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