Weekend Extravaganza

 So the weekends come and go, just like the last month has come and gone! I can't believe that the 4th of July is so soon! What happened to June? Today (Saturday) I went to the dunes to ride on the sand with Kate and friends. It was my first time out there and I was a bit nervous at first, but it was so much fun! After a day in the sun, I am even more exhausted than I was before!
  I was just looking through some photos on Facebook and realized that not only have I been gone for a month already, I have also not seen some of my family members that entire time either and I'm sitting here almost in tears realizing how much I miss them all! It's crazy how busy I have been and how little time I have had to visit with the people who mean the most in my life! I hope to get a chance to ride over to the cottage next weekend to be able to spend some quality time with them (for the little time I get off)! Anyways, my laundry is almost done then it's time to hit-the-hay...I love and miss you family/fiance/friends!

In this Edition of "I Survived": I Survived my First Backpacking Experience

  It's about 2:50 Thursday afternoon and we rolled into Mears, MI about 1:50.  Our backpacking trip was, well...interesting.  We left the island about 11:30 Wednesday morning and made it up to Manistee National Forest about 12:40 to begin lunch and start our hike.  Lunch consisted of cheesy brats and baked beans...I'm not sure why they chose baked beans especially when there are no bathrooms, but all I have to say is I'm glad I wasn't in the boys tent!
  The group decided to hike along Lake Michigan because it was more flat and easier to do.  We started out the trip with an 80% chance of rain throughout the rest of the day, but at first the weather was perfect! We hiked a little ways and then stopped for a break until we reached a spot (after an hour of hiking) that looked like a good one.  So the kids went to check it out.  The trees had sort of been cleared out a little bit and there seemed to be a path leading up the hill to the top where a pile of sticks and a few ropes for a clothes line had been left from previous hikers.  They decided that this was going to be the spot so we got everyone to the top and started to set up camp. 
  4 tents, 2 hammocks, 2 designated areas to use the forest's facilities and one fire later, they decided they wanted to swim.  I grabbed my towel and headed down as well, but ended up taking a nap on the beach for about an hour and woke up to dinner being ready.  Dinner consisted of burritos and once again, glad I wasn't in the boys tent! After dinner we had a time of a few teachings and then they were free to do whatever.
  Still the weather was perfect, but we could see and hear the beginnings of some storms coming across the lake.  It wasn't until about midnight when the rain decided to hit, and it hit hard! There wasn't much lightning or thunder, but the wind was strong!  The shaking of the tent and the fear of the food bag, that they strategically hung in a tree about my tent, falling on me kept me up for a few hours.  But then finally I got some sleep and woke up peacefully at 8:00.
  We had breakfast and some personal devotions time in the morning, along with a discussion about what was going on with the team dynamics.  They have had a hard time all getting along and deciding where the line of fun sarcasm and hurtful sarcasm is, and now they don't feel the need to fix the problems because they go home tomorrow.  Well, my hour long break has come and gone and I better head back! :)

The Quest to the Island

  This week I am working with Quest campers, which is our 16 &17 age group who come for one week of training and then come back one other week in the summer as a CIT.  We are on "Leadership Island" which is pretty rustic like I mentioned in my last post! So far it has been pretty good though.  Last night we had some storms, but I seemed to sleep right through them which was odd because I've not had my fan and it's really quiet for my liking.  We got to come back to main camp yesterday to train the kids on the high adventure stuff and take showers, and today we are back again to shower and teach them about "ages and stages" (behavioral patterns for certain age groups, etc.)  The questers got their mission last night for our "out trip" which is taking place starting tomorrow.  They were given a few instructions about the backpacking we will be doing up in the Manistee National Forest.  They are planning everything from what we will be eating to what our schedule looks like.  The other staff and I almost had no food for the trip nor a place to sleep, but then we hinted to them that we would like to eat as well.  I think they planned to have burritos and baked beans, and well...bathrooms during this trip have quite the natural scene (if you know what I mean) so we'll see how that goes! The group has some pretty strong headed people and some pretty laid back not very involved people and we have been trying to encourage them all to make sure everyone is being included...but so far we've had a lot of arguments and disagreements! It should get better, I hope..or it may be a loooooong trip! Well, I'm going to get a nap in for the remaining portion of my hour off and then get a shower in very soon! :)

