Adios Blog!

Hi Friends! Due to the changing seasons of life I now have a new blog. So please head on over to whatabeautifulinheritance.blogspot.com and follow me for wonderful bliss :) Goodbye old camp blog!

Reflection Journal

I know it has been months since I have posted and have yet to even wrap everything up from this past summer at camp but I have felt led to post this to my blog. For one of my youth ministry classes we write continual journal entries over articles and books that we read and discuss. Lately I have been reading Engaging the Soul of Youth Culture by Walt Mueller and Postmodern Youth Ministry by Tony Jones. Here are some of my reflections that have radically changed my night (including less sleep haha) and my overall view on ministry.

The Great Debacle of Questioning

            

         When comparing and contrasting Engaging the Soul of Youth Culture (ETS) and Postmodern Youth Ministry (PMYM) several different conflicting ideas and theories have been battling through my mind. The controversial shift of thinking from a modernist to postmodernist standpoint takes enough presence in itself but then adding the question of responding to this thinking dives into a whole new level. Although one of the more challenging theories to think about, I have found much wisdom and insight to both of these eras and am continuing to keep my mind open to building a better foundation of learning for them. By thinking critically on these theories I have found myself coming up with a lot more questions than answers and confusion rather than clarity yet I see God’s grace through this learning process. My focus for this journal is rather one of un-focus. Maybe that’s not allowed, maybe I am stepping into an arena that shouldn’t be touched, yet the more and more I read, think, and write I find myself discovering more about myself, God, and the ministry He has called me to. And for this I will allow myself to question, analyze, and slowly but surely understand how I, with God’s provincial power, form this box of youth ministry rather than how the box of youth ministry forms me.   

Since being a part of the religion department at Northwestern I have often struggled with the concept of the gazillion different denominations that all claim the Christian faith. I question many different aspects of this like, why the church has become so divided if this isn’t God’s desire for the church? Are traditions really that different and such great of a debate that the church can’t join as one? Are Christians called to model the image of the first church? Or should Christians be bringing the church into the culture and era in the present? If Christ’s return will bring together the bride and groom in communion, how do Christians foster this? Among all of the questioning and reasoning my brain has done, I find myself realizing that maybe these sorts of questions are the basis for why the church is indeed divided now, maybe I am one to continue this long angst of division. I truly enjoyed the introduction of PMYM in which Tony Jones declared this book is not about the methodology or how-to’s of ministry but rather the fostering of discussion and, “Deconstructing the old paradigms and then proposing a series of reflections on culture, the church, and the state of youth ministry as we begin the third millennium (p. 12).” There is much difference in the viewpoints Jones and Mueller hold regarding the routes and avenues one should follow into the postmodern era but my reflection on these readings has brought me back to simplicity and a root or foundation. I am very thankful for the numerous speakers that have come to class. Throughout all, the constant variable or truth I have picked out of their practical ministry lives is one of a basis. This has been portrayed as,

-“Loving God and loving kids, everything else will fall into place (Jerry Root).”

-“Discerning God’s provincial call into the whereabouts of the life of a youth (Mark Poppin).”

-“Give your heart and soul to God rather than people who are trying to sell you stuff (Jeff Monroe).”

            

With these in mind I have better developed my theology of youth ministry to be rightly rooted in Christ alone and find my base and foundation on the one true Lord. Yes, the practical aspects and methods of ministry will come for me soon enough, but if my core values reside in Jesus Christ, His teachings, and His calling for me to commit to the lives of kids, I shall follow obediently based off of these.

            

When reading through these youth ministry books I cannot help but fall into the trap of trying to fit myself into the characteristics they describe of a “signpost on a sidewalk (ETS)” or the “postmodern values (PMYM).” I believe these are essential to evaluate among ourselves, as future ministers, and see areas in which they are applicable to the culture before us yet I cannot adopt all of these for my own or try and change the pursuit God has graciously blessed me with just to fit into these values. In saying this I am by no means arguing that Jones or Mueller are trying to create one uniform type of youth pastor, I truly believe their intentions for informing and educating this realm are genuine and trustworthy. Yet for me I unintentionally tend to adopt all of these modes of thinking and assume that because a trusted author thinks these characteristics are respectable and valued in a youth pastor then I must make them own. For me personally, this is where a line needs to be crossed to discern from healthy and unhealthy modes thinking in this regard. I look back to a lot of my notes in the margins of my books and find comments such as ‘that’s not like me’ or ‘maybe should I be more like this.’ In the Calvin College documentary on the emerging church, one young lady said, “The second that you give something a label, it automatically excludes people.” Although speaking about a different arena, I find this being very applicable to my thoughts right now. I am thankful and grateful for the differing viewpoints that have been a vital part of the continuing transformation of my mind and am excited to pull from all to create my overall theology of youth ministry that I refuse to ever be complete yet an ongoing work in progress towards the resemblance of Kingdom of God.

