So some people have been very upset that I haven’t posted in a long time… Megan I am sorry.. and to others who felt abandoned I am sorry. It has been 3 weeks from the end of camp and 2 weeks since I left Look-Up. For those who don’t know for the last 3 months I have been working as a Summer Staffer at Look Up Lodge, a christian camp in Travelers Rest, South Carolina. Look Up Lodge has been my home for the past 3 summers. So to quote Andrew Sims (a fellow 3rd year summer staffer). “I have spent 9 months of my life over the last 3 years ministering not only to my ~1200 total campers …. but also to the 14-17,000 campers that passed through all of camp and the 46 or so total co-workers I've worked with.”
I really have been trying to pin point what to write about and share from my summer. It takes some time to reflect and look back and I have been doing what I do best…. making myself busy so I don’t have to sit and think. But there is a time for everything, and I need to slow down and really tell people what God has been doing in my life and what I’ve seen Him do in others.
To sit here and tell you everything, every story, every experience would take forever. I would love to because it humbles me and excites me to tell how God used this wretched dirty sinner, when He didn’t even have to but He loved to! I don’t want this post to be super long it would end up being… "probley bout a thousand" pages long if I could tell you everything so I will hit the highlights.
First I want to start with the verse I love to read in my testimony. “And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.” (Philippians 1:9-11)
And that describes some of my journey as a early Christian really learning what love is and that I do things out of love not because I need to get recognition but because “he first loved us” (1 John 4:19) and that is it. So I thought I had it under control loving well… I thought, “I got this.” I will just serve, help, and encourage. But God used this summer to show me how awful I am… how prideful I am…. how selfish I am…. and how I don’t have it all figured out. It’s the same old rut I get myself into I try to do things by myself then God brings me right back face to face with Him and that’s all I need. So this summer was a struggle but such a great summer, my love needed to grow. I had to figure out where my motives and desire to love came from and bring it back to God. There were 18 first year staffers among 5 returners, so going into the summer many people were uneasy about how the summer would play out with that much inexperience. But standing at the finish line we ran a good race, meeting and exceeding all expectations. God really used the new staff and the other returners to show me over and over again what He looks like loving, and it was a far cry from the way I thought I was loving. The teaching theme of this summer for both kids and teens was “Imago Dei” which means image of God. We taught our campers as a Christian we are to main be an image of God and our purpose is to reflect him well! He created us in his image (Gen. 1:27) and we are to show Him to others by acting like He acts especially loving like He loves. Which is exactly what the staff did this summer to me, to the campers, and to anyone else they encountered.
To not be too long this is just one of the things God has been dealing with me about. This summer was hard but so good. Last summer me and my AP (application partner) would ask our kids this questions after a team building exercise. Was the journey hard? they would always answer with an exhausted yes… but then we would ask…Was it worth it? and always we got a joyful shouting yes! Some of God’s greatest lessons come from the rough parts of the trail and I am so glad that I got to travel with God this summer through some rocky ground. But God was and is and always will be the one solid rock for me and everyone else to stand on when we are walking down that path. Please don’t think that I had no fun this summer from reading this blog, because it was one of my most enjoyable summers! Even through learning hard things the 24 staffers really meshed well and built an awesome community. I know I will have friends for a life time with some pretty awesome shared memories.
The past three summers have really introduced me to what a true living vital relationship with God looks like and this summer was no different. I want to thank the people who surrounded me and who prayed for me these past three years, its been a blessing. As I left Look Up two weeks ago I knew next summer would not be the normal for me. I would not be going back to work like in the past, because next summer I will be on the other side of the world. However, this will not stop me from having a role in Summer 2K14!! I will be praying for the staffers and campers and I know that God “will continue the good work.” This is not the end … it is only the beginning!
