life is strange right now.
a lot of situations are making
me wonder or think about things.
life is changing and decisions are being made.
God is still good and He is the God that p r o v i d e s ...
well summer is almost over, classes start soon
- still praying about potential job opportunities
life is going quickly........
pray & seek
patiently.

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random summer re-caps:

So I go to a fairly large 'mega church' as the kids say, anyway so we have enough kids to have our own sleep away camp - which is sweet, not a lot of churches have enough resources to do that. Since I love camp, I volunteered to counsel for the week of camp...it was so much work I don't even know how people do that for entire summers..it was crazy, God taught me a lot and I loved all of the girls in my cabin - so many stories and funny moments that I won't ever forget, good times were had in northern Michigan!

I became a mom for a week...literally. My father, mother, and twin sister went on a missions trip. Leaving me, my two younger brothers and my older sister who worked all night shift so I could work during the day...so my week consisted of getting up too early, going to nanny and coming home to my brothers...we had some good times - we ate out a lot because by the end of the day I was not feeling the whole cooking scene...then by the end of the week it was just me and the boys because my sister and her friend biked to Jackson [about a hour & half drive]

Other random times included; girl talk...the talk you can't talk with anyone else...countless hours spent drinking coffee at rams horn till the wee hours of the night [a local diner that is open 24/7 & our friends own it...so it's clean and the service is good], raining walks through downtown Detroit, amazing time of prayer and worship, my 19th birthday, random bikes rides, turning over new leafs, going up to Lake Ann for the weekend [my second home], going to short & sweet wedding ceremonies, Mexican dance parties, spending more time at the beach, long drives and good talks...

sing-a-long

*go download Phil Wickhams
live album for FREE here.

CAMP BARNABAS

God has blessed me with one of the most memorable
& life changing summers of my life.*

Life is going by so fast at this time in my life and I feel okay with it. Earlier in July me and a team of 30 students and leaders headed down to the small almost none existent town of Purdy Missouri. Purdy might not have a huge population of citizens, but it has an amazing camp that has a lot of heart. We arrived at Camp Barnabas after staying the night in Lafayette Indiana...a whopping 13 hour drive all together, there were some good conversations and to much fast food. Side note, Camp Barnabas is a camp that offers a normal week at camp to kids with special needs, ranging from emotional disorders, chronic illnesses or down syndrome. Each week specializes in different areas, so one week every camper may be in a wheel chair. The week we were apart of specialized in kids dealing with chronic illness, life threatening disease and emotional disorders. Going into this I honestly was thinking how easy it would be, and that just because our campers wouldn't be in wheelchairs that it would be a piece of cake...I was wrong. God opened my eyes in ways I never thought possible. HE showed me joy displayed by children that only ever knew sickness, despair and pain of needles or treatments. HE showed me to truly see beauty from pain and to embrace the time we have here, because it can leave us sooner than we think. Everything I learned were things I knew in my hear but had never been able to experience first hand. In my cabin there were seven different girls ages 6-10 and they each had their own story of pain, healing and hope. Emily, the most adorable talkative 7 year old had bipolar and other emotional disorders from past physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. Abby, Emily's younger sister, the sweetest, most cuddly, 6 year old had Cystic Fibrosis and emotional disorders. Hope, the most outgoing, loving, craziest 35 lb. 7 year old had HIV AIDS. Courtney, didn't only have a sweet name, she had the kindest spirit and was always smiling and she was a 8 year old burn victim. Sydney was the most brilliant, smarter than me, and sarcastic which I loved, and at only 10 years old had just had a brain tumor removed earlier this year. Bethany was my 'priority camper' so where she went I went (and the other campers also had their own individual counselor). Bethany happened to be a 'sibling' (Camp Barnabas is offered to the siblings of those suffering, to give the parents a little break) of another camper with hemophiliac....therefore she was perfectly healthy and physically okay, that didn't mean she didn't need to be loved on though. She was the most timid, to herself, but sweetest 8 year old I have ever met, and by the end of the week was one of the most outgoing campers. The last camper was Aerial, also 8 years old and a tad timid at first but had a sweet, kind and caring demeanor.

Each camper was different, had different needs, wants, thoughts, niches, but each had over-wealming joy about life, even though some of them could be cut short soon. These campers taught me how to appreciate the little things in life, that the small things do matter, that people and relationships do matter and that even in the hardest, darkest times of life there is always a glimpse of hope, joy, peace, and love - Jesus. This experience showed me that when I have a bad attitude about things that in the end don't matter, I think of these girls who have life a lot harder than a spoiled, ungrateful 18 year old. Wow, God does amazing things through people and through life. He orchestrates life in the most perfect ways. God is doing amazing things at Camp Barnabas, it is blessing and changing so many lives.