           

To be completely honest and vulnerable a huge foothold of the devil lately in my life has been in academics. My constant mindset of perfectionism has overlapped into this arena and I struggle greatly with feeling like I need an A in every single class to be successful. I truly believe God has brought me to this journal entry as a tangible step towards alleviating this fixated fervor of mine. I have prayed through this and realize that maybe I have not spent as much time as I should summarizing the readings, analyzing two separate issues of the text, or providing practical applications but I have grown in this journal far more than any other. I have thought more critically about myself, God, and youth in a new and refreshed way, have discovered significantly more about youth ministry, and opened my eyes to a greater theology of ministry. For all of these and more I believe that only by Christ’s power I have laid down some former obstacles and lived more freely into faith through this journal writing. Now I must trust and believe that the Lord will provide fruit and assurance through it.

        

Back to the Basics

Phewwphhstaaa...what a long and challenging week this past week was! I dove into the life of a shores counselor working with elementary children for the week. I can definitely say I have a huge respect for my fellow staff friends who have been shores counselors the whole summer. My word does it take dedication, commitment, and patience to tap into the hearts and minds of that age range. I switched with my friend Brooke for the week because she really wanted to try out being a pines counselor so I decided sure why not even though I wasn't super excited for the switch up. It is hard for me to reflect on the past week now that it is over because I still have no idea why God wanted me over on the other side of camp. I had, by far, the most difficult cabin of camp this week...five out of the ten of my girls were homesick the first few nights, I had one who was adopted recently, and one that was on the verge of being sent home towards the end of the week for being incredibly disrespectful and offensive to me and several other staff. I definitely question what God's intent in this past week was but am so quickly reminded that His fruits aren't revealed automatically after the week is over and sometimes I may never see the result of the ministry that happened for the past five days but I must trust that God is a God who is intentional, living, and active in His purpose for every single one of my campers. After all, it's nothing about me but rather ALL for the glory of Him. 

John 15: 1-17 speaks directly on this subject in the familiar passage of Jesus teaching about the vine and the branches. Apart from Christ we can do absolutely NOTHING, in fact we are nothing. Everything I am passionate about, everything I live for, everything I believe, everything about me is because of Christ. The only good in me is God. I love the song Jesus Paid it All...I have often found myself leaving out the basics of the Gospel in my own walk with Christ this summer. I get so excited about all the new stuff I am learning that I've never discovered before and tend to brush over the fact that Christ died to make my crimson stain of sin as white as snow. How awesome is that? "My strength indeed is small, child of weakness watch and pray, find in me thine all in all." This song hits every realization I have had this past week in a crazy cool way. I challenge you to go back to the basics this week! Find in Christ your all in all, actively be living and pursuing a life of forgiveness, owe Jesus everything you have. He deserves all we are because all we are is Him. 

I have two weeks left here. I am 12 days away from seeing Jake (my boyfriend) and my dad. I am 13 days away from returning to college. I am 14 days away from switching my summer of camp ministry with middle school kids to my school year ministry with college students. Transitions seem to be bubbling all around me and countdowns seem inevitable even when I try to avoid them. I honestly cannot put a name to the massive amounts of emotions I am celebrating yet also struggling with. I am ready to bring my all these next two weeks. I feel as though I am starting to hit my wall as far as energy and excitement, but I have decided to take it one day at a time and continually be reminding myself that even though it's my 70th time polar bearing at seven am and 9th time playing Where's Waldo it's my campers very first time and they deserve it all! A phrase repeated very often here is "for the kids!" Couldn't be more true, especially coming into this home stretch.

Prayer Requests:

-ENERGY AND EXCITEMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!

-My college friends and I that this year wouldn't be solely about academics and friendships but rather pursuing Christ in everything we do and falling more in love with God in our everyday routine of college. 

-Prayers of thanksgiving to every single person who has been praying me through this summer, absolutely incredible support and encouragement! THANK YOU!

-Transitions back into my relationships at home and college. I am a new and changed person and I pray that my friends and family's hearts would be open and receptive to the new Laura.

-Safety for my dad and Jake coming out here to pick me up :)

-My sister...i miss her.

Thank you, I love you! Enter in the the basics of the gospel this week! Don't forget the foundations to your faith...you can't build a skyscraper without a sturdy foundation. Instead of skyrocketing into the details of your faith check to make sure you have a sturdy foundation and stronghold rooted in Christ!

In our powerful Heavenly Father,

Aunt Laura

2 Corinthians 1:3-7 (AWESOME PASSAGE, it's really been on my heart lately!)

P.S. You can still email me through the Camp Geneva website...these emails encourage and uplift me in a huge way! Please connect with me and let me know how I can be praying for you! 

http://www.campgeneva.org/HTML/emailstaff.html 

Also-here is the link to the song I mentioned above. PLEASE listen to it and meditate on the gospel of our Lord Christ Jesus. So powerful :) 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCeAfKCC2ng

ASLKDJ!!!!!AKLSJD!!! = MY EMOTIONS!

Hello my beautiful friends!!

