If you know me you know that I’ve worked at a camp called Pine Cove for the past four summers. Let me just tell you that it is a ton of fun having the chance to compare my life at Pine Cove to my time at Totara Springs. Shout out to Pine Cove Shores for preparing me for ministry across the world! From doing dishes in the kitchen to leading a group of high school girls, to belaying kids on the climbing wall, it was so cool to see how my training aided me in ministry outside of what was expected in the beginning. The Lord just really blessed me by putting me in a place that feels like home. The past month has been absolutely incredible. I want to give a recap of my time at Totara Springs.
The first two weeks at Totara we had an awesome time building relationships with the summer staff and doing odd jobs of hard labor. I will never forget the sweet friendships that were built at Totara!! God is so good!!!
The last week that we were at Totara Springs we were involved with summer Kids Camp. Our team was split up and we were assigned different jobs to help in the camp! It was so neat to see the various ways my team was used according to the way we were gifted. Courtney was camp Mum and completely displayed the Lord’s compassion while caring for children who were homesick or just needed a band aid. Victoria worked hard in the canteen and bookshop and brought heaps of joy to those kids! Lisa was camp photographer and was also able to join with a cabin and help counsel a bit. The girls she interacted with LOVED her!! It was so much fun to see! Chris, Jed, Liz, and I had the tight opportunity to work with the LIT’s or “Leaders in Training”. Liz and I lived with the eight girls in the program and had a BLAST hanging out with them and staying up into the wee hours of the night talking about faith and all of the other crazy things going on in a young high school girls’ life. I love those girls and I am stoked to see how the Lord is going to use them in the future!!
As much as we desired to bless the camp of Totara Springs, my team found that we came out of the month incredibly blessed ourselves. We were accepted and loved and cared for in ways that we never expected. I am so so grateful for the time I spent in New Zealand and the ways that God worked in us and through us!!
