Don't go by too fast!

Wow, I'm blessed to say that I've not been too tired yet this summer...but I'm tired today. What a week! This is my fourth group of kampers, which is weird to say, since everyone else is only on their second, but these girls are absolutely incredible! They are more mature than I was expecting and we have been able to have such solid conversations with them. Gosh! These girls are getting it and it's awesome. The past two nights at kamp have been pretty deep.

Three nights ago, we had Cross Talk, which is a night that we present the Gospel to the kids in kind-of a walk-through drama type thing. The first time we had Cross Talk, it was raining, so it was good to have a nice evening and be able to actaully walk though it. It went really well! I was able to sit with a few of them at the cross for awhile after it was over. When we get back to the cabin at night after our evening activity, we usually have a devo time with the girls where we debrief the day and talk about life. After Cross Talk, we decided to do things a little differently. We gave them some time to journal and then told them that they could go to bed if they wanted to or come out on the porch and talk to us if they had questions. It was so cool to see what happened! Six of the girls came out to talk, but the other half stayed inside and talked together, sharing their thoughts on the night, their testimonies, and their favorite Bible verses. It was so cute! I was so impressed at their desire to talk about things and figure them out together. It's always fun to hear their questions...

The next day was Purity Talk....two big days in a row. Joe White, the president of Kanakuk, came over to K-West and talked to the kids. He's a great speaker and I think this group of girls enjoyed it. After he spoke, we broke up into our cabins and went over different aspects of purity with them, discussing them all and looking at what the Bible said about them. Some of the girls weren't open to what we were saying on certain things, but overall the discussion went really well! It so fun to be able to encourage them to stay pure and show them that it's more than just physical, but spiritual and emotional too. What a cool night. Tuck ins that night were a lot of fun. After we have our cabin devo every night, my cos and I split up and each pick a few girls to tuck in. It's my favorite part of the day! I love to ask them about their day, what they enjoyed, what they learned, and how I can be praying for them. Then I get to pray for them before they go to sleep. It's so cool!

So I guess this point in the summer is when we start to get tired as a staff and we really have to focus on being filled by God. Second term, these past two weeks has seen a LOT of sickness. Please be praying for our kamp. And, apparently, people are getting sick at Pine Cove and elsewhere too. It's been weird. Our nurse's station is COMPLETELY full, and the room above the nurse's station that are usually for married staff and maintenance men had to be occupied too. It's crazy! We've had to send at least 10 kids home and have had to quarentine (sp?) several staff members to Branson to get better. It's definitely hit us hard as a kamp. Our kitchen staff has been hit especially hard. Two days ago, we were down from 10 kitchies to 4 and had at least 1 cook who was sick as well. Those on leadership are trying their best to help in anyway we can and thankfully, some of the other kamps have sent over nurses and kitchen help as well. We're pretty secluded as a kamp right now though. Our mountain biking and walking classes aren't supposed to enter any other kamp grounds (we usually go through K-2 and K-7 since they're so close) and we've been trying our best to stay contained and use as much Germ-X as possible. Once this group of kids leave, we are HARDCORE deep cleaning the kamp. Any staff who is still sick will be quarentined again and everything will be scrubbed. Please be praying for us as we try to knock this thing out.

But overall, kamp is WONDERFUL! I had a fun re-realization the other day as I was walking up from the dock. KAMP IS SO GREAT. Done. Fact. Absolutely one of my favorite places in the world. I mean, where else do you get to see people that you love EVERYWHERE you look, be constantly encouraged, be in constant focus of God, serve kids together, love on kids, play sports, swin in the pool, play in the lake, and just enjoy life?? Oh, it's awesome. My favorite things to teach during the day are definitely mountain biking, any pool activity, and the lake sports. A couple days ago, when TONS of people were sick, I was scheduled to teach sailing all morning! So 3 periods in the lake, and it was my first time to teach it without Sarah-Graham, who is definitely the master sailor here. She was sick though, so here I go! Thankfully, I had someone else teaching it with me, but it was slightly crazy trying to keep track of everyone and yell across the lake "put your dagger board in", "wait til your outside the buoy!", "get in irons!", "take down your sail!", "swin harder, girls, it's almost time to go!". But it was a blast! I had four of the girls from my cabin in class, so it was fun to get to hang out with them. The scariest part, though, was loosing a boat second period. There we were, sailing along, about to make our way back in, when I realize that I'm pretty sure we had 5 boats out instead of 4. But they're nowhere to be seen. So here I am, trying to get the other boats back in and look for the lost one at the same time. I felt horrible! haha...thankfully though, a ski boat that was coming back in said that they saw the boat all the way around the bend. They were completely out of site! How they got over there, I have no idea!! But, thanks to Dock Daddy Zach and his jet ski for saving them!

I guess I'll wrap this up....but AUSTIN COMES TOMORROWWW!!!! I'm so excited for my little brother to be here! It's going to be such a pick-me-up to see him! And then, I have a day off on July 5th and will be able to spend that time with my parents before they pick him up. Oh! It's going to be great! Alright, well my laundry is about to be done. I better go....but thank you for your prayers and letters. I'll continue to update this as I have time off. Love y'all!