How are you? Crazy to think it's already the end of July, huh? That has definitely been shown here in western Michigan with the massive heat wave we received this past week. Over 90 degrees everyday with huge amounts of humidity. Luckily we're right on the lake so it wasn't as bad as the inner parts of the state got! Anyways, as I reflect on this past week I cannot help but rejoice in the goodness of our God. I was truly blessed beyond my belief with how faithful and compassionate and promising God is. As I wrote in my past blog post week 5 was definitely my hardest week yet with being sick and just problems among my campers. I was nervous for week six because I was feeling pretty low about myself as a counselor and had gone downhill. Well, God had much greater plans than me simply feeling sorry for myself. Within the first hour of meeting my girls I fell fully head over heels in love with them. I honestly couldn't get enough of them. I was so encouraged by them and wanted to pursue them through Christ in every single ounce of energy I could pour out onto them. This was a new and exciting feeling for me. Yes, I have absolutely loved all of my campers but this was the first time I have had this overwhelming passion, desire, and love for them! It melted my heart even more when on the very first night we were going through highs and lows of the day right before bed. Every single one of my girls said that Bible study was the highlight of their day!!!!!! I definitely teared up in that moment....and these are girls GOING INTO 7TH GRADE! To see their passion and love for knowing God at such an intimate level was inspiring and motivating. I gave 100% of everything I had this past week for these girls. I sacrificed a lot of my time hanging out with other staff, going to bed early to get extra sleep, and more just so that these girls would see and feel the overwhelming love and passion God gave me for them. Yes by my last day yesterday I was completely exhausted and out of all energy however it was the most satisfying kind of tired I have ever experienced because I KNOW that God was thee one and only reason I was able to put so much energy and effort out of my body. Wow, like I just want the world to know how incredible each one of the 10 girls I had were. All the glory and honor to God for the path they're set out on and the dedicated lives they're living for the glory of His kingdom. 

Every week at our closing ceremony/parent program one cabin is asked to go up on stage and share their favorite part of the week. My awesome cabin was asked to do that this week. We got up their and passed the microphone down the line of girls and they each introduced themselves and their favorite part. I was blown away with how many of them said Bible study and TAWG (time alone with God) was their highlight of the week. Well the microphone gets to Elaine, one of my campers, and she says Ask your Auntie (a game we play) and Aunt Laura. My heart completely broke in humility at the moment knowing that nothing I am doing here is about me, it's all for the recognition of the glorious plan of God. I am positive that Elaine didn't see Aunt Laura Ecklund this week but rather God through me and it is so evident to me how powerful and true God is through this experience.

I have three weeks here left at Geneva. WOW! I am still experiencing a ton of mixed feelings but they've multiplied by at least 63 haha. My roommate for this next year (HEY JACKIE!!!) emailed me this past week and completely showered me in the love of Christ. Now as we are starting to discover what this next year is going to look like for our room I am crazy excited about how present God is going to be and the major effort we've decided to dedicate to Him. I cannot wait to take all that I have learned here at camp and apply it back to school. What a stellar opportunity! However I have come to the realization this past week that camp has a very real way of wrecking your life in a beautiful way. This probably makes no sense and just like how I was trying to explain this to one of my friends through a letter it'll more than likely all come out as mumble jumble. But camp has completely destroyed the Laura Ecklund I used to be. Everything I knew of myself and who I was has been 100% flipped upside down and shaken around. It honestly has been one of the most challenging things to go through as God is transforming me however there is a beauty and comfort in the fact that He is refining me into a better daughter of His who is willing to sacrifice everything for His name. With all this mayhem and changing awaits a very difficult transition ahead of me. I am questioning what this will look like in a new environment? and away from all the people I have gone through this change with? and apart from my ministry I've been dedicated to for 11 weeks? Tons of questions like this pop into my mind daily but I know full well that God has everything under control and if He has been ever so faithful previously, why wouldn't He be now? 

I love my job...plain and simple that is what it comes down to.

Prayer Requests:

-Safety for my dad driving out here to pick me up on August 12-13th! It's going to be some very long hours in the car.

-A heart that doesn't compare. I tend to compare things from week to week and I'd rather simply go into each week with no expectations, fully ready for God to take over however He may desire.

-ENERGY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT'S STARTING TO DWINDLE!

-Some of my fellow staff members and friends who are unsure of what this next semester/year will look like for them due to different circumstances in their lives.

-My campers from last week...thanksgiving and gratitude for such awesome young women of the Lord!!!

-My former youth group (AND SISTER) in Colorado for Rocky Mountain High, may their hearts be open and lives be touched by our wonderful God.

I heard a challenge this past week that I'd like to encourage you with as I leave you for this next week. It's called the "No Bible, No Breakfast" challenge. Pretty self-explanatory but don't have breakfast till you've read your Bible. A great way to center yourself for the upcoming day and start it out with Christ. This obviously can look different for everyone as some schedules don't allow this but I encourage you to take on this challenge and fit it into your life. I promise you that if you give your time to God, He will make time for everything else! 

3 weeks left baby, let's do this!

