus on the campers as always, and for the guys to get adjusted quick.
and for me? well i'm still kind of sick. i'm on an antibiotic and getting better, but i'm still tired, so pray that i'm feeling 100% by monday so i don't have to fake being fun and energetic and in general caring about camp. aside from that, i'm never a fan of minicamps...i usually go into them with an attitude of "don't get attached, they'll only be here for 48 hours" which ensures lots of homesickness because who wouldn't want their mom when their cabin leader is only concerned with going through the motions and getting them out with as little emotion involved as possible? these girls deserve just as much of me as the ones who come for a week do. pray that i'll pour everything i can into them despite how hard it is to let go.
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