When I was 20 years old, I went to church camp for the first time… as a counselor. I never went to camp growing up. In my youth group we did retreats but never camp. That summer I was serving on the Appalachian Ministries Summer Team for the first time (ended up doing it thrice) and our main “job” for the summer was Vacation Bible School, which I was completely comfortable with, but for two weeks we were camp counselors at Kaskaskia, which I was not so comfortable with.
Kaskaskia is a small camp (3 buildings) in the middle of a thousand acres of cornfields in southern Illinois. That may be a bit of an exaggeration but you get the point. At that time only the chapel had internet access and my cellphone service was really spotty. The first evening a woman on the camp staff told us a story of waking up in the middle of the night to find a mouse crawling around inside her sleeping bag. We heard stories of pranks, like cutting off the electricity or hot water, and putting pancake syrup on someone while they slept.
I was not a fan of pranks or mice so that was all a little scary for me. I felt like an inexperienced baby because I’d never done camp before. The day before camp I strained my pinky toe, which sounds like not a big deal, but it really freakin’ hurt and I could not walk properly. I sat on my bunk that night, anticipating campers arriving the next day and freaking out a little.
My journal entry that night started like this:
“God, I need your help like for serious right now…”
Haha. I had started reading the book of Hosea and this verse was in my reading that night.
“Therefore I am now going to allure her;
I will lead her into the wilderness
and speak tenderly to her.” Hosea 2:14
The Hebrew word used for allure in this verse is pata, meaning to seduce or entice. God led me into the wilderness at Kaskaskia to allure me, entice and seduce me, and to win my heart. He put me in a place where I had to depend on Him, and I had to be intimate with Him. I had been a Christian for a while, and I’d been really living out my faith for a couple years but that summer God romanced me for the first time. I allowed him to romance me for the first time.
In those two weeks at Kaskaskia God sent me a shooting star, a four-leafed clover, and some beautiful sunsets. I’ve lived in Kentucky my whole life and we have mountains and hills, which are beautiful, but I never knew how long a sunset could last or how long a shadow could be until I spent time in flat Illinois. In those two weeks at Kaskaskia I built relationships with awesome kids and teens. At the end of the two weeks I saw eleven girls find new life in Christ. It was incredible.
Those two weeks marked the beginning of my true romance with God. Over the next few years He continued to pursue and allure me. Sometimes I still struggle to give Him all of me, and sometimes I turn to other things for comfort instead of running into His arms. But He has completely and totally won my heart. He is the lover of my soul.
Kaskaskia won my heart as well. I ended up going back four more times, twice on Spring Break Missions to lead weekend retreats and twice more as a camp counselor in the summer. Here are some more snippets of journal entries from my time there.
“I will die to myself so that Your life and light shines through me today. Help these teens to see You, God. Show them that you love them infinitely and your grace is enough. I’m ready. Let’s roll.”
“God, don’t let me get distracted by the stupid things other people do and help me to be accepting of others even when they’re being stupid.”
“Father, I come to you thirsty, dry, and parched. You quench my thirst. You give me more grace than I could ever hope for and I am more than satisfied in You.”
“God, please don’t let me get lice!”
And written as I rode on a bus away from Kaskaskia for the last time, “God, I have seen your love flood and overcome so many kids and teens at this camp. Your love has flooded and overcome me here. I am so scared and sad to leave them but I know they are in Your capable, strong hands. I trust them to You, and I pray your flood of love keeps overcoming them, pulling them deeper and deeper into You for the rest of their lives.”
When I hugged my kids, said “goodbye” and left for what I knew would be the last time I cried and cried. Man oh man could I tell you some stories about that place! Spiritual warfare stories, funny stories, sweet stories, heart-wrenching stories, and crazy ridiculous “that really happened?” stories. Call me up sometime if you wanna hear ’em. Working there was one of the hardest, best, most beneficial things I’ve ever done. I grew so much and I am so thankful for all that God did in me and through me at Kaskaskia.
Today was the first day of youth camp for them and I am sad to be missing it but I’m confident that God is going to do great and mighty works through me and in me during the next year. And I know that He still has lots of romance in store for me all over the world. You can help fund mine and God’s romantic getaway aka the World Race, and I really need and appreciate your support! I still need about $3,600 to meet my deadline in one week so please, please support me and share my blog with your friends and family! 
Thanks for reading. Love, LeAnn