XOXOXO,

Aunt Laura

Ephesians 4:29-what would it look like if everything we said BENEFITED those who are listening? TRY IT :)

God is Bigger Than Bronchitis

Hey ya'll! I hope you are all soaking up the heat wave that both Michigan and so I've heard Minnesota is having too! Yes it may be a little too hot and gross out but hey let's not complain because winter will be right around the corner. As you may have heard, I was diagnosed with Bronchitis this past week. I had mentioned in my previous post that I was under the weather but didn't think it was anything too severe. I felt great the first few days of the week and honestly had the same amount of energy as before. But my cough kept getting worse and was hindering me so we decided it'd be best to go in. After a FOUR HOUR trip to urgent care on Wednesday I was put on antibiotics and cough syrup and sent back ready to tackle the second half of the week. Unfortunately my desired plan of automatically getting better wasn't God's idea. Thursday and Friday took everything out of me and I was going downhill even more so than I was before I was on antibiotics. It was really tough for me to try and feed all of my energy into my girls, as I was still counseling, but have that energy dwindle literally by the minute it seemed. The week didn't have the greatest of endings and I found myself frustrated with how it wrapped up and somewhat mad with God not allowing me put my full self into it. But then I was quickly humbled by realizing this camp IS NOT about me. It isn't about what I do, what I say, how I play capture the flag, etc. It is solely about God and His work here. If he so desires to use me in that plan then so be it, I feel incredibly blessed but His plan isn't dependent on me and only me. When I am sick or not up to par His wonderful and beautiful plan will still continue and He will use me in a different way and others to provide for my girls and it will all fall into place.


I am starting to feel better thankfully. I definitely am still sick and in need of more rest than usual but things are looking up. If you would please pray for the staff's health, it is much needed. I am the 7th person to have Bronchitis and it seems to be continuing on. Today is actually my last day of antibiotics, which honestly scares me because my cough hasn't been seeming to make a significant improvement but I am trusting God with all I have that He will once again deliver me with the energy and strength allotted that I need to make it through week 6 with campers. Yes, that's right I am already onto week 6 out of 9! Pure craziness! I am focusing now more than ever with living in the present moment. It terrifies me to think of the transition I have ahead so I've inadvertently decided not to for the time being. I know these last four weeks are going to fly by and I get this great sense that God still has so much more in store so I am trying my very hardest to live into that.


A really funny yet embarrassing story from the week involves my cough syrup that had quite the powerful amount of codeine in it. So every single morning we get up at 7am and go polar bearing. The lifeguards wake us up to whistles blowing and lights flickering which we then proceed to jump into the freezing lake go all the way under and then go back to our cabins to get ready for the day. Well on Wednesday night I got up in my sleep (by the way I am a huge sleep walker and talker) and was convinced it was time to go polar bearing. So I start flashing the lights on and off and yelling "Rise and Shine! It's Polar Bear time!!!!" My girls slowly start getting out of bed and about half way through I wake up and realize ohhhh shooot it's only one in the morning! So I awkwardly tell them "JUST KIDDING!!! You still have 6 more hours of sleep!!" and go back to bed. Let's just say the next morning we had some good laughs. Well that's not the end of the wonderful things powerful cough syrup can do to you! Thursday night I end up getting up at 4am and sit at the end of my bed shouting at my girls that they need to line up in alphabetical order to take a picture with our award. Yeah I have absolutely no idea what I was talking about but this carried on for about 5 minutes till my girls finally got me back into my bed to sleep. Needless to say I am looking forward to the upcoming days when I won't need to have this drug overtaking my body!


I have also really been looking into what it means to give God complete control and give my life fully to Him. I have found countless times this summer that I get really frustrated and annoyed with the fact that I feel like I am not giving my full life over to God. I feel as though I keep trying over and over again but I continue to hold onto something or feel like there is something hindering me so I obsess over that. Something I have begin to look into though is if it is completely possible to do this. Yes, I firmly believe we need to be giving God our all and everything we are but at the same time when I am obsessing over the details of what it means and how I can than I am finding myself thinking less about God and His faithfulness and more about the logistics. We are all sinners and always will be, there is no way I will ever reach full perfection so I need to give up this idea of trying to be perfect in giving God everything and rather live to love others and God and focus less on the how to. I mentioned last week just how in love with the Bible I have become and this week it has caught even more on fire! 2 Peter 1:3-9 has been pressed upon my heart lately and I've decided to adopt this as my life passage at least for now. I really encourage you to read it because it has some awesome wisdom on how to further your faith walk and relationships and demonstrate Christ through the position you're in. I promise it won't disappoint!


Prayer Requests:
-The staff here and continued unifying in the body of Christ (and also in health).
-My health that I would be on the uphill from here on out.
-A heart that is content and focused on the here and now and not the uncertainty of the future.
-My youth group and sister back home! They're leaving for Rocky Mountain High is Colorado shortly. Please pray that God would be moving and speaking through that place and that He is so present and their hearts are so open that it'd be near impossible for the to look elsewhere other than Him.
-My past campers...that they would be continuing on in the promises and commitments they made here and realizing that God is everywhere, not just at camp.
-My future campers...that they would be able to let go of anything that's hindering their walk with God and take down any walls they've built up for their week of camp.
-Less of me, more of God.


