Here We Go!!

I move up to Texas A&M TODAY! I'm pretty sure I'm more a mix of emotions than anything. Excited, nervous, ready, intimidated, anxious, sad, overjoyed, enthusiastic, pumped up... Every emotion under the sun!

We are getting ready to eat lunch, and then we are heading out! We have TWO cars loaded to the brim (although I'm pretty sure I could probably squeeze more things in there if I had to), and are ready to drive off. It's going to be an adventure, but I'm ready!

I'll try to post pictures later tonight :)

Classes don't start until the 29th, and so this next week is kinda a free-for-all. It should be fun though and I'm looking forward to this first taste of college... without the actual college classes part!

Feeling Better

Phew! I was really stressing prior to leaving for impact. I had no idea what to pack or how to pack for college. The task seemed daunting and my room was a warzone since I never actually unpacked from cho-yeh. I literally would sit down to pack and would nearly be in tears or incredibly frustrated after only 10 minutes. Nothing was getting accomplished and I was freaking out to say the least. When I got home on Sunday night I decided I was going to have everything packed up by Monday morning and it would just be done. Well--I ended up talking with Carley for over 2 hours Sunday night and by the time I was able to start packing it was after midnight. That was a failed attempt.

I woke up Monday morning with a new energy- I was going to be productive! And I was! I didn't leave my room from 8am to 3pm. I didn't even get food (which is incredible for me)! Almost everything is packed now. I still need to figure out what pictures I am taking (luckily I have 4 12x12 bulletin boards dedicated to pictures) and how I'm going go hang my stuff on the walls. I need to still go get a printer and pack up all my laptop stuff. I will have to do laundry on Saturday to get the last bit of clothes packed. I have a couple things I want to get but don't need (new toms, a Vera Bradley purse or laptop case), so who knows what will happen there. But--I'm finally feeling better about getting everything done in time!! Phew!

I move up to cstat on Sunday-be awaiting pictures of my overly decorated dorm room!!

IMPACT- Delta Asher Megatron!

Last Thursday I left for a retreat that A&M puts on for incoming freshman that helps plug them into the Christian community of College Station. The retreat is called Impact and was SO much fun! It was like 4 days of summer camp but geared toward college kids. The praise and worship was incredible--that is definitely going to be one of my favorite parts. I love live praise and worship but don't really get that at home. We also were broken into BG's (basic groups) which was essentially a small group. In mine there were 4 other freshman and a junior who was our leader. My group got SO close and are all planning on hanging out once we get to cstat.

Another really awesome part of Impact was how we were able to just hang out and have fun together. In college it is so easy to look at the partiers who seem to be always having a good time and to think that is the only way to have fun. WRONG! We had so much fun just being us. We played 4 square, entertained each other by playing random games and having talent shows. We talked about everything and anything under the sun. It was so much fun simply being us.

I'm excited knowing all these awesome people are going to be in cstat too! It helps ease the uncertainty a little bit.

Impact was AWESOME :)

Location:

The LAST Day

Why did I ever guess my last full day at camp would be like a normal day? I can laugh about it now... but then.... not so much!

On Thursday, one of my campers got sent home with lice. Each camper is checked before they are allowed into camp, but somehow Cat got past, or got it while she was at camp. After she left, the other 13 campers and the 4 counselors in our cabin got checked, but none of us had lice. PHEW!

On Friday, Morgan (one of my co's), said her head felt really itchy and so she went to the infirmary to get double checked. Guess what-she had lice! Then all of us had to go get re-checked... 6 campers and 3/4 counselors had lice, including me! This was 10:30 in the morning...

We were all confused as to how on Thursday none of us had it, but then 12 hours later, half of us had it. It didn't make sense. We were put into quarantine, and had to wash and lice-treat each of our girls. It took us until 7:00 to go through the 6 girls hair. We only found lice in ONE of our girls hair, and then when the nurses looked at the other 5, they said that they were lice-free and probably never had lice. Oh, how convenient!

Finally on Friday night, I was able to go have the nurses go through my hair. After shampooing with lice-killer-stuff and combing through my hair they said "everything we thought was lice, was actually dandruff or paint chips! You never had lice!"

Relief flooded through my head, and then I was extremely frustrated because I had spent 10 hours by this point in quarantine picking "lice" out of my girls hair which wasn't actually lice because the nurses had no idea what they were looking for. UGH! We had made it fun for our girls though by making up songs and eating a bunch of junk food and dancing around like fools!

Just to be safe, Cho-Yeh had taken ALL of our clean and dirty laundry, bedding, towels (essentially anything that was fabric) and took them to the laundry mat to wash them for us. There were about 30 people in camp who were suspected to have lice that they did laundry for (only 5 ended up having it). Well, doing laundry for 30 people isn't cheap, or a quick process! Finally at 2:30 Saturday morning (yes, after spending an entire day going through my girl's hair I was still up at this point) we got our laundry back! The girls were sleeping on camp sheets and camp pillows because they didn't have their own stuff, and by 11:00 they were in dire need of going to sleep. So, at 2:30 we then had to pack all of their trunks for them so that their trunks could be taken for parents to pick up in a few hours! I think we finally went to bed around 3:15 that morning, I ended up just sleeping on my egg crate because I was too tired to find my own sheets!

