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Thank you to all of those who prayed for me and the camp staff this week! I really am encouraged by the fact that you care enough to bring my needs before our Father simply because I asked you too. It means a lot to know that I have friends who are concerned for me.
It was an interesting experience, precamp. We call it pre-camp because it's designed to help the camp staff become a unit, with one purpose and one goal. This week we began a study of Philippians! What an amazing place to start! As a body of Christ, we are called to be like minded, to have the same love, to be one in spirit and in purpose. The staff and I have one purpose this summer-- to point children to our Heavenly Father in a loving, encouraging, and caring way. We also seek to know God better ourselves, to study His Word individualy and as a group. To love eachother unconditionally during the good times and the bad times, to cry together, to laugh together, to grow together, to challenge and affirm eachother. At camp, it is soooo easy to get caught up in the fact that you're not at home. Phillipians 2 is a big challenge: Do everything without complaining or argueing. Don't complain about the bugs or the dirt. At camp you also have to give an large amount of your energy (both physically and spiritually) to others so it's helpful to listen to Pauls advice there too: Do nothing out of selfish ambition, or vain conceit but in humility consider others better then yourself. What a call to service!! I love Phillipians not because I have arrived but because it reminds me of how wonderful my Savior is and how many things I need to commit to striving towards.
Anyway, sorry for the sermon. Pre-camp was tons of fun!! It's weird to be at camp without campers! It acutally means that we can be girls and talk about love, life, and other mysteries (errr boys)! It means we can stay up late into the night talking and just hang out with very few responsibilities. It also means we listen to talks about outdoor cooking, take CPR course, and learn what to do if we should have any emergencies this summer (ie forest fires, severe storms, missing campers, etc.) It's a little nerve racking to dwell on all the accidents that can happen but at the same time I know and believe that God will continue to protect us as we seek Him. We also got to take a trip into town, walk along the lake shore, and go shopping at the new SUPER WALMART!! There were also some frightful encounters with bugs, spiders, and various other spooks!! ;-)
The night we went into town proved to be a very good lesson in prayer and God's grace! When we arrived back at camp at 11:15 PM we were all sure that the camp director, Amy, would probably yell at us for being out sooooo late. See Ptarmi, or Amy as we call her in the real world, is like our mother all summer. She's never been married and she doesn't have children of her own so she kind of nurtures us like we are all her children. She worries about little things for us, for example she was especially concerned about the fact that I drive in flip-flops. She checks in on us individually throughout each week and I know that she prays for us continously as well. Anway, we get back to camp and PTARMI IS MISSING!! We check everywhere for her and she is GONE! Her vehicle isn't there and the last thing we knew is she was in town at about 8:00 PM eating ice cream. We call her cell phone and we don't reach her. We wait . . .and wait . . .and wait. At about 11:50 we decide we need to send out a search party because this is not like Ptarmi at all. So, we grab up gas cans, flashlights, first aid kits and start devising a search route of the entire area around camp. Suddenly, I realize we haven't prayed yet. So, I bring it up and of course offer to pray. I was extremely scared. I prayed for the saftey of the search teams, for Ptarmi's safety, for God's guidence on where to look for her and then I added in how wonderful it would be if we could just run into Ptarmi on the camp road. Reminding myself that this was too a possibility. So, we say amen--pass out hugs, and head to the cars. I follow Ave, a coworker down the long dirt road through the forest and guess what?? We get to the camp sign about .5 mile up the camp road and we are met by headlights. I have never been so excited to see Ptarmi in all of my life. We start thanking God, tearing up and shaking. What a wonderful reminder that God hears us when we pray. It was such an emotional moment. Ptarmi gets out of our car and praises our efforts. She explains she just took too long at Walmart and her cell phone was out of range. She encourages us that she is confident in our ability to look to God during a "crisis" and we turn the mothering back on her by telling her to tell us where she's going next time. What an amazing answer to a prayer that I barely believed while I was praying it! GOD IS SOOO GOOD!!
I am looking forward to an amazing summer this year. Please, continue to pray for me!! And thank you for reading this post. I hope that you can see why I love the Lord the way I do! I wouldn't want to go through anything without Him. He is truly amazing!!
Much love and many prayers for you this summer too!
Julie
PS: I am not spell checking this entry so if there are mistakes, I apologize!