Thank you thank you thank you for the awesome support I have received while being down and out with this grossness. I have said this once and I will say it again...PLEASE EMAIL ME ABOUT YOUR LIFE!!! I have such a heart for praying for what is going on at home and I so strongly desire how I can be living and active in prayer for YOU! So please send me lots of updates and spend some time talking about your lives haha, I definitely will not think you're being selfish! It is my joy to read about how God is working in others' beautiful stories!


I love you guys. Keep on keeping on, God is faithful, loving, compassionate, the list could go on forever. Dive into His promises and take hold of the blessed life He has given you. Let it not be about how to do this or that but rather simply do it! Live like Christ and show His example to everyone, what do you have to loose? Nothing but the ways of this world.


XOXOXO,
Aunt Laura
2 Peter 1:3-9

1/2 Way

Hey friends!

I apologize for the lack of effort I have been putting into this blog. Many a things have come up and I just cannot keep up with it so I hope and pray that as I sit down to write this post it will be faithful and fulfilling first off to God and the work he's done and secondly to you guys who have been pretty out of the loop on my summer so far. I find myself this weekend exactly half way through the summer. I have had four weeks of campers and a week and a half of orientation with five weeks of campers left. It is a really strange feeling for me and when I've been reflecting on it, I find my mind skipping to a bunch of different thoughts. Part of me thinks wow I am so exhausted can I keep this up for five more weeks. Another thinks I can't wait to see my loved ones at home and college, but then this is shortly overcome with feelings of anxiety with how hard of a transition it is going to be back into normal life. I also can't help but feeling a great excitement for the rest of this summer now that I am in a routine and want to make the most of it. All in all I guess I've realized that there really isn't anything I can do but continue to live faithfully for my Lord and Savior and plant more seeds and bear witness to Christ here at camp for the five weeks I have left! 

So my last two weeks have been awesome!! Week 3 was a normal camp week and I was both excited and nervous for the fact that I had the youngest middle schoolers. My first two weeks all of my girls were going into 9th grade, the oldest age here on pines and I found out that for my third week they'd all be going into 7th. I mean it's only two years but middle school is such a crucial developing stage that I was interested to see how the switch up would go. It ended up going very well and I had a fantastic week. I found myself in more of a "motherly" and comforter role rather than the friendship/counselor type mode I was in the first two weeks. I had several homesick campers and one who was actually pretty sick coming into camp but God definitely worked through these otherwise annoying and frustrating situations and definitely used them to help me bond with these girls. It also ended up being a very refreshing and joyful week in that my girls didn't have big traumatic stories...which don't get me wrong I love helping these girls who are going through tough stuff but it was rejuvenating to experience a lighter week and to really emphasize how to maintain the great Christian journey they were already on. 

One of the highlights of my week 3 happened in the middle of each night. We had several sleepwalkers and talkers in my cabin including myself. In the middle of my very first night I heard "Aunt Laura, Aunt Laura!" so of course I was like yeah what's going on haha. And then I hear my camper Suzanna (who was on a top bunk) say, "I'm going to get my stuff!" and I'm like what stuff, she goes, "My shoes and my stuff, I'm leaving, I am leaving this cabin!!" So of course I like jump out of my bed as she is starting to climb out of her bed and get her back to sleep haha! Luckily she went back to sleep and all was well! We definitely had a good laugh about that the next day! Each night after that I had a different girl sleep talk and on one of the nights I ended up entertaining them as well. I found out the next morning from my girls that I had sat up and said "Heyyyyyy Jake!" like three times haha. Good thing it wasn't anything too embarrassing but of course they thought that was the funniest thing ever and I heard about it for the rest of the week!! Because there was so much nighttime mayhem that my cabin bonded over I decided it'd be funny to trick them. So the very last day I woke up in the middle of the night (not on purpose) and fake slept talked and said "Wow my girls in this cabin are so awesome! They're all great!" As I said this I heard Suzanna roll over and she said "Yeah I mean those cinnamon rolls were so great!" I was trying to hold back my laughter as I heard her continue on and say, "And that sausage...yummm!" Hahaha, food must have been on here sleeping mind but it was hilarious! I told the girls the next morning as a final story of the week, it was so great!!


The weekend wasn't as great just as I had anticipated going into. I REALLY struggled in many aspects. I had gotten my hopes foolishly up that maybe just maybe I could find a way home for the long weekend. I had Friday night through Monday afternoon off and thought that somehow I could maybe make it home for 48 hours. Well obviously, as anyone with common sense would know, it turned out to be way impossible but nonetheless it left me feeling even more lonely knowing that there could have been a slight chance I could be back home for the weekend instead of here. I also really struggled because I have been getting the feeling lately that I'm not supported much. I know this is a lie of the devil and different people have many different ways of supporting others but I've started equating my support with the amount of emails I get and voicemailsskype or email or any of that, plus most people were gone for the weekend or had people here so borrowing computers was hard to come by. However, I did survive haha and now looking back I do feel kind of lame for being so homesick but it is what it is and at the time all of those raw emotions felt so overwhelmingly real to me. 


