Crash 2009

I know that I haven't updated in a while, but my life has been so busy! Thankfully I am doing wonderful and have a lot to catch up on! I am dedicating this post to my experience as a counselor at Country Lake Christian Retreat a few weeks back! I have grown up going to camp every summer at Country Lake, but this year was my first to be a counselor, and I LOVED it. It had been a while since I had been there, but things haven't really changed. I was there for a week (June 14-19) with a bunch of kids that will be starting 6th grade in the fall. I didn't really know what being a counselor would be like, and it was sort of a last minute decision to do it, but I really want to get involved in the Jr. High ministry at church, so I thought this would be the best way to jump in! :) We had some great adult volunteers that week, but a majority of the counselors were high school and college kids. We even had some camp teams from KCU, CCU & Milligan with us! It was great getting to know a lot of the staff at Southeast that I will be around all year long. Well each counselor got teamed up with another counselor to form a small group with 8-10 kids each. My co-leader was Sean, one of the guys from KCU. He was a sweetheart, and we definitely made a great team. Our kids were great too! Below is a picture of my girls and I... & below that are the boys of the group!!


LtoR: Rachel, Sydney, me, Emmalee, and Jill!



LtoR: Austin, Sam, Zac, and Cameron!

A lot of the leaders had... I don't want to say "trouble" with their groups, but a lot of the time they felt like they weren't able to get through to them or that they wouldn't pay attention, etc., but that was NOT the case with my kids! They participated in our small group time, and even when they acted like they weren't paying attention, I knew they were listening. :) We were the silver team, and we came up with our team name: SUPER SILVER SEVEN!! and some cheers that we chanted *or tried to chant* during our recreation/game time. It was a lot of fun, and we really bonded, and I can't wait to see these kids come over to The Block in the fall for middle school church!

I want to briefly share with you our theme for the week. As you probably saw when you first came to my blog was the title, Crash 2009. We talked all week about the rhino who has sort of become our youth "mascot" at church. The rhino is a really neat animal, and there were some really cool facts about the rhino that we were able to incorporate to our everyday lives as Christians. Our slogan for the week was this: Advance The Kingdom With Your Everyday Lives. We talked about how the rhino is the only animal on earth that does not walk/run backwards. It can only move forward, and that is what we want to do as Christians and in advancing the Kingdom. The rhino also has terrible vision and has to rely a lot on what he/she hears in order to determine what direction to go. This ties in to how we need to take time to actually listen to what God is trying to tell us instead of just walking aimlessly by our own direction. We talked about how a rhino can only see 35 ft. in front of him but when it is charging, it takes 40 ft. to stop. The rhino does not have obstacles, and we should not have obstacles in our Christian walk but turn them into opportunities. We also talked about the rhino's horn. Many people think that it is made up of ivory, but it is actually made up of thousands and thousands of hairs that are interwoven together. We talked about the power in numbers and how it benefits our Christian lives. There is power in numbers and when we get other people on our side and link together than you can do much more than you could alone. At The Block (my church's student ministry center), we actually have a rhino head crashing through one of our walls. It's really neat, and we encouraged all the students (and leaders) to be rhinos. And while a group of sheep is called a flock and a group of fish are a school; a group of rhinos is called a crash. These kids that were at camp are so special, and as a ministry, we believe that even though these kids are only 6th graders, they can crash this world and make a difference and change it for the better. That was what this week was all about, and I don't think I could have spent my week in any better place. It was really a great opportunity to reach out and connect with these kids. I don't think I will ever forget all the fun and memories that were made. There were 4 other girls besides myself that were the dorm leaders for 40 girls. It was quite an experience, but I loved being a mom to them, if only for a week. I was the 2nd oldest of the leaders in my dorm, so I really had to step up and be more than I have ever been to these kids. I can't wait to see what else lays in store during my time serving in this ministry, but if it is any better than how it started, I can't wait!

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