I owe my life to You, my Lord, here I am

So Kids Camp was... an experience, to say the least. Session 1, from wednesday to sunday, I was a gopher. In my gophering experience, I should have been on my feet all day, working in the kitchen 23/7, (we need time to sleep,) and have zero free time. That was not the case in any way, shape, or form. We had very little work time, all we really did was set up chairs before meals and chapels, take out the trash after meals, and a few jobs here and there. The rest of the day we had free time, swim time, or more free time. It was fun, I got to hang out with some pretty cool kids and get to know some of them pretty well, but it was still tough because I'm bad at naps (expecially in cabins with damp beds and floors... it just doesn't work) and we still got between 5 and 6 hours of sleep each night if we wanted to hang out with the rest of the counselors, which were mostly high schoolers, which is the reason why I'm here. So, on top of my lack of sleep from the last month, I piled on a bit more. :( But it was fun, I enjoyed gophering. :)
Then when I went home on Saturday, SHANNON AND BEN WERE HERE!!! So I got to hang out with them for a few hours and catch up on each others' lives a bit, which was so good... I've missed my roommate. Then I stopped at wal-mart on the way home to pick up a few last minute things before being a counselor session 2... and locked my keys in my car. Shoot. I asked the people in wal-mart who I should call, and they gave me a number and said good luck. I called, they came about 30 minutes later. They were super nice, I told them what was going on and how in my 5 years of driving that was a first (like they REALLY cared...) and my 10 minute trip to wal mart turned into an hour and a half trip... :(
So needless to say I got about 6 hours of sleep that night, with very little time for a nap. :(
Session 2 began that night; I was the junior counselor in G-6 (6th grade girls.) They were pretty awesome most of the time... there were a few incidents, and the most difficult part for me was the complaining and lack of thank-yous. I'm hugely verbal, I need the affirmation and appreciation even for such insignificant things as bandanas and candy. The closest I got to a thank-you was a demand for more. More candy, more water, more lemonade, more, more, more. All of them were already saved, which was awesome, so no eternity-altering stories to share. The coolest part was the last night all the 6th graders stayed up later than everyone else with pastor Mick and pastor Mark and watched a meteor shower, sang praise songs, and talked about the last few years. It was really cool, and the one girl who was a bit of a problem in our bunk shared a new understanding she had of who God is and how awesome He is; THAT was cool, I was really excited for her. :) Surprisingly, we had a few pretty deep conversations after chapels, including the difference between catholocism and protestantism, and what they mean. The funny thing was, even though I was the junior counselor I acted as senior counselor at almost every given point. I was the time keeper, I was the gatherer, I was the discussion leader, I was the one keeping them in check. My sr. counselor was a sweet girl, but she's not a leader. She reminded me a lot of myself several years ago, someone who would sit and let everyone else take over. I've learned to adapt, so when no one else is taking charge I can, and I did. I didn't WANT to be on their case constantly, but it was necessary. It was really funny, one of my friends even told me at the end that I was a great senior counselor. I reminded him that I was a jr. counselor, and he told me he knew, and that I made a great senior counselor. :)

Things are good. My chaos is finally complete, maybe now I can finally tackle some books... maybe. I DEFINITELY get to catch up on sleep, I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to that. I've been a bit short-tempered lately, and that's not me at all. I can't wait to be back to normal... I'm finding that I love sr. high a lot, I've been having a lot of fun with them and I feel like it's easiest for me to connect with them. We'll see how the rest of this internship pans out... there's still plenty of time!

Much love, friends.

And the beat goes on...

Alright. Since we last spoke I've been on the middle school missions trip, the Palo baptism service, the sleepover, the pool party, the sr. retreat, the Maquoketa caves, a dance party, and joined a young adult small group. Whew! And tomorrow we have a cleaning/decorating party all day and then I leave for kids camp.

The middle school missions trip. For 2 days I joined them (it went for 5 days). Day one we went to Vinton, IA where we stacked bricks on pallets for a road repair type company. There are several brick roads in the town that need major repairs after the flood last year, and the bricks can only be stacked by hand... We (the 11 middle schoolers and 3 adults) placed 250-275 bricks on each pallet and finished a total of 23 pallets. Each brick weighed around 5 lbs (we don't know exactly... and I think that's a low estimate.) Do the math. But the kids had such a great attitude about it, they were excited to get so much accomplished and wanted to do more. Day 2 we went to the home of a flood victim where we pulled a lot of weeds, cleaned stuff, moved stuff, and helped wherever we could. The 2 most memorable things from the day: pulling a rose bush, including finding all the roots deep down, and emptying jars. The rose bush was on top of a cave, which from the outside looks like a normal hill. Because of that leverage, there were several times when I was digging that I put my full weight on the shovel and my feet came completely off the ground. The kids thought it was funny and had Pastor Mark (not my mentor, but middle school Mark) take a picture of it. :) Emptying jars, the lady had about 20 or so jars with food in them that had been in her cellar for... years. Lexi (my mentor's youngest) and I got to dump these into a bucket and put them in water to be cleaned. Some of them were discernable; the tomatoes, pickles, jalapenos... some we had no idea about. The mushy, stringy stuff; one had even turned black and slightly solidified. We had to take a spoon and scoop it out. Yum. We loved every minute of it. It was awesome bonding, it was really amusing (all the screaming and grossness), and it'll be a memory we won't soon forget... ;)

The sr. retreat was also really neat. Hanging out with the outgoing and incoming seniors, seeing their love for one another, watching them serve each other, hearing their words of wisdom and affirmation, it was awesome and inspiring. I'm learning so much from this summer and getting so many ideas... this is definitely one to hang on to if I do go this route.

Yesterday we went to the Maquoketa Caves. I fell down. A lot. I got dirtier than I probably ever have been in my life (including Mexico... ) I walked through a foot and a half of mud, I crawled through a foot and a half of space, I was clausterphobic, I was scared, I was tired. It was awesome!! :)

I'm exhausted and it's only gonna get worse in the next week. But the end is near, then I'll be able to sleep. And clean my room. It'll be so good. :)

All in all, things are great. I'm loving the relationships I'm building day-by-day and I can't wait to see what God has in store for me in the next 4 months. It's been a wild ride so far, but in a good way. :)

That's really about all I have, and I'm not good at ending stuff. So bye.

:) :) :) :) <---- in case there weren't enough in rest of this blog. :)