This past week (week 4) was completely turned upside-down for Camp Geneva. A program called Youth for Christ bought out majority of the camp and took over, leaving about 3/4 of our staff jobless for the week cause they brought their own counselors and staff. Our staff ended up observing the pool and beach, working in the kitchen, maintenance, etc. while they ran their program. However, there were 12 of us staff who were asked to run a small new program called Into the Woods. For this week only we had shores (elementary) campers over on the pines side for a special nature week. So a shores and pines counselor were paired up for each of the 6 cabins to co-counsel for the week. I was paired up with Aunt Jess and I moved cabins for the week! We only had about 50 kids (our normal is a little over double that for the pines side each week) so it was wonderful to get to know all of these kids way more personally. We did A TON of nature type things like testing water pollutants, hiking trips, bug houses, etc. It was really strange being with such young children but it was also a great opportunity to try something new half way through the summer and branch out. The girls in my cabin were super high energy but all angels and we had a lot of crazy experiences together. It was strange to be in more of a babysitter role but yet also awesome to spend much more time with them because they require more assistance. Emotionally, I felt amazing this week and God really provided and sustained me. God gave me a huge desire for His word this week, I've never experienced anything like it but I felt completely hungry for reading the Bible. I felt as though I couldn't go through my day without it! I am so thankful to God for this and am praying that it continues as the weeks go on! I pray that you find this desire too and really try to pursue God at a deeper level through reading the Bible...it's the coolest thing ever! 


So a funny story from this past week of Into the Woods involved none other than Justin Bieber!! Who practically runs this camp haha! My camper Kiersten was absolutely obsessed with him. On one of the first days we had a Justin Bieber dance party and she went crazy. Somehow throughout the course of the week we ended up with the rumor that Justin was going to come and visit because Geneva has "such a great connection with him!" Well Kiersten was going crazy singing every single one of her words to the song Baby. On the very last night we had one of our counselors who somewhat resembles him dress up and come out to surprise the kids. As soon as he walked out Kiersten ran away crying because it was a fake. She went crazy and was so so mad and frustrated, but 20 minutes later she was back to her peppy, dramatic self haha and singing Justin Bieber again!


So wow that's a lot!! I am energized and ready for this next week and super excited to be back with my middle school girls! I am continuing work on giving my whole summer (well the part that's left) over to God and let him control every aspect of my life. I may not be able to connect with each of you very often but I promise I am praying daily for my friends and family at home. I've really come to realize how much of a perfectionist I am and have been struggling with how to overcome it. With this I feel like when the weekends roll around I need to impress everyone back home and keep in contact and update everyone all the time and I just feel this huge pressure to please everyone. Please pray that this pressure would be lifted off my shoulders and please bear with me if I am terrible at connecting. 


Prayer Requests:
-I am battling a pretty bad cough right now and am able to keep going but I'm hoping it doesn't get worse.
-My transition back to college. The day I am done here is the exact same day I need to be back at college (August 13th). I'm driving straight there which will be fine but we'll have to see how the emotional transition goes from camp life to internship training/retreats to school.
-My campers for this next week, that they would be open and ready to be poured into and excited for their camp week.
-Endurance!
-My computer-I know that comes across as really shallow but for some reason it's been driving me nuts that my connection to everyone has been taken away.
-Continuation of my hunger for reading the Bible.
-One of my friends here at camp lost his grandmother this past week so prayers for his family would be appreciated.


Ahhh thank you very much for taking to the time to read this big papa of a blog post! Your prayers and support keep me going and give me encouragement through the weeks ahead! I am pumped for what the rest of the summer will bring and will try my hardest to update this more regularly. I love you guys and miss you!


In Christ's love,
Aunt Laura
3995 Lakeshore Dr. N
Holland, MI 49424


P.S. You can always email me!! I would love it if you just emailed me simply to tell me about your life...I LOVE LOVE LOVE to hear all about what is going on back at home so please update me :)

Successful Start

Well, I am at a loss with how to start out this post. My life been turned around and spun upside down in the past three and a halfish weeks! I have officially survived staff orientation and my first two weeks of campers, praise the Lord for new beginnings and a successful start to my summer here at Geneva! Since so much has happened since I have been in contact with this blog and most of you, I am going to start from the beginning and make my way towards where I am here and now.

Traveling to Michigan:

My mother and I left on our endeavor for camp in the early morning hours of Wednesday June 1^st! We made it to Chicago by mid-afternoon and spent the evening walking around, hanging out, and resting up for the rest of the journey. We got up Thursday morning super early to make sure we would get to camp by 10am for check-in. We allowed about an hour of extra driving time just to make sure we got out of the Chicago traffic with enough time to spare. Well, turns out the traffic was perfect and are brains ended up being the problem. We didn’t account for the time zone change which ended up making us late for check-in. But hey I made it here and am glad that was the most severe part of our trip! We were greeted in the driveway by returning staff members dressed up in crazy skit clothes and squirting us with squirt guns. It was nuts but I knew that this was definitely the place for me!