Week 1 of Discovery Camp

  So this first week of camp I worked with our Discovery campers who are from ages 7-9. This was a treat! Most of my girls had not been to a camp (other than day camp) before, so they was so excited to be there! I was supposed to have 8 girls, but one didn't show up.  I made name tags for the girls bunks and also made a matching bracelet for each one; they LOVED them!  When they arrived I also had them color a flower that was attached to a Popsicle stick to be used for our daily clean ups. They arrived between 9:00 and 10:00 Tuesday morning and stayed until 4:00 Friday afternoon.  The first day we played some name games to get to know each other, experienced a fire drill in our cabin, and set some expectations for what we were and were not going to allow happen in our cabin.  The girls chose to be good listeners, to have good behavior, and to be good participators.  This came in handy when we had some problems.  I could sit them down and ask them to tell me our expectations and then ask how we were doing on those and what we could do to do them better.  For the most part the girls followed those expectations pretty well and I even heard a few of them from time to time say to the other girls, "guys, we need to do better with our expectations right now."
  So after all of that we went over to have a time of chapel and then to lunch.  They were so energized and excited to sing some silly songs and watch some skits. (I even had to do a skit every day, and if you know me....that's not typical!)  After chapel we had lunch and then an orientation at the waterfront and some free time.  Throughout the week when I asked the girls what their favorite activity was so far, almost all of them said it was swimming!  They could build sand castles, swim in the shallow area, go down the slide, jump on the water tramp, and even be pulled behind the speed-boat on the "Triton" (our 6 person tube thing that looks like 2 rocket ships side by side and the straddle them).  Then we had some "prime time" (a time block for a specific activity that each cabin does together) and this time they went to the arts and crafts room and painted small cardboard like pots that they later put dirt and some seeds in to go along with our gardening type theme. After prime time we had dinner and at dinner Melissa, my friend who usually runs the arts and crafts room told me a funny story.  There were 2 cabins in there at the same time and she asked the first cabin what they knew so far about their counselor and they said, "she says if we kill a bug or do a good job on something we can pick a prize from the prize box," then she asked my girls what they knew about me and they said, "she makes us do chores!" Oh dear! I guess I was a little too excited about my creative idea to have flowers in pots for the chore "chart"! :) But they wanted to have the cleanest cabin and win the trophy each day for it, and we did...so I guess it worked?! After dinner we had a Bible Study and an evening activity and then we took showers and got ready for bed.  The first night stormed, and most of the girls would scream at every crash or flash! I thought we were going to be doomed for getting a good nights sleep, but they were all sleeping within 20 minutes after lights out.
  During Bible study Wednesday night, the girls started asking questions about the Trinity and how God and Jesus can be the same person and I said that God was 3 people: father, son, and holy spirit, but still 1 person and one of the girls said, "so like 3-in-1 shampoo."  And I sort of chuckled and then said she was exactly right.  I thought it was cute, and that's the way a child's mind works if they can associate a new thing with something else that they know then they can remember it better.  She had brought 3-in-1 shampoo and she wanted to show it to me when she was about to get in the shower that morning.  There was one little girl that seemed to continue to have problems.  She was from Urban Family Ministries and she started out the week very clingy to me.  Every time she bumped her toe or elbow she thought she wasn't able to do anything.  I think she was trying to get as much attention as she could, which she probably doesn't get a whole lot at home.  We have a 1-2-3 policy at Grace for behavior problems: The first time it could be chance, the second time there is a pattern (find it), and the third time there is a problem (change something).  Friday afternoon after the campers left we had a meeting to discuss things that went well and not well and more than one person said they thought they gave out too many 1's and after thinking about it, I probably did with this girl too.  I finally got a core staff involved Thursday night and every time we had a behavior problem after that...but I probably could have saved a few "gray hairs" if I would have gotten them involved earlier.  But all in all it was a great first week!
  Starting on Sunday I move over to Leadership Island to work with the Quest group.  They are 16-17 year olds who come for a week of training, and then they can come back 1 week during the summer as a CIT (counselor in training).  The curriculum that they go through is the same that I went through for Cornerstone and also that we did during staff training, so I'm really excited to work with them!  The only part I'm not AS excited about is that Leadership Island is exactly what it sounds: an island.  All that it includes is a fire pit, a few canvas tents, a pavilion with some picnic tables, and a couple (I don't even want to say this word) porta johns!  Yes, that means NO running water, NO showers, NO lights, and NO fans to stay cool!  It's going to be an interesting week, but a really good experience I think! :)  Well, my parents, Jason and I headed up to Ludington for the night and I think it's time to take a little nap to try to catch up on some sleep!  The summer weather is finally here (knock on wood), enjoy! :)

