As many of you already know, I'm spending my summer working at the Boy Scouts of America Summer Camp at Camp Cherokee! I just finished my first week with campers and I can say that this job is PERFECT for me. I get to act crazy, dance a ton, and teach the campers (somewhat)...I also get to work with the best camp staff ever!
Coming into this job, I was really hesitant, but now I can see that God put me in this position for a purpose and it's to finish His kingdom's will. This past week was crazy with lots of adventures in which I would love to share with you now...
1. I went mountain boarding on Sunday which didn't turn out too good. I was going down the hill they had and as I was going I saw a rock in my path. I'm not talking about no little baby rock, I'm talking a ROCK! I tried to tell my guide, but before I knew it, I hit the rock and went straight to the ground. The board ended up hitting my elbow which left a nice little burn. I'm going to try it again where I can actually make it all the way down the hill without falling. I'll let you know how that goes.
2. Campfires= my favorite time at camp. Campfires are held at the Council Ring which is really just a big ring with two fire things on each side at the bottom and we have them 3 times each week. Before every campfire begins we do my most favoritest thing ever...dance! I will also admit that many of my fellow staff members have some pretty sweet dance moves and I've been improving on mine as well. My staff members still can't believe that I'm a dance major either by the way that I dance at campfires...oh well! :)
3. I got a new nickname this past week by one of the sweetest scoutmasters there. During our morning flag on Monday, one of the troops came forward saying they had a special announcement and called me, the Director of Handicraft, up. My first response was "What the heck?!?!" and all I could do was laugh. They commented on my personality and how I was always so happy and vibrant, thus they wanted to give me the new nickname of Bubbles and then they gave me a thing of bubbles. If you didn't know, when I was a kid, I was obsessed with bubbles. I had a giant thing of it and would hide it under my bed. I didn't really think this new name would stick, but little did I know, every camper called me that and many of them didn't even know my real name. It was an honor to be pointed out like that by a troop just after a day of being at camp.
4. There is a climbing tower on the property and Monday, a friend and I decided to go and attempt it. I did the climbing down part without any problem. It was actually really fun, but the part where I had to climb upward was a little bit more difficult. The pieces of wood that you were suppose to grab was more difficult than what it looked like. I almost made it halfway up, but that was also with the help of two of the staff guys pulling my rope..oops! I'm determined to try again and get higher up.
5. I had my first major cut in handicraft. I've been told that handicraft has the most cuts because they use a lot of cutting tools. Thank goodness a volunteer was in the class with this kid and brought him to me. He had cut himself with a box cutter on accident and ended up needing 3 stitches, but he handled it like a champ after we got him to calm down.
6. If you've ever been to a camp, you know that they sing a million and one songs...well, so do we at Camp Cherokee. Some songs are short and some are extremely long. Many of them start whenever someone says something like "I have an announcement," "We have some program notes," or they mention the blob. Certain words initiate certain songs. It's quite fun once you know what the words are.
7. The staff at camp are absolutely amazing. I've really enjoyed getting to work with them and getting to know them. I've decided this summer to focus on a slight few people and really get to know them instead of spreading myself thin. It is also a little harder to get to know some of them because of the fact that they are mostly still in high school, but it is still fun with them. I've gotten real close to the one girl that is on my staff and a few of the other guys.
8. A fun thing that happened this past week...One of the assistant scoutmasters who is younger was hanging out around handicraft and he had mentioned that he was serving his church for 2 years starting in September. I asked him what he was affiliated with and he said Mormon. I asked him what exactly they believed in and he said that they believed that the father, son and holy spirit were three separate people. We got into a little discussion about that and I got to share with him why I believed that they were the same person just in a different form. I'm sad that I wasn't able to talk to him longer and more in-depth about it, but nonetheless, it was great to have somewhat of a spiritual conversation with someone. I think that one conversation is giving me the confidence to continue to spark this spiritual conversations with my staff.
Continue to pray for me and the interactions that I have with my staff members and with the scouts/scoutmasters/volunteers that I come into contact with daily. Pray that I would seek out time with the Lord since I'm extremely busy all day at camp.