A Few Things to Understand About Geneva:

I realize nobody knows anything about this place so here are a few things you should know about here…there are two sides to the camp, shores and pines, which are divided by a county road or highway type road. The shores side is the big, main side and is where the elementary kids go, along with day camp, and sometimes high school. It is also where all of the office buildings are and the chapel and recreation center. This may be obvious but it is called shores because it is right on the shoreline of Lake Michigan and Geneva actually owns a large portion of the many mile long beachfront stretch which is right on the camp. The pines side across the street is for junior high and sometimes high school. Again, pretty obvious, but pines is in the middle of the woods and is a lot more rustic and true “camp-like” feeling. I am on the pines side working with junior high students.

Orientation:

Orientation involved a week and a half of training, meetings, planning, and lots of fun!! A lot happened in these days and it became very evident to me just how much potential this staff has. Each day as we would plan out our camp activities, skits, songs, etc. I could see how God was guiding us into making this ministry we have for the summer our own and really truly personalizing it to each individual camper and their needs. My days were definitely filled with their ups and downs. It was an incredible experience to get to know every person of the 85 staff member group in an individual way, but it also turned out to be very daunting. 78 out of the 85 staff is from Michigan!! A HUGE majority of them also go to Hope College (right here in Holland). This made it really intimidating for me because every single person knew someone before coming to camp and at least had some sort of connection where I had absolutely no connection to anyone. I found myself doubting myself and God in why I decided to come to such an unfamiliar place. I would have days over orientation when I was on top of the world, loving all of the conversations, God talks, and silly moments. Yet there were quite a few times I had the feeling of being the only person in a room when in all actuality the room had 84 people in it. If you’ve ever experienced this painful feeling you know that it isn’t fun, however I grew a lot through it and since I’ve been here God has been revealing a lot about me to myself. This is terrifying but also needed! So each night of orientation we had a time of worship and afterwards personal testimonies. Every member had to share a short personal testimony from their life or past year of their life and how they got to where they are today. It was awesome and so cool to see each person that I am working with this summer become so vulnerable that it can only be described as the work of Christ. I have never ever experienced such depth and vulnerability among a group and it was indescribable to see how God is making otherwise terrible and awful stories into beautiful masterpieces of life. I loved it and this sharing of our stories helped us hugely to build the fantastic community and love we have for each other now!! Towards the end of orientation I found myself ready to stop simply talking about the campers and actually get them here!! I moved into my own cabin two days before camp started and had a marathon day of decorating.  On the pines side there are four “clusters” of cabins throughout the camp called A, B, C, and D cluster and each cluster contains four cabins in it. I am in C cluster which actually only has 3 out of the 4 cabins filled. I am in the cabin called Cedar One (C-1) and my friends/counselors Anna and Audrey are in C-2 and C-3. It’s a lovely bunch and I actually have found that I prefer only having the three of us in the cluster instead of four because we get to know each other better and we don’t have to share as many cleaning supplies…haha only kidding!!

Week One:

Going into my first week with campers I actually wasn’t too nervous, I was just so excited for them to get here already! This first week had about 40 out of the 103 campers from a program called Youth for Christ. This organization helps kids who are in high risk homes or come from troubled backgrounds and give scholarships for these kids to come to camp for a week. Well it turns out that nine out of the ten of my campers were from Youth for Christ. This was awesome and I absolutely love the opportunity they have to do something they normally wouldn’t do. However the week did come with many challenges because of the lack of respect for authority and each other the campers had. I ran into quite a few problems a camper not eating, another one yelling at fellow campers, and so on and so forth. With these challenges though I found that I grew a ton and my cabin actually grew a lot closer through the difficult moments. All in all the week pushed me to uncomfortable situations but helped me depend on God even more so than I already was!

Here are some stories:

-I had one of my campers tell me she was only going to go up three steps on our 40 foot climbing tower, well she ended up going all the way!

-I quickly realized I have very little patience and understanding for really really minor injuries and “illnesses” that campers exaggerate way too much.

-I think it is absolutely hilarious yet annoying how middle school girls think they actually have a chance with the male counselors who are in college. It’s quite entertaining to see them try but sad to know it all comes down to an attention problem.

-I found out quickly that being a camp counselor is pretty much summed up by putting yourself in really uncomfortable situations, which I LOVE! Haha for example…getting woken up every single morning at 7am to a whistle blowing and lights flickering and the lifeguard singing “rise and shine it’s polar bear time” to then put your bathing suit on and jump in a cold lake. Luckily I am still having a blast with it as a way to start out my morning. Ask me again in a month though and I may have a different answer for you!

-A little boy named Noah (who was HILARIOUS) talked with me for an hour about thee most random things I have ever talked about. He was convinced that I didn’t have hair because “there’s no blood up there.” Um okay? He also referred to himself as a bronze goddess 27 times (yes I was keeping tally!). The conversation was a beautiful reminder to me of the joy children offer. At the closing service he awkwardly introduced me to his whole entire family!