To say it was a day I will never forget would be an understatement. I am so lucky that I had the co's that I did and an amazing cabin because the entire process was really smooth. It could've turned out quite a bit worse!

On closing meeting every Saturday, the summer staff votes on the one boy and one girl counselor that they think did the best job that week. The winner's, called "bombers", receives a bandanna and get to sign a plaque that is eventually hung up in the Dining Hall. I was the Week 9 BOMBER! WAHOO!!

Haha, it was an unexpected and eventful last day... but it all turned out okay!! :)

Amazing Summer, Amazing People, Amazing God

This summer was fantastic! I can't even put it into words how awesome it was. I spent 10 weeks at camp and loved every single second of it!

I had children ages 7-10. I was with 5th graders for 4 weeks, and at first I HATED that age. You couldn't carry them, they didn't NEED you, they knew how to have an attitude... I wasn't happy! I missed my 3rd graders who were so loving all the time, and I wasn't very excited to be with the 5th graders. By the last week though, I was IN LOVE with this age! They were able to understand more at Bible Study and devo's, they enjoyed spending time with you but could also do things by themself, I figured out how to handle their attitude and have fun with them at the same time. It was INCREDIBLE!

I was honestly shocked that I liked that age. For being so gung-ho about kindergarten, and despising middle school--5th grade is A LOT closer to middle school than kindergarten! The idea of youth/childrens ministry was never far out of my head. I get SO into Bible Studies, especially "gospel-day", and I am in my own world the second I'm able to talk to children about God. I absolutely love it!

The people I have met this summer have truly become like a second family to me. The people there know me so well and can read me like a book. We are honestly like a family, and we would do ANYTHING for each other. I miss them like crazy, and know that if I ever need anything, they have my back 110 percent.

God has shown me so much this summer, and has revealed Himself to me. I look at the person I was at the beginning of the summer, and who I am now, and love the changes that God has made in my life. For example, at staff training week we had to get into groups of 8 and talk about what God was doing in our lives at that specific moment. I knew what I wanted to say, but I was so freaked out to talk about God in front of other people. I was intimidated that they might know more than me, or might judge what I would say. I was so nervous talking about it, and was so glad when it was finally over. After the group talk was over, one of the girls in my group pulled me aside and asked me about why I was so nervous. We then prayed together about it, and she told me she would be praying for me about it. By week 4 of camp, I was able to get up in front of the entire camp on Monday morning and read out of the "Good Book" and talk about one of my favorite Bible Verses. We also had Bible Study Groups once a week during lunch, and I was really able to open up and talk to the 8 girls in my group. That change from the beginning of the summer is incredible, and is only one small way that God has been working in my life. God is SO GOOD!!

This summer was awesome, and I know that I was right where God wanted me! I'm excited to put what I have learned at camp into action here at home, and once I move to college. He is SO good :)

YOUR plans, not mine

I feel like this has been a common phrase that has been running through my head.

In relation to my future and my college career, I want to follow His plans, not mine.

In relation to every week at camp, I want to do what He desires for me, not my own selfish desire.

In relation to every day that I am alive I want to follow His plans.

No matter if it is tough or challenging or difficult-I will follow God's plans because they are so much more important and awesome than any of mine!

I challenge you to do the same :)

Flying On By!

How on Earth is it already July 16th? That's crazy!

Cho-life has been amazing. This past week was super stressful and definitely the most challenging week I've ever had at camp. I had been pretty lucky and had been blessed with easy cabins all summer up until this last week. The camp is really striving to push the staff out of their "comfort zones" this summer, and this past week was definitely a stretch for me! Not only was it full of 13 mainly 5th graders, it was a cabin that had 8 campers that were especially trying. They weren't the best listeners, they had big attitudes (and huge personalities), and didn't like authority. We had several incidents, but God always provided the patience that we needed when we were desperate and asked Him for it.

I learned a lot from this cabin, especially about my own walk with God. This was the first time that a cabin has brought me to tears out of frustration, and I was literally crying out to God to help me find a way to deal with it. He did. Shocker, right? So often we think we can do everything on our own and that we don't need to physically ask God for help. NEWS FLASH--that's not how it works! I definitely relearned that lesson this week. As soon as we humble ourselves enough to ask God to provide, not only do we instantly feel better, but God does show us a way and helps us through the trail we are going through!

This week was really hard for me, and I ended up coming back to Houston this weekend in order to have a break. I needed it more than you can imagine! I was exhausted. Today proved to hold the rest that I was seeking, and I now feel like I can take on another week! I'll be back to camp in the morning and will be working with 2nd and 3rd graders this next week! I will have the 2nd youngest cabin in camp, and I am way excited to be back with the younger kids. 5th grade was too much for me, but it was an awesome learning experience that I know I will hold for quite some time!

Keep praying for us at Cho-Yeh! We feel the prayers and we appreciate them SO very much!