Amazingness

Well I have a little catching up to do, but all of it has been amazing. Yesterday I had the day off. It was fantastic and necessary. I was the only intern who was off that went to brunch (I can't miss a meal) and then I went to club with the campers. It was great. Todd spoke about what it means to really stand with God; to get out of the ship and walk on water. And then there was the "say so," which is such an encouragement and the reason I am here. The say so is when kids publically stand up, introduce themselves, and tell the rest of the camp that "this week I decided to surrender my life to Christ." What amazing words to come out of a high schoolers mouth! The Kingdom is growing!

It is always such an encouragement to see that what I am doing here is changing people's lives. I love when kids who I've built a relationship with throughout the week stand up in the say so. Yesterday there was a boy, Louis, who I had driven on the tubes multiple times who stood up and said, "this week I found a new best friend." How awesome is that!

There were around 250 campers last week (a really really small week) and I would say around 30 of them stood up for the say so. In the morning Todd did a new believers walk and there were 70-80 kids there and when we asked how many Bibles we needed to hand out to kids it was close to 100. Please pray for these campers; that their decisions made here at camp would go home with them. Please pray that their hearts have genuinely been changed and they will grow deeper in thier relationship with the Lord. Please pray for guidance for the leaders, that they would be able to help and encourage thier campers.

So that was a great way to start my day off. Then all of the intern girls who had off went shopping, but I didn't go. I'm lame, I know...but I'm really glad I stayed back. The mall is about an hour away and I had some things I wanted to get done and I wanted to make sure I actually rested on my day off. I also didn't need to go shopping for anything. So I stayed back and got a lot done. I cleaned my room, vacuumed and did a lot of laundry, which was very needed. I then got to go work out. It was so good and so much fun! I went for a run and then went to the mini weight room thats on camp. My body was definitely in need of some movement and it reminded me how much I enjoy being active. It has been really hard to find time to run, but I'm hoping to get better at it. When I'm active I'm instantly in a better mood and feel much better. Crazy how that works.

I was also able to call my brother JJ yesterday and wish him a happy birthday! Happy 25th Birthday JJ! I also got to call my dad and talk to him on the phone for a little bit. I also talked with one of my summer staffers for a little while. God is teaching me (I'll talk about this later).

Once the girls got back a bunch of us went out for pizza and bowling. It was really fun. There is a really old school bowling alley here where you have to keep your own score. It was really fun, but I literally played the worst game of my life. I was constantly trying to suppress my competitiveness, which I think I did a pretty good job of. It was fun to hang out and I love bowling. Overall it was an awesome day. Definitely relaxing, which was so great and I was able to just spend the day with the Lord. It was one of those days where there was no schedule and no rush so we just got to talk all day. I'm learning what constant prayer looks like. It's a lot harder when your really busy and have a million things to do and think about, but I know it's not impossible, so I will continue to learn.

Today was also a great day. I got up early and went for another run. I didn't want to while I was in bed, but once I was out running I was so glad I made myself go. I have so much more energy when I work out in the morning and I feel so much better. We then had a really great Bible study with the waterfront group (this goes along with the stuff God has been teaching me, I'll make a different blog about it).

We then had brunch, an all camp meeting, finished up some things on the waterfront and got ready for the welcome. Today is day one of week two. Charlottesville is here this week, so I know a couple of the campers because they are Justin's friends, so that was fun. It's so crazy that they all just graduated! I feel so old. It was just a great day today. I don't know, nothing special happened, it was just a great day. I drove the boats for a little while and then just did whatever needed to be done on the waterfront. Thank you for your prayers, the Lord is continually showing me grace.

And to top off my great day, I got a fantastic care package from my community group! Thank you guys so much for thinking of me and sending me something! You all are amazing!

It had quite an assortment of things from sunglasses to waterballoons to gum and snacks. And of course, beautiful pictures drawn by none other than the artists of Ally and Jake. I just need to get some tape and they will be going up on the wall in my room. Thank you guys so much! It was the perfect way to top off a great day.