-Justin Bieber is HUGE here!

-I had several girls make a commitment to me that they would read their Bible and pray for the next 30 days straight. I have heard back from two of them a week later and they’re still going strong! Let’s hope that 30 days is extended to a lifetime.

-One of my girls hadn’t seen her niece in quite a long time due to family issues so we prayed about it. I got an email from her this past week saying that the day she went home from camp she got to see her! The power of prayer right there for you.

-I did have to file an abuse report, cannot go into detail due to legal reasons but please be in prayer for the situation as it is not a good one and was very tolling on me as an outsider, just imagine for the family.

-Most incredible moment of the week was meeting with a girl from outside of my cabin who had thee exact family situation that I had/have. I’m not going to go into much detail about it because everyone in the whole world can see this but we connected and she is like my new best friend. Every single emotion and problem she has faced, I have as well! As much as I was a help to her she put a sense of peace and connection on me. We are now pen pals and I hope to see her again while I am still in Michigan. Her older brother is also attending Northwestern next year so I will be able to see her then too! God is so so good and I would love to share the full story with you if you are interested!

Week Two:

This past week was phenomenal! I absolutely loved my girls from week one but week two was unbelievable. I felt more prepared, experienced, and excited to have a routine down with what I was doing. All of my girls came with a bunkmate so I was a bit nervous it would be somewhat buddy-buddy but by the end of the week they were like a sisterhood and prayed about staying together and in contact in the years (YES YEARS) to come. They were awesome in encouraging and uplifting each other. They weren’t as dependent on me which was really cool for me to witness them bonding together without me being the main thing holding the group together. Even though they came in with difficult stories they were all SO joyful and happy about how far God has brought them and where He will continue to lead them. I honestly couldn’t have asked for a better cabin.

Here are some stories:

-My voice has been shot for the whole entire week and still is. This adds for quite the interesting dynamic when I can barely talk but still somehow continue to laugh, scream, and sing to the Lord and with my kids!

-Some fellow counselors and I were in arts and crafts during free time one day and were having a competition to see who could have more kids buy them candy. Well I one proudly with kids buying me five pieces of candy…my way of winning…”I’M BALD. BALD GIRLS LOVE CANDY!” Hey it worked and I helped the store earn money. At least I shared haha!

-I had an autistic boy so interested in my bald head that he held it for minutes on end!

-Our chaplains for the week were SO nice. They bought all of the staff pizza and ice cream on Wednesday night. They came to find out I couldn’t have either because of my lactose intolerance and went to a specialty store the next day to buy me smoothie flavored jelly beans and a lactose-free chocolate bar! Who does that? I was so very humbled.

-I’m loving polar bearing still (cross my fingers that feeling lasts).

-There was a little boy on the shores side (elementary) this week that has Alopecia Areata. My executive director (who also has a connection to Alopecia) connected me with this boy named Alex. We were able to talk for quite awhile. His family has very little resources and he actually didn’t know much about the disease at all and he has had it since he was three. I was able to tell him all of the logistics of it and also connected with him on more of the emotional level that is so hard to deal with. He is the exact age of when I lost my hair so it hit home a bit for me to have a visual of how far I’ve come and just how thankful I am for the journey God has taken me on. He is an absolutely wonderful boy and I would appreciate if you’d pray for the path he is on!

-I have a pretty sweet God story to share but it’s pretty long so I will save that one for next week! Stay tuned though because it is incredible.

Alrighty that is all for now, I know this is crazy long and I have so much more to share from the time I have been here but hopefully you’ve got some idea of what my mysterious life is all about!

Prayer Requests:

-Continued renewal of energy each night. I seem to be regaining more and more energy but it’s really hard to come by as I’ve found counseling is a 24 hours job!

-Finding joy in the little things.

-My future campers for this next week, that their hearts would be open and prepared to receive the truth of our God.

-Illness. It has so far avoided me but I find myself worrying about when/if I will be hit with something at some point.

-My past campers that they would continue on the path of God that they experienced already this summer. That they would realize this relationship with God isn’t simply a one week thing but rather a lifestyle that is ever so important.

-Endurance and patience with this whole lactose-free diet. It is difficult and frustrating but I am trying my hardest and know it is for the best.

-A calm heart when it comes to this next weekend. We have 3.5 days off and I am really struggling with not being able to be with friends and family for it. Most everyone here is going home or having people come here and I find that I am loneliest in those moments. Extra encouragement is encouraged (haha!).

-This next week on shores is called Rainbow Week. It involves mainly inner-city children and really high-risk kids. I will not be working with them but be praying for my fellow staff members who will be as this is by far the most challenging week of the summer for them and requires a lot of time and energy.

Now as I leave the outside world for the next week I challenge you (as I challenge all my campers) to take a ½ hour to simply BE WITH GOD. Yes we all lead crazy busy lives but if you give your time to God, He will provide time for everything else.

Goodbye my dear friends,

Laura

Psalm 91

(pictures to come next week)