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 1st! 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)
