"i've got a river of life flowing out of me!"

well two more weeks of camp are past.

two weeks ago was "CEF week" where they come in and run a camp to teach kids how to do five day clubs. since they run the camp all we do is staff stuff and bond as counselors =D. it was a lot of fun. we had a lot of free time to spend having alone time with God and it was awesome to be able to sit next to a mountain stream and read psalms about how God created mountains and streams and loves me too. that was definitely a highlight of the week. we really got to know each other better as counselors and we got to have the annual counselor's campfire on a raft on the pond! it was cold out there...but the fire kept us warm and it was great! the boys all slept out under the stars and the girls all slept under tents with screen roofs and it was gorgeous! the stars are so bright here! we got to spend a lot of time working together in the kitchen which was nice cuz i think working staff like that someplace really makes it feel like it's "yours" and it gave me a huge appreciation for the kitchen staff! we got to have lots and lots of time around a campfire under the stars the nights we were there and it was wonderful...campfires like that are one of my favorite parts of camp and we got to have one every night! the first night we got there one of the counselors had been hunting frogs in the pond with a bow and arrow and he ended up getting one accidentally so we got to eat wild frog leg that he roasted over the campfire! twas a good week!

this week was our first junior week so we had 4-6th graders. i only ended up with 5 girls in my cabin which was really nice. they were a really fun group and really good too. they were crazy hyper a lot of the time...they loved to yell and be really goofy but they did pretty well settling down when they needed to also. i had one girl who just seemed a lot younger than the other girls and had a lot of trouble paying attention and i got to have one on one time with her by the end of the week and found out that there's a lot she doesnt understand about salvation and Jesus. so we got to talk about that for awhile and i think most of it went over her head but i was still encouraged to know that she had at least heard, even if she doesnt understand it all yet. but if you think of her and want to pray that would be wonderful. one big praise there was that all week i had to get on her about talking during prayer and just not being respectful about it and it finally dawned on me partway through the week that it looked like no one ever really bothered to sit her down and explain it very well. so we got to talk several times about why we act the way we do during prayer and i finally had to take away her snack time one night for talking during prayer but she started changing and at the campfire the last night she told everyone that her favorite part of camp was praying. so it was encouraging to see God working there!

i was reading philemon this week and paul kinda tells him to be active in sharing his faith so that philemon will understand how much God has given us. and i feel like that's where i am as a counselor...the thing about "the best way to learn something is to teach someone else" has really struck me this week. trying to teach these girls makes me want to understand better things that i've kind of taken for granted and it's been good. i've enjoyed getting to know the other counselors so far this summer too...we get to have a meeting at 6:45 every morning and it's one of the best parts of the day to sit there and share prayer requests and sing together. and one of the nice things is that at camp time doesnt matter...it's all relative so being up that early isn't bad at all.

another big praise is that this was the week of kids kamp back home. the week that i look forward to all year and that i debated so long over when i was deciding if i should come out here. and i was concerned that i would be very sad and distracted this week, but i wasn't! i'm still very convinced that this is where God wants me this summer and i was even happy to be out here this week even though i had to miss a year with some of my very favorite people. so that was a very big answer to prayer!

thanks to all of you who have been praying! i appreciate it so much and i can see ways where God has been working that don't make any sense apart from Him working and that's so exciting to see. we sing "spring up o well" a lot here at camp and i love the part that talks about "he makes the lame to walk and the blind to see." and to know that's still the God we're praying to when we start praying for the campers who need to be at camp the most but are getting so sick they're about to be sent home or when we share prayer requests in the morning meetings. it's been really encouraging to see Him answering prayers like that!

so that's my super huge update for now...my california family and i are all going up to oregon to go spelunking this week! and then we have kids come to camp thursday through saturday and then more monday through friday, so we're planning to not even come home next weekend. so we'd definitely appreciate prayer for His strength the next couple weeks especially. we're starting with 1-3rd graders and then the second week will be 4-6th again. should be great...i'm looking forward to it! hope you're all having a wonderful summer! thanks for keeping in touch with emails and mail and phone calls! it's really meant a lot for me to hear from you back home!

happy july!