Summer 2010

Anyone who regularly follows my blog probably thinks I'm crazy for posting my "Spring Break" post in December, which I'm now about to follow up with a post about my summer. Honestly, this is a post that I had every intention of writing back when I started this blog in August, but I just never got around to it. As I got back into the "PC Bubble," everything about my summer, which involved nothing PC-related, started to seem irrelevant, and I quickly put those memories on the back burner of my mind. Last night, however, I came across my "camp bag," which actually is a J. Crew shopping bag filled with all my camp stuff-- cards that people from home sent me, bug spray, towels, sweet notes from my campers, etc. and it made me miss it SO MUCH that I've decided to share it here on my blog! PS- sorry in advance for this being an incredibly long post!!

Ok, so I'm not even sure where to begin. Let me start by saying that I have never, ever been a "camp person." This is probably obvious, if you know me, but it's important information. I actually attended camp as a camper one summer of my entire childhood. I went to Lutheridge as a 7th grader for Campfirmation with my church, and I loved it! But I guess I didn't love it enough to go back, because I never did. (May I just pause and say that I'm counting my blessings that I didn't own a digital camera back then, and therefore have no pictures to document my 7th grade trip to camp!)

So, exactly a year ago, when I was home for Christmas break during my junior year, I started thinking about what to do for the summer. I prayed a lot about it, and I started looking at camps, mainly Lutheridge because that's the only camp I kind of knew. Well, Sarah decided that she wanted to apply there, and contrary to Mandy's belief, Sarah and I decided that it would be best for both of us if we worked at different places for the summer. So I started looking elsewhere. I went to the elca website, where they have a directory of camps that you can search by state. So I thought to myself, "Hmm... I don't want to go anywhere mountainous because I don't want to hike..." so naturally, I chose Florida. Why I chose FL? I have no idea. It was random. But I applied and got a job at Luther Springs, a camp that I'd never heard of and knew absolutely nothing about.

So May came around, and it was time to head south for the summer. I loaded up my car with everything I thought I'd need at camp

(including these sweet monogrammed Chacos) and headed to Florida. I will never forget my drive down there. It was the scariest, yet most independent thing I've ever done in my life. Even though I've been "on my own" at college for 3 years, I've always known someone; I've always been an hour away from home, and I'd never gone more than a month or so without seeing my parents. I'd never driven more than like 2 hours or so alone, and suddenly the reality of me being at least 7.5 hours away from almost everyone I know was pressing in on me. So I called Emily and freaked out a little bit, wondering what had possessed me to peace out to Florida for an ENTIRE summer. It poured rain for the majority of my drive down there, which was actually kind of dramatic. It made it like a movie. Except, the rain was so terrible that I couldn't see anything and I already had no clue where I was going. Tricky. When I finally made it down to camp, my first realization was that I wasn't at the beach. I know it sounds dumb, but when you think Florida, don't you think beach? I do, and I found myself right in the middle of the state, nowhere near the ocean. My second realization was that I was the only person who didn't know another person there. Sweet... I was the random girl. Which, I mean wasn't that big of a deal, but there were only like 14 staff total.

So I spent the next 2 weeks doing training. Building fires, large group games, team building exercises... basically everything I love and am awesome at! (NOT!) At this point, I was seriously questioning my abilities to suck it up and do this for an entire summer. But then camp started. LOMF (Lutheran Outdoor Ministries of Florida) does both residential camp (Luther Springs) and day camps across the state of Florida. I spent the majority of my summer onsite, doing "typical" camp stuff- arts and crafts, canoeing, "hiking" (it was Florida...), campfires, and worship. Over the summer, I found myself in many situations that I would typically avoid....

... such as this.

But then something crazy happened. I grew to love it. Quickly, over the 9 weeks of camp, I fell in love with this place

and these kids

and of course, the people I worked with. Whom I have now spent 45 minutes trying to find a picture of. Apparently, we all sucked at taking group pictures this summer.

I'm not going to act like I turned out to be an awesome counselor or anything, but I truly did LOVE my job and LOVE my summer. I made about a billion melty bead crafts. I canoed many miles through alligator-infested waters (it wasn't as intense as I like to make it sound). I got to visit 3 Floridian towns on day camps. I spent my 21st birthday with ten 8- 10 year olds. And it was fun. I saw through little things how God used experiences I'd already had to prepare me for things that came up over the summer.

Before I went to Florida, I chose this as my theme for the summer:

"Trust in the LORD and do good,

so you will live in the land and enjoy security.

Take delight in the LORD,

and He will give you the desires of your heart."

Psalm 37: 3-4

I saw the benefits and experienced the contentment and joy that resulted from trusting in God and following where he led me. Because of the wonderful people I met, experiences I had, and places I saw, the theme of my summer evolved into:

"The Lord fills my life with good things" Psalm 103:5