Plumbing 101

  This week has been great!  We have been able to actually do some stuff with kids instead of sitting and listening to teachings.  Monday night we loaded the bus around 4:30 and headed down to Grand Rapids to put on a "carnival" for Urban Family Ministries.  We set up a bunch of different activities including bean bag toss, roping (as in roping the cow head like a cowboy), face painting, crafts and more.  We also cooked hot dogs and made some popcorn.  It was a blast!  Urban Family Ministries is starting a new partnership with a ministry out of Muskegon and this year they have 85 kids that are going to be coming to camp this summer, and that is awesome! 
  Today (Wednesday) we put on a day camp for K-8th grades at Oceana Christian Schools.  We picked them up from school at about noon and drove them back to camp for a time of chapel, large group games, and one camp activity.  We split up into our operational groups, meaning the other counselors that are working in our primary age group, and combined we had 4th,  5th and 6th graders.  After the large group games a few other counselors and myself took the 5th and 6th graders over to the archery/riffle ranges.  Some of the kids were disappointed that they could not be on the waterfront, but with the time we were allowed and what we had planned it just wouldn't have been possible. 
  I got some great experience during this time.  One of the girls who decided in the beginning that she was going to do riffles then changed her mind and was sent over to archery, however she didn't make it over and ended up alone sitting on a log (on her CELL phone, a 5th grader with a cell phone..oh dear!).  My core staff leader (supervisior like) tried talking to her and then asked me if I would talk to her.  I tried convinceing her to try archery, but she refused.  I then asked if she would at least come join the group so she wasn't alone, and she agreed.  To make a long story short, she ended up doing the archery and having a lot of fun.  It was good for me to get a feel for what it will be like with my campers who wander off because they don't want to participate, and how I will have to handle those situations.  All in all it was a great day!
  So, you may be wondering as to why my title of this post is what it is...?  Earlier this morning, the maintenance guy Luke gave a 45 minute speech, or better yet "lesson", on how to plunge a toilet!  It was actually quite comical; except for the fact that our next activity was lunch!  We got a history, philosophical, biblical, and hands on lesson all on plumbing a toilet, and that includes the "5 categories of a clog"!  And you can only imagine the rest! :)
  The past few nights and the rest of the nights of training we have a lot of down time to prepare for camp on Sunday and also to read our never ending a hundred and some page staff manual that we have to have done by Friday and sign a paper saying we read and understand it, yuck!  Tonight we addressed our letters of support that we each have to send out to 20 family/friends and are soon going to have a bonfire complete with smores and a worship time.  If all 40 summer staff members send out 20 letters and everyone commits to praying for/with us, we will have 800 people praying for our summer ministry.  As Ben said earlier today, "We are on the front lines of battle, and Satan doesn't like it because people's lives are changed and he continues to lose!"  The letters also include a section for the people to choose if they would like to financially support the camp.  The money donated technically goes towards our pay, but in reality it helps run our scholarship program so that kids who are not able to attend because of financial reasons have an opportunity to do so.  The money that camp would have paid us that is "replaced", if you will, is what then goes towards that fund.  (If that makes sense...?)  Last year they raised $85,000 so you can imagine how many kids (and also families for family camp) were able to attend.  Over 200 commitments or re-commitments to Christ were made last year, and hopefully we have even more this year.  So far all of the originally scheduled camp dates are booked and they have opened several more weeks to try to fit everyone in.  I feel incredibly blessed to be able to be a part of this ministry this summer and to have the chance to impact the lives of young girls coming from all different backgrounds!  It's going to be a blast, and we're only 4 days away until the first day of camp!  Thank you for all the prayers and support, it is more appreciated than you know! :)
-Amanda

Sabbath

  The quote often heard around camp: "A day is a week, and a week is a month".  After the first few days of being here I started realizing the reality of that.  The days seem to go by fast, but trying to think back to the day before seems like forever.  These first 11 days have been all staff training.  We started the week staying in the bunk houses at the ranch and Friday night we moved over to main camp.  It has been fun to start getting to know all the summer staff along as the full time staff.  A big portion of the training has been "leadership training", which has been very similar to LJ: the program that I went through up here with Cornerstone.  We have split up into small groups and we go through "missions" with each other and after each mission we have spend time talking about how we communicated, if the mission was successful or not, etc.  We have also been going through the curriculum for the summer and specifically doing the daily devotions that our campers will do each day of the week.  On Thursday we learned about behavior styles.  All of the staff were asked questions and we had to move according to our answers and how we would rather respond.  There are 4 categories that most people fall into, but we don't just have qualities from that one category.  It was interesting to see that and where the staff has put themselves and it then explains the way that we all respond in certain situations, it will also be nice when we get a cabin and some girls behave differently than others.
  This week has been physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausting...but that is a reality of what the summer will most likely be.  I haven't had a chance to be taking any pictures yet, so I don't have any to share, sorry! :(  The internet access is very limited as you can tell (since this is the first chance I have had to get on since I've been here), so I probably won't be updating more than once a week and possibly twice if we have a non-busy day (but those also are limited).  Today we have the entire afternoon from lunch to dinner to have a day of Sabbath/rest.  It is important for us to take some time to slow ourselves down after being pushed and going non-stop for a week.  So I think it's nap time! :) Please pray for continued growth in Christ as the weeks and summer goes on, along with growth with the rest of the staff.