With first term well on the way, I've had lots of little learning experiences. Coming back from my trip to Dallas, I felt like I was constantly playing catch up. My section of cabins that I'm responsible for as a KPS is cabins 1-4, so my goal is always to know those counselors and be a support for them as well as know the kids as be there for them as well. Cabin 1 is our only cabin on the girl's side that houses 1-week kampers. So, cabins 2-4 are usually our youngest 12-year-olds at kamp. They are usually fresh from K-Kountry or K-1 and are wide-eyed and excited about being in a new place. They are so much fun! Although I always think I can be doing better at my job, it has been fun to get to know those kids. There are also so many girls here this term that I recognize and know from last year. After I got back from Dallas, it was cool to look around and realize that I already knew a chunk of girls that were there. It has been cool to see how they've grown and matured and continue to build on relationships that started in the past.
It has definitely not been a typical term. Coming back into kamp after changeover just set the tone. The next night, the other two girl KPDs and I drove into Berryville, AR to go to Wal-Mart. We were on a mission to buy supplies for the upcoming "girl day" at kamp and a few other things. The outing took much longer than expected, and we ended up missing all of that night's activities. Beginning my job as 7-day coordinator has brought with it a lot of new experiences as well! Since we are fitting one-week kampers into a two-week world, there are some tweeks that have to be made. For example, the kids who come on the front end of the two-week term miss out on our kamp-wide Cross Talks and Purity night. Because of that, Tyler and I (my co on the guy's side), had to develop our own Cross Talks and Purity for that group of kids. For Purity, one of my wonderful kamp friends was willing to step in, but for Cross Talk, Tyler and I had to plan it all on our own. It was a cool challenge, and something that I had never really done before. I was so pleased with the result, though! We ended up developing a great talk that met everything that I had been hoping it would. Going into it, my goal was to present the Gospel in powerful way that was also understandable for our audience. I never taught in this context to that many people, so I was a little nervous, but the Holy Spirit totally took over and worked in incredible ways. I felt great about it overall and walked away from it pumped up and excited for the next one. It was such a THRILL to teach the Gospel and to pray that hearts would be changed through that. let's just say I'm excited for the next one!
The biggest learning experience of the past couple of weeks was definitely 7-day changeover day. This is when the first group of one-week kampers left and the next come in. Although Tyler and I planned a lot of the schedule together, I found myself basically in charge of making sure that everything ran smoothly. It was funny because I don't think that most people realized that this was my job now until I stepped up to the mic on the morning on the ceremony to help pass out awards. It was much more stressful and crazy than I though it would be, even just making sure that 50ish people were where they needed to be when. The morning ceremony and send off went well, but coordinating things for the afternoon got a little crazy. It was strange being the point person to make decisions about scheduling when activities had to be arranged and making sure that everyone was communicated with that needed to be. Looking back, I loved the day, but was exhausted by the end of it! It was great to take the time after dinner off to recoup before starting another day. A fun thing about the day though was that Erin Groth surprised us at kamp for the day! She is someone who used to be kind of a big deal at kamp (and is somewhat legendary now haha...), but also just a good friend who is near and dear to my heart. It was such a blessing to have her around and get to catch up!
Also this term, we tried something new....split day! This is where the girls and guys split and we had Man Day and Girl Day...it was so fun! As girls we had breakfast in bed, a cake decorating contest, a huge pool party, extra long FOB (rest time in the cabin), and talent show where each cabin did a silly act, nail painting, hair braiding, and fondue! It was such a fun day!
That's the updates from kamp so far. Thanks for the prayers and I'll keep the